JOHN AND BEVERLEY MARTYN - STORMBRINGER 1st UK press PINK "I" ISLAND 1970

	£		27
	$		35

JOHN AND BEVERLEY MARTYN -  

STORMBRINGER

ISLAND

ILPS 9113

1st PRESS 

UK 1970

Witchseason productions. Produced by Joe Boyd.

Stamped matrices. Mothers  11  6 and  11  2

The absolute rarity of this album is not to be underestimated. It hardly ever surfaces nowadays. This has a lovely deep glossy sheen!! Hauntingly beautiful songcraft!!! Immense quality prog/psych/folk album that ticks all the right boxes and incredibly hard to find

BACK IN 1970 WHEN THIS LP WAS FIRST RELEASED, IT ONLY EVER SOLD IN ABSOLUTELY TINY AMOUNTS - AND WAS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY DELETED!!!!  AS A RESULT IT IS SERIOUSLY RARE AND INCREDIBLY HARD TO LOCATE TODAY!!!! 

In 1969 John met and married Beverley Kutner who was making records at the time with Joe Boyd of Witchseason. John was originally hired to be Beverley’s backing guitarist for recording sessions. This album was released in February 1970 having been recorded in Woodstock. John was inspired by The Band and the album included Levon Helm on drums. John began to experiment to find a distinctive guitar sound. Would You Believe Me is the stand out track which featured the introduction of the echoplex guitar technique which John pioneered and is still a major part of his gigs today.

John The Baptist / The Ocean was released by Island as a single in January 1970 on the highly collectable ‘pink’ label. The album was cut in the summer of 1969 under the direction of Paul Harris. Joe Boyd rented John and Beverley a house in Woodstock.

John felt that the album was just a little bit ahead of it’s time, saying “…a whole lot came from that record…like people started using drum ideas and stuff, and nobody had really thought of using drums with acoustic instruments before. But it’s difficult to say that sort of thing without being conceited.”

John said, “It was the year of the festival. We just lived there and worked with Paul Harris very quickly and very briefly and we just went into the studio and did it very one-off, very swift. Levon Helm and Harvey Brooks we met in Woodstock and used them, just because they were friends. It seemed obvious that they should be on it. Dylan lived up the road, and Hendrix lived virtually next door. He used to arrive every Thursday in a purple helicopter, stay the weekend, and leave on the Monday. He was amazing…a good lad.”

Vinyl: EX.  A sensational find and properly looked after vinyl!!! I have played this in FULL twice over> The replay is ASTOUNDING!!! I first played for a general listen and a second time for a more detailed observation. Only one hairline can be seen on side two, it has no effect on the audio at all.  A great listen on a heavy glossy slab of quality vinyl. The vinyl still has its fantastic over the counter glossy lustre and has only been played sparingly.  NO skips, sticks or jumps. This is an extremely heavy vinyl the way they used to make them before the oil crisis of the early seventies. It weighs in at a respectable 139 gr.

Sleeve: VG+.  A nice single sleeve with light ring wear to the front. An ultra vulnerable sleeve which has stood the ravages of time really well. The opening is still super crisp. there is no writing or damage. A tiny right hand bottom crease.  Light bottom edge and spine wear. The top edge is still excellent. NO tears and NO seam splits. A very respectable sleeve indeed. A very obscure album that rarely shows up these days. 

****ELUSIVE PROGMONSTER!!!****PERPLEXING SONGCRAFT!!!***AN INSPIRATION TO MANY SUBSEQUENT TOPACTS!!!***

!!!!A VERY HARD FIND!!! Most have been bought up by collectors!! This is hardly offered these days!!

In all my years this is only the second time I have come across this PROGMONSTER. Sensational sound quality, I have played this through in its entirety and it was a great joy!!! NO skips or jumps. NO clicks , this is really a stunning heavy glossy jet black vinyl .The audio is impeccable. Inspected under an intense light source and angled.

For international postage, if this album sells for over £30.00 a fee for tracking and insurance will be added to the invoice. It is the actual Royal Mail fee and I do not profit on postage at all.

This an excellent investment opportunity!!! Any questions please ask me and I will try to answer soon.

Though there are rarely ever any problems with my items, I always try my very best to describe everything exactly!  PLEASE REMEMBER to contact me FIRST,  if you have any problems at all, before you leave feedback and star ratings, so I get a chance to turn any negative experience into a positive one!  I can always happily sort anything out for you, if you let me know you have a problem!  This way no one has to leave Negative/Neutral feedback - and we both walk away happy! Similarly with the amount of stars, anything less than a full 5 * rating is effectively detrimental to a seller's rating as lower ratings will incur higher Final Value Fees  and lower priority in the bidlists eventually making it unattractive to list items on Ebay at all. I know of at least one major previous Ebay seller who has decided not to list via Ebay again. Please do NOT bid if you cannot give me at least 1 chance to sort everything out to your FULL satisfaction in the unlikely event of a problem.  Thanks again!!

This an excellent investment opportunity!!! Any questions please ask me and I will try to answer soon.