Beatles - A Hard Day's Night - Super Rare Matrix Error - YEX 127-2 Read Desc.

	£		430
	$		570

The Beatles
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
1968-1969 Yellow / Black Stereo Pressing
"SOLD IN.U.K. TEXT" On Side 1 Labels
"KT" Tax Code On Side 2  
Almost Never Seen "-2" Matrix On Side 2 With Cutting Error
Stampers: Side 1: 2 MA
Side 2: 1 AH

PARLOPHONE PCS 3058 : MATRIX NOs YEX 126-1/YEX 127-2

Side 2 of the Stereo "A Hard Day's Night" mastering was re-cut in the 1960s as "YEX 127-2" but was withdrawn almost instantly as the pressing plates went into production. It has been noted that there's a cutting error which is present on this LP; The drum crack that opens "Any Time At All" on the -2 cutting is partially missing at the very beginning. This may have been an error with the cutting tape or a mistake on the lathe it was cut with, but the song doesn't play as it normally should on any other matrix of this album. EMI quickly noticed this problem, stopped pressing with the -2 plates and reverted back to their -1 plates, a cutting which lasted all the way into the early 1970s on "Two Box EMI" pressings. The -2 cutting is also a tube cut and sounds sweet! The missing section of the drum crack is only a split second's worth of audio and it may not be noticeable straight away but any Beatles fans who know the track very well will notice it pretty easily.
Sonically I think it's similar to the -1 cut that precedes it but there are barely any of these records out there in the wild. For context, the only time these LPs ever come up for sale, they all have the same Side 2 Stamper, that being 1 AH. The 37th stamper from the very first mother, with either 2 MA or 34 OT as Side 1. From that, we can guess that only one stamper of the -2 Side 2 matrix had even been used before they were pulled from production again. I think there's also a chance that the -2 matrix was known faulty and was mistakenly used on a pressing run but either way, a stamper produced a maximum of 5000 records for EMI at the time, usually less than that so that may give a rough estimate for how many of these are actually out there. I don't want to conspire or dictate a figure because nobody can really be sure, but the last time one of these LPs sold was back in January and before that, one was listed on Parlogram Auctions' website in late 2019. Otherwise, I'm not sure there's even been any of these rare mis-pressed versions of the album up for sale in quite a while. You sometimes see the -2 matrix on some of the later >1973 "Two Box" pressings but I think it's extremely rare to see this matrix turning up on the original Yellow / Black pressings.


The vinyl is in Excellent + condition and is very, very close to perfect. It looks fantastic! Fresh and awesome with only some of the slightest sleeve removal marks. It sits flat on my turntable and plays through awesomely with perfect audio throughout, no crackle or hissing, and no obnoxious ticks/pops to speak of! The only reason it doesn't grade as Near Mint is because there's some very slight surface dust but it doesn't affect the quality of playback at all. The only place you might hear anything resembling crackle / noise is the space between tracks, but even then it's more just because of the '60s vinyl formulation not being the quietest. There are very few spindle trails on the labels; I'm guessing that this record was only played a couple of times before being stored away. If not for the spindle marks on the labels and small amount of dust, I think this would be a 100% perfect archive record, or at least as perfect as a vinyl LP can be.

Comes with it's original cover, a late 1960s "Small Stereo" Garrod & Lofthouse flipback cover. It's in Excellent condition. There are a couple of demerits that take away from grading it as EX+ or anything higher, those beings some small spots of wear to the front laminate including a couple of thumbnail marks, some small spots of wear on the back panel, a small tear on the back middle flipback and some small sticker residue on the back up near the top. Also present is some dirt near the openings and also some very minor wear on the top flipback. There is also a very slight bit of foxing on the openings. That said, the cover still looks very clean and presentable and the spine text can be read perfectly. It's great to look at and feels lovely in the hand, and I don't think there's much yellowing to speak of. I know that list of demerits is rather long but they are very minor and I am trying to grade this cover very discriminatingly as this version of the album is very seldom-seen and I'd like to try and grade it to archival copy standards.

Unfortunately the original EMI Red/White advertising inner sleeve has been swapped for a poly-lined Emitex one, I suspect that this was done mistakenly when the record was first bought 50+ years ago. That said, it protects the surfaces of the record better than a plain paper inner sleeve would have done and it's in Excellent condition too, no tears or seam splits to speak of. Just some age-related yellowing.
Postage will be through Royal Mail, Special Delivery within the UK and with a corresponding service for international delivery. Unfortunately it isn't cheap as I have to send it fully insured. Any questions, please give me a shout! Thank you :)