What are the odds!? Today I received this lovely red vinyl copy of the Police’s album Synchronicity. Only a few hours later the band announced a wonderful (belated) 40th anniversary 6 CD set featuring B-sides, demos, out-takes, alternate mixes, instrumentals and an unreleased live gig!

This red vinyl edition was released sometime in 1984, about a year after its initial June 1983 release. It was only released in Australia to promote the band’s Australian 1984 tour. The package comes with the standard printed inner sleeve plus a double sided “4 colour pin-up” which features a band photo on one side and an advertisement for all of their albums on the other.

The album was also released on yellow, dark blue and baby blue (or azure as it’s called on Discogs) vinyl in Australia. New Zealand had the same dark blue vinyl release in 1983, again to promote that local tour, though the hype sticker on the artwork is slightly different.

A, probably one-off, splattered vinyl pressing was also made in Australia. This was a custom pressing, never meant to be released. Although it was made using the original stampers, the band or record label never commissioned the pressing plant to make this version, so this may arguably be a semi-official release. Nevertheless it is a very rare item and a holy grail for Police collectors!