Vinyl variants
The debut album was released as a single sleeve in some territories, generally using the front and back of the UK gatefold - the back of the South African release was rendered in blue monochrome. And the back of the Dutch Sunset reissue was used as an advert for other albums on the label.
But as would tend to be the case throughout the 1970s, the most desirable version of the debut album was released in Japan, a gatefold which included an insert with lyrics.
When the debut was reissued in 1980 as part of the Rock File series, the original cover was dispensed with altogether, and replaced with a version of the Doremi shield.
Cassettes
When the album design was reproduced on the cassette box, it left dead space which needed to be filled. Interestingly, the Hawkwind logo used in contemporary adverts was inserted. Even more interesting, the running order of the tracks was changed to make both sides of the tape as equal as possible. The Sunset cassette reissue restores both the original logo and the correct running order.
8-tracks
The UK 8-track version of the album had the same running order as the cassette - in fact, as the dominant tape format at the time, it's likely that the 8-track order came first and was copied by the cassette. The 8-track needed to have four programmes of songs of roughly equal length, and the altered running order meant that only one song - 'The Reason Is?' - was shared between programmes. Note the use of the advert logo again.
However, the US 8-track version retained the vinyl album's running order - which meant that the songs got well and truly minced.
