Dire Straits on ACETATE Records

[Klaus74]

Yes this is a very special field in collecting DS and MK records.
I´m a proud owner of only one studio-acetate single record with the single-mix of So Far Away. Manaufactured at the well known UK mastering-studio The Sound Clinic. Normally those acetate-records carry a grey-coloured achive-label with a green rim. My copy has that archive label, but the prä-owner pasted it over with the regular UK-paper-single label of So Far Away. I also own the original archive-cover in black paper with a Phonogram UK sticker and a name of a woman, who possibly was an employee at Phonogram UK in that time.

To me it will be very interesting to know, in wich quantitiy such acetate-records had been made in the past. Does somebody here also own such an acetate-record. ??
A few years ago a UK trader offered many copies from an archive with a lot of acetate-records, also vinyl-testpressings and vinyl-promo-discs. There were two DS acetates and one MK solo acetate. So Far Away, Money For Nothing and Going Home-Theme of Local Hero. I guess that all three acetates had been sold. In that time i was the lucky winner of the So Far Away-offer. The trader gave me as a bonus a Walk of life vinyl-test pressing with a handwritten archive-label from Phonogram-pressing plant UK.

My special question to all other collectionists and specialist in such records. What do you think, how many acetates are in the hand of traders or collectors, and how many acetate records with different song-versions are in the archives of MK, Phonogram and so on ??

[Jules]

A very old post that I missed...

When that person sold the three acetates you mention, I managed to get the MFN one.

[vgonis]

I think that there are not many acetates of each title around. The way they were created, made it very time consuming. They were given to the people of the band, the producer, engineer, etc.  to check for flaws, dynamics and in some cases different edits. Those with edits and versions that were never officially released are harder to find and more expensive.
For example there is a Solid rock unique version, that a collector from Italy (M) has. He said to us that is even much different from the Riding high version.
 
In some cases acetates were created as advance promos for special radio DJ, with huge influence or friends of the band. But even including such cases it is rare to find acetates of a title  in double digits. You also have to be aware of the fragile nature of them. The lacquer crackles up as time goes by, especially if it is not preserved in steady conditions.