New Order - Blue Monday/ The Beach - Maxi single 12"inch - 1983/1983

Best New Order release. Most sold maxi single ever. Also the biggest hit of new Order.
Published by B Music 1983.
A Factory Record.

First edition. Later UK editions can have a die-cut cover with thin matte black inner sleeve, or a die-cut cover with thick glossy black inner sleeve, or a plain black with just the colour coding and different inner sleeves.

The coloured strip is not random - it spells out the Catalog#, band name and both song titles.
The back cover of "Power, Corruption and Lies" has the same colour coding, done with the alphabet (a decoder ring).

First pressing: 60,000 copies (30,000 pre-sales).
Initial A1/B1 pressings are characterised by a heavy and opaque vinyl. Runout space is 0.35 inches. The first edition thick silver inner sleeve has straight top corners.

"Outvoted" in the runout refers to an error made by the Strawberry engineer, who brought up the fader too late and missed the first drumbeat. New Order took a vote as to whether the mistake should stay, and the yes vote prevailed.

Published By – Be Music (2)
Lacquer Cut at – Strawberry Mastering
Mastered At – Musitech

Design [Uncredited] – Peter Saville (2)
Engineer – Michael Johnson
Engineer [Assistant] – Barry Sage, Mark Boyne
Producer – New Order