High Tide - Sea Shanties (Blue Liberty LBS 83264) 1969 UK A1/B1 Ex - Hawkwind

	£		196
	$		259

High Tide - Sea Shanties (Liberty LBS83264) 1969 Rare original UK Black Vinyl. Original UK first press (A1/B1) on an original Liberty Blue label. Original gatefold sleeve. 
One of my personal favourite psychedelic heavy rock bands of the late sixties High Tide. As a teenager in 1969 I was fortunate enough to have seen them perform on a tiny stage at Groovesville Blues Club at The Wake Arms in Epping. Having missed the last bus home, the band gave us a lift in their van to Edmonton en route to Notting Hill. It was an even longer walk home along the A1010. The four piece, at the time, were quite an obscure underground band that exploded from the extraordinary period of creativity and experimental psychedelic late "hippy" era sixties very loud and talented hard rock combo verging on heavy metal. They were not to everybody's taste but are now considered to be one of underground-rock's most overlooked and under-rated exponents psychedelic heavy rock.   The band consisted of: Tony Hill: A unique British born guitarist, singer and writer who had been a member of legendary US psych-rock pioneers from Riverside, California, The Misunderstood. I was a big fan having purchased "Children Of The Sun" singles on Fontana. Simon House: A classically trained violinist and keyboard and was a founder member of High Tide he played an amazing electric violin, weaving in and out of Tony Hill's swirling guitar psychedelic guitar with a wild soundscape from a wild overdriven amplified violin. Later becoming a member of label-mates Hawkwind, and was integral in his contribution of keyboards and violin and arrangements to nine of their best albums from "Hall of the Mountain Grill" in 1974 through to "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" (1977), PXR5 (1979). In 1978 he joined David Bowie's live band on his world tour which resulted in the album "Stage". He also worked with Mike Oldfield as well as his own albums and projects. Peter Pavli:  Originally bassist with White Rabbit managed by the former Yardbirds bassist Ian Samwell-Smith. This obscure psychedelic folk-rock group was fronted by Samwell-Smith's girlfriend Linda Lewis, Junior Kerr played guitar with the band before achieving chart success with "Police & Thieves" having changed his name to Junior Marvin. Other members included drummer Ron Berg (who would join Mick Abrahams in Blodwyn Pig), Rod Goodway, Andy Rickell (guitar) and Mike Aron (organ). Peter Pavli attended an audition with High Tide which he says "consisted of smoking a joint together before launching into an amazing jam which seemed to go on for hours". The following week he was playing with the band live at a blues club in London. When High Tide disintegrated, he and Simon House played in the baroque free form "Third Ear Band", contributing bass and violin to their third album the soundtrack to the Polanski film "Macbeth" on Harvest.  Roger Hadden: Worked on a contract basis as a studio drummer for Liberty. He was the perfect steady drummer who could anchor the complex arrangements, key and time changes, distorted Bach like runs played at speed. Just the sheer volume needed keep their wall of sound firmly rooted and driving it forward like an express train. Luckily for High Tide, he ended up becoming a full member of the band. Roger remained with High Tide through the recording of the second album until he sadly developed some kind of psychosis, possibly due to the prevalence of psychotropic intoxicants of the era, forced the cancellation mid-tour when Roger was unable to continue and broke-down. Effectively this was end of the original band as they were not prepared to carry on without Roger. There were three demos recorded before Roger's exit which was included on the third album "Interesting Times"
Condition:  Vinyl:  Visually: Ex The label is clean. There are some spindle marks, obviously well played. Lovely sheen. No vistble damage save for some very light innocuous hairline surface paper marks when held under bright light. indicating  otherwise it does appear to be in excellent condition. Aurally: Ex: Perfect or at least very near. There appears to be very little audible blemishes of any description, certainly no major damage to interfere with the listening pleasure. Any blemishes are very light and almost inaudible. On side 1 there is a single light tick in the dead wax band between track 1 - 2 and some very light surface noise on the second half of track 3, very light and needs to be listened for. Side 2 displays a couple of fleeting ticks at the end of track 1. Otherwise I couldn't spot another blemiish. Overall a remarkable copy, obviously well looked after and much loved throughout its half-century..  Gatefold Sleeve: VG+: Some evidence of moderate use but still in lovely condition. No major damage. Just a bit of wear or grubbiness but near excellent considering its age. Some finger-mark discolouration to the white sleeve and a little light foxing. Some light wear to the right-hand edge.and light scuffing to the corners and edges. The spine is completely legible with minimal scuffing. Inner Gatefold Sleeve: VG+: Some edge wear as above. Otherwise excellent for its age... Original Liner Bag: VG:. Plain paper liner, no die-cut, nor poly-lining. Made in Great Britain, Patent No. 1,125,555  Evidence of use and some creases and light wear.. Also supplied with a new poly-lined die cut paper liner and thick crystal clear PVC protective cover.  Matrix numbers: Machine stamped in the dead wax: LBS83264 A//1 and B//1.
Overall the vinyl is in excellent condition, the packaging is on the plus side of very good condition, any wear is minor. To avoid any damage during transit the vinyl is supplied in a new anti-static poly-lined paper inner sleeve and a thick crystal-clear P.V.C protective cover.