LED ZEPPELIN Coda LP RARE AUTHENTIC & ULTIMATE 1st UK PRESS 1982

	£		20
	$		27

LED ZEPPELIN: "Coda" LP.  RARE FIRST UK PRESSING, DECEMBER, 1982.

SWAN SONG LABEL: A0051 

THE LAST NEW ONE OF THIS FIRST PRESSING SOLD FOR £365

Only the one small batch of UK records were made.  The UK first pressings run-out grooves contain mistakes that were scribbled over.  This would have occurred at the Test Pressing and became duplicated on these few UK pressings, where they can now be used to identify every first issue. These etchings, including the heavy crossing out of the mistakes, was left on the metal stamping discs.  Only the one pressing was made before German imports were sold in British record shops.    

FIRST ISSUE, SOFT TEXTURED GATEFOLD COVER WITH EMBOSSED LETTERING, AN OUTSTANDING COVER
WITH ONLY MINOR SCUFFING AT THE FOUR CORNERS.

This is in very good condition.  Usually these are very vulnerable to wear and  many covers ended up in a terrible state. Unplayed for over 20 years it has always been stored in a plastic outer sleeve.  As a first issue, the gatefold cover has a soft texture to the outside, with the same finish to the rare very first inner sleeve. The record was UK pressed and all first issue covers were made in Germany.  In case anyone needs to check if they have the first issue cover, feel and look inside both the backing of the storage side and the whole inside of the textured inner sleeve,
you will find they are very smooth & shiny and a pure white colour.  All the second pressings have plain and standard untreated 
cardboard inside there, but not all the inner sleeves have the same shiny white inside as the cover, this is one of those rarer 
inners that match the cover in every possible detail, no doubt that was requested by Jimmy Page.  

The most obvious detail is the front has distinctive, superbly embossed dark green lettering.  Since the letters are embossed, they are very easily scuffed and usually have worn away patches.  This copy shows no such wear.  As well as the lettering, the 
whole of the outside sleeve is in very good condition.  The very soft and absorbent textured paper was also very prone to staining and  severe yellowing but this cover shows remarkably little of this.  Even at 31 years old, the cover and the spine are structurally perfect.  Most of the first made covers have severe scuffing and indentations to the top edge and in particular the standing bottom edges. This has just the merest of scuffing, only noticeable on very close inspection.

The inside has a fantastic collage of Led Zeppelin photos throughout the band's history and is in pristine condition.

RARE VERY FIRST ISSUE ONLY,THICK CARD TEXTURED INNER SLEEVE, THE 'Coda' LOGO IS ON ONE SIDE AND THE OTHER SIDE HAS THE FULL ALBUM CREDITS AND TRACK LISTING.  

The textured inner sleeve has a split common to many first issues from the contact points with the very heavy record's edges.  It is still however structurally very sound and holds the heavy vinyl well.  With that extra thick shiny white inside, it helped prevent the usual pronounced impression from the record.

These rare textured inner sleeves matched the gatefold cover.  The back cover includes the exclusive UK only 'A0051' catalogue number.  The green and red colours on these textured inner sleeves  are identical to the covers, but the smooth thinner inner sleeves have lighter colour tones.

The full track listing with the year of the recording in brackets was exciting because none of the eight tracks from
1969 - 1978, had previously been released.
SIDE 1
"We're Gonna Groove" (1969, Ben E. King / James A. Bethea)
"Poor Tom" (1970, Robert Plant / Jimmy Page)
"I Can't Quit You Baby" (1970, Willie Dixon)
"Walter's Walk" (1972, Robert Plant / Jimmy Page)

SIDE 2
"Ozone Baby" (1978, Robert Plant / Jimmy Page)
"Darlene" (1978, Robert Plant / Jimmy Page /John Bonham & John Paul Jones)
"Bonzo's Montreaux" (1976, John Bonham)
"Wearing And Tearing" (1978, Robert Plant / Jimmy Page)

Robert Plant - vocals & harmonica
  Jimmy Page - acoustic and electric guitars & electronic sound effects
  John Paul Jones - bass, piano & keyboards
  John Bonham - drums & vocals
  
Produced By Jimmy Page, Please See The Main Description For The Recording Details.

Zeppelin fans who followed the band from their beginnings in 1968 can't help thinking of  thinking of 1982 as fairly recent.  It
is in fact over three decades since "Coda" was compiled by Jimmy Page. It all started in the summer of 1980 and anyone fortunate enough
to attend Led Zeppelin's concert in West Berlin, 7th July,1980, would have seen the very last live performance of one of, if not
the greatest rock/blues bands of all time.  During the following September of 1980, the band met at Jimmy Page's house to discuss an up-coming American tour, but those plans would never be realized as on the 25th September, John Bonham was found dead.  following his October funeral, an announcement was made in December: "The group will no longer continue after the loss of our dear friend".  A bitter blow and a sad ending but it would have been impossible to replace John Bonham and the other three had no intention of even trying;  they had lost their identity as a band and the will to go on.  Led Zeppelin always were and indeed still are today, one of the most bootlegged bands for both the legendary live concerts, including any rehearsals and sound checks, as well as their studio out-takes.  Only truly great bands inspire such massive dedicated collecting of official & unofficial recordings and a whole industry sprang up around those staggering live concerts alone.  It's not exactly a secret that Jimmy Page is no different from the fans in being an avid collector from those twelve glorious years of unofficial studio and live recordings. With only eight studio Led Zeppelin albums made, any of their unreleased studio recordings have huge demands placed on them and many of the unofficial out-takes and concerts demonstrate superb sound quality.
  
After 1980, there was the final official Led Zeppelin album containing studio recordings with every singletrack offering exciting, new previously unheard material.  After that momentous 1980 final press announcement, Jimmy Page turned his attention to the wealth of Led Zeppelin Master Tapes containing studio out-takes and unreleased recordings of which he became the custodian.  Jimmy Page himself compiled this historic LP and he aptly titled it "Coda", the very last Led Zeppelin album, issued December 1982.    Jimmy Page not only made it a very personal selection of the material but completely oversaw every single aspect of the packaging, and as in previous years, he was the producer.  For those reasons "Coda" is arguably just as important an album as their 1969 debut "Led Zeppelin".  The very first UK pressings came in a beautiful cover with a matching inner sleeve and the vast majority sold while it was still in the charts.   Subsequently, German-pressed vinyl copies were imported to restock record shops.   There were probably not enough copies to last before the Christmas shut down and imports were brought in immediately, in readiness for the nationwide distribution.  The covers were all printed in Germany with a custom UK catalogue number, so these first issue covers were specifically printed for the UK pressed records, as seen on the top of the spine printed in black above the LP title.   Here is the British catalogue number; "UK: a 0051", also printed on the back top right corner.  The mistakes in the record's run-out grooves had continued onto the cover! 

Only the very first issues were rare British pressings and they are clearly different and came on top grade, exceptionally heavyweight vinyl for 1982. They also have the ultimate and most stunning sound quality.

To identify UK pre-December,1982 first editions, check the label printing which is unique to only the UK first pressings as the black text is in a much thicker and bolder type face than on any of the immediately following or the later re-issues which all have thin vinyl and were imported with the labels reading "Made In Germany".  The bolder printing is very easily seen on the lettering of the "Coda" title and ''Led Zeppelin", the 'Stereo' lettering, 'Side One' & 'Side Two' and the catalogue numbers etc.  The colours for the 'Swan Song' artwork and angel logo are much more vivid with a much deeper, richer tone to them.  As mentioned before, this vinyl is exceptionally thick but the most telling difference on these 1982 UK first pressings, is the incredible sound quality,  plus that massive power transferred from the very precious original Master Tapes, dating from 1969 - 1978.   The simplest way to tell first pressings, is to look for, 'Manufactured In The UK', located above the '33 RPM,'  which is also in broader, bolder black print.  After a very limited number of initial UK pressings, all the rest sold in England in 1982 and after were German made imports.  As detailed before, you can always tell when records were pressed in very low numbers if there were alterations made, then only the initial batches made will have the mistakes left in the run-out grooves. All the UK records have several mistaken etchings crossed out. Had there been a second or any subsequent British pressing, the corrections would not have been left in the run-out grooves.   Also the ending digits of the corrected never rose above 'A2' and the second side never did have the forgotten digit added on to just the  'B'.