HENRY COW Legend SCARCE ORIG UK 1973 EX LP, FULLY LAMINATED, CANTERBURY PROG GEM

	£		27
	$		36

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Postage: UK £4.95. Europe (including Russia) £12.95 (£1 per extra record). Rest of World £19.95 (£2 per extra record). All my records are sent in boxes and the price of them has increased over time and these are my first price increases for nearly 10 years. Royal Mail prices have also gone up again. I will never compromise on quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

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ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: HENRY COW

Album Title: Legend

Producer(s): Henry Cow

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Nirvana for Mice; Amygdala; Teenbeat Introduction; Teenbeat.

Side 2: Extract from ‘With the Yellow Half-Moon and Blue Star’; Teenbeat Reprise; The Tenth Chaffinch; Nine Funerals of the Citizen King.

Label/Format: Virgin – original black and white ‘Twin Virgins’ format with matt, smooth surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with only light, fine and faint spindle marks. Appearing little used and with impressive clean sound quality.

Cat Number: V 2005

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 Record: 133 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Scarce. One of the least commercial of the Canterbury Rock scene.

Original Year of Release: 1973

Matrix Nos: V 2005 A-2U / V 2005 B-1U

Mothers / Stampers: 1 G / 1 L

Musicians: Geoff Leigh – saxophones, flute, clarinet, recorder, voice; Tim Hodgkinson – organ, piano, alto saxophone, clarinet, little bells, voice; Fred Frith – guitars, violin, viola, piano, voice; John Greaves – bass guitar, piano, whistle, voice; Chris Cutler – drums, toys, piano, whistle, voice. With: Jeremy Baines – pixiphone; Sarah Greaves, Maggie Thomas and Cathy Williams – chorus.

Brief Info: A very early album on the new Richard Branson Virgin record label. When founded in 1972, Virgin almost specialised in new and more avant garde ‘progressive’ acts such as Mike Oldfield and experimental European bands such as Faust, Tangerine Dream and Gong, also including several from the Canterbury rock scene. It probably amazed Branson himself that ‘Tubular Bells’ sold in such monumental numbers and ‘Phaedra’ even broke Tangerine Dream into the UK album charts. This new label opened many music lovers’ ears to more adventurous and interesting bands of the time. Henry Cow, an English band from Cambridgeshire were signed in May 1973 and quickly recorded this impressive debut album – it was promoted with a tour supported by the Krautrockers Faust. Neither band ever sold-out to being commercial, and Henry Cow’s music, in even progressive terms, has never been anything like mainstream. They developed their own style of jazzy ‘art rock’ that was never orthodox but always compelling, their albums only bought by the curious and more adventurous music fans. Many regard this debut as their best, it is a captivating album which I found fairly easy to get into, but it could too a little too ‘out-there’ for some. Predominately instrumental and including the immense improvised guitar talents of Fred Frith, this at times reminds me of Zappa’s Mothers of Invention circa 1968 to 1970 – that is probably why I found this very much to my own personal taste. Henry Cow are one of the least-seen on the early Virgin label and this is a very fine copy. For those yet to experience the joys of Henry Cow, this is probably the place to start.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT: a single fully laminated format. Printed and made in England, includes the plain white inner sleeve.

Lamination – Front & Back: A very nice example of this quite famous art-rock cover. The laminate retains excellent shine, freshness and clarity with no lifting. A little quite mild rim impression and dulling from the record with several mild edge creases mostly on the spine. Any edge toning to the card where the laminate ends is light and little overall. Be clear, any marks that may appear to the main area is simply part of the artwork and not blemishes or issues. So light clues of age, but still a very fine example of this elusive prog-rock cover.

Top Edge: Little short of perfect, straight with full smooth laminate retention.

Bottom Edge: Practically the same with just very small rubs to the ends.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Any thickening light on the front, the back with barely any at all. Record enters on this edge.

Spine and Text: Still solid, straight with minimal compression, the ends are pinched in manufacture. A couple of fine hairline creases and one very small surface chip only. All text fully present and strong under the clear laminate.

Corners: Any tip rubs or creases tiny and light, Very fine (bottom right) to excellent (rest) shape retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A strong all-round example of this scarce prog-rock 1970’s cover, one that could prove difficult to find much better. This one should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: NEAR EXCELLENT: a little creasing towards the top stops a higher grading, none of which are heavy. A plain white unlined inner with the edges intact and the paper with minimal hint of ageing. This has the 1125555 patent number.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT: arguably better. A very fine visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. A copy with minimal plays on all the evidence with any surface marks very light, wispy and faint as seen critically under bright angled light. Those super-fine types where a cleaning cloth was used to remove dust from way back and totally harmess and barely even visible in average room light. Visually a super record that should please many collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I?offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or minuscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This quality Canterbury rock prog gem plays even above it’s high visual grading with little to fault. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed, and this does have a few quieter passages as most albums of this type invariably do. Overall, a very clean pressing for what I can confirm, is a challenging recording and complex record. Few copies will outperform this scarce first pressing significantly I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played lightly and appears generally well stored and carefully handled. Nothing of any note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this impressive record. One for prog fans who like their music a little more challenging, this will prove difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly recommended.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest records I can find. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same – just because an item is rare does not always mean it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR Camera.

PACKING – THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal from­ winning bidders. I only accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT necessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.