Peter Bellamy - Fair England's Shore, Nice Copy

	£		28
	$		37

Peter Bellamy

- Fair England’s Shore

(1969 XTRA I075 Original UK LP)

Tracks:

Young Roger Esq

Fanny Blair

Long Pegging Awl

The Good Luck Ship

The Green Bed

All Around My Hat

The Dockyard Gate

The Prentice Boy

The Dogger Bank

The Dark-Eyed Sailor

You Gentlemen Of England

Jolly Roving Tar

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Nice copy of the former Young Tradition singer’s second solo LP. In this instance the term solo LP does actually mean a true solo LP too as the entire album consists of solo acapella singing of traditional folk songs.

A pretty rare LP in any condition, a nicecopy such as this is a rare sight indeed.

Condition: Sleeve

Very very nice indeed. A typical late sixties sleeve made from fairly thick card laminated on the front only manufactured by West Brothers (Printers) of Mitcham.

The laminted front sleeve is in very strong condition, it’s extremely clean with no real defects at all, no writing, no tears, no creases, no ringwear or any other type of wear or damage. The laminate is clean and shiny with a nice reflective surface and without even the merest hint of any lamination creases,lifting or bubbling.

The unlaminated rear sleeve is also in unsually nice shape, as with the front it’s extremely clean which is unusual for an unlaminated white card sleeve of this age. Most unlaminated sleeves of this age are yellowed with age, dirty and show some evidence of handling, this one has the odd very very light dirty mark but is otherwise as good as you can possibly hope for.

Both top and bottom seams are totally unworn. The spine is in the same lovely condition, clean, and totally unworn with all of the writing clearly readable.

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Condition: Record

Both labels are the original textured variety, both are extremely clean with no hinnt of any damage or defects of any kind. The matrix numbers stamped into the dead wax are TRALP 1075 1A 925796 A1 and B1.

The record itself is in equally fine condition. It’s wide from fairly thick, rather primitive vinyl which is extremely clean and has retained that nice dark sheen that only sparsley played records have. There’s no visible surface marks at all either in natural light or when held under a harsh, revealing lamp.

When played the vinyl almost lives up to the high visual standards. I say almost because of the nature of both the music and the vinyl. The music is entirely unaccompanied singing with no musical backing, this means that it’s totally unforgiving as far as sound quality goes with there being lots of silent parts between words and between the songs themselves. With the vinyl not being the greatest pressing in the world then inevitably there are occasional light pops or clicks either during or between the songs, that’s not to say that there’s constant background noise, that’s not the case at all, there’s simply the odd click or pop here and there, no repeated clicks caused by scratches or marks on the record just the odd little sound maybe six to ten times per side at random intervals. All copies of this record suffer from the same sort of noises, it’s just the nature of the music and the quality of the vinyl used On a rock record I probably wouldn’t mention the odd noises as much as I have here because they wouldn’t be as noticeable but on a very quiet record they stand out more so if you think that the odd little pop will spoil your enjoyment then please do not bid.

Apart from the very occasional little pop or click the record plays just fine. It’s obviously not been played much and is extremely clean. There are no visible surface marks at all either in natural light or when held under a very harsh, revealing lamp and the vinyl still has the nice dark sheen that only sparsley played records have. There are no flaws at all with the record other than the sounds already mentioned (and they are more to do with the pressing and the quality of the vinyl than this actual record) there’s no groovewear, no distortion anywhere, no jumping or sticking just a good enjoyable copy of a rare record.

I’ve tried to describe the condition of this record as well as I can, I have to say that I enjoyed it when I played it and the odd little pop didn’t bother me, on a louder rock record then there would be no problem as the odd little sound would be drowned out but unaccompanied singing is obviously another matter. The decision that must be made is: do you want a copy of this record? If the answer is yes then a better copy will be very hard to track down. If, on the other hand you’re more of an audiophile then you may be better off with a CD of this one because I really don‘t think you‘re going to find a copy of the original vinyl release without any surface noise at all (certainly I’ve never come across a copy, even the copy in my own collection is no better than this one).

Payment by cheque preferred from UK buyers but paypal is available if necessary, overseas buyers must use paypal. Sorry but I will not post anything to Canada under any circumstances.