QUATERMASS – VERY RARE ORIG UK 1970 EX HARVEST 1st PRESS LP. FINE SOUND & COVER.

	£		142
	$		188

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.95. Europe (including Russia) £12.95 (£1 per extra record). Rest of World £19.95 (£2 per extra record). All my records are sent in boxes and the price of them has increased over time and these are my first price increases for nearly 10 years. Royal Mail prices have also gone up again. I will never compromise on quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take longer from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: QUATERMASS

Album Title: Quatermass

Producer(s): Anders Henriksson

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Entropy; Black Sheep of the Family; Post War Saturday Echo; Good Lord Knows; Up On the Ground.

Side 2: Gemini; Make Up Your Mind; Laughin’ Tackle; Entropy (Reprise).

Label/Format: Harvest, a first pressing with no EMI box logo and ‘THE GRAMOPHONE CO LTD’ text on the rims.These have quite smooth matt surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both clean, fresh and attractive with only a tiny few very light, fine and faint spindle marks and no wear around the hole area. Another purchased new by one owner who put his records to tape. Only a small few gentle light surface marks and I am sure this has been played little at all.

Catalogue Number: SHVL 775

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps or Lateral Movement: Assume all records I offer have no significant warping or lateral movement to cause sound or tracking issues. All should play fine even on budget turntables.

Weight of Record: 125 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Very scarce and no great sales.

Original Year of Release: 1970

Matrix Nos: SHVL 775 A-1 / SHVL 775 B-1

Mothers / Stampers: 1 0 / 2 GL

Musicians: Mick Underwood – drums, percussion; John Gustafson – bass, lead vocals; J. Peter Robinson – keyboards.

Brief Info: The first and only Quatermass album (until a second incarnation reformed in 1997). A highly prized and quality progressive rock album that is now highly sort-after. Intricate arrangements with keyboard-driven songs, the album deserved greater success. Short-lived, they folded in 1971. Now a legendary album and one of the finest on Harvest from this more experimental era, originals seldom surface, and when reissued in the 1970s, it had a totally different cover. This a very clean example, and it plays impressively with little unwanted, even with some very quiet passages in places. Overall, it will not be easy to find much better and an excellent copy and opportunity for classic prog-rock collectors.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT: arguably better. A gatefold format with the outside faces laminated, the inside is matt and smooth. Printed and made in England by Garrod & Lofthouse with ‘Patent Pending’ text, the design from the famous Hipgnosis studio. The Harvest promotional inner sleeve is included.

Lamination – Front & Back: The laminate retains excellent shine, freshness and clarity with minimal hint of dulling and no lifting. A few mostly quite fine spine edge creases and quite a light one on the back top edge, any others are very few, fine and very light. One of the classic and elusive early Harvest covers and here seen impressive, it will not prove easy to find a great deal better.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Superb with barely anything to fault.

Top Edges: Both straight, flush, smoothly laminated and barely worn at all.

Bottom Edges: Similar to above but with a little light, patchy rubbing on the folds that is seldom avoided totally on storage edges.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Mostly sharp with hardly any thickening. Record enters on the back edge, the front is factory machine trimmed (e.g. the edge is white).

Spine and Text: Solid, straight with the usual central compression caused by the raised inside fold hinge. This a near unavoidable trait of such covers where a recess forms purely by opening. Folded square, so the edges meet up very closely together and parallel. The text is unworn and present, but sunken somewhat into the natural aforementioned recess. Such spines often shed all their laminate as well, this has some patchy small flaked areas, but the cover’s surface avoiding rubbing, so any laminate loss shows little overall – I even had to check this detail under a magnifier to confirm. A high percentage remains intact and still strong. Given the unforgiving way such spines wear, I consider this a fine one.

Corners: Some edge tip rubbing on the bottom right and top left, but little else on the others. Very fine to excellent shape retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A very strong all-round example of this rare and collectable early 1970’s Harvest cover, one that will prove very difficult to find much better. One of the classic prog-rock covers that was not reprinted for reissues. This attractive item should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT: a polylined Harvest black and white promotional inner that promotes this album as well as other rare gems from the early Harvest era catalogue. Gently aged only with minimal creasing and all edges naturally intact. It has the Patent Nos. 1.125.555 & 1,072,844.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT: arguably better. A very fine visual copy that is clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. A copy with few plays on all the evidence with any surface marks/blemishes few, very light and faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, mostly wispy hairlines that do nothing, viewed in average room light, little even registers. A little natural dulling within the pressing near the beginning of side one has nothing whatsoever to do with wear, this a common trait for records at this time and has minimal, negligible affect on sound of which most is impressive and clean. Visually a fine record that should please many collectors.

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 equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This classic progressive rock album plays even above it’s high visual grading with little to fault. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed – the beginning of the album is very quiet indeed before really kicking into gear – and few original copies will ever play this area especially without a hint of contact sound. Any present here gentle and light, and to date, this is overall the finest copy of this rare album I have heard. Generally, a clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises e.g. rasps or distortion. Few available copies will outperform this early first pressing I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played only lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled within a non-smoking environment. Little of note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this lovely record – the odd polite reminder a 50-year-old record is being played is okay with me anyway. It will prove very difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly recommended unless perfection is mandatory – and good luck finding one of those.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest 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 all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to 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 it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major 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 Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie 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 D7500 DSLR 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.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, 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 as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal from­ winning bidders. I only 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 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

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, 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.