PLEASE PLEASE ME RARER 2ND PRESS GOLD & BLACK LABEL UK MONO PMC 1202 VG- LP

	£		280
	$		371

The Beatles

PLEASE PLEASE ME 

ORIGINAL GOLD & BLACK NORTHERN SONGS LABELS

12" LP PMC 1202 2nd Mono Press From 1963

Masters XEX 421-1N / XEX 422-1N

This is a 2nd issue of Please Please Me, The Beatles first official LP release. It is in an overall Very Good Minus condition with a strong very good level of audio playback quality. It comes in its original first issue 'Gold' sleeve which housed the first and second Black & Gold record labels, this is indicated by the 'Photo: Angus McBean' text being offset to the far right of the bottom corner, starting below the end of the last 's' in songs.

The pressing run started early in March 1963 on the old Parlophone Black and Gold labels, with the incorrect Dick James credits for 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Misery', 'Do You Want To Know A Secret', and 'There's A Place'. The typesetter at EMI changed the incorrect credits to Northern Songs (The Beatles own new publishing company for their original compositions) some time in late April to early May. 

The pressing run on this new 2nd press corrected Northern Songs label lasted only around 1 month until the end of May (the new Yellow Parlophone labels were in the shops sometime in June). Hence, the pressing run on this 2nd pressing lasted only for half the length of time as the 1st pressing. This makes the 2nd press labels only ever half the quantity and therefore twice as rare as the 1st press. As time goes on this is easily noticeable by the fewer amount coming up for sale in comparison to the 1st press Dick James credits.

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Condition

The Sleeve: GOOD PLUS. The flipbacks are present and almost completely intact; the bottom flipback has about half of its length repaired and replaced with similar card material, reinforced along the inside seam near the opening, making the sleeve very firm and sturdy and holding the record well. The essential part with the Ernest J. Day text is complete and unworn. The title text on the spine is complete and readable, and the spine is undamaged. There is a lot of light staining on the reverse along the top and bottom corners, where it has been handled by its original owner. The text written by Tony Barrow is however clear and unaffected. There is hardly any storage wear at all and the sleeve has maintained a good shape, including well defined corners and neat intact edges. There are no rips or any splits from any of the edges! Hard to find like this. The iconic photograph on the front of the sleeve taken by Angus McBean retains its original shiny gloss and colour.  Lamination is completely intact all over with some horizontal line surface creases only.

No writing, stickers, or sticker residue anywhere.

A neat and clean sleeve which is still sturdy and firm with no rips.

1st Edition Gold sleeve Printed and Made by Ernest J. Day & Co. Ltd with first flat flip-back design.

Inner Sleeve: Very Good condition original EMI Emitex advertising plain white with MADE IN ENGLAND and PATENTS APPLIED FOR text, and poly-lined interior which is completely intact. Some slight storage wear to outer paper. No rips or splits and fully functional.

The Vinyl: The vinyl surfaces are clean have retained a glossy sheen.

Condition is Very Good Minus overall. There is an area of light scuffs marks on Side 2 near outer rim, and quite a lot of light surface stylus hairline marks on either side. These are visible in normal light and when inspected under strong light it is clear to see they are only superficial, and there is nothing feelable or anything that causes any sound distortions.

There are no warps, dinks, or feelable scratches on either side.

The record lays completely flat on the turntable, and looks clean.

Manufactured on heavy 173 gram early sixties vinyl.

The labels are Very Good to Very Good Plus; the spindle location area has minimal wear for such an early pressing, no spindle line traces reach outside of the inner groove area and there are only a few lines that can be seen. The spindle hole fits perfectly on the spindle point.

The gold text is complete, clear, bright and contrasts well against the black label.

No sticker or sticker residue.

The Parlophone Co. text around outer rim.

Mother/ Stamps:

Side 1: 12/ GP and Side 2: 2/ GM

MT code embossed on the label.

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The Audio: Very Good to Very Good Plus

The visual blemishes as mentioned have only let down the appearance of the vinyl a little and have not caused any noticeable detractions to the audio. The quality and robustness of these early sixties vinyl pressings ensures that the audio tends to be better than their appearance of well layed surfaces. There is some occasional lessening to the original audio quality in terms of ground noise in places. Noticeable in the run-in's to some tracks there are some ticks but in the main has smooth interludes and song tracks play without major interruptions such as jumps, crackle, skips or sticks. This record delivers a seamless full body of original mono bass, with crisp and clear audio prevailing over any detractions on both sides.

This iconic first LP by the greatest band the World has known is robust and is bound to still be playable in decades to come with a very good audio rendition with some acceptable lessening to the original quality.

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The LP will be delivered in a quality two part deep cardboard LP mailer with stifferners.

The record placed separately in a plain generic inner to prevent wear to the original.

Also comes housed in a PVC record protector.

Item will be marked as fragile and sent with quick dispatch, next day special delivery in the UK.

International postage will be tracked and a tracking number will be provided.

To grade this LP I am using the official Grading System from

The Rare Record Collector Magazine.

Happy to refund on return if not satisfied.

If any further info. required please ask.