Dr Z Three Parts To My Soul Vertigo Swirl:

	£		511
	$		677

Here is Dr Z's 1971 album, Three Parts To My Soul on the Vertigo spiral label, offered for auction with no reserve price. If you are looking at this listing then I'll wager you are already aware of its legendary status as the rarest of the early Vertigo spiral releases, with only 80 copies reportedly finding their way into the hands of an indifferent public. Let's face it, we were only 4 years down the line from the Summer of Love, 2 years on from Woodstock and Altamont. We had lost Jimi and Janis. The Beatles were history. Was the world ready for a long playing record of pop music, played by a power-trio fronted by a harpsichord instead of a Fender Stratocaster, and based upon some obscure and frankly dubious theological philosophy? Probably not, is my short answer.

The Catalogue Number is 6360 048.

As far as I can remember I purchased this LP new, from a small record and sheet music shop in Glasgow that for some reason seemed to specialise in the weirdest of releases. Having owned this LP for all that time, and becoming increasingly aware of its rarity, I've been monitoring the ebay listings over the past few years, and have noticed that it is being offered for sale less and less frequently. Subsequently I feel it is reasonable to conclude that the remaining available copies are gradually becoming secreted into the hands of serious collectors, who presumably are not going to be selling them again readily. This could therefore be your last opportunity to acquire a good vinyl copy of this highly sought-after rarity.

I hope that the following is an accurate and honest description of the LP's present condition. I've spent some time this afternoon playing it through, listening carefully and visually inspecting it with a bright light and magnifying glass.

A certain amount of crackle affects both sides of the record. It is audible during some of the periods of silence and can occasionally be heard during the music. Given that I've owned this LP from new, and given that it's never been among my musical favourites, it has not been subjected to much play-time, and only on high quality equipment. I have also definitely never lent this LP to anyone. These facts, in conjunction with the irregular nature of the crackle, leads me to conclude that it will mostly be as a result of static build-up, and not due to any actual scratching of the vinyl. I would therefore hope that a professional cleaning will restore it to a superior condition.

In further support of this view I would say that in the passages where the crackle is not present, the definition and clarity of the music is excellent, which means that the vinyl cannot have sustained any generalised damage. If you have a serious interest, I can perhaps record a few MP3 samples to email to you, to let you hear it for yourself.

There is only very minimal warpage, the tonearm perhaps oscillating only by approximately 1 mm during disc rotation, while positioned at the beginning of the side. This does not cause any discernible distortion of the audio.

Visually, some minor surface scuffing is evident, probably a result of being removed and inserted into the inner sleeve. There is a 3 cm light scratch mark across the second half of side 1, but this does not produce any audible result as far as I can tell. There is some kind of smudge mark on the run-in groove of side 2.

I cannot discern any spindle marks on the side 1 spiral label, but some are evident on side 2, with 1 mark spreading out of the inner circle, reaching almost all the way to the label's edge.

There is no writing or price-label residue on the outer sleeve. The front 3 fold-out sections are all very clean. Some ringwear is starting to become visible at the top of the rear face, but apart from that it is also clean. There is no splitting of any edges. The bottom and right hand edges are both affected by slight wear, the bottom being the worst affected, mostly at the corners. The left hand edge is least affected, with the edge printing remaining fully legible.

The album will be supplied with a swirl inner sleeve, which is yellowing slightly at the edges, is split on one side for approximately 5 cm and has 2 small tears in the paper at the centre of one side. The record has been nestling in a Nagaoka antistatic liner for the past few years, which will also be supplied.

I'm moving house soon, which has spurred me to abandon vinyl pursuits, so I'll be offloading a goodly quantity of other stuff. Be sure to add me to your list of Favourite Sellers and check my other auctions.

Payment terms are Paypal, postal order, personal cheque or bankers draft. Whichever method you choose, I will dispatch the LP when the funds have cleared to my account.

The P&P referred to below is for Royal Mail UK first class, packaged in a cardboard mailer with stiffener, the LP packed outside the sleeve (so as not to cause sleeve wear), and supplied with a heavy duty PVC outer cover and Nagaoka anti-static inner sleeve liner. However, given that this auction is for a cherished item, and that the item delivery is at your risk, you may want to discuss another method of delivery/packaging. If interested, please contact me to discuss. I'm happy to post worldwide, on the proviso that a suitable insured delivery service is available to your destination.

Zero and negative feedback bidders please contact me before bidding.

If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask. Happy bidding and good luck.