Four cardboard boxes marked FRAGILE. A stack of plain white sleeves holding 7-inch vinyl white label test pressings. Ten sets in existence, eighty pieces of vinyl. RAREST of the RARE.
AIR Studios mastering engineer Henry Rudkins has already cued up one single on the lathe situated at the back of the studio where he cut the single lacquers in August. A mug of canteen tea, pens, paper, sound desk and speakers at the ready, this is the moment we have been working towards: the test pressings for Small Faces – Immediate Singles 1967–1969 have arrived at AIR for quality control checks - hours of listening awaits..
What is a test pressing?
Before a record goes into production, the pressing plant runs off a small batch from the stampers made from the lacquers cut by the studio engineer. Just a handful of copies, usually no more than ten, a blank white label, no picture sleeve, just a matrix number stamped or scribed in the run-out “mirror” to inform what music the grooves contain. No frills, plenty of space to handwrite notes because this is all about listening and focusing on the sound as it should be.
With Henry in the studio is Rob Caiger, who in addition to being the reissue producer for the Small Faces, has spent years working on restoring the band’s archive and has overseen the restoration of the Immediate catalogue for Nice Records.
The letters on the sleeves are factory shorthand: one letter per side, one pair per record, running from AB (the ‘Album Sampler’) through to OP (‘Afterglow Of Your Love’ / ‘Wham Bam Thank You Mam’). Ten copies of each - and each one will be played and checked. With a strictly limited edition of 500 numbered boxsets that will never be repressed, this part of the process is one of utmost concentration and cannot be rushed.
Anything picked up at this stage will undergo further checks with production management company Packaged Sounds Group and TAKT, the manufacturer based in Poland. Once solved, remedied and signed off, the factory will begin pressing singles and printing artwork and assembling boxes.
Back to the start
The sound for each single has been mastered by long-time Small Faces remastering engineer, Nick Robbins at his mastering studio from the original Immediate Records master tapes Rob and Kenney have spent decades recovering from around the world.
Each lacquer was referenced to an original Immediate single, not just for sound but to see from the grooves what the original engineers were trying to achieve 50 years ago. While much of the process remains unchanged from those days, the vintage lathes and desks have been modified over decades so more of what was on the tape can be captured, unrestricted by the technological limitations of the past.
What they're listening for
- Surface noise and non-fill — where the vinyl has not fully filled the groove, producing a faint crackle or hiss, especially during quiet passages.
- Ticks, pops and clicks — anything that gets into plating or pressing that was not on the master and the lacquer.
- Distortion — Steve Marriott's voice and Ronnie Lane’s bass at full tilt are a serious test of any cut and need to stay undistorted.
- Inner-groove quality — the final section of each side, where the groove is less and sound quality and volume can dip.
- Centring — a single with a hole pressed off-centre will drift in pitch. A hole pressed too small will also damage the single.
Each side can have any combination of the above - if a noise or a fault is in the same place across all test pressings, then it’s usually an issue with the stamper and resolved by a thorough re-clean before pressing begins. Anything else means a more involved conversation with the factory and further checks and potentially new test pressings for the process to begin anew.
Eight single records - all have to be right
The Immediate years gave us seven of the most beautifully recorded British pop singles of the sixties. Then there is the eighth record: a facsimile of the ‘Album Sampler’, the one-sided 1967 promotional single for the band's debut Immediate LP, with excerpts narrated by DJ Tommy Vance. It is one of the rarest Small Faces records and including it in the boxset will be the first time most will have held a copy.
This deluxe boxset is our tribute to those great original singles. Presented in a hard-shell box with Gered Mankowitz's famous "v-signs" photo as the cover, a 16-page booklet full of details and memorabilia, rare picture sleeves from Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and The Netherlands, all put together by graphic designer Phil Smee and curated by Kenney Jones.
What happens next
Once every side is signed off, the plant will begin the pressing run. ‘Small Faces – Immediate Singles 1967–1969’ is set for release on 2 October 2026 exclusively from Nice Records and limited to 500 individually-numbered boxsets.
Pre-orders are open and selling strongly with over half sold already - do not be late ordering this one!
And the test pressings themselves? Once they have done their job, a handful of remaining copies will be made available for sale on a first-come first-served basis, with Nice Newsletter subscribers getting the news first.
Update 29 September 2026
At the end of the session at AIR Studios, six of the fifteen sides were referred back to the factory by Rob and Henry to investigate some clicks and surface noise. The remaining 12 sides sounded perfect!
New test pressings were produced and the check process began again. Three sides were confirmed as perfect but it was decided to start again and produce new metal stampers for the remaining three and this is in process now.
We are sorry the release is delayed but we know for such a prestigious collection, everything has to be perfect. And it will be.
We are aiming for a new release date of 13 November and will update again once the new test pressings have been received.
