Here We Go！
Sex Pistols – Live at Chelmsford Prison (TFCK-88513) Toy’s Factory pressing, 1990
This one is the Toy’s Factory CD of Live at Chelmsford Prison, catalogue number TFCK-88513.
Recorded at Chelmsford Prison, just outside London. The recording has had a few official and bootleg releases over the years, but this particular disc is the Toy’s Factory pressing from 1990. There’s also a Vap pressing of the same content — more on that below.
🧷 Basic Specs
- Title: Live at Chelmsford Prison (TFCK-88513)
- Artist: Sex Pistols
- Format: CD
- Release date: 10 October 1990
- Label / Catalogue number: Toy’s Factory / TFCK-88513
- Packaging: Jewel case with booklet
🧷 Track Listing
- Satelite
- Submission
- Liar
- No Fun
- Pretty Vacant
- Problems
- I Wanna Be Me
- Lazy Sod
- New York
- No Lip
- Stepping Stone
- Substitute
- Anarchy In The Prison
- Did You No Wrong
🧷 Pressing & Variant Details
✔️ Disc
✔️ Sleeve / Packaging
Collage of live photographs on a newspaper background. Honestly, out of all the releases of this recording, this is my favourite sleeve. Looks the part.
There’s a design credit: Design By Mick Matsuo (Club The Star). I don’t know a great deal about Mick Matsuo, but he appears to have been a significant figure in the Japanese punk scene.
✔️ Booklet / Insert
Liner notes by Mikio Moriwaki.
No lyric sheet, but the booklet includes a section titled something along the lines of “The Complete Guide to Pistols Cover Versions” — a breakdown of the original artists behind the songs the Pistols covered.
Ex-Pistols’ “Land of Hope & Glory” gets a mention, with a note on Elgar. Reading it now, it seems the prevailing belief at the time was that the band members themselves performed on that track. Not the most flattering credit, in hindsight.
✔️ Obi strip
Unfortunately, my copy is missing the obi strip (the paper band that wraps around Japanese releases). For reference, the Discogs listing shows both versions:
▶discogs 「The Sex Pistols – Live At Chelmsford Top Security Prison」
Left: Toy’s Factory ／ Right: Vap
🧷 Collector’s Notes
✔️ Album title
The disc label reads Live at Chelmsford Top Security Prison, while the spine (and front cover) reads Live at Chelmsford Prison.
As a general rule in cataloguing, the spine and front cover take precedence when determining the official title of a release. On that basis, Live at Chelmsford Prison would be the correct catalogue title for this CD.
✔️ Chelmsford Prison
In 1976, Chelmsford was classified as a local prison — holding remand prisoners awaiting trial and those serving shorter sentences. It was not a high-security Category A facility of the sort reserved for terrorists or serious violent offenders.
In other words, the “Maximum Security Prison” billing in some release titles is something of an exaggeration. At a guess — and it is only a guess — it was a marketing decision rather than an accurate description.
✔️ On the sound
This recording dates from around 1990 and has reportedly had some post-production work done to it — crowd noise added in, bass overdubbed in places. That’s Dave Goodman’s handiwork, by all accounts.
The audio quality isn’t remarkable, though it holds up reasonably well compared to some other live recordings from the period. Glen Matlock is on bass here, which shows — the playing is noticeably tighter than you might expect.
The track order also differs from the running order of the actual gig.
For comparison, the later Universal release presents a version closer to the raw recording, without the added effects and overdubs.
✔️ Toy’s Factory and Vap
Toy’s Factory originated from within Vap and became an independent label on 30 May 1990.
This CD was released on 10 October 1990 — after the split — hence the Toy’s Factory imprint.
A Vap pressing (VPCK-85011) of the same title had already come out on 5 February 1990, before the two labels separated.
During this period, a number of Sex Pistols-related CDs were released in Japan in fairly quick succession, and several titles exist in both Vap and Toy’s Factory editions. As a rule of thumb: catalogue numbers beginning with TF are Toy’s Factory; VP indicates Vap.
I’ll cover the other CDs from this period in a future post.
🧷 Next time
Coming up: the double-disc bootleg CD Limited Supply (VOM CDD 003).
Stay tuned.
byebye 👋
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