TEENAGE HEAD PICTURE MY FACE RARE ALT. PHOTO TEXTURED PIC SLEEVE PRIVATE PUNK 45

$

422

Teenage Head - Picture My Face b/w Tearin' Me Apart

Well folks, what we have here is one of the true grails of Canadian Punk!

This is a stupid-rare, original 1978 private pressing of this picture sleeve, and, at that, the rarest variation of it, featuring this alternative picture of Frank Kerr on heavily textured paper!

Hand-assembled by Teenage Head themselves!

Yes, the CBS logo appears on the back. However, this sleeve was NOT, we repeat NOT manufactured by CBS. While the band was in fact signed to CBS (the Epic imprint to be exact), the label refused to manufacture a picture sleeve for the single, and instead issued it in a standard plain company sleeve. Thus, the band had to take matters into their own hands, and ultimately hand-made a mere 100 picture sleeves on their own. The generic company sleeve which CBS provided is included as well, as you see in our last photo.

There were three variations among these 100 sleeves. Two featured the same picture of Frankie as was later used for the German pressing, one being printed on glossy paper and the other on textured paper.

This variation featuring this alternative, otherwise unseen picture from the same photo session is the third and by far rarest variation!

Being that there was only a total of 100 picture sleeves made for this single, and that most copies are one of the first two aforementioned variations, we can safely assume that far less than 100 copies of this variation were ever made. Furthermore, we would bet that more than a few have not survived!

According to our research, this sleeve variation has been on eBay a mere four times! It sold for $384 in 2010; $402 and $200 in 2011 (and the latter was a poorly priced Buy-It-Now; the former was an auction); it was totally absent from eBay in 2012; and returned to sell for $400 this past year!

And we're starting this sucker at a mere $7.99 with no reserve!

Picture Sleeve Grade: VG - Wait, WAIT, WAIT! Please, let us explain. We grade conservatively, and are among the few sellers that actually use VG properly, so please don't assume this is a beater copy!

This sleeve is in fact in mostly STUNNING condition. We don't see any ringwear on it, or even a disc impression! However, both the left and right seams are unglued. NOT SPLIT, UNGLUED. By all accounts this is nearly standard on copies of this sleeve, being that Teenage Head used a low-grade adhesive which in almost all cases has failed after 35+ years. In fact, you can see in our photos just how sloppily the adhesive was applied (after all, these guys were a punk band, not professional printers). Normally we just recommend re-gluing the seams, but we honestly don't know how glue would react with the paper. Furthermore, we actually find the shoddy glue application presently visible in the sleeve's unglued state fascinating - it helps to tell the story of the sleeve's DIY origins! It is crucial that we note that no actual splits in the paper are present on any one of the three seams.

Additionally, there are a couple of tiny light brown marks and speckles here and there on the front and back. Once again, this is nearly a standard feature of copies of this sleeve, as these speckles are remnants of the brown adhesive used to glue the seams together, and are merely a consequence of the band's low budget.

If you look closely, the white areas possess a very subtle dark-greyish "tarnishing", as if from rubbing against other sleeves. It is SO very subtle, and only worth describing given the rarity and value of the item.

Lastly, there is one absolutely tiny crease on the front, in the upper-left corner, and just a tiny bit of mild softening along the top edge.

We have taken many high quality pictures of this sleeve so you know exactly what you are bidding on. Bid with confidence - there probably aren't many left after this!

Vinyl Grade: VG+ - Both sides are super glossy, and we estimate this copy has been played twice: once by the original owner, and once by us when we created our sample rip (provided below). We gave it a thorough deep-groove cleaning via the Spin-Clean (we trust it with all of our most precious records), so as to remove all dust which may obscure any imperfection. Side A is a robust EX due to a couple of ultra-faint hairlines. Side B has one light scratch, which cannot be felt, and which actually fades in and out at different viewing angles. Otherwise very clean. We graded this one goddamn conservatively - we know what's at stake!

We have provided a rip of this entire single, so that you may bid with greater confidence. We made this rip directly after cleaning it. We have used the exact same copy as you will receive, and have not applied any sort of noise removal software to the recording. We have captured every single groove of this record - you will hear our stylus touching down at the beginning and lifting up at the end.

[CLICK HERE FOR SIDE 1]
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[CLICK HERE FOR SIDE 2]
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If you think these sound good, just wait 'til you hear it in person (i.e. in analog form)!

Please see all of the other rare punk 45s we have listed this week!

Good luck!