991.com Sleevenotes : A Blog about Collecting Rare Vinyl 7", 12" & LP Records, CDs, Memorabilia & Music

Tuesday's Top Three! Including Soft Machine's Debut 7" Single, A Roy Harper First Issue And A Rare Buckingham Nicks LP!

SOFT MACHINE Love Makes Sweet Music

Very rare 1966 UK 7" - the very first Soft Machine single and often cited as a Top. 10 UK psych 45! This is the very first pressing on the 'rough' textured Polydor label with 3-prong push-out centre intact and'Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin' on the b-side. The original die-cut company sleeve shows no signs of creasing and is in lovely condition. The vinyl shows just a few light hairline marks with age and both sides are in excellent- condition. Recommended.

 

ROY HARPER Bullinamingvase

1977 UK first issue 6-track LP, including the track 'Watford Gap', which features Wings on backing duties & was replaced with 'Breakfast With You' on all later pressing as a result of complaints from Blue Boar Services. The album is complete with original lyric inner and bonus white title label 7" vinyl EP [PSR407] including Tom Tiddler's Ground, Referendum & Another Day, picture sleeve. Both sleeve & vinyl are in fantastic condition!

 

BUCKINGHAM NICKS Buckingham Nicks

1973 UK first issue 10-track vinyl LP, stickered picture sleeve plus lyric insert. The sleeve shows few signs of being over 30 years old and the vinyl is in superb condition. A great copy of this wonderful LP that is still unissued on CD!

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Farewell Olympians... and not least, Good Luck to our Paralympians!

Monday's Top Three! Including A Cracking Wishbone Ash LP, A Promotional-Only Bon Jovi Sampler And A Notorious BANNED Guns 'N' Roses Sleeve!

WISHBONE ASH Wishbone Four

Original 1973 UK black MCA label 8-track LP, complete with double-sided 30" x 20" fold-out photo/lyric poster. The gatefold sleeve has some edge scuffing and discolouration, however the vinyl with signs of spindle wearis in excellent condition - A nice copy.

 

 

BON JOVI Essential Bon Jovi

Rare 1988 UK 8-track promotional-only CD sampler including Lay Your Hands On Me, Livin' On A Prayer and Born To Be My Baby, custom picture sleeve.

 

 

GUNS N ROSES Appetite For Destruction

Rare 1987 UK German-pressed 'Special Limited Edition' 12-track vinyl LP, complete with lyric inner and a sheet of unused limited edition Japanese peel-off stickers, picture sleeve with the withdrawn 'robot rape' scene with two hype stickers on the front. The sleeve shows just a little light wear with a small sticker tear on the back & the vinyl is flawless.

Saturday's Top Three! Including A Rare Rocksteady Hit From Roy Tomlinson, A Badfinger 7" Scarcity And A Nice Piece Of Polish Madonna!

ROY TOMLINSON I Stand For I

1968 UK 7" vinyl single featuring yet another delicious prime cut of rumbling rocksteady to come bawling outta Sir Coxsone's studio! Overseen by the great man himself, this heavyweight treat is backed up with Martin [should be The Martini's] with their feet shuffling, finger clickling, dancefloor favourite, I Second That Emotion. The vinyl is in Ex-/VG+ condition and plays with only minor clicks and pops and is complete with the intact 4-prong centre which completes the stunning blue Coxsone label - With music like this, you just can't resist!

 

BADFINGER Day After Day

1972 UK 7" vinyl single with solid centre produced by George Harrison, also featuring Sweet Tuesday Morning produced by Tod [sic] Rundgren, housed in the now scarce picture sleeve. The sleeve shows a little light creasing, ringwear and a little discolouration - the vinyl should be noted is near mint! A great opportunity to add this rare issue to your collection at an advantageous price!

 

MADONNA Like A Prayer

1989 Polish Sire label 11-track vinyl LP, picture sleeve with picture/lyric inner. The vinyl has just a few light surface marks, with the sleeve displaying only some minor ringwear and corner creasing [which is usual for East European pressings]. A nice copy of this hard to find item.

Friday's Top Three! Including A Rare Jim Reeves '54 Debut, A Fantastic Ice Cream Apple Label Promotional 7" And A Near Mint Queen Tour Programme!

JIM REEVES Bimbo

Very rare 1954 UK 7" - Jim's very first single - on the black & gold tri-centre London label, recorded with The Louisiana Hayride Band and featuring Gypsy Heart on the b-side, die-cut company sleeve. There is some very light heat wear to the disc yet play grades to an excellent standard with minimal surface noise and no distortion. Both songs are loud and clear and still sounding great nearly 60 years on!

 

APPLE LABEL Walls Ice Cream Presents

Rare 1969 UK 4-track multi artist promotional 7" vinyl EP that was available exclusively by mail order from Walls Ice Cream in the UK, housed in a front laminated flipback picture sleeve. This EP features anexclusive Iveys track, plus one each from Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax & James Taylor. The sleeve is in VG/Excellent condition with some minor creasing but with intact laminate; the vinyl on this copy is near mint.

 

QUEEN Hot Space Tour '82

Rare 1982 UK official 28-page colour tour programme featuring superb colour pictures, band biography, fanclub application & more. A fabulous copy in near mint condition.

Thursday's Top Three! Including A Fantastic First Press From The Beatles, A Must-Have Pink Floyd And A First Issue Led Zeppelin!

THE BEATLES Love Me Do

1962 UK first press red label 7" vinyl single with '-1N' matrix suffixes, indicating that it is the version with Ringo on Drums. Also features P.S. I Love You, die-cut company sleeve. There is just the lightest of spindlewear to indicate play and a faint '10p' marking on the A-side but otherwise this is a superb example!

 

PINK FLOYD The Dark Side Of The Moon

1973 UK 10-track LP with 'EMI Records' perimeter text but 'The Gramophone Company Limited' label text at 9 o'clock, gatefold picture sleeve complete with two large fold-out posters and two unused stickers. The sleeve has only a few light signs of age with the vinyl and all content in immaculate conditon - a great complete copy.

 

LED ZEPPELIN Physical Graffiti

1975 UK first issue 15-track double LP with the machine stamped matrices A1/B5/C2/D1. One of the bands most diverse and challenging records, featuring household classics like Kashmir and lesser played gems such asThe Wanton Song. Housed in a great die-cut picture sleeve with thick card inners and card tracklisting insert. This copy is in a fantastic almost shop bought condition, doubt you will ever see another copy like this again.

Wednesday's Top Three! Including A Must-Have LP From King Crimson, A Orange & Plum Rarity From The Allman Brothers And A Russian Only Led Zeppelin!

KING CRIMSON In The Court Of The Crimson King

Early 70's issue UK 5-track vinyl LP of the 1969 benchmark debut on the pink rimmed Island 'palm tree' label with stamped 'A4/B4' matrices. Gatefold picture sleeve featuring the now iconic cover design by Barry Godber. The sleeve has only some light surface/edge scuff marksfrom storage and the vinyl has just a couple of very faint inaudible surface marks, with bright, clean labels. A fabulous copy of this pioneering prog album!

 

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND At Filmore East

Original 1971 1st issue UK 7-track orange & plum Atlantic label 2-LP set, housed in a US internal pasted gatefold picture sleeve which is how this was originally issued. The sleeve on this copy has some minor storage wear mostly on the edges and spine, the vinyl is excellent with only a few light surface marks which do not effect play, still a great copy of this 40 year old album.

 

LED ZEPPELIN Stairway To Heaven

Scarce 1988 Russian only Melodiya label 7-track vinyl LP, includes Immigrant Song, Black Dog and Stairway To Heaven. Housed in a unique picture sleeve with Cyrillic/English text, the sleeve has only a few minor storage marks with the vinyl in excellent condition.

Tuesday's Top Three! Including An Uber Rare Tea & Symphony, A Great Bob Dylan And A French Status Quo!

TEA & SYMPHONY An Asylum For The Musically Insane

Rare 1969 UK 9-track LP of 'Progressive Folk' by the talented trio, with 'Gramophone Co' label perimeter text & without EMI logo, wonderful front laminated gatefold picture sleeve. The sleeve onthis copy shows just a little light shelfwear along the bottom. The vinyl is clean and looks barely played with no scratches or marks to the disc - A wonderful copy of this very hard to find album.

 

BOB DYLAN Blonde On Blonde

Rare original 1966 UK 14-track 'rough' textured orange CBS label MONO double LP with A1/B1/C1/D1 matrices. The labels are printed with the 'Blonde On Blonde' above the 'Bob Dylan' text, and lists track two on the B-side on record one as 'Stuck Inside Of Mobile With Thee', also printed is DDP66012 which is also present with the matrices on the run-out. Housed in a front laminated internal flipback gatefold picture sleeve which has 9 black & white pictures inside and comes with the original CBS advertising paper inners. The sleeve is strictly graded VG-, as it has a split down the outside spine, otherwise only has some minor shelfwear with intact internal flipbacks. The vinyl remains in EX-/EX with just a few surface marks which do not effect play. A very respectable play copy at an advantageous price.

 

STATUS QUO Le Double Disque D'Or De

1970s French-only 20-track PRT label double LP, housed in a unique front laminated gatefold picture sleeve with the 'PRT Records' logo on the front plus the Vogue die-cut paper inner sleeves. The sleeve has only a few light storage marks with the vinyl in near mint condition.

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Monday's Top Three! Including A Bjork Limited 12" Single Set, A Rare Autographed Martha Ulaeto And A Cool Stones CD Single!

BJORK Alarm Call

Set of FIVE 1998 UK limited edition 12" vinyl singles - a total of 15-tracks featuring remixes by Beck, DJ Krust, Mark Bell and Alan Braxe & Ben Diamond. Each disc is housed in a die-cut card title sleeve and limited to 500 copies each!

 

MARTHA ULAETO Love Me Now

Rare autographed 1981 South African 9-track Nigerian modern soul/boogie LP, including 'Music Alone' as featured on the recent Brand New Wayo: Funk, Fast Times & Nigerian Boogie Badness compilation. The picture sleeve is signed and dedicated 'To Alan Boxer, from Martha Ulaeto' on the back in blue biro, who was the head of EMI Music International at the time and comes direct from his personal collection. Both the sleeve and vinyl are very good.

 

ROLLING STONES Rock And A Hard Place

Original 1989 UK limited edition 4-track CD single, also including Emotional Rescue, Cook Cook Blues and Some Girls, in great custom stickered 'tongue' shaped card picture sleeve!

Saturday's Top Three! Including A Rare Australian Pink Island EP From Cat Stevens, A Rare Fan-Club CD For Bjork And A Polish Smiths Pressing!

CAT STEVENS Lady D'Arbanville - Pink Label

Rare 1970 Australian "Pink label" 4-track solid centre vinyl EP, with laminated picture sleeve, also includes the tracks Time, Fill My Eyes, and Trouble. Extremely hard to find pressing of this Cat Stevens EP, with an additional track to the UK issue, and completely different picture sleeve [even finding the picture sleeve on its own is hard enough!] The sleeve has the slightest of discolouraton from storage over the years, however the condition of the vinyl on this rarity is nothing short of NEAR MINT wiht no visible signs of play, leading to believe it may only have been played once, if at all. Australian pressings are incredibly hard to find as many of them never left the country, and were pressed in such limited quantity that they are rarely seen. No serious collection is complete without this fantastic item!

 

BJORK Celebrating Wood And Metal

1997 UK limited edition 6-track CD, available only to the first 20,000 members of the Bjork fan-club, features Human Behaviour, One Day, Come To Me, Big Time Sensuality, Like Someone In Love and Anchor Song, recorded for MTV Europe, custom card picture wallet.

 

THE SMITHS The Smiths

Rare Original 1995 Polish Tonpress 10-track LP, including Pretty Girls Make Graves & What Difference Does It Make. Housed in a picture sleeve complete with illustrated lyrics inner sleeve. The sleeve is showing a few signsof storage namely just light edge wear whilst the vinyl is in near mint condition with stunning clean, mark free labels - a stunning copy of this classic album.

Wiiiiiggggooooooo! Could Music Be Behind This Olympian's Success?

Tour De France and Olympic gold medal winner Sir Wiggins (c'mon Liz, get a shift on!) has provided the NME with a brief run down of his top tracks. From Weller to The Who, Northern Soul spinners and even The Smiths, every track, like Bradley, is a winner. All stand with your hand on your hearts and shout 'In Mod we trust'! Read the full article here.

Friday's Top Three! Including A Rare Aussie Pressing Magical Mystery Tour, The Yardbirds '66 'Ivor' LP And A Bjork Limited Edition Single Box!

THE BEATLES Magical Mystery Tour

Rare 1967 Australian black & silver solid centre Parlophone label 6-track stereo double 7" vinyl EP set, laminated gatefold booklet picture sleeve with integral 24-page full colour illustrated booklet & blue lyric sheets. Both the gatefold picture sleeve, and the vinyl's are in spectacular NEAR MINT condition, showing no signs of age, and look barely, if at all, played. Australian pressings are incredibly hard to find as most of them stayed within the Country, and were pressed in such limited quantity. This is a great chance to own a rare piece of Beatles history, and no serious collection is complete without it!

 

THE YARDBIRDS Roger The Engineer

Rare original 1966 UK blue & black Columbia label 12-track mono LP, including Over Under Sideways Down & Jeff's Boogie. Housed in a front laminated flipback picture sleeve which has only minor storage wear mostlyon the back which has a few areas of wear, otherwise in excellent condition. The vinyl is excellent as has only a few light cosmetic surface marks. A great EX copy of this 60s classic!

 

BJORK Bachelorette

Rare 1998 UK limited edition flip-top picture box containing three 4-track CD singles including Howie Spread Mix, Mark Bell Mixes, Grooverider Mix and Alec Empire Mixes, in jewel cases with picture sleeves, plus 1-track PAL video in picture slipcase.

Led Zeppelin Album Artist Dies

Zacron sadly passes away

Zacron was responsible for the amazing Led Zeppelin III album art (a controversial piece of work that Jimmy Page once described, incorrectly, as a bit "teeny-bopperish"), which included the near legendary spinning inner disc which changed the album cover with each turn.

Zacron - real name Richard Drew - met Jimmy Page when he was a student at the Kingston College Of Art, where he also lectured for a time. He has worked as a successful artist ever since.

Classic Rock Magazine reports that Zacron sadly passed away as a result of bowel cancer in January of this year but his estranged family only learned of his death recently.

Here's his most famous and enduring work:

 

 

991.com brings you Excerpts from the R.C. Weekly Newsletter

991.com brings you this week's R.C.Weekly Newsletter excerpts. To receive the full edtion with news, reviews, offers and collecting news contact [email protected]

I am now back in fashion, thanks to Wiggo’s sideburns. Of course, he is only copying me (just like I copied Noddy Holder). I have been sporting sideburns since I was first able to grow them – about two days ago. Mine are, of course, mostly bumfluff filled in with ginger eyebrow pencil, but Mr Wiggins has made a difference to daft old blokes like me who are desperately clinging on to a youth that was lost decades ago. Plus the cyclist’s rise to supremacy means that Damon Hill is no longer the only mod in sport – surely a good thing. Add to that Stuart ‘Punk Rock’ Pearce’s success in guiding England and Wales’ – sorry, Great Britain’s – male football team to the quarter finals, and this is truly a rock’n’roll Olympics. We at RC are thrilled. Although naturally we are also very concerned at times, and have to seek firm but tender reassurance from our lovely Filipino carers-stroke-nurses that any records broken at the Olympics are not vinyl. Phew, that’s a relief.

Talking of which, we are now putting the next issue of the mag to bed. This has been quite tricky this month, what with our banks of sub-editors taking time off for watching the highly-trained athletes throwing their matches in the badminton, and climbing over a mountain of orders for the Leviathan LP, Unleashed, which has earned pride of place on the RC Official Record Deck of late. This double-LP piece of progressive perfection has been our fastest-selling release to date and we fully expect the limited pressing of 750 to sell out swiftly, so if you want to grab a copy, click on the promo box below, but act fast...

In the meantime, sales of our Hawkwind issue have been strong – we had a feeling that there were legions of Hawkheads out there who would be glad to see it. They are a Great British Institution, although no doubt they wouldn’t see it that way. This month the cover is dominated by a Great American Hero who had to come to the UK to make it – Jimi Hendrix. We chat to prog legends Gentle Giant – and learn a few alarming things about Ozzy Osbourne in the process. All I would say about that is, if you are going to fly with any metal singing legend, better to choose Bruce Dickinson over Ozzy. And we select (and price) 500 great reggae singles for you to mull over – a feature which is already being discussed on the Jamaican music forums. We hate to give the game away, but The Piglets’ Johnny Reggae is not one of them, although I do own a copy of it. The lead ‘singer’ is Adrienne Posta, a superb actress and my top pin-up from the 60s and 70s, who actually made a few decent tunes, such as this one. Anyway, I digress – again. RC 405 hits the shops on 16 August, and like the juvenile Bill Oddie, it’s gonna be a goodie.

Hope you have a great week,

Best

Ian

IN THE CURRENT ISSUE!

Dave Brock's tales of rock'n'roll madness, plus a look at Hawkwind's influence on the free festival scene that followed in their wake Irma Thomas: The 60s soul legend by Garth Cartwright San Francisco's 70s punk scene that gave rise to The Dils, Avengers, Negative Trend, Dead Kennedys… Jeff Lynne’s dazzling 60s psych band, Idle Race Sammy Hagar: All Halen the Red Rocker! Plus: The Pretty Things, Belle & Sebastian, Andy Fraser, Roxy Music, John Sinclair...

Thursday's Top Three! Including A Rare 'Sunglasses' Sleeve For Madonna, A Promotional 7" For The Stones And A Rocking Chuck Berry On Mauve Columbia!

MADONNA Lucky Star

Rare original 1983 UK 2-track 12" single featuring Full Length Version & I Know It, housed in the legendary rare 'sunglasses' picture sleeve. The sleeve has some minor storage wear mostly on the edges, the vinyl is in near mint condition with only a few very light signs of being played. A very resepctable copy of this sought after picture sleeve.

 

ROLLING STONES Undercover Of The Night

Rare 1983 UK 1-track promotional one sided vinyl 7" with intact 4-prong push-out centre and custom promo only printed label, the b-side has a white label without any music, comes housed in a commercial release paper picture sleeve.

 

 

CHUCK BERRY School Day

Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell) (Rare 1957 UK mauve Columbia label 7" vinyl single with intact 4-prong centre and Gold lettering. Featuring one of the most seminal rock 'n' roll tracks ever laid down on wax. Produced at the legendary Chess studios with the brother's keen ear getting the most 'oomph out of the young Chuck! Backed with Deep Feeling. Presented with a diecut Columbia company sleeve, the vinyl has only light hairline surface marks with minor spindle wear - A fantastic Ex condition copy of this Ted's must-have!

Wednesday's Top Three! Including A RARE Elvis Export Issue Purple HMV 7", Captain Beefheart's '68 Finest (IMHO!) And The Beatles On Japanese Red Vinyl!

ELVIS PRESLEY All Shook Up

Very rare 1957 UK Export Issue 7" vinyl single on the purple HMV label, with intact four prong push-out centre & gold lettering, also featuring That's When Your Heartaches Begin, His Master's Voice company die cut paper sleeve. The vinyl on this copy remains in a wonderful Ex- condition with just a few light surface scuffs and minor spindle marks to show for its fifty five years. A very respectable copy of this scarce Elvis original!

 

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & MAGIC BAND Strictly Personal

Scarce 1968 US original 8-track LP on the black deep groove Blue Thumb label. The pasted gatefold sleeve has a little storage wear with age yet there is no creasing and the spine is perfectly legible - the vinyl shows only light signs of play and is otherwise an excellent copy of this classic album!

 

THE BEATLES Help!

Rare original 1965 Japanese 7" single pressed on 'Everclean' RED VINYL, also including I'm Down, housed in a die-cut Toshiba group sleeve including unique wraparoundpicture insert with Japanese text biography and lyrics to both songs printed inside. The insert displays some faint creasing with a little 'foxing' and age yellowing and remains in excellent condition - the images are bright and unfaded with all text clearly legible. The vinyl has a number of light marks on both sides, however this does not detract from the visual appeal of this rare issue - a great opportunity to add this desirable item to your collection at a competitive price!

Grandmaster Flash Comes To Medway

And you don't stop! Old school alert - the era-defining icon from The Bronx, Grandmaster Flash, who created the loop and cross-fade DJ techniques and is name checked as an inspiration to hip-hop stars across the globe, is set to spin decks and minds this November, in... wait for it, the Casino Rooms down Rochester, High Street. Yes, this is another one of a kind moment brought to you by the good folks at TEA (responsible for bringing Damo Suzuki to Gillingham Pier last year). Tickets go on sale at a mere £12 this week. Spread the message!