CAPTAIN BEEFHEART Strictly Personal RARE LIBERTY BLACK LABEL, FEW MADE, UNBANDED

	£		88
	$		117

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

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all – in fact I think these things should be banned as records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS. Full details nearer the end of the listing.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take up to 4 to 6 weeks 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. I will always keep my P&P prices as low as possible, and even after yet another Royal Mail price hike from April this year, I have NOT raised my prices and will never compromise on solid, safe packing that is invariably heavier than most you will get. My P&P offers probably the best value-for-money for vinyl records available, and I even will pay for full 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. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives.

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. I do not like this practice as it is most often used to phish out the price to beat. Ebay does not approve and neither do I – so only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND

Album Title: Strictly Personal

Producer(s): Bob Krasnow

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Ah Feel Like Ahcid; Safe As Milk; Trust Us; Son of Mirror Man—Mere Man.

Side 2: On Tomorrow; Beatle Bones n’ Smokin Stones; Gimme Dat Harp Boy; Kandy Korn.

Label/Format: Liberty – rare and seldom-seen second black Liberty format with matt, smooth surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with hardly a spindle mark to be seen. A light ‘10’ can just be seen near the hole of side one, probably in pencil, showing little with normal room light.

Cat Number: LBS 83172

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 145 grams. Heavier than most blue label copies I have had.

Country of Manufacture: England – that is both record AND cover. Some copies of this had imported American covers, this one, totally British.

Rarity: Scarce: and I consider this second black label copy considerably rarer than the blue label. There are differences as well: this copy was pressed by Pye with the large and different matrix numbers. The blue label copies were pressed by Philips/Polydor. Also the cut of the record itself is very different, this copy is unbanded e.g. no there are no, or certainly less visible joining grooves between songs. The playing areas vary considerably as well, so this for the specialist collector will be of interest. The album itself was a pretty poor seller in its own right, but this pressing was made by Pye in tiny numbers prior to be be repressed again on the budget Sunset label. This is only the second copy of this album on the black label I have seen. Copies with the original UK cover are also less common, many originals have the imported American cover.

Original Year of Release: 1968. This copy from around 1970, pressed in tiny numbers before being repressed on Sunset.

Matrix Nos: LBS 83172 A-1 * T & LBS 83172 B-1 * T

Mothers / Stampers: C 1 / D 1

Musicians: Don van Vliet - lead vocal and mouthharp; Alex St Claire - guitar; Jeff Cotton - guitar; Jerry Handley - bass; John French - Drums.

Brief Info: After the brilliant debut Safe as Milk failed to sell, this second album appeared on a different label – Liberty – again only very briefly. Beefheart was finding it very difficult to find a loyal label that would offer his brand of music. This remains one of the most controversial in the Captain’s early catalogue mainly due to the production of Bob Krasnow. It always divides opinion on it’s sound and use of phasing. This is a strictly personal opinion: I think it sounds fantastic and makes a pretty strange band sound even more weird. But some think is obscured their real sound, including van Vliet himself. This wonderful album was a great prelude to Beefheart’s classic Trout Mask Replica which again was issued on a new label – Zappa’s newly formed Straight which specialised in the more ‘out-there’ artists. Here Beefheart’s sound progressed still further from the debut and was now becoming even more challenging. The Captain was no ordinary artist and his music had few rules, his genius is at last being more and more recognised as time passes. This landmark album was the last not to include those outlandish names for The Magic Band, the members real names were correctly used. Weirdness however was the order of the day – just check out the inside cover pictures. A man fast approaching his creative heights and this stereo record does it fine justice. Skillfully blending blues with psychedelia, a unique sound and band. The rare less banded black label record looks very little played, it has two lovely clean playing surfaces, but does have a few sporadic, light clicks here and there. But the vast majority plays great on a clean pressed record that has little to no actual surface sound, but possibly quite perfect enough for the purists – that simply being honest. The UK stereo cover is in very impressive condition, that seldom the case and easily matches my own personal copy. Only with Zappa’s total unrestricted artistic freedom did the Captain excel to even greater heights on his next masterpiece. To phase or not to phase? – who really cares, just enjoy this unique and brilliant album for what it is.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(+): an unlaminated gatefold format with matt and very slightly textured surfaces. Printed and made in the UK with NO Blue Thumb logo and LBS stereo Catalogue Number. Includes the polylined inner sleeve.

Cover Front: A second, or possibly more accurately, an alternative Philips pressing for Liberty Records on the rarer black label. But still including the original UK gatefold cover. The front is single thickness and vulnerable to wear and creasing. This has little: any rubbing being light and mostly confined near the edges, any creasing minimal, tiny and light. This is clean and fresh looking, note the stereo under the top left stamp. The lack of marks and grubbiness being major positives, this is never an easy one to find looking like this.

Cover Back: The back is superb and grades still higher. Little to fault bar a trace of thickening to the bottom storage edge, that being little and light and showing hardly at all. The lack of ringwear, grubbiness and rubbing makes this an outstanding back and few will even come close to matching it.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Genuinely weird and bizarre and worth the price alone as this will not be found elsewhere. The Sunset reissues had a totally different cover, this wierd inner gatefold graphic then gone. Just as wear-prone as the outside faces, possible even more so being black. This has again has little to fault at all and will again be hard to find better.

Top Edges: Incredibly neat and crisp with minimal traces of any thickening or burring, few survive better. Both also meet up flush and almost perfectly parallel.

Bottom Edges: The main black fold has a little surface rubbing which is patchy. The two thinner card surfaces are again crisp and neat. Importantly, all the edges lie almost dead flat with no curl or bowing.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Both the thin front and back opening edges are clean, neat and sharp, barely thickened or burred, these untrimmed or enhanced. Again they are near parallel but not quite flush in length due to gentle spine tilt.

Spine and Text: Rarely seen a better spine for this cover. Being single thickness and quite wide, this is unusual to find without significant crushing and compression. This one remains solid, still erect and uncrushed, it has only a gentle tilt to right, but has avoided flattening or compression. The surface clean, fresh and barely rubbed at all, just fine traces on the lower fold. All text intact, sharp and clear, also beautifully centred. A vulnerable part of this under-strength part of the cover unusually still in very fine condition as seen.

Corners: All corners neat with minimal softening of the front pair, a trace on the lower right which has a tiny crease. Hardly any rubbing or wear to any and almost miraculously, very fine and mostly excellent shape is retained with no knocks or noteworthy dinks.

Cover Summary: Original UK covers for this album are scarce. As mentioned already, many had American import covers and then when repressed on Sunset in the UK, a totally different single cover was printed. So a vintage collector’s piece in excellent condition. It should please many collectors, and indeed could represent an upgrade for some.

The Inner Sleeve: VERY GOOD: but does look better, marked down for a tear repair on the back (by myself), now looking more like a crease. A more heavy-duty polylined white inner as used more by the heavyweight Reprise records of the late 1960s. It is UK patented with ‘Foreign Patents Pending’ text. Two neat window circles and the lining clear and still fresh. Some corner creasing and a little aged with gentle and a very few, small tone spots.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+): this is a very fine visual copy that has only gentle traces of any surface marks as seen under bright angled light. Also one of the few copies I have seen without inner bag dulling (or rash) as it’s often referred to. Clean, and still with lovely shine, intense black and quite heavily pressed – a record rarely purchased by hi-fi connoisseurs, more by the curious younger collectors of the time – finding a copy this clean is very difficult. This looks very little played and it mostly sounds great too, a fine example of what I truly consider the rarest pressing ever made in the UK.

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 B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or minuscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This elusive record, that when seen, is invariably in very poor condition, This unusual Pye-pressed heavy copy mostly plays up to it’s visual grading with little to fault bar a few sporadic, quite light clicks here-and-there, most on the first song. It offers strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is high with a wide dynamic range and has no tracking issues*. The controversial use of phasing is highly interesting, and I love it. The stereo imagery works well too and the overall sound is presented very differently to the mono version. Any surface sounds in the form of crackle, are minimal indeed and this is a record that can sometimes suffers indifferent pressing quality. Overall a lovely pressing in terms of quality vinyl for a fairly difficult album, but not perfect enough for the purists who want ‘silence’ at any price – that an immensely difficult task for this album. A superb follow-up to the classic ‘Safe as Milk’ debut – quite why this divides opinion so much still baffles me. It includes brilliant material and the mix gives quite a psych-edge to it. You can imagine the fate for probably the majority of these, played on goodness knows what, this is always a joy to hear even if not totally pristine. Little spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this wonderful record which remains high in my favourites list from this period, if a few sporadic clicks are an issue, maybe best to wait for another, but it will not be easy to find without issues entirely, that a fact based on experience. Both cover and record could prove difficult to find significantly better and merits high recommendation. This master avant garde bluesman rarely failed to please and this was the perfect prelude to the main event that followed…

* 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 2.2 grams.

Now one of the most established sellers on Ebay and still offering the finest and most accurately described and graded 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 as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records 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 or full story. I will 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 stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programmes. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert and vice-versa. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, 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 2.2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable). All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional VPI-17 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 D5000 SLR Digital 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.

I now offer the fastest possible posting, often the very next day after payment is received or within two to three days maximum (unless on holiday). I only use FIRST-CLASS Mail. The record’s cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my new VPI-17 Pro vacuum system to give ultimate clean grooves and playing surfaces and the best possible looks and ultimate sound quality. You will NOT get tired, dull looking, dust infested records inside worn and foggy covers with tatty inners from this seller and that’s a promise and guarantee. All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT Mailers, these do not offer any real protection). The record(s) are REMOVED from their main cover to avoid edge splits and placed within a brand new polylined inner. The record’s original inner will be included if available. The boxes are then reinforced with at least TWO, ULTRA THICK stiffeners for maximum extra protection – these are FOUR TIMES thicker than commercial stiffeners and are custom-made for oneadayrecords. Really rare and expensive albums will even be Double Boxed if deemed necessary and possible. When larger boxes are used, the thick record and stiffener ‘sandwich’ is then thickly embedded into bubble-wrap to bulk out the record inside the box to centre the item inside to reduce the risk of damage still further. Printed address labels are used for clarity as well as a sender label. Customers requests or special needs for P&P will be respected if at all possible but ‘Signed-For’ posting is NOT an option anymore. I do not profit on posting, better quality packaging costs, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners make a near impregnable fortress for safe shipping and this is used inland and overseas for ALL my records, not just the rare and expensive. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is minuscule in over 14 years of Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. The only damage rate acceptable for this seller is ZERO and I think my packets will offer just that. It would take a vicious postman or postal service to damage these for sure. Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE – they offer next-to-no-protection, and should be banned, no ‘professional’ should consider using them in my opinion. I discount of course for multiple purchases with a maximum of FIVE records per box (one double can sometimes be included subject to total weight). All postage costs are below and at the top of the listing.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: Please ask me first.

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 withdrawals. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent via Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £1 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can 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 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask and thanks for looking.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer, so read the item description carefully. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help. Thank You.

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, actually 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.

The Argument for Vinyl Original sound and mix (mono mixes are rarely available on CD), high quality sound on clean copies (played on a hi-end dedicated analogue system – breathtaking sound!), beautiful, large format covers, artwork, inserts and even full size posters etc; huge investment potential, and the pleasure of owning ‘the real thing’.