FOTHERINGAY - RARER ORIG UK PINK ISLAND 1st PRESS EX++

	£		72
	$		95

ONEADAYRECORDS – Delivering Quality Music to the World

Please see my Detailed Packing Description Further Down & All Shipping Costs and Options – NOTE: I now apply the Ebay ‘4-day’ rule for non-payment.

Artist or Band: FOTHERINGAY

Album Title: Fotheringay.

Producer(s): Joe Boyd.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Nothing More; The Sea; The Ballad of Ned Kelly; Winter Winds; Peace in the End.

Side 2: The Way I Feel; The Pond and the Stream; Too Much of Nothing; Banks of the Nile.

Cat Number: ILPS 9125.

Label / Format: Island – original deep pink format (please see my label scan).

Label Conditions: Both very attractive with very rich deep pink colour. Side one has small, very light dull spots seen under light, normal viewing reveals practically nothing. Both sides have barely any spindle marks at all and this again from a hugely impressive collection of lightly, and carefully played records. All on the high quality system too.

Cat Number: ILPS 9125.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Weight of this Record: 130 grams. A good average weight for it’s era.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Scarce: and with other factors too. The cover is immensely wear-prone, most that show are tired looking with often heavy ringwear, especially on the back. The beautiful, dark and vivid artwork ruined by rubbing, scuffs, fading and creasing. Rarely is this one seen in excellent condition, let alone better. The record is equally delicate and suffers heavy handedness and inferior equipment badly. Often crackly, even with distortion and surface noise. Sandy’s more intense vocal parts often clip and breakup, finding a first issue devoid of any sound issues is beyond difficult – it achieveable – and this one delivers in supreme fashion. A beautiful, first pressed record and a cover doing the stunning artwork near full justice. The matrixes, seen above, are the earliest that made shop issue. I have only once ever seen A1/B1 matrixes, those on a white label test pressing I acquired a couple of years ago – an immensely rare record indeed. A wonderful copy that was a true joy to hear on play-grade – not that I need any excuse to play this album anyway. A copy like this is pretty scarce and never easy to find.

Original Year of Release: 1970

Matrix Nos: ILPS 9125 A // 2 1 1 3 & ILPS 9125 B // 2 1 1 2.

Musicians: Sandy Denny – vocals, piano and guitar; Trevor Lucas – vocals, guitar; Jerry Donahue – lead guitar, backing vocals; Gerry Conway – drums, backing vocals; Pat Donaldson – bass, backing vocals.

Brief Artist & Album Info: After Fairport Convention’s 1969 classic ‘Leige and Leif’, Sandy Denny left the band and formed Fotheringay. Just the one album was issued when they were still together, a self-titled folk-rock classic. This was a wonderful one-off gem (until the belated issue of the second many years later) and is a highly prized album on the Pink Island label. Why this album failed to sell well is something of a mystery, especially given the popularity of Sandy at this time. The band split and she persued a solo career before rejoining the Fairports in 1974. Featuring stunning artwork and a gatefold design, this cover is as nice to own as the record itself. Neither record or cover are easy find in top conditions: the cover suffers all forms of wear and the record often is less than well pressed. It’s a delicate album and often has surface sounds and crackle on the very quiet moments. Distortion to the more intense vocal parts are common when played on less than worthy equipment and is sometimes inherent on inconsistent pressing standards. This has none at all and possibly ranks as my cleanest sounding Fotheringay thus far. Sandy’s wonderful vocals make this lovely album a real joy, proving yet again to me her status as one of the finest female vocalists the UK ever had - her tragic loss, even now, is hard to take. Fotheringay rightly deserves its place in any quality folk or rock collection and this superbly Polydor pressed Island original offers the best way to enjoy it.

Cover’s Potential for Wear: Very high.

Cover Condition and Details: EXCELLENT: and in terms of lack of the usual wear, this is arguably better still. An unlaminated gatefold format with a matt, smooth finish. Printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group.

Cover Front: Certainly up there with the best I have seen, the only small blemish is a top left corner tip area dink with a crease. That apart, little else to fault on what is an exceptionally clean and near wear-free front. Stunning artwork with bright vivid colour and freshness. The lack of rubbing and any significant creasing is unusual. This also suffers price sticker removal badly, this has none. Any marks or fine creases are few and faint with no ring marks or scuffs. One of the most challenging covers within it’s genre, this beautiful (using the term correctly) front is exceptional.

Cover Back: Massively intolerant and seldom seen devoid of significant wear. This has minimal traces of any ring rubbing, few will ever avoid it for all the obvious reasons. Many seen have full circles of whiteness with deeply penetrating rim cutting and look attrocious. The only issue is some creasing – near the top right corner and a couple on the adjacent edges. Towards the lighter side of moderate but present nonetheless. The stunning Fotheringay crest artwork is pristine and any rubbing to the black backdrop is very light and modest indeed. Even with a few ceases, this back sets a high standard. It includes the original Basing Street address.

Cover Gatefold Inner: This has little to fault at all and will prove hard to find much better. Just wish I could have been in the audience to watch this fine band.

Top Edges: Very light and faint patchy rubbing.

Bottom Edges: Similar to above, just the odd trace a fraction more evident.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, mostly sharp with little wear and guaranteed untrimmed. Record entered on the back edge, the front being closed.

Spine and Text: An outstanding spine that shows little wear at all except the small dink evidence at the very top – even this has minimal visual impact and shows little. Solid and straight with minimal traces of compression. Folded a little off-square with a small drop on the front edge. All text is present and totally unworn, little short of pristine in fact, any central creasing from opening tiny and faint (please see my close-up picture of this detail).

Corners: The top left has a crease from a likely knock in the past. A possible tiny tip-in (the owner was very particular about his items), but if so, it’s minimal and light (if indeed present at all). All other corners are crisp and very neat with any tip rubs tiny and light.

Cover Summary: A cover crying out to be laminated but Island seldom did on their UK issues – many German-made Island albums were, but I have never seen this as a German issue of this one. I have rarely, if ever seen this cover with little wear, especially the back and edges, and the front often suffers too from price sticker removal marks, often removing large chunks of the delicate artwork. All considered, this is a splendid example that offers very fine good looks. Not quite for the perfectionist of course with the corner crease and modest rear surface creases, but many, if not most collectors will enjoy it. With a superb playing early cut pink Island record inside, this will take a fair amount of beating.

The Inner Sleeve: VERY GOOD+: a Polydor-style polylined inner that has modestly aged a little. Both window circles are pristine with the lining still very clear with minimal crinkle. A little mild creasing and rim impression. A few tiny tone spots and some mild darkening. One very small side edge split was carefully repaired by myself, no others needed. Importantly for the more serious collector, this is date-coded 1/0670 – (1 June 1970), which confirms this copy as a very first issue (please also see this detail in close-up).

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(++): this being ultra critical and a Mint(-) grading is within a whisker, side two really is just that. A very clean, shiny, intense black and solidly pressed first record, any surface trace marks are tiny, very few and incredibly faint. A superb copy, hardly played and one to please most-all 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 B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or miniscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This folk-rock classic plays beautifully and is devoid of those ruinious surface sounds or pressing issues I have encountered on some others I have heard. Pressing standard is the invisible curse of vinyl records and only comes to light when played of course. Some copies I have heard before have had considerable amounts of crackle or even distortion, this album does seem especially prone to this on ‘The Ballad of Ned Kelly’, where Sandy’s vocal gets quite intense. This can, and often does, break-up and clip badly – not on this one, all remains pin-sharp and distortion-free. Beautifully recorded with a lovely clean production and sound, but often let down by the pressing quality. Well this one failed to disappoint and was a joy from beginning to end. The lack of any noteworthy crackle a real bonus as is the avoidance of any pops or clicks. Never exposed to mono or other heavy-tracking equipment, these grooves are totally unworn and clean – both playing surfaces look superb and finding this better will prove immensely difficult. Early-made and cut records are always extra special and they hardly get earlier than this do they? (test pressings apart, if you can ever find one). An Island classic that offers hugely enjoyable, and practically reference standard sound, this too when played on a very revealing turntable – a fact more then worthy of mention. With only minor reservation on the fairly light cover blemishes, this is a copy that merits almost my highest possible recommendation.

Final Summary: An album always in demand and not getting any easier to find. Beautiful vocals and gorgeous songs, this an album you won’t want to end. Sandy’s vocals never fail to move me, always hitting the mark, every song she sung had class written all over it. With such a lovely clean first-press record and a way better than average cover, one that can be enjoyed to the near maximum. And finally, how many will have the original inner sleeve with the correct date-of-issue included?

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 - on average ONEADAY, a couple more at weekends if time permits, hence the name - time rarely allows for more as I Play-Grade virtually every record I offer in their entirety, 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 its 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. What you see is what you get and scanned labels will give a more accurate representation of the genuine colour than flash photography where light is variable. I cannot guarantee total accuracy for colours however but most will be very close. 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 Rondo Red moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Nait 5i with Project USB phono stage and Chord interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with QED Silver 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 and the cost of this lavish packing is NOT even charged for, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners and bubble wrap 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 less than one in two thousand based on over 7,000+ items sold in nearly 10 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. Even one of these stiffeners cannot be bent by hand, so what chance 3 or 4 inside a box? Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE. 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). I will not respond to questions on shipping costs as all the details are included here and on ALL of my adverts. Details below:

NOTE: First Time Bidders: Please as me first.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of FOUR days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the, 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 and they take the Ebay consequences (a strike or removal from the system). 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.

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £2 per extra LP.

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

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£46 maximum]) = £10. (Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £3 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 [£46 maximum]) = £14. Add £4 per extra LP. (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’.