FAIRFIELD PARLOUR From Home to Home VERY RARE ORIG UK 1970 VERTIGO SPIRAL EX+ LP

	£		192
	$		254

Artist or Band: FAIRFIELD PARLOUR

Album Title: From Home to Home

Producer(s): David Symonds

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Aries; In My Box; By Your Bedside; Soldier of the Flesh; I Will Always Feel the Same; Free.

Side 2: Emily; Chalk on the Wall; The Glorious House of Arthur; Monkey; Sunny Side Circus; Drummer Boy of Shiloh.

Label/Format: Vertigo – original large spiral format with matt, smooth surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with only light, quite few, fine and faint spindle marks and no wear around the hole area. The white side two is very clean indeed with no grubbiness or ageing, they rarely get seen much better.

Cat Number: 6360001.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 132 grams. A very good weight for this record.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Rare: like the majority on this hugely collectable label, this is very elusive and only sold in very meagre numbers. Even harder to find in anything like decent condition as well, the cover is incredibly wear-prone and near impossible to find anything like perfect. The record equally difficult, for those who did buy it, most played it a number of times and often on less than wonderful equipment. This 45-year-old Swirl is in super condition and looks little played at all and offers very clean sound. A rare opportunity for Vertigo collectors to fill in one of those elusive gaps and this one is impressive enough to appeal to many fans.

Original Year of Release: 1970

Matrix Nos: 6360001 1Y // 1 1 1 2 & 6360001 2Y // 1 1 1 2 [they hardly get much earlier]

Musicians: Peter Daltrey - lead vocals, piano, mellotron, harpsichord, organ, tambourine; Eddy Pumer - vocals, classical, acoustic, twelve string and electric guitars, Mellotron, organ, harpsichord; Steve Clark - bass and flutes; Danny Bridgman - drums, pedal tympany, tubular bells, tambourine, bongos.

Brief Info: Fairfield Parlour were formerly known as Kaleidoscope. Not to be confused with an American band of the same name, Kaleidoscope (UK) were a psychedelic band who issued two albums on Fontana – although very highly rated and both are brilliant, neither sold and almost sunk without trace – both now are massively collectable and sort after, but rarely found. The band returned with a new name to record a one-off album on Vertigo, it sold equally poorly and again is very sort-after by fans and Swirl collectors alike. All three of the albums have a certain charm and catchiness and with superb lyrics, why they failed to sell is baffling – possibly the lack of promotion? – in this case, like so many other gems on this label, it was just another one that failed to get noticed. A band mysteriously doomed to failure, they just could not break through and failed to attract a substantial audience, and they split in 1972. This is a lovely copy, a little light cover wear is near unavoidable, but this will better many around. The record is superb, lightly played and sounding great. A rare opportunity for a difficult Swirl, these do not surface often and seldom a great deal better.

Cover Grade and Format: NEAR EXCELLENT: and given all the facts, quite possibly undergraded. An unlaminated gatefold format with matt surfaces and a lovely rough texturing on the front and back, the inside is smooth. The outer faces have a feel similar to vinyl wallpaper making for another type of surface for Vertigo. The inside includes the original ‘Warning’ text for all ‘Vertigo’ recordings. Printed and made in England, uncredited and includes the original Swirl inner.

Cover Front: The front is very impressive indeed with little to fault. Clean, fresh with hardly any rubbing – traces on the bottom edge towards the left – and devoid of creasing or sticker marks. Deep colour retained, this is one prone to fading, and the lack of speckle or scuffing to the lovely textured surface is a considerable plus, a front that will prove very difficult to find better.

Cover Back: As the record is stored in the back of the cover, this side is vastly prone to ringwear, and where present, it will show on this dark surface. So glad to state any present on this one if fine, gentle and light, just light traces near the central areas of each edge, and a mere hint near the label area. A few very fine surface marks show little and again hardly any creasing and no fading with minimal speckle. A difficult cover, these exposed outer faces are somewhat above average and impressive.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Again dark, but now smooth with a standard card feel and finish. The odd tiny chip apart, this inside has little else to really fault.

Top Edges: Straight and neat with little wear apparent. Possible gentle enhancement cannot be ruled out from the past, if so, subtle and neat.

Bottom Edges: Patchy light to moderate rubbing on the actual folds. The actual card panel end has thickened a little. Where card is a fraction longer than the fold on these storage edges, this is near impossible to avoid.

Right Edge(s), and Type: These edges are sharp with little wear. Any thickening or burring mild and light as seen end-on, the record enters on the back, all edges are guaranteed untrimmed.

Spine and Text: Another perilous area: but solid, straight with minimal compression and folded quite square. So the edges meet up closely but not quite parallel. All text is present and practically unworn, this is very fine indeed and few will remain this solid and intact. Minimal traces of any rubbing, and this includes the fold hinges that are unscuffed. The odd one or two tiny tip-ins in the spine are reasonably discrete.

Corners: Light to moderate tip rubs with generally fine to very fine shape retained with no bashes or dinks.

Cover Summary: A strong all-round example of this immensely fragile and rare early 1970’s cover, one that will always prove difficult to find much better, and finding it at all is never easy. This elusive item should please many, and maybe even most collectors, but not the perfectionists.

The Inner Sleeve:VERY GOOD CONDITION : with the usual glue browning on the seams, but here quite light. This has one corner crease on the back, but two immaculate, crisp window circles and a very clear polylining. All edges unsplit with no repairs. Some writing on the rear.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+): a super visual copy that is very clean with excellent shine and very solidly pressed. A copy with minimal plays on all the evidence with any surface marks ultra fine, light and faint. Just whispy surface traces seen critically under light with no penetrating stylus scratches. Visually a super record that should please many, if not most collectors.