Steel Mill - Green Eyed God, Rare Hard Prog, Nice Copy

	£		314
	$		416

Steel Mill - Green Eyed God

(Penny Farthing PELS 549 1975 UK LP)

Extremely hard to find hard UK prog album which was probably issued four years too late to have had any hope of selling in big numbers. Always reminds me a bit of the Horse LP with the same sort of dark feel and savage guitar but with a slightly more progressive feel helped by some Van Der Graafish sax.  I see German copies of this around sometimes but UK copies are seriously rare.

Tracks:

Blood Runs Deep

Summers Child

Mijo and The Laying Of The Which

Treadmill

Green Eyed God

Turn The Page Over

Black Jewel Of The Forest

Har Fleur

Condition: VG+/VG+

Sleeve:

Single sleeve, unlaminated finish, I actually bought this at a record fair a couple of years ago and the prat who was selling it had it on display behind his stall, all of the records on his display were actually clipped on to a frame with no plastic sleeves or any other protection, the results of this are five tiny marks above the M in Mill where the clip was, there are identical marks on the rear sleeve, to this day I simply cannot understand how anyone could display a record with that sort of clip knowing it would damage the sleeve and then expect customers to pay good prices for them, I also bought a 9.30 Fly and a Comus from the same guy at the same time, both have identical marks, even more unbelievably I still see this guy around at record fairs and he still displays his better records in the same way!

The rest of the front sleeve is in generally pretty nice shape, it’s very clean with no writing or tears anywhere, there is a slight circular depression where the record sits, there are also some light creases in the top left corner. Being unlaminated and with large areas of plain colour this is one of those sleeves which almost always have some damage of some type but even with those clip marks this is one of the better copies I’ve seen, in fact this was my own copy and is only being let go now because I’ve finally found a mintish copy.

The rear sleeve is also very clean with no tears or writing anywhere. Those clip marks already mentioned are clearly visible beside the M in Mill, there’s some creasing in the top right corner and along the top edge in the centre, there is also the very beginnings of some ringwear, you’ll need to be careful how you store the record to prevent this getting any worse.

The spine is slightly compressed but is still clean and unworn and all of the writing is clearly readable.

The top seam is shows a few little spots of wear but nothing serious.

The bottom seam has some moderate wear.

Overall reading back what I’ve wrote the sleeve seems to have a lot of small flaws but no real damage and in truth that’s how it is, it’s not mint but you’ll wait a while before a better one comes along and I’m looking at it now at arms length in a PVC sleeve and it looks fine.

Record:

The record is really is similar sort of condition to the sleeve in that it’s not mint but it’s certainly not trashed. Visually under normal light it looks just fine, very clean with a nice dark shine to the vinyl. When viewed under a very harsh lamp some very light hairline mrks are revealed, none of these are deep, all are very light and totally inaudible and have been caused solely by taking the record in and out of the sleeve.

The two labels are in perfect condition, no writing, no tears, no stickers and very little discernible spindle wear, all of the writing is clearly readable. The matrix numbers stamped into the dead wax are PELS 549 A1X and B1X.

When played the record sounds mostly fine, the sound is clear and clean right across the full dynamic range reproduces the hard guitar sound well as well as doing justice to the more subtle progressive passages. The second track clicked a few times at the start and has a couple of pops at the end, there was also some very light crackles between a couple of tracks on side one which will probably only be audible at high volume, this is still a good playable and enjoyable example though the sound has a vibrancy which brings it leaping out of the speakers in a most enjoyable way and there’s no sign of any groovewear or distortion anywhere.

Generally speaking I’d put the sound on side one at VG+ and a solid EX on side 2, this is really conjecture but I’m guessing this copy hasn’t been played all that much, certainly on side 2, but when it was played it wasn’t on a particular good deck, however, that is a guess. One thing which is certain though is that this is a very ellusive record and until you find that mintish one, this copy will do very nicely, certainly gave me a lot of pleasure and is only being let go now because I’ve finally landed a real good copy.

What you can expect from me:

Fast friendly communication, quick postage with good strong packaging and the record will be exactly as described above, if you disagree with my description of the condition then a full refund is available (sorry, no refunds if you don‘t like the music!).

What I expect from you:

Good communication and quick payment, any disagreement’s (not that I’m expecting any!) can be settled amicably.

Payment and postage:

I’d prefer cheques from UK buyers but paypal is available if necessary, overseas buyers must use paypal. I’m not responsible for any parcel after it leaves my hands, I will have proof that the parcel as posted and will help in any way I can in any dispute between you and the postal authorities but the decision on whether to insure a parcel or not is yours and as such the responsibility for the parcel is yours too.