Marsupilami - Arena - Transatlantic 1st RARE PROG Camel
£
63
$
83
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Description
MARSUPILAMI - ARENA (Transatlantic TRA 230) Overall VG+
This is the super rare second album from UK Progressive artists 'Marsupilami' on Transatlantic. Produced by Peter Bardens who went on to form Camel, it sold absolutely nothing back in 1971, and is very seldom seen. It is an ambitious, brave and unique album, with many different styles covered in one go, and a treasure for true fans of the Progressive rock movement of the early 1970s. This was one of Transatlantic's earliest forays into the rock world (along with Stray) away from the excellent folk music that, up until that point, had made their name. Released in a ridiculously fragile textured sleeve, this is a most presentable copy, but with some of the flaws that would come with such a frail sleeve.
SLEEVE FRONT: The textured MacNeill sleeve is very thin, and has creases, some of them fairly heavy, and also has a small 1.5cm by 0.5cm tear at the top right and a slight pen mark on the opening edge. It has some scuffing along the top edge and bottom edge and very light spotting in parts. However, the image is still crystal clear and presentable. VG- condition.
SPINE: Some minor scuffing, but fully clear and legible.
SLEEVE REAR: This reflects the creasing on the front, and has a couple of other marks to note. All of the text is clear, and again, the colours stand out really well. VG- condition.
The inner sleeve is the correct one for the Transatlantic releases with a 3cm tear in it. Otherwise, very clean and intact.
LABELS: 1st pressing Transtlantic labels in Excellent condition. Very little spindle wear, they look superb.
VINYL SIDE ONE: This is a weighty pressing, typical of Transatlantic. There is a very light scratch and a couple of other tiny light marks, but otherwise in Excellent condition. A very clean copy.
VINYL SIDE TWO: Also has a couple of very light marks, but again, is remarkably clean. A pleasure to look at. Excellent.
PLAY GRADE: This album is long and has some very quiet parts in it, particularly on the opening track. Visually, the album grades as Excellent, but I will give a play testing of Excellent minus, as the quiet bits do have some surface noise in the background. Once the songs kick into gear though, there is no problem at all.
OVERALL: Typical of the era with some of these obscure albums, weighty vinyl, but thin packaging, the sleeve overall gains a grade of VG- and the vinyl a grade of Excellent, possibly a little on the minus side. It is a very, very rare album though, and I hope it will bring pleasure to a fan for its musical merit. If anyone has any questions for me, then please feel free to e-mail and I will respond as quickly as possible.
THE BLURB BIT: Postage within the UK is £3.00. I accept bidders the world over, but not from any countries that other ebayers have had problems with. Postage, by Surface Mail abroad is set at £8.00, as is recorded delivery in the UK. The album will be solidly packaged and dispatched once Payment has been received. I have maintained a love of collecting records for 15 years now and feel that my judgements on conditions are HONEST and FAIR. I go by the UK RRPG standards and general eBay grading policy. If anyone disagrees with me on this then PLEASE CONTACT me before leaving feedback. There are no problems, only solutions.
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