Van Morrison Astral Weeks UK 1st pressing orange label WS 1768
£
50
$
66
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Description
Incredibly rare UK 1st issue of Van Morrison's seminal album 'Astral Weeks'. This is the very first UK issue on the orange Warner Brothers label (2012 Record Collector price guide is £150). Before you get too excited this record is not mint. The bad news first: There are three forward skips on side 1 of this LP. Each only skips forward 1 groove (revolution) and doesn't make any loud pops or clicks as it does. In fact I didn't even notice two of them at first. They are in 'Astral Weeks', 'Beside You' and 'Cyprus Avenue'. They do not really detract from the beautiful experience of listening to this album. . The good news is that this is the only real damage and the rest of the album is play graded as a good VG+ with just quiet pops throughout but no groove damage type distortion where the music breaks up. If you can put up with the skips and background noise in the form of pops then you will hear this wonderful album better than you will on any other pressing.
I have original US pressings and second (green label) UK pressings of Astral Weeks and this really does outshine them all. The soundstaging, the levels of detail, the clarity, the timbre of the voice and instruments is simply more lifelike, and the dynamic and rhythmic qualities of the music on this pressing are the best I've heard. The original orange label pressing of this album fully justifies its reputation.
Visually the LP is clean and shiny with several light surface scratches. The labels are clean for their age with light spindle traces. The original front-laminated flip back cover is graded VG++, it has a perfectly readable undamaged spine. The unlaminated back cover is very clean the corners have very slight wear and the front laminate is creasing / bubbling in a few small areas on the front cover (these show up clearly in the photos, in fact the photos make them look worse than they are).
I have tried to photograph the LP as faithfully as possible. I have not used Photoshop or any other type of photo enhancement.
The matrix numbers are:
WS1768A-1*T and WS1768B-1*T
I think the '1' suffix means this is a very early copy. This album, as with all my records, is carefully cleaned and vacuum dried on a Loricraft record cleaning machine using L'Art du Son record cleaning fluid. It is then placed in a new poly-lined anti-static inner sleeve and play-tested on a state-of-the-art record playing system. It may play significantly better than I have graded it on a lower resolution system.
To protect the LP in transit it will be packed in a new cruciform LP mailer with stiffening card inserts. The LP and inner sleeve will be packed outside of the cover to protect against seam splits during transit. Unless requested otherwise I will send all records by 2nd class recorded delivery which has limited insurance.
Please see my other auctions, I will be listing several rare and interesting LPs over the next few weeks.
Overseas bidders must contact me before bidding.
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