Ever looked around the labels of Dead Moon vinyl releases?

You haven't? Right -chew on this, then...:
(I'm sorry, this is a VERY corny bit of wordplay, I know...)

Every vinyl release of every band has a catalog number (and sometimes something like "Mastered at...") scratched in the vinyl between the closing groove and the label. Cutting your own records, the way Fred does, has some interesting possibilities...

HERE'S WHAT WE FOUND:

On the first Dead Moon single, there's just the regular code and "FRED COLE"; on "Don't Burn The Fires" we find "FRED COLE" as well, and later pressings have "DEAD MOON REPRESS". In fact, all the records mastered by Fred have the "Fred Cole" inscription, but wait, some have more! If we look at the other Tombstone 7"es first:

Black September: "DEAD MOON LIVES"
Echos Of You (as it says on the label): "WATCH FOR DM'S 2ND ALBUM"

Dagger Moon (b-side of D.O.A.): "THANKS TO ALL OF YOU - DEAD MOON"

Over The Edge: "THIS SONG WAS A NIGHTMARE TO CUT"
In The Altitudes: "FUCK CD'S EXCEPT THE ONES HANS PUTS OUT ON MUSIC MANIAC FOR DEAD MOON!"

Fire In The Western World: "BURNED OUT AND WASTED THIS ONE'S FOR BERT"
Room 213: "SICKER THAN VIC!"

It's O.K. (b-side of Day After Day): "FOR AMANDA 'CAUSE WE LOVE YOU ANYWAY"

Then, there's the albums:

In The Graveyard:
A: "DEAD MOON LIVES"
B: "WRITE TO DEAD MOON - WE THANK YOU"

Unknown Passage:
A: "DEAD MOON - PORTLAND, ORE"
B: "MEMORIAL DAY 1989"

Defiance:
A: "TOODY SAYS HI ANDREW SAYS BYE"
B: "DEAD MOON - DEFIANCE AGAINST ALL ODDS"

Stranded In The Mystery Zone:
A: "INTO THE LIGHT DEAD MOON" (with little sketches of a moon and a skull)
B: "THIS ONE'S FOR TOODY"

Strange Pray Tell
A: "THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR SUPPORTING US! FRED, TOODY & ANDREW"
B:"THIS ONE'S FOR HANS KESTELOO - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
(The one-sided promo for this album has in fact all songs of side 2 - and the inscription!
And, just to be complete, the empty side has an inscription, too: "LEERRINGE", meaning "empty groove". Indeed.)

Nervous Sooner Changes:
A: "HAPPY 25th BERT - SEE YOU AT THE PARTY!"
B: "THANK YOU ALL FROM DEAD MOON"

Crack In The System:
A: "FOR THE BROKEN GENERATION"
B: "FOR ALL FATHERS WHO'VE HAD DAUGHTERS TO DEAL WITH"

Hard Wired In Ljubljana:
A: "THAT'S ONE!"
B: "IT'S WHAT MAKES LIFE INTERESTING"
C: "THAT'S TWO!"
D:"IT'S A LABOR OF LOVE"

Destination X:
A: "WELCOME TO THE WORLD HANNAH JANE!"
B: "THANK YOU ALL FOR LISTENING"

I'm not sure whether we should reveal all we know (or assume) about the deeper meaning of some of these messages, but from the absence of Fred's signature on some of the Music Maniac releases you can tell they weren't mastered by Fred.
The "Bert" mentioned is Bert van de Kamp, leading Dutch rock journalist an a long time friend of Dead Moon. They even played on the 25th anniversary of the wedding of Mr and Mrs van de Kamp - hence the "see you at the party"...
"Vic" is Vic Sohler from Music Maniac...
"Hannah Jane" is the daughter of soundman Edwin and his wife Alie...
And, er, "That's one!" and "That's two!" must be references to that cowboy joke...

'Nuff said!