T REX Electric Warrior - RARER ORIG UK 1971 FLY EX++ COMPLETE EXAMPLE 

	£		60
	$		80

Artist or Band: T. Rex

Album Title: Electric Warrior.

Producer(s): Tony Visconti.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Mambo Sun; Cosmic Dancer; Jeepster; Monolith; Lean Woman Blues.

Side 2: Get It On; Planet Queen; Girl; The Motivator; Life’s a Gas; Rip Off.

Label/Format: Fly – original ‘Fly’ format on side one, and the beautiful customised T. Rex. images on two. These have a matt, smooth finish.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and hugely attractive without spindle marks on the ‘text’ side, and barely any of note on the picture side. Fly is one of my personal favourite label designs, and to have such a superb picture of Bolan and Finn on side two makes for the perfect combination for this legendary album. Both are seldom seen this attractive and clearly little used.

Cat Number: HIFLY 6.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: Scarce as a complete first issue. All elements of this album are hard to find in decent conditions and many examples seen are trashed with heavy usage or have parts missing or badly damaged. This one is one of the very best I have seen for a long time with all elements in exceptional conditions. Few available examples will match or better this and this indeed could prove a substantial upgrade for many. This includes the red stickered 'Free T.REX Poster Inside' found ONLY on the earlier released first pressings.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: FLY 6 A-2U 2 2 / FLY 6 B-2U

Run-Out Groove Etchings: ‘PORKY’ and 'PECKO-DUCK'

Musicians: Marc Bolan – vocals, guitars; Mickey Finn – conga drums, bongos; Steve Currie – bass guitar; Bill Legend – drums; Howard Kaylan – backing vocals; Mark Volman – backing vocals; Rick Wakeman – keyboards; Ian McDonald – saxophone; Burt Collins – flugelhorn.

Brief Artist & Album Info: Bolan, Finn, Currie and Legend at the start of their glam-rock popularity, they could do little wrong at this time and Electric Warrior is arguably their greatest album ever. Now regarded as a genuine ‘classic’, this album sold well and reached No 1 in the album charts. His almost nonsense lyrics never sounded better, Bolan made them sound like poetry. Including two major hit singles in ‘Jeepster’ and ‘Get it On’, this could not fail, and didn’t. This, along with Ziggy-era Bowie was British glam-rock at it’s very best. Backing vocals are provided by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, then members of Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. An album getting increasingly difficult to find in any form, the early copies with the stickered cover, inner sleeve and poster especially so. Many were bought by teenagers of the time and they got played into submission and mostly used on very basic record players. This cover ages badly and is seldom seen much above very good, this one has very little age at all and can be described as EXCELLENT+ . The beautiful graphic inner sleeve fully intact and very attractive, and the giant poster – the most elusive element by far, unmounted and looking magnificent.Graded as MINT. Finally and most importantly, the record plays beautifully with barely anything to fault, it was a pure pleasure to play-grade and even offering this copy is not proving easy for me being a T REX fan. Do not underestimate how challenging this rarity is to find like this.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(+): a single unlaminated format with matt, smooth surfaces. This has the quite rare early sticker on the front (as clearly seen in close-up) to promote the poster. This was fairly quickly omitted from later copies and many owners would have removed it when purchased. Printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group. The poster and inner sleeve are both included as well.

Cover Front: This cover is VERY hard to find without often significant and heavy wear. There are no price sticker tears and rim impression or ringwear. The gold outline of the Electric Warrior looks simply magnificent. Special mention of the sticker: this is equally impressive and little short of as-made with genuine freshness and deep colour. This has never been picked or removed, this rare element of this cover puts the iceing on the cake. As stated, these were soon to disappear and many originals were often removed by owners. Any negative would be the name D ORGAN in the top left hand corner BUT it is in black and can only be seen when the cover is angled in the light. There are two slight creases on the front cover as shown in the picture

Cover Back: The back, is classic, with the fine poetry of Marc. In Excellent++ condition. All totally clear and sharp. No creasing. Very slight ring crease.

Top Edge: Straight with minimal traces of rubbing, hardly any at all in fact. This is quite thin so delicate.

Bottom Edge: Superb for a storage edge, this has barely worn at all – the cover protection means this perilous edge has survived like all others.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, quite sharp with any thickening gentle as seen viewed end-on. All perfectly natural and guaranteed untrimmed or enhanced in any way. The back edge very sharp being a mere fraction shorter than the front in manufacture. Record enters on this edge.

Spine and Text: Solid, very straight with any compression minimal, gentle and little wear except first inch of top. A couple of ultra fine hairlines but barely any rubbing at all. All that fragile gold text present and intact, strong and very easy to read. Again, this so often erodes and many spines seen threadbare.

Corners: Signs of minimal wear on spine edge, worst at top as dscsribed. Right edge shows minimal whitening

Cover Summary: One of the classic covers of the time and hugely important in the glam-rock genre, and few, along with Bowie did it better than Bolan and T. Rex. This is a fantastic example, one to hold and enjoy, with so many seen in tatters, this is possibly one of the better ones you will see that has survived the perils of the era incredibly well. A likely major upgrade for serious collectors, this excellent example should please most fans.

The Inner Sleeve: VERY GOOD considering an unlined and fragile inner and superbly illustrated with pictures of Bolan and Finn. Few of these survive unsplit, and this one has along the central of the bottom edge and one side. It is easily repairable if required.  This still looks very attractive with only hints of natural age darkening that actually gives this a finer appearance and vintage. There is some creasing to two corners. See picture. Both graphics still look magnificent.

The Poster: MINT: a large matt poster, that is made with thick paper and one of the very few unopened and unmounted (e.g. NO pin-holes or tape marks of any type) . This one has hardly ever seen light-of-day and this pinnacle element of this set is immaculate. Clean, fresh with barely any hint of marks or ageing. All the manufacture crease folds are as strong and solid as when made, all edges crisp and sharp with no creasing or tears. Even the back has aged little, the front is truly exceptional. As stated above, an album purchased in numbers by the teenagers of the era, with a very high percentage of this display piece mounted on walls. Often ripped down, badly torn, discoloured or disgarded altogether. Finding one of these in such supreme condition is a VERY difficult and that is so many cases is missing altogether. This integral piece of this classic set will prove immensely difficult to find better.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT condition with a few light surface marks, the worst shown. Makes no difference whatsoever to the sound quality. With two fantastic clean labels and super audio quality, this copy should again please most collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes