DAVID BOWIE HUNKY DORY PREVIEW PRESSING 1971 RARE

	£		410
	$		543

Please ignore the postage cost it is an error I will add the correct P+P later in the auction.

DAVID BOWIE HUNKY DORY "PREVIEW PRESSING" 19th OCTOBER 1971 .

This is the third rarest ORIGINAL release Bowie LP in existance . It comes in behind Scary Monsters purple vinyl (3 copies only) . The Diamond Dogs Gennitles cover (4 copies , either with or without the LP) .

This Hunky Dory PREVIEW pressing is next with only five copies known to exist . Of course there is Low Red Vinyl (only 2 copies exist), but that is not an original release ,Low was a 1977 release and the Red Lows were a re-release from 1988 .

This is the VERY FIRST PRESSING of Bowie`s 71 master piece Hunky Dory , as you can see by the label it is not on RCA like ALL other copies of the LP. 

(Bowie had not signed for them yet) and was between contracts , it is on the Gem label . Gem was the production company set up Between Bowie and Manager Tony Defries . 

 Bowie and Defries had put together the Bowpromo in August 71, to generate interest in Bowies soon to be completed Hunky Dory LP . 

THIS IS THE FIRST VERSION OF THAT COMPLETED LP .

19th October 1971 , the Hunky Dory album was put out two full months later on December 17th 1971 . Just immagine how exited and nervous Bowie must have been to have this first completed FULL LP version and not just a sampler like the Bowpromo , to go and hand it to the powers that be at RCA in the hope of getting signed ? These LPs were given to the right people .

It comes in a Generic plain white Flipback sleeve with pasted on sheet with song and copywrite information and the handwritten notation Preview pressing, 19th October 1971 and typewritten GEM labels . The edges of the sleeve are tatty and the name Beky has been written near the top .I havent replaced it because this is the original sleeve even if it is grubby , the original plain white inner sleeve is present i have added an anti static dust sleeve to protect the record .

To be perfectly fair im going to give a track by track description of the condition , because this LP is far from mint but what it lacks in condition it more than makes up for in terms of DESIRABILLITY . Also in terms of RARETY , it goes off the scale !

Those 2 facts , you cannot get away from !

The only information I can find on the internet about this item is on the Bowie website Teenage Wildlife , this item is a vitually unknown undiscoverd rarety .

CONDITION : Visually under an intense light it has a lot of  hairlines and has what looks like about 5 or 6 bad lines .

Considdering all that , it still plays remarkably well .

There are cracles audiable in all the deadwax . The ENTIRE LP only jumps once and there is NO STICKING anywhere .

CHANGES . Plays well with some crackles 8/10.

Oh You Pretty things . Plays well but crackles 7/10.

8 line poem . Lots of crackles at the start . its the worst on the LP at 4/10 but plays entirely .

Life on Mars . Heres the Jump , you cant hear the lyric "Girl with the mousey" second verse is clear 5/10. Loud click in Deadwax .

Kooks. Plays very well 9/10 .

Quicksand . Plays very well 9 + half / 10.

Fill your heart . Crackles 6/10 .

Andy Warhol . A few clicks but plays well 8/10.

Song for Bob Dylan . Plays Very well 9/10 .

Queen Bithch . Plays very well 9/10 .

The Bewley Brothers click can be heard in the quiet parts but still very enjoyable 8/10 .

If you double click the pictures you can see many of the marks and hairlines on the LP and despite the marks and considdering that the EXTREME RARETY of this LP gives it an intrinsic value , it is still very enjoyable to play .

A penny start and NO RESERVE on this unbelivably rare Gem . It has one jump only on the entire LP so I think a conservative grade on a whole would be Good condition .If this LP were in Mint condition it would have a reserve of £2000 and be worth every penny of it .

The rarety of this item sends the condition out the window , this is so rare , it may well be the only chance you ever get in your life to own it . Im sure somwhere there is a vinyl lover with a few tricks up his sleeve to clean this LP up a bit ...

So there it is , the FIRST , FIRST , FIRST , pressing of the HUNKY DORY classic masterpiece , penny start and NO RESERVE . The number of Bowie collectors out there whos collection is missing this is huge . ask anything you like , all questions welcome and answerd .

Dont miss this oppertunity , you may never get another !

Thanks to the Bowie nut mohammond for correctly pointing out that Bowie had indeed signed for RCA in September one month prior to this pressing . My memory let me down ( im ageing badly, should have checked the dates) , but I love it when folks taske part like this . I can also confirm that the matrix numbers quoted in the questions are the same matrix numbers that appear on the USA test pressings .

As all the hardest of the hard record collectors know , being a vinylophile (thats a word I made up with my bare hands) ,  its a never ending search to find the rarest of rare pressings . No pressing comes rarer than acetate , usually each one is one of a kind and totally unique . After that , its test pressings and promos , their runs are so small that they are NEVER pressed at a record pressing plant . Test pressings and promos are pressed in ridiculassly small numbers , and it is not economically pheasable for record companies to opperate their enormous record pressing machines to do such limmited runs . TPs and Promos are pressed at small independant mastering labs and are not even made of vinyl , they are made of shellac vinyl ,a different kind of compound mixture that is very expensive to produce and sounds superior to vinyl .

This pressing is NEITHER ! Neither a test pressing or a promo pressing , it is a PREVIEW pressing .

Considder this...

 Bowie meets the HARD BOILED U.S.A. attourney Tony Defries in 1970 .

Defries is a real Go Getter and leaves his law firm to pursue his own Show Biz Lawyers career . When Defries arrived here in the UK in 1970 he couldnt believe none of the rock stars or groups put out Promo LPs . After all Promo LPs had been common place in the US in the 60s . Not so here , the first promo LPs didnt appear untill 1973 ! Try finding a UK promo of the Dress cover the Phillips  or Deram LP ,even a Ziggy Promo ...UK... NO CHANCE ! 

 Such a thing , does not exist . So they created the Bowpromo LP . In itself , a turning point in marketing ones music here in the UK .Its my belief that the labels for this LP were printed in the UK , by Gem productions .Whos staff OUTRAGEOUSLY !!! 

 TOTALLY OUTRAGEOUSLY , were made up of Andy Warhols cast of PORK.

Lee black Childers , Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County etc Ran Gem Productions ,

( what the hell did that bunch of hangers on know about running a Production or prommotions company ???)

 Anyway , labels printed here by those Gem Loosers ,then taken to the US where they were put on the VERY Fist Pressings of this LP .

NOTICE !!! There is not Copywrite warnings anywhere on the disc , would Defries have missed that ? No chance , This record was never meant for the public domaine .

Ive play and Played this LP for years , and even with the faults ive mentioned above . There is a great beauty to be enjoyed , when the sun is shining on a Sunday morning , playing this LP , I swear you enjoy it more when you think of the UNPHEASABLE rarety of this LP .

Sorry to go on like that but this is new ground on a ORIGINAL AND UNDISCOVERD BOWIE RARETY , that one day will definately be up there with the big boys !

The Purple Scary monsters , Gennitles Diamond Dogs , NZ Deram and South African Phillips LP .

Look at it , BELIEVE IT !

This is THE RAREST OF THE RARE !

WANT IT ?

WIN IT .

First class P+P inland is £6.40 To Ireland and Germany first class is £9.80 and to the USA it is £14.10