Collecting Spanish Kraftwerk Releases

Version 2.0, modified from the original version published on the Aktivität fanzine, issue 7
 

INTRO

Some Spanish releases are very appreciated among Kraftwerk collectors due to their different picture sleeves. In general, all the Spanish Kraftwerk releases are difficult to find, even in Spain. This is true even for the The Mix 2LP set. Of course, the most interesting ones are more difficult to find. This fact is due to the low sales of Kraftwerk records in Spain, making the run of pressed copies low or vey low. The record market in Spain is far from being as important as it is in the UK, for instance. (The gold award for record sales is given to artists selling 50,000 copies. The total amount of LPs sold in Spain in 1986, including all kinds of music, was of nine million copies.) To this adds the fact that, for some records, the import copies from Germany, Holland or UK became widely available at shops well before the "Made in Spain" copies were pressed, from 1985 onwards. In these cases, the number of copies pressed is very small, as they are unlikely to be sold once the potential buyers have already got the import copies.

The Spanish releases can be distinguished for the inclusion of text in Spanish at the bottom of the back cover on the sleeves records and the phrase Made in Spain on the back of sleeves and on the record labels. All the original releases on the EMI label have the prefix 10C or 1J on their cat. numbers. A sure way of distinguishing Spanish releases from other countries' is checking they have the abbreviation S.G.A.E. printed on the record label (should be true in all the Spanish pressings, although I've seen records pressed in Spain without the compulsory S.G.A.E. text). S.G.A.E. stands for Sociedad General de Autores de España, the Spanish association of music artists.

Most of the 7" singles are available as standard and promo releases. Promo copies released before the Computer World LP are just like the standard copies, record label and all, but with the addition of a sticker on the record label stating they are promos. From then on, promo copies have the text stating their status actually printed on the record label. Apart from 7" singles, I only know of promo copies of two LP's.
This is not an exhaustive list of all the Spanish releases, It concentrates on the items that might appeal to collectors. A complete list is available here.
 

7" singles

The rarest 7" released in Spain is Autobahn/Morgenspaziergang (Vertigo, 61 47 009), with a sleeve similar to the German version of this single. The graphics though are different, and the colours of the Autobahn landscape are darker. The edit of Autobahn is different to other countries' releases, as it is a straight cut of 3:24.

Radioactividad/Antena (Capitol, 1J 006-82119), Los Maniquíes (Capitol, 10C 006-085211), La Modelo (1979) (Capitol, 10C 006-085965), Calculadora de Bolsillo (EMI, 10C 006-064365), Amor de Computadora (EMI, 10C 006-064509), Las Modelos (1982) (EMI, 10C 006-064509), are all 7" singles that boast the song titles on the front sleeve in Spanish. Although the actual versions contained on the records are the usual ones in English, they are nice sleeve variations. This is particularly true for Los Maniquíes, La Modelo (1979), Amor de Computadora and Las Modelos (1982), as they have totally different sleeve designs to the usual ones of the UK (where picture sleeve were available) and German versions. Of these, Los Maniquíes, La Modelo (1979) and Amor de Computadora seem  to be the hardest to obtain. Oddly enough, promo copies of Amor de Computadora and Las Modelos (1982) are more common than the standard ones.

Trans Europe Express (Capitol, 10C 006-85077), The Robots (1978) (Capitol, 10C 006-085496), Tour de France (EMI, 006 1651867), Musique Non Stop (EMI, 006 20 1508 7) and The Telephone Call (EMI, 006 20 1637 7) are the rest of 7" singles released in Spain. The Robots (1978) is the only one to have a sleeve different to other countries' releases. Standard copies of the latest three seem to be the more difficult ones to come by, with promo copies turning up more often.
 

12" singles

The 12" single is not a popular format in Spain until 1984 or so. There only exist four Kraftwerk singles released on this format in Spain. The first single to appear on 12" is Tour de France (052 16 5250 6). The song was featured on the TV reports of Le Tour in 1984 (I never missed them!). The versions featured on the single are the standard ones, not the remixed versions. Its front cover shows a round logo with the text "45 rpm Maxisingle".
The singles from the Electric Cafe album were also released on 12". Musique Non Stop (EMI, 052 20 1523 6) and The Telephone Call (EMI, 052 20 1638 6) are, again, very similar to other countries' versions. They only have the added logo on the front cover "Maxisingle 45 rpm".
The last single released on 12" is The Robots (1991) (EMI, 052 20 4358 6). The sleeve is similar to the UK release version 2 (there is one version with the title in red text, a second version with the title text in white). Copies of this maxisingle are rather scarce, as most shops were stocking import copies of the first UK version of this 12".
 

LP's

The most unknown record released in Spain, and the most sought after by the ones who know about its existence, is, no doubt, the Electric Cafe Edición Española LP. Still today it is a very unknown item even among Spanish fans or dealers. It has been only recently that collectors have added this item to their "wanted list" after reading the confusing and imprecise information about this LP contained in the biographic book "Man, Machine and Music" by Pascal Bussy. The interest of this LP remains in the fact that it´s the only release to feature a version of Sex Object with complete lyric in Spanish. Reading the book, people get the wrong impression that this was the only version released in Spain. This is not true. The standard version of Electric Cafe (EMI, 074 24 0644 1) was released in Spain about Nov. 1986, with versions in English of the songs, mixed with the bits in Spanish, French, German. Some weeks later, a few copies of Electric Cafe Edición Española (EMI, 074 24 0688 1) could be seen in some shops. The only difference in the packaging of the last one is the addition of "EDICIÓN ESPAÑOLA" beneath the box containing the title in the front sleeve. As the whole title doesn't give a clue of the LP containing lyrics in Spanish (instead, it gives the impression of "LP made in Spain), this can be the reason of its very poor sales in Spain, specially after the fans had bought the standard version already. Electric Cafe Edición Española was also released in the cassette format, but this is even rarer than the LP. Promo copies of the standard Electric Cafe exist. This could also be true for the Electric Cafe Edición Española, but it's not confirmed.
Another interesting Spanish release is The Man Machine LP (Capitol, 10C 068-085444), in the fact that the sleeve is slightly altered. This features the added title in Spanish "EL HOMBRE MAQUINA" above the titles in French, English and Russian. This is the only LP to include the title in Spanish in its front cover.
Autobahn (Vertigo, 63 60 620) was the first Kraftwerk LP released in Spain, in 1975. The front sleeve is the same as the German one, but in darker colours. The back sleeve is in plain white with credits in blank letters. A second batch of sleeves was reprinted in 1977. Both issues are scarce, but the 1975 ones are more difficult to find. The re-release of Autobahn in 1985 was also issued in Spain (EMI, 066 24 0070 1) but, as it was, once again, well after the import copies made it to the shops, this is a quite scarce item. Front cover is the same as other countries' re-release. Back cover is plain white again, with credits in black, in a different kind of lettering.
Other desirable releases among Spanish collectors are the LP's Kraftwerk (Philips, 6305 058), Kraftwerk 2 (Philips, 6305 117) and Ralf & Florian (Philips, 6305 197), which were not released in Spain until 1979 for the first two, and 1978 for the latest one. All have similar packaging to the original German versions, with no poster though for Ralf & Florian.
The Fame series was called "Fama" in Spain. Radio-Activity (Capitol, 056 18 2087 1), Trans-Europe Express (Capitol, 056 18 5110 1), The Man Machine (Capitol, 056 18 5444 1) and Computer World (EMI, 056 16 4370 1) were released on the Fama series. They all have some sleeve alteration, in the form of a frame surrounding the front cover picture, and the "Fama" logo on one of the upper corners. The Man Machine is the most different one from the standard release, as it has two frames, black and white, surrounding the front cover. It retains the title in Spanish as well. The Computer World one is in a different tone of yellow.
 

Cassettes

Cassette tapes are not usually of interest to collectors. However, it is worth mentioning that all the LPs released in Spain have the equivalent release on tape. This is particularly true for Kraftwerk (71 05 248), Kraftwerk 2 (71 05 249) and Ralf & Florian (71 05 147), all on the Philips label. Needless to say, these three are the most difficult Spanish Kraftwerk tapes to find, along with the rare cassette format for Electric Cafe Edición Española.
 

CD's

Although there are CD pressing plants in Spain, no Spanish Kraftwerk CD's have ever been pressed here. All the CD's available in shops are imports, mainly from Europe.

That's about it. I hope this article is of some help to collectors.
 
 
25/08/03
© 2000-2003, José García (Kraftwerk bitmap courtesy of  I. Calder)