[78-L] RCA Victor reverse side "spider web" etching name?

[Chris Zwarg]

At 04:44 08.01.2009, you wrote:
>I think they began to add the bonus piece later, and many old sets had a filler 
>piece added in the later pressings. Bonus pieces often were left behind when 
>the albums were reissued on LP..sometimes they'd be gathered into collection 
>LPs, sometimes they just became memories.
>
>dl
>
>Randy Watts wrote:
>> Is that why some classical sets throw in a "bonus" piece rather than have an odd number of sides and the last disc in the set single-sided?
>> 
>> Randy

In Europe, it was just the other way around - all early classical sets (1910's up to circa 1935) are fully double-sided, with filler pieces as needed, or sometimes an unnecessary side-break to split what ought to have been the last side into two very short sides, just to get an even number. Single-sided pressings to accomodate an odd number of sides came later, and usually have a widely spaced groove (like the then-usual lead-in/lead-out groove) that takes the stylus to the center in 10-15 seconds, rather than any decorative design; this probably to make the sets work smoothly on changers.

The "filler" sides on earlier British and European sets are often just reissues of short pieces already in the catalogue, but UK Columbia sometimes had more adventurous ideas - the most outrageous I have found so far is their moving the third-act entr'acte music from "La Fille de Mme. Angot" (which should have been one of 15 sides in their 1921 abridged version by the Beecham Light Opera Co.) out of that album to form the "filler" side of Skriabin's "Poème de l'Extase" (5 sides) - took me ages to find THAT set just to complete the other!

Chris Zwarg