Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti LP - VERY FIRST UK Press - Near Perfect Vinyl

	£		113
	$		150

I am selling some of my personal vinyl collection. Many of these records are UK pressings and were mainly purchased by myself in the 1970’s/80’s. They have been extremely well looked after, most having only been played a handful of times on Linn or Rega turntables with a light stylus tracking force of 1.5 to 1.75 g.

Please read the description below for vinyl condition (as per the Record Collector Grading System), but for most of my records the vinyl can be considered as in near mint or excellent condition, shiny and with no significant marks – basically almost as good as when it came out of the original shop. The covers vary in condition but most are excellent just showing the usual signs of storage. Most have been stored in plastic protective covers.

A word about hairline marks. It is almost impossible to find any non-sealed record without any hairline marks - many had them from new, particularly if sold with cardboard inner sleeves. They are a result of storage and use and have little impact on sound quality. Likewise, very few original vinyl records lie totally flat. As for background noise, all records will have some background noise which varies wildly and often reflects the very variable pressing quality. I have bought new heavy pressing LP's in recent years and many of the original records I am selling not only look better but they sound better! I only draw attention to marks, warping or background noise in my listings if I consider them significant.

All records have been cleaned using high quality professional Record Cleaning Machines - either a £3,000 Keith Monks Omni VII RCM or a Moth Pro Mk II RCM. Not only does this wet clean/vacuuming process remove surface marks such as fingerprints, etc, it also significantly reduces background noise and many argue that the lower noise floor results in opening up of the sound and improved fidelity.

This album is Led Zeppelin's classic "Physical Graffiti" double LP on the Swan Song label SSK 89400. This is many a hard core Zeppelin fan's favourite album and it is not hard to see why. It is a sprawling majestic ambitious album with not a bad track on it - a classic!

This particular album is an incredible rarity. It is a very first UK pressing of this groundbreaking album. These records have the A1/B4/C1/D1 matrix numbers which according to my research were only found on the VERY FIRST records pressed. Other copies of this album commonly called first pressings have the B5 matrix, but apparently the B4 matrix pre-dated the B5

Other characteristic features of this first UK pressing are the sleeve has "Swan Song/484 Kings Road, London SW10"and "Cuilderstead Ltd., trading as Swan Song" at the top. The sleeve is wraparound on thick card with a matt finish and a spine at the bottom with red lettering down the side. The inner sleeves are thick card with SSK 89400/A & SSK 89400/B in bottom right hand corners and the labels have "Made in UK" at 9 O'Clock and NO Warners logo at 3 O'Clock - see large scale photos below.

All this is good enough, but the fact is the incredibly rare album is in NEAR PERFECT condition. Because the sleeve was preserved in a plastic protector since it was bought, the sleeve shows absolutely no edge wear and no significant marks of any kind. The sleeve opening has a slight "ripple" effect (see photo) from the plastic protector and there is a very small mark top left on the front (possibly where an original price label was removed - again, see photo) but otherwise this sleeve is in near perfect condition and just as it came out of the shop about 40 years ago! Likewise the two card inner sleeves are in near perfect condition with no splits or apparent wear of any kind - incredible! The fold out insert is also in excellent condition with just some very minor wear to the top edge and very slight discolouration as far as I can make out, but really I am nit picking here.

On to the vinyl and the records are in similar SUPERB condition. There are the odd one or two hairline marks, the most significant I could find being on Side 2, but none of these affect play in any way. My recollection is that these hairline marks were on the records when bought new as they were distributed in cardboard inners and the mere act of taking records out of the sleeves produced hairlines. I stored the records in paper inner sleeves after purchase to protect them and thus they are superbly preserved. Not only that, but I believe I have only played this particular copy on one or two occasions!

The records test played superbly on my Rega RP6 turntable with dynamic sound and low overall background noise - a superb copy! Of course, there is the odd minor bit of background crackle in places as with any record, even a new one, but overall in both appearance and sound quality this record is pretty much as good as the day it came out of the shop around 40 years ago.

For the sake of total transparency I also need to point out that Record 2 is also very very slightly "dish" shaped but again this was probably the case when new. It affects play in no way at all and I am only pointing it out so all buyers know all the fine detail.

Overall, I can confidently say that you will find it almost impossible to find an original of this classic album is such fine condition.

I dispatch worldwide in reinforced heavy duty LP mailers with cardboard reinforcements either side.

Please see my other listings (including a "B5" First Pressing copy of Physical Graffiti) with many auctions of classic rock albums  to come so save me as a favourite seller. Typical postage prices as follows and combined postage with other albums saves money (double album counts as 2 records):

UK: 1 record £3.50, 2 records £4.50, 3 records £6.

EU: 1 record £5.50, 2 records £7, 3 records £8.50.

International: 1 record £8.50, 2 records £10, 3 records £11.50.

Some countries may require International Signed For so please ask.

Please see my feedback, particularly on other records I have sold, and thanks for looking.