SPRIGUNS - REVEL WIERD AND WILD - PERECT MINT COPY

	£		132
	$		175

Hello and thank you for choosing to read this advert.

A word of introduction about myself first of all. My name is James and I’m 44 years old living in the North East of England. I’ve been collecting records for the best part of 30 years now and have amassed a vast amount of music of all genres during that time. Now however, it’s time for a bit of clear out. I’m not selling all of my collection but there are some titles I have duplicate copies of and others that I just can’t find time to listen to as much as I’d like to so these are the things that will be offered for sale here.

As I’m quite new to E-Bay I’d like to assure you that you have no need to worry about anything when dealing with me. I have been buying and selling records by mail order for over twenty years now and have satisfied customers and trading partners all over the world. At least 3 well known e-bay dealers, (all with 4 figure feedback figures) buy their stock from me regularly and I have had no complaints from any of them in fact all of them regularly grade the records with a higher grade than I gave them!. All records which I offer here are play graded all the way through on top class equipment and any faults I find no matter how small will be mentioned. Sleeves will be graded to the same exacting standards with any faults or anything else I think you need to know mentioned. Any disputes will be settled to your satisfaction and I will give a full refund to anyone who buys anything and isn’t one hundred per cent happy with their purchase (although this obviously applies to condition only - I can’t guarantee that you’ll like the music!).

Postage:

UK: 1 LP £2.00

Europe: 1 LP £3.00

Rest of the World :1LP £6.00

Payment:

UK: Cheque, Postal Orders or cash sent at your own risk by registered mail.

Rest of The World: I’d prefer cash (sent at your own risk by registered mail) as this is quick and reliable (I’ve been receiving payments this way for over twenty years and have never had a payment go missing) but you can use paypal if you prefer.

Registered (insured) Postage is an extra £3 per package and is recommended for valuable packages. If an item is not sent by insured mail and does not arrive at it’s destination or is damaged en-route then I can’t be held accountable.

Any record which sells for more than £60 will be sent post free in the UK, any record which sells for more than £80 will be sent post free anywhere in the world. Any record which sells for more than £100 will be sent post free by registered mail in the UK, any record which sells for more than £125 will be sent post free by registered mail anywhere in the world.

The Item For Sale Is:

Artist: Spriguns

Title: Revel Weird And Wild

Release info: Decca (SKL5262) 1976 Original UK issue with insert

Condition (Sleeve 1st) : M/M

Track List:                     Trysting Tree

Outlandish Knight

Sir Colvin

Piscie Song

Nothing Else To Do

Hasberry Howard

Lord Lovell

Laily Worm

When Spring Comes In

Band Members:             Mandy Morton - Vocals and Acoustic Guitar

Tom Ling - Electric Violin

Dick Powell - Guitar, Keyboards and Vocals

Mike Morton - Bass and Vocals

Chris Woodcock - Drums

B J Cole - Pedal Steel Guitar on 2 tracks

Produced By: Tim Hart

The Spriguns were an East Anglian based folk rock band whose records have become some of the most sort after UK albums of the genre. Their first 2 albums, one of which was cassette only, were very traditional sounding folk with occasional electric touches topped by the sublime vocals of Mandy Morton. The pinnacle of their recorded output though is their two Decca albums from 1976 & 77. This is the first of those two and it’s really a thing of beauty. All songs are self composed but written in the style of trad folk songs which have been adapted to a folk rock backing.

The focal point of the album is really Mandy Morton whose vocals have a richness reminiscent of Sandy Denny but probably lack the emotional content that Denny could portray. The musical backing is more rock based than the earlier albums and has a maturity and self confidence which was missing from the earlier albums with unusually for the time synths playing a large part in a folk rock album providing a tuneful backing which was topped by excellent guitar and violin. The thing that’s always struck me about Spriguns albums is that I’m sure that beneath the folk rock influences there’s a great hard rock band in there somewhere, their music has a very powerful feel but it’s always restrained as if playing in the folk rock field is limiting them in some way, as great as their music is I would love to hear them cut loose and really unleash that power just once to show what a great band they really were and what they were capable of.

Although they were regarded as something of a second division act at the time the band have become real favourites with collectors and alongside the Trees and Mellow Candle their original albums are probably the most sought after UK folk rock albums of the seventies. Certainly I get as many requests for Spriguns albums than just about any other act, in fact I probably should offer this to some of my regular customers before considering an auction but it’s such a nice copy that I’ll give everyone an equal chance at it.

Condition: This is a totally MINT copy, it’s as simple as that. It is P E R F E C T. The sleeve is laminated on the front only and the black nature of it means that it shows any marks easily, this copy is perfect - it looks like it’s been in a PVC sleeve since new - there are no marks or lamination creases or even finger prints on the front. The rear sleeve is unlaminated but is also in pristine condition. There are no tears or creases anywhere nor is there any writing anywhere on the sleeve. The top and bottom seams are totally unworn as is the spine which has all of the writing clearly legible the corners are clean and sharp and there is no evidence of wear at the open edge.

The gatefold insert is in equally perfect shape with no creases writing or tears anywhere.

The labels are perfect with no spindle marks at all in fact there’s no evidence that the record had been played at all before it came into my possession.

The record itself is a perfect MINT. Mint is a much overused (and abused) term where records are concerned and anyone who receives my regular sales list knows how sparingly I use the term because I simply do not believe that many records from the sixties and seventies exist in true mint condition. However this is one of the exceptions that prove my theory. I’m not going to say that the record is unplayed but when it came to me yesterday the record was difficult to remove from the inner bag because of static. This is always a good sign because once it’s been in and out of the sleeve a few times this no longer occurs. I held the record under a harsh light before playing and there were no marks visible at all and on playing it is simply perfect, there’s nothing else I can say about it. No pops or crackles at all and it’s totally silent between tracks all of which enhances the beauty of the music to a level which you simply don‘t get on lesser copies. This is simply as good as it can possibly get.

I have a lot of records including a really nice copy of this one in my own collection but recently records in this sort of condition have become so difficult to find that I’ve reached the point where I’m really loathe to let some of them go because I know I’m never going to see another original issue copy in this sort of shape, even nice EX copies are difficult these days, but it makes no sense to have two copies of the same record so I’ll let someone have this one - I only hope it goes to someone who will enjoy and appreciate it and keep it in such fine shape.

All in all a beautiful copy of an album which is not actually that rare (at a guess I’ve had maybe twenty copies over the last two decades) compared to some other albums but demand is always high and every copy I’ve had I could of sold lots of times over. The thing with this copy is that it is the best copy you will ever be offered so if you miss it, well, I have a high turnover of rare records but I doubt I’ll ever see another copy as perfect as this one so the chances of another copy this perfect turning up on ebay are slim as records of this quality are snapped up immediately by private collectors and once sold are never seen again.

If you decide to bid for this item I wish you luck and if not, well, thanks for looking and remember to look at my other items for sale you may find something more to your taste there.