MOODY BLUES Lost Chord EARLIEST STEREO ISSUE Psych NM

	£		72
	$		95

THE MOODY BLUES

          IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD

1968 UK STEREO DERAM SML-711

Here is a amazing MINT- condition earliest ever UK STEREO first pressing of the best Moody Blues album ever recorded. This classic 1968 LP is a superb psych chill-out gem with some excellent indian influences. If you have never heard this essential album then you really are missing out on one of the most consistent and best UK psych albums ever recorded. In my opinion it's up there with the likes of The Zombies "Odessey & Oracle" and Kaleidoscope's ''Tangerine Dream'' or The Pretty Things concept album ''S.F Sorrow'', it's musically different to these albums but it's so consistently brilliant throughout.

This is the rarest UK STEREO issue as the gatefold sleeve was printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse and all later covers bar a few hundred were printed by Robert Stace, these Robert Stace printed sleeves are very common indeed and are very easily found on ebay every week, also this sleeve has the inside centre opening design where the vinyl slips into the inside middle and not the outer opening edge of the gatefold as nearly all other copies have, even the earliest MONO versions slide out from the outer edge and not from the inside, this extremely rare earliest gatefold sleeve also has two internal flipbacks which is virtually impossible to find with this album, this rarer flipback version means that the sleeve is also much thinner than later issues, lastly this earliest Garrod & Lofthouse sleeve seems to have more vibrant colours to that of later Robert Stace sleeves, the reason this sleeve design is so rare is probably due to DERAM not being entirely happy with it's design and then dropping the Garrod & Lofthouse sleeve and immediately changing it to the Robert Stace version which nearly all other existing copies have.

This extremely rare earliest Garrod & Lofthouse gatefold sleeve variation makes this one of the hardest to find Uk Moody Blues rarities, and trying to find a copy in such immaculate clean playing condition as this copy on offer here is very near impossible.

                          Track Listing:

                    1. Departure
                    2. Ride My See-Saw
                    3. Dr. Livingstone, I presume
                    4. House Of Four Doors
                    5. Legend Of a Mind
                    6. House Of Four Doors (part2)

                    1. Voices In The Sky
                    2. The Beat Way To Travel
                    3. Visions Of Paradise
                    4. The Actor
                    5. The Word
                    6. OM

The original thick chunky vinyl looks amazingly clean and glossy and visually grades an immaculate MINT- condition, it actually looks like a new pressing as both sides still have their full unblemished mirror like sheen, there are no surface marks at all and both sides play superbly well throughout with barely even a hint of light background crackle. The sound quality is brilliantly clean and very clear throughout and it is very obvious that this album has only ever had just a few very careful plays in almost 40 years, i played this album in it's entirety before listing and it really does play and sound superb with no annoying surface noise, this album has quite a few quiet passages and even these sound amazingly clean and crystal clear. This is just a brilliant earliest UK stereo pressing that looks and sounds amazing and will not need upgrading and will definitely not disappoint.

Both white and red Deram labels are very clean and bright and are as new with just a few light spindle traces visible when tilted toward a certain light. these labels are the very earliest DERAM design with the large DSS logo on the top and the small boxed DERAM logo at the bottom, anything later had the standard half moon upper red with DERAM in large white letters and the track listing in the white lower half of the label.

The front and back laminated gatefold sleeve is the rarest very earliest stereo issue that was printed in the UK by Garrod & Lofthouse. As already mentioned, only a tiny fraction were printed by G&L and almost all others bar just a few hundred were printed by Robert Stace. The front lamination looks amazingly fresh and clean and gleams as new with just one very light handling crease to the bottom right corner, the white matt inside gatefold looks superb and is still almost pure white and is free of defects, there are just two very light impression lines caused by the vinyl being inside the thinner album housing, this is very minor indeed and looks far worse in the gallery photo than when having the sleeve in hand, the inside gatefold actually looks very near as new. This extremely rare early sleeve has the two ultra-rare flipbacks on the inside right bottom and top, also the vinyl's inner sleeve slides into the inside middle gatefold and not the outer edge as all other copies do. It would surely take a very long time indeed to try and locate another copy of this ultra-rare G&L gatefold variation with inside flipbacks and the inside loading design as it is simply the rarest UK Moody Blues cover variation and only a few hundred were ever printed like this.

The original poly-lined blue/white stereo inner sleeve is in excellent clean condition with some corner creasing.

There cannot be too many original earliest stereo pressings of this album surviving in this condition today and it may be some time before another surfaces for sale in such amazing clean playing condition again. This is just a immaculate original Uk Stereo copy that will definitely not disappoint in any way.

The pictures that i have provided are of the actual album for sale, if you have any questions or require any more pictures then please just contact me.

The pictures in the gallery are available to view in super-size.

Please view my other items for similar records.

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Payment options for Uk & International buyers.

UK buyers please pay by Paypal,Cheque or Postal Order.

International buyers please pay by Paypal only please.

Package & Post/Shipping costs.

Uk first class mail = £2.50

Air Mail Europe = £5.00

Air Mail to the rest of the world = £7.00