are "LONDON" pressings made in the UK, inferior to the Decca pressings

Edgewear, thanks for your great input. You are most welcome ... or shall we say ...
You are very much welcome : )
This may be off-topic but could you give some advice for this one... I have this (still sealed) GENESIS In the Beginning; London Records LC 50006 (P) USA 1977, also seen at Discogs:https://www.discogs.com/Genesis-In-The-Beginning/release/694639
Is this worth keeping or should I seek for a UK 70´s reissue for better audio quality as I don´t want that first UK Decca edition from 1969 because its high price ?
Best regards,

It's interesting to read this thread about Decca vs London LPs, because it runs counter to my memory of the 1970s, when I was regularly buying classical LPs new from places like Tower Records and other emporia in the Washington, DC, area.  I had one friend who probably bought 4-5 LPs for every one that I bought, but we regularly conferred on sound quality.  As I recall, we both thought that Decca LPs were far superior (quieter, mostly) than London-labeled LPs containing the same performances.  Had something changed by the mid to late 1970s, or were we just deceiving ourselves?  I am not a "collector" per se, and I could not care less about relative market values.  We only obsessed about SQ.

@harold-not-the-barrel , thanks for the kind words!
I'm not a great Genesis fan, so I don't have first hand experience with that particular LP.

First you should understand that this so called 'Decca - London debate' only has a bairing on the classical catalogue, as these records were both pressed in the UK using the same metalwork.

From what I know the situation was very different with popular repertoire. These were generally NOT created equal and Decca apparently referred to the more common practice of sending a copy of the master tape to other markets for domestic mastering and pressing. I suppose you are aware of the large sonic difference between UK Decca pressings and US London pressings of the Rolling Stones catalogue? You might think the Stones were an exception, given the large pressing runs needed to meet market demands. But I've had a London pressing of Caravan's 'If I Could Do It All Over Again....', not what you'd call a big seller. Yet it was sonically a bad joke compared to the UK Decca.

So here's the big question: was this London reissue pressed in the UK? If it was, it's probably equal to the UK reissue. If not, you can be pretty sure the UK 70's reissue will be superior. You will likely need to open it to check the stamper codes, unless the sleeve gives an indication ('pressed in the UK' or words to that effect). The usual 'printed in the USA' text on the sleeve tells you nothing as this only refers to the sleeve itself. Still there?

An exciting moment, and this just might be one of those exceptions......

@lewm , I'm not sure about the Decca - London situation in the late 70's. Perhaps Decca had changed their export policy by then. I do know that the New Malden pressing plant in the UK was shut down completely in the early '80's and Decca's were pressed in Holland by Philips (something to do with the take over by PolyGram I think).

Edgeware, thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge of the subject. It’s possible that I am thinking of US pressings under the London label, and that would explain a lot. I will go through my collection and see what I have here because I still have anything I ever bought.