JETHRO TULL A Passion Play VERY RARE UK 73 CONTRACT PRESS

	£		51
	$		68

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World.

Postage: UK £4.25. Europe (including Russia) £12. Rest of World £16. ALL signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes.

NOTE: I now apply the Ebay ‘4-day’ rule for non-payment. I try to keep my P&P prices as low as possible after the very significant Royal Mail price increases and will never compromise on solid, safe packing.

Artist or Band: JETHRO TULL

Album Title: A Passion Play.

Producer(s): Terry Ellis.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: A Passion Play.

Side 2: A Passion Play.

Label/Format: Chrysalis – Rare contract press with a wide deep inner ring ridge and shallower second ridge. The inside of these rings are heavily textured, the outer areas are smooth. There is no bevel or ridge on the label rims, again very unusual. This is a unique and very limited pressing that will rarely been seen – equally unsual is the very heavy pressing weight of this record that also has unique run-out messages (all described below).

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with a rich vibrant green colour. Hardly any spindle marks on side one and only a couple or three on two.

Cat Number: CHR 1040.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 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: 165 grams. A massive weight for this record, and nearly 40 grams over a standard issue. I have never seen this particular pressing before, it has the hallmarks of the very early heavyweight Island albums, probably pressed by Pye.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: The title itself is moderate. But this very limited run with this almost freakish weight for a 1973 record will prove very hard to find. It looks different, feels different and I am sure has a better dynanic range than the standard thinner smooth label issue. I have checked around for this and I cannot find another, this could be the amongst the rarest Jethro Tull UK albums you will ever see.

Original Year of Release: 1973.

Matrix Nos: CHR+1040+A2 / CHR+1040+B

Run-Out Groove Etchings: BILBO / DB - MASTER ROOM

Musicians: Ian Anderson – vocals, acoustic guitars, flute, soprano and sopranino saxophones; Martin Barre – electric guitar; John Evan – piano, organ, synthesiser, speech; Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond – bass guitar, vocals; Barriemore Barlow – drums, timpani, glockenspiel, marimba.

Brief Info: A somewhat controversial release within the Jethro Tull catalogue with strong and divided opinions. The second consecutive album to feature just one song after the successful ‘Thick as a Brick’ and another excursion into ‘progressive rock’ which pleased and displeased fans alike. This is a darker and more difficult work and many fans thought it was a step too far. Issued to almost universal scorn and poor reviews, this album did not match it’s predecessor for sales and was almost considered a flop, although it did sell well in the United States. Jethro Tull fans have very mixed opinions with some still rating it as one of the finest ever works while others are still dismissive – even Anderson himself seems uncertain about it. It has been said he was so disappointed by the reviews he almost called it a day – we are all glad he didn’t. Lyrically cryptic and different musically than previous – Anderson even playing saxophones, this still remains a relatively challenging work. The bizarre tale of the ‘The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles’ was all too much for some and many thought it almost an embarrassment. Opinions will always be divided, some like it, some don’t – I personally don’t consider it one of the band’s best albums, but then again they set their standards so high and for me was only a minor dip – but in an interesting record for sure. Experimental and progressive, it’s an album that makes you want to listen and I do like experimentation and unpredictability. An album nicely packaged and including the ‘Passion Play’ booklet that is retained within pristine recesses within the cover’s centre (as seen in close-up). An insert that is often lost or badly damaged, this one is nice with minimal traces of wear. A record of inconsistent sound quality due to the pressing – many of which have considerable crackle and surface noises. I have rarely, if ever heard a pristine perfect copy. As mentioned above, this is far from a standard pressing – this a contact non-EMI issue with very distinctive labels, dead-wax messages and massive weight and thickness. To these ears it sounded more detailed with greater frequency range, and overall, well pressed. The odd gentle reminder you are listening to a record rather a digital format. An album with a number of quiet passages and finding a copy that will not offer a few minor surface sounds or minor click and crackle is almost impossible. A rare ‘Bilbo’ cut and a considerably rarer example for the specialist collector. It has a strong cover and booklet too. Certainly a more challenging work and after playing again, it’s one I am finding I am enjoying more each time. It could be a simple case of perseverance reaping dividend.

Cover’s Potential for Wear: High: no laminate protection, the front dark the back light and two delicate cut in recesses inside – all ingredients for rubbing, ringwear and damage. The book, so often missing, is very vulnerable too.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(+): and arguably better, this has never been an easy cover. An unlaminated gatefold format with matt, smooth surfaces with two inside recesses that hold the booklet. Printed in England with no credit.

Cover Front: A very impressive front with little to fault. Any faint rub traces or small blemishes are only seen under angled light. Clean and fresh with no creasing or sticker marks, never easy to find this attractive.

Cover Back: A very small rub on the bottom left corner tip. Little else to fault, not seen a much better example of this very revealing pale coloured back for some time. Barely any grubbiness or marks and no ring wear or other creasing – impressive indeed.

Cover Inner Gatefold: A couple of three tiny surface chips and a few mild and small tone spot traces. Importantly, both the booklet recesses are Mint as made. This inside is also very nice indeed.

Top Edges: Both practically unworn and straight as made.

Bottom Edges: Any rubbing gentle and light and with minimal visual impact.

Right Edge(s), and Type: The front is tucked and sealed with a real folded edge, this is totally unworn. The back opening is very clean, sharp with barely any hint of wear at all and guaranteed untrimmed.

Spine and Text: A lovely spine with barely any hint of wear. Solid, straight, uncompressed and folded square, so the edges meet up very closely together and close to parallel. All text is present and unworn, a little darkening to the white surface being fairly critical.

Corners: Any tip rubs are few and light, mainly on the bottom right, all retain very fine to excellent shape. The spine especially is unusually neat.

Cover Summary: An attractive and always challenging cover, I have always found it a difficult one – that is cover and record. With only slight hints to it’s considerable age, this should please many, if not most collectors. The plain solid unlined inner is included, this has moderately darkened and toned with age but has barely any creasing and all edges unsplit with no repairs.

The Book: EXCELLENT(++): with eight pages including the covers. This was designed to be placed into the two cover recess inside the gatefold. So gentle recess impression on the cover is common and difficult to avoid – this has gentle traces on the front but little else to fault. No creasing and all very clean and fresh looking. Held together with the two original staples that are totally unloosened and are completely untarnished. No tears and with rich maroon colour on the front cover with barely any traces of handling.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(++): a very fine visual copy that is very clean, shiny, jet black and massively pressed with a freakish weight of 165 grams that will blow away all standard EMI pressings by a mile. Clearly a contract pressing and made in significantly lower, if not tiny numbers. A copy very little played which is reflected by generally impressive quality sound. Any surface traces or blemishes seen under angled light are few, fine and faint. There are NO penetrating scratches on this very thick record. One for the specialist collector and certainly not one you will see often, if at all – holding this record blind – it feels more like a first pressing of the early pink label Island records which were almost certainly made by the same company as this.

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 miniscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This quality record plays mostly up to it’s impressive visual grading with little to fault. Strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. For a change, few surface sounds – as stated above – the odd minor surface sound or gentle hint reminder it is a record being listened too. But this is somewhat better than the majority I have heard. The ‘Hare and Spectacles’ passages are always difficult, but here played well. There are other equally quiet passages and silence is a near impossibility on any pressing of this challenging album. Overall a very clean pressing for what has always been a difficult one. Several I have heard have emitted unacceptable and consistent crackle and even loud pressing noises and I simply refused to offer them. If they fail to please me, they will not be good enough for my customers?, that simple. This why I play-grade ALL my records, I will not guess or offer to chance, and for visuals. This is not perfect, but a strong copy which importantly, plays practically like it would have when first issued – without doubt, this has been played very little at all. Few copies will outperform this one significantly I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I feel very sure this record has been played very lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled. Little of any real note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this fine set. To these ears, it sounded more detailed with richer fuller sound. This rare heavyweight copy could prove very difficult to find significantly better and can be highly recommended. As stated, this is well worthy of reassessment – was the world ready to hear the more progressive sound of Jethro Tull at this time?

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 - on average ONEADAY, a couple more at weekends if time permits, hence the name - time rarely allows for more as I Play-Grade virtually every record I offer in their entirety, 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 its 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. What you see is what you get and scanned labels will give a more accurate representation of the genuine colour than flash photography where light is variable. I cannot guarantee total accuracy for colours however but most will be very close. 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 Rondo Red moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Nait 5i with Project USB phono stage and Chord interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with Terrarium 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 and the cost of this lavish packing is NOT even charged for, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners and bubble wrap 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 less than one in two thousand+ based on over 8,000+ items sold in over 10 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. Even one of these stiffeners cannot be bent by hand, so what chance 2 inside a box? Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE. 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 FOUR days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the, 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 and they take the Ebay consequences (a strike or removal from the system). 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] = £4.25

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £8. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £2 per extra LP.

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

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £3 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 (£17 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’.