Fairport Convention - S/T, Nice Mono Copy,Their Debut

	£		76
	$		101

Fairport Convention - Same

(Polydor 582 035 1968 MONO UK LP)

The fantastic debut album from Fairport Convention from the time when they were billed as the UK’s answer to Jefferson Airplane. A tasteful selection of covers, mostly from American songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Emitt Rhodes, Dylan etc mixed with some original compositions which revealed the talent the band contained even at this early stage. As much as I love the subsequent albums they made with Sandy Denny etc, some more recordings in this vein would also have been most welcome.

Original copies of this album have become increasingly rare over the past few years as all copies are safely stashed in collections, mono copies are particularly hard tocome by in nice condition such as this.

Tracks:

Time Will Show The Wiser

I Don’t Know Where I Stand

If (Stomp)

Decameron

Jack O’Diamonds

Portfolio

Chelsea

Sun Shade

The Lobster

It’s Alright Ma, It’s Only Witchcraft

M1 Breakdown

Condition: Sleeve VG+/ Record EX

Sleeve:

Standard single sleeve design made of thin fully laminated card, manufactured by E J Day.

The front sleeve is in generally nice shape, it’s extremely clean with no tears or writing anywhere. It’s a very dark design which shows every little mark or crease, this has revealed some light creasing to the lamination around the edges. The lamination itself is clean and bright with a nice reflection, there is a small amount of bubbling near the spine at the bottom but no lifting or cracking anywhere. There is the usual line down the open edge where the lamination has shrunk over the years, nothing can be done about this but with the card being black it’s not to noticeable. Not a perfect example then but as good a copy as I’ve seen for a while and at arms length in a PVC sleeve it looks just fine.

The rear sleeve is in similar condition to the front. It’s extremely clean with no writing or tears anywhere. There is a light crease to the lamination in the bottom left corner which runs up the opne edge about a centimetre in from the edge, there‘s also a lamination crease in the top right corner.

The spine is rather thin but clean and totally unworn, the writing is difficult to read but this is due to the colourful design rather than any wear.

The top seam is totally unworn.

The bottom seam is also totally unworn.

Record:

The record itself is manufactured from good quality thinnish vinyl which reproduces the sound extremely well. The vinyl is extremely clean, it has been cleaned using a professional Moth record cleaning machine which has removed any dirt or dust which was present leaving a record which looks and sounds very nice indeed. Despite being over 40 years old the vinyl has lovely dark shine and under normal light looks great, there is one very light surface mark, about an inch long, visible on side one but that apart it looks fine, if you saw this in a shop or a fair somewhere you would snap it up based upon it’s appearance. When placed under a very revealing harsh lamp some very light hairline marks are revealed but these are nothing to worry about, they’re caused by taking the record in and out of the sleeve and are totally inaudible.

The two labels are pretty much perfect, very clean, no tears, no writing, no stickers. There is some wear around the spindle hole which reveals that the record has been played a fair few times but it has been well cared for so nothing should be read into this. The matrix numbers stamped into the dead wax are 582035 A1 and B2 which I guess signifies one of the earliest pressings of this classic album..

When placed upon the turntable the record is flat and despite the wear around the spindle hole it still fits tightly to the spindle. The music sounds great, leaping from the speakers with a life and vibrancy that makes it a joy to listen to. Being the rarer mono mix this has a punchier more direct sound than the equally good but slightly different sounding stereo version. One side one there are some light clicks for a minute or so during the very quiet track “Decameron” but those apart the record plays through with no unwanted surface noise noticeable, I played this at high volume (twice, actually, because I enjoyed it so much the first time) but even then between tracks was pretty much silent.

Altogether a fine copy of a rare and musically excellent album which although not perfect will disppoint few, this is actually my old copy as I’ve just upgraded and it certainly never ever disappointed me, I was very happy to have it as part of my modest collection and I’m certain that it will be a while before you find another mono copy which performs better than this one.

What you can expect from me:

Fast friendly communication, quick postage with good strong packaging and the record will be exactly as described above, if you disagree with my description of the condition then a full refund is available (sorry, no refunds if you don‘t like the music!).

What I expect from you:

Good communication and quick payment, any disagreement’s (not that I’m expecting any!) can be settled amicably.

Payment and postage:

I’d prefer cheques from UK buyers but paypal is available if necessary, overseas buyers must use paypal. I’m not responsible for any parcel after it leaves my hands, I will have proof that the parcel as posted and will help in any way I can in any dispute between you and the postal authorities but the decision on whether to insure a parcel or not is yours and as such the responsibility for the parcel is yours too however insurance is mandatory on any parcel sent outside of the UK, this is for your protection as well as mine, the cost of the insurance is included in the postage costs quoted.