Michael Garrick Band - Home Stretch Blues

	£		135
	$		179

Michael Garrick Band

Home stretch Blues

Argo ZDA 154  recorded, produced, copyright 1972

A copy of this recently went for over £100, but I think that would have been in better condition. This is still very good though, so here’s your chance to pick up a lovely playing copy at a more affordable price.

The sleeve is good, just a little scuffed and with the faint circular outline of the record some old sleeves acquire, but still sound and legible. For the disc, I try to be strict about my condition definitions, and I think “very good” is fully justifiable here. Yes, it’s clearly been played but there are no serious defects to draw attention to. A nice looking copy.

Norma Winstone: Vocals

Michael Garrick: Piano, harpsichord

Trevor Tomkins: Drums

Dave Green: Bass

Art Themen: Soprano, tenor, clarinet

Henry Lowther – Trumpet, Flugelhorn, violin

Don Rendell: tenor (side one)

ONE: Home stretch blues – Sweet and low – Epiphany

TWO: Fire Opal and Blue Poppies (A sequence of visions)

Seller’s notes

We are private sellers (this is a personal collection being sold) and can’t always be as quick as a business – we can’t get to the post office every day, for a start. But we aim to offer a friendly personal service, and though we don’t have a returns policy we aim to solve any problems in a friendly cooperative way.

We don’t specify international delivery, but we’re happy to send goods anywhere. Most parts of the globe we can do surface mail at our existing charge, but air-mail will be a bit more. By all means check if you want, but for small orders you could just trust us; we try to keep postage costs to a minimum, and don’t mind making the occasional loss on postage if we get it wrong. If there is an overseas supplement, it’ll only be a pound or so per record, often less.

We don’t have a fixed multiple order discount, but we always calculate a commonsense reduction when we spot that you’ve ordered more than one record.

We suggest you don’t make Instant Paypal payments the moment you win (though it doesn’t matter if you do). If you wait for our invoice, that will confirm our target date for posting the goods, plus it’ll include any subsequent discounts we’ve applied.

Added 16th July

Because this record has attracted some interest, and because one collector has quizzed me in detail, I have run a sound check on it, and will give a more detailed account of its condition. I used reasonably good Technics equipment with a good pair of headphones, but the turntable is not as good as I used to have, being one of those little three-quarter size Bush machines. Should be OK though. I played the record first on the headphones, then in the room.

I am not experienced at grading records, but try to use the standard definitions. I never describe records as mint. I only describe them as excellent if they were bought new by me and are visually near-perfect which the shiny glossiness of a near-new record. Most records I describe as very good, pointing out specific marks if needed. I rarely describe records as just good, because unless they are of real rarety interest, they don't seem worth selling, and I'd sooner give them away. All my records were carefully looked after, but not all were bought new. I almost always know the difference.

For this one:

(1) Very broadly, my original description was a fair one.

(2) There are spindle marks, indicating that the record has been played, but you can see that in any case from the run-in and run-out areas, and just the general slight "greyness" of the disc as a whole. 

(3) There are no serious defects, but on side two there are two hairline gossasmer marks, and on side one a more noticeable mark, about 1/4 to 1/3 inch, and straddling tracks two and three. All these marks passed a fingernail test suggested by my questioner, and also my own test, which is to clean my most sensitive little finger and run the tip over the scratched area and see whether you can feel anything.

(4) Listening on the headphones there is clearly some surface noise and crackle, most noticeable in the run-in on the rim. All but the quietest passages of music override any crackle. Most importantly, on the headphones, the marks noted above in (3) do not sound, certainly not as clicks, but not even as background thumps.

(5) Played through the speakers, the record is just as hoped a nice playing copy. Remember, though, I live in South East London; not the quietest ambience for critical listening.

This was bought by me second hand, and though I can't warrant its history the way I can records I bought new, I'd say this had been played quite a bit, but by somebody who looked after their records.