CAPTAIN BEEFHEART Strictly Personal RARER ORIG UK 1968 MONO LP, PLAYS SUPERBLY.

	£		174
	$		231

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all – in fact I think these things should be banned as records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS. Full details nearer the end of the listing.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take up to 4 to 6 weeks from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business. I will always keep my P&P prices as low as possible, and even after yet another Royal Mail price hike from April this year, I have NOT raised my prices and will never compromise on solid, safe packing that is invariably heavier than most you will get. My P&P offers probably the best value-for-money for vinyl records available, and I even will pay for full insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion. As will any bidder who cancels a bid. I do not like this practice as it is most often used to phish out the price to beat. Ebay does not approve and neither do I – so only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND

Album Title: Strictly Personal

Producer(s): Bob Krasnow

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Ah Feel Like Ahcid; Safe As Milk; Trust Us; Son of Mirror Man—Mere Man.

Side 2: On Tomorrow; Beatle Bones n’ Smokin Stones; Gimme Dat Harp Boy; Kandy Korn.

Label/Format: Liberty – original blue format with matt, gently textured surfaces.

Label Conditions/Info: Both in fantastic condition as seen. Very clean, fresh and attractive with just a couple of small faint spindle marks. I will state straight away, side two has at least moderate inner sleeve dulling on the playing surface (side one none). But, this has NO sound whatsoever, in fact this hardly played mono record sounds fantastic – at least the equal of my own personal copy. The fact its hardly left the polylined inner sleeve being the issue of the surface dulling. The polymer within the soft inner sleeve lining reactedd with the vinyl, in most cases this is harmless, but not always. Records left undisturbed for many years were often affected, especially with these Philips/Polydor style inner sleeves. And this album is one seldom seen unaffected, in fact I have seen more copies of this album with this patterned dulling than any other. This dulling cannot be removed, but as stated, have NO fears, it has NO affect on the brilliant sound this rarer mono record has to offer.

Cat Number: LBL 83172

Mode / Speed: Mono / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 145 grams. Heavier than most blue label copies I have had.

Country of Manufacture: England – that is both record AND cover. Some copies of this had imported American covers, this one, totally British.

Rarity: Scarce: especially ones in top playing conditions with a lesser-worn UK cover. Many fans discovered this album from the Reprise albums that followed, then bought it on the Sunset repress issue, the originals by then, long since gone.

Original Year of Release: October 1968

Matrix Nos: LBL 83172 A 1 420 & LBL 83172 B//1 420

Musicians: Don van Vliet - lead vocal and mouthharp; Alex St Claire - guitar; Jeff Cotton - guitar; Jerry Handley - bass; John French - Drums.

Brief Info: After the brilliant debut Safe as Milk failed to sell, this second album appeared on a different label – Liberty – again only very briefly. Beefheart was finding it very difficult to find a loyal label that would offer his brand of music. This remains one of the most controversial in Don van Vliet’s early catalogue mainly due to the production of Bob Krasnow. It always divides opinion on it’s sound and use of phasing. This is a strictly personal opinion: I think it sounds fantastic and makes a pretty strange band sound even more weird. But some think is obscured their real sound, including The Captain himself. This wonderful album was a great prelude to Beefheart’s classic Trout Mask Replica which again was issued on a new label – Zappa’s newly formed Straight which specialised in the more ‘out-there’ artists. Here Beefheart’s sound progressed still further from the debut and was now becoming even more challenging. Beefheart was no ordinary artist and his music had few rules, his genius is at last being more and more recognised as time passes. This landmark album was the last not to include those outlandish names for The Magic Band, the members real names were correctly used. Weirdness however was the order of the day – just check out the inside cover pictures. A man fast approaching his creative heights and this rarer original mono record does it superb justice. Skillfully blending blues with psychedelia, a unique sound and band. Only with Zappa’s total unrestricted artistic freedom did the he excel to even greater heights on his next masterpiece. To phase or not to phase? – who really cares, just enjoy this unique and brilliant album for what it is.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT: or very close to. An unlaminated gatefold format with matt and very slightly textured surfaces. Printed and made in the UK with NO Blue Thumb logo and LBS mono prefix catalogue number. Includes the date-coded polylined inner sleeve.

Cover Front: Being single card, this often fares very badly, this this has survived very well indeed. A small blemish being a sticker residue mark near the top right, on the dark blue far right ‘stamp’ graphic, also a gentle rub between that stamp and the one to its left. I have photographed these in close-up to help, but these are minor blemishes. Such covers were highly prone to damage from vintage stickers that in most cases did not peel off like later and modern ones do. Most collectors will know this of course. Clean, fresh with minimal hint of grubbiness or ageing. Being thin also means a significantly higher chance of creasing, this this has largely avoided. A gentle light one on the bottom right corner and traces of thickening/mild burring to the bottom edge that is so hard to avoid on storage edges with this format. Over time, I have seen few better than this overall, including my own, this fragile front will take a lot of beating.

Cover Back: The back is very impressive, in terms of wear, it has very little at all. The top right has a shop stamp which only partially registered, hence quite light and faint. Retailers of the period, and beyond often stamped covers, inners, and some used shop promotional stickers or sticky tape – it was free advertising and many did it as most collectors would have seen. A back with no ringwear, creasing with any marks minimal and faint, hardly any in fact. Very impressive indeed.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Genuinely weird and bizarre and worth the price alone as this will not be found elsewhere. The Sunset reissues had a totally different cover, this weird inner gatefold graphic then gone. Just as wear-prone as the outside faces, possibly even more so being black. This has again has little to fault with any handling or rubbing traces few and very light. A same corner crease as the front corner is there, but little else.

Top Edges: Incredibly neat and crisp with minimal traces of any thickening or burring, few survive better. Both also meet up flush and almost perfectly parallel.

Bottom Edges: The main black fold has a little surface rubbing which is patchy. The two thinner card ends have thickened a little with minor burring. Storage edges like these have little chance of being perfect these days, that is simply being realistic.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Both the thin front and back opening edges are clean, neat and sharp, barely thickened or burred, these untrimmed or enhanced. Unusually, both lie flat with no bowing. Again they are near parallel but not quite flush in length due to gentle spine tilt.

Spine and Text: Being single thickness and quite wide, this is unusual to find without significant crushing and compression. This one remains solid, still quite erect and uncrushed, it has a gentle tilt to right, but has avoided flattening or compression. The surface generally clean with a couple or three tiny tone spots, but barely rubbed at all – including both folds – that very unusual indeed. All text intact perfect and unworn, also very well centred. Being thin, quite often seen torn and threadbare, this is nice as seen.

Corners: All corners neat with minimal softening of the front pair, a trace on the lower right which has a gentle crease and light rub. Little else, and almost miraculously, very fine and mostly excellent shape is retained with no knocks or noteworthy dinks.

Cover Summary: Original UK covers for this album are scarce this clean. As mentioned already, many had American import covers and then when repressed on Sunset in the UK, a totally different single cover was printed. So a vintage collector’s piece in excellent condition. It should please many collectors, and indeed could represent an upgrade for some.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT(+): the only noteworthy thing to fault is mild, natural discolouration of the paper. This Philips-style polylined inner sleeve has barely any creasing, two immaculate window circles and clean lining. Date-coded 098 (September 1968, seen in close-up), so manufactured within a few short prior to the album’s release. No edge splits or repairs. When inners are found as such, it reiterates the record has unlikely to have been removed many times. The record was quite clingy, the reason why the dulling has occurred, strangely, but often the case, only on one side.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: Difficult to grade a hardly played record that has inner bag dulling on one side. In terms of marks or evidence of usage, very little on both accounts. Any surface traces are minimal, ultra fine and faint. Side one is unaffected and has great shine. So in terms of usage marks or number of times played, I have no qualms in grading this mono record Excellent(+), at least. But with moderate, even moderate plus patterned dulling from the inner sleeve polylining, any opinion is subjective of course. Not one for visual purists, but in terms of sound quality, this is unlikely to be bettered – this album plays with fantastic sound, the dulling with NO audio affect whatsoever.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or minuscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This elusive record plays even above it’s visual grading with very little to fault at all. It offers strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is high with a wide dynamic range and has no tracking issues*. The controversial use of phasing is highly interesting, and I love it. The mono version (obviously) presents the music in a different way to the stereo. Any surface sounds minimal, finding a cleaner mono copy will prove very difficult in terms of audio quality. A superb follow-up to the classic ‘Safe as Milk’ debut – quite why this divides opinion so much still baffles me. It includes brilliant material and the mix gives quite a psych-edge to it. You can imagine the fate for probably the majority of these, played on goodness knows what, this is always a joy to hear this clean – in this mode. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this wonderful record which remains high in my favourites list from this period. If the dulling on side two is of no issue, this should please many, if not most collectors, if sound is the priority – this classic original delivers.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2.2 grams.

Now one of the most established sellers on Ebay and still offering the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade - visuals alone do not always tell a true or full story. I will mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same - just because an item is rare does not always mean it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programmes. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert and vice-versa. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2.2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable). All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional VPI-17 vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D5000 SLR Digital Camera.

PACKING - THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

I now offer the fastest possible posting, often the very next day after payment is received or within two to three days maximum (unless on holiday). I only use FIRST-CLASS Mail. The record’s cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my new VPI-17 Pro vacuum system to give ultimate clean grooves and playing surfaces and the best possible looks and ultimate sound quality. You will NOT get tired, dull looking, dust infested records inside worn and foggy covers with tatty inners from this seller and that’s a promise and guarantee. All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT Mailers, these do not offer any real protection). The record(s) are REMOVED from their main cover to avoid edge splits and placed within a brand new polylined inner. The record’s original inner will be included if available. The boxes are then reinforced with at least TWO, ULTRA THICK stiffeners for maximum extra protection – these are FOUR TIMES thicker than commercial stiffeners and are custom-made for oneadayrecords. Really rare and expensive albums will even be Double Boxed if deemed necessary and possible. When larger boxes are used, the thick record and stiffener ‘sandwich’ is then thickly embedded into bubble-wrap to bulk out the record inside the box to centre the item inside to reduce the risk of damage still further. Printed address labels are used for clarity as well as a sender label. Customers requests or special needs for P&P will be respected if at all possible but ‘Signed-For’ posting is NOT an option anymore. I do not profit on posting, better quality packaging costs, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners make a near impregnable fortress for safe shipping and this is used inland and overseas for ALL my records, not just the rare and expensive. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is minuscule in over 14 years of Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. The only damage rate acceptable for this seller is ZERO and I think my packets will offer just that. It would take a vicious postman or postal service to damage these for sure. Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE – they offer next-to-no-protection, and should be banned, no ‘professional’ should consider using them in my opinion. I discount of course for multiple purchases with a maximum of FIVE records per box (one double can sometimes be included subject to total weight). All postage costs are below and at the top of the listing.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: Please ask me first.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid withdrawals. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent via Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £1 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask and thanks for looking.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer, so read the item description carefully. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help. Thank You.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT necessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, actually a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.

The Argument for Vinyl Original sound and mix (mono mixes are rarely available on CD), high quality sound on clean copies (played on a hi-end dedicated analogue system – breathtaking sound!), beautiful, large format covers, artwork, inserts and even full size posters etc; huge investment potential, and the pleasure of owning ‘the real thing’.