JOY DIVISION - Closer LP. UK 1st press. STUNNING COPY FACT XXV.Rounded inner

	£		29
	$		39

  Rare chance to bid on an increasingly scarce 1st press original 1980 Factory Records copy (Catalogue number Fact XXV) of Joy Division's 2nd classic long player Closer .   This is a near immaculate copy. It's almost perfect in every way and just NEVER comes up for auction in this condition. I must stress this is the solid black vinyl version though and not the translucent vinyl. Matrix etchings read for Side 1: old blue? FACT 25 A1. Side 2: FACT 25 B-1. 
             Old Blue? is a reference to Old Blue Eyes, Bing Crosby!
            The vinyl I have played through from start to finish on my Acoustic Research deck with Goldring 1012 stylus and is a superb example which I shall grade as being in EXCELLENT+ condition. These copies of Closer usually have hairline marks caused by the slightly abrasive thinnish card matt inner but this one really is the exception. Believe me,it looks like it was pressed yesterday.A truly stunning copy of a UK original.
            The original matt card outer sleeve I will grade as being in an EXCELLENT condition. It looks virtually untouched save for some very light ringwear, couple of light ,and I mean light,creases and a couple of dings to the right hand corners and another to the left 45 degrees up from the "C" in Closer but I am being incredibly picky (though very honest) here). Please note I used a flash to take the rear sleeve picture which makes it look duller than the front of the sleeve but this is just the flash causing this. It is beautifully white in "real life" as it were!
            The spine is perfectly readable and not crushed in any way. It's quite astounding that a record sleeve (particularly one as notoriously fragile as this one) can remain in near perfect condition 30 years down the line.This is possibly the ultimate and final upgrade of this item. I have never seen another one of the sleeves with absolutely NO discolouration in many,many years but this one is simply stunning!
The matt card inner sleeve with the all important rounded corners is just about perfect save for some light unavoidable ringwear, so I shall grade as being in an EXCELLENT+ condition. Really I should just let the pictures do the work here. Lovely copy.
The labels are absolutely fine.The matrix has old blue? and the all important A1/B1 1st pressing proof etched into the run out clearly shown in the pictures.So there,I think that just about covers it, so all in all a great opportunity to bid on a beautiful copy of a fantastic and increasingly rare,classic record. Any questions are welcomed!
       Joy Division - Closer.If Unknown Pleasures was Joy Division at their most obsessively, carefully focused, ten songs yet of a piece, Closer was the sprawl, the chaotic explosion that went every direction at once. Who knows what the next path would have been had Ian Curtis not chosen his end? But steer away from the rereading of his every lyric after that date; treat Closer as what everyone else thought it was at first - simply the next album - and Joy Division's power just seems to have grown. Martin Hannett was still producing, but seems to have taken as many chances as the band itself throughout - differing mixes, differing atmospheres, new twists and turns define the entirety of Closer, songs suddenly returned in chopped-up, crumpled form, ending on hiss and random notes.  Opener "Atrocity Exhibition" was arguably the most fractured thing the band had yet recorded, Bernard Sumner's teeth-grinding guitar and Stephen Morris' Can-on-speed drumming making for one heck of a strange start. Keyboards also took the fore more so than ever - the drowned pianos underpinning Curtis' shadowy moan on "The Eternal," the squirrelly lead synth on the energetic but scared-out-of-its-wits "Isolation," and above all else "Decades," the album ender of album enders. A long slow crawl down and out, Curtis' portrait of lost youth inevitably applied to himself soon after, its sepulchral string-synths are practically a requiem. Songs like "Heart and Soul" and especially the jaw-dropping, wrenching "Twenty Four Hours," as perfect a demonstration of the tension/release or soft/loud approach as will ever be heard, simply intensify the experience. Joy Division were at the height of their powers on Closer, equaling and arguably bettering the astonishing Unknown Pleasures, that's how accomplished the four members were. Rock, however defined, rarely seems and sounds so important, so vital, and so impossible to resist or ignore as here. Track Listing: - 1 Atrocity Exhibition Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 6:05 2 Isolation Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 2:53 3 Passover Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 4:46 4 Colony Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 3:55 5 A Means to an End Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 4:07 6 Heart and Soul Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 5:51 7 Twenty Four Hours Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 4:26 8 The Eternal Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 6:07 9 Decades Curtis, Hook, Morris, Sumner 6:09 RECORD COLLECTOR GRADING SYSTEM MINT :The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition. Records advertised as Sealed or Unplayed be Mint. EXCELLENT :The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing. VERY GOOD :The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable. I may use a + or a - to emphasise a grading which may be inbetween a grade. I will never use a mint grading for a 2nd hand/used record for instance. Mint- will be the very highest grade. PLEASE NOTE THAT I DO NOT,AND WILL NOT,RETRACT A BID FOR ANYONE REGARDLESS OF THE EXCUSE.THIS IS SOMETHING YOU WILL HAVE TO DO YOURSELF USING THE BID RETRACTION FORM AND EARN A BID RETRACTION STRIKE AGAINST YOURSELF.Paypal ONLY accepted for buyers outside the United Kingdom(UK).No exceptions on this,sorry.