THE HOLLIES Greatest SCARCE UK Orig 68 Parlophone MONO

	£		55
	$		73

Hi, I am Mike, now 50 – yes the big FIVE-O! Old enough to remember the golden era of original, high quality music, bands, artists and television.

Also records from the 1960s and 70s bought from the shops from new, I have been a music collector and enthusiast for over 37 years now. We all wish we could turn back the clock and buy those wonderful brand new records from the 60s and 70s, but alas, this is not possible; so I always try to offer the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. No vinyl/music lover really would choose to buy second-hand, but this is only way now to own these valuable, prized and elusive items now. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records sparingly on Ebay - on average ONEADAY, a couple more at weekends if time permits, hence the name - time rarely allows for more as I Play-Grade virtually every record I offer in their entirety, not just bits to guess a grade - visuals alone do not always tell a true or full story. I will mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested reader – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same - just because an item is rare does not always mean its good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programmes. What you see is what you get and scanned labels will give a more accurate representation of the genuine colour than flash photography where light is variable. I cannot guarantee one hundred percent is exact colour matching for covers - this depends on the lighting at the time and that is out of my control, but I feel sure most items will be very close to the actual real item. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert and vice-versa. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. I am enthusiastic , and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps or sticks or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12 with Ittok Mk IV arm and Ortophon 520 Mk II cartridge (tracks at 1.75 grams). Amps: Arcam 2 x 125W Pre-Power. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired). All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Moth vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too.

For winning bidders who I consider excessively slow to make contact or submit payment, I will use my right to block future bids. If any bidder who wins in the final seconds is present to do so, surely they can at least email me to inform of intention and payment method? If swift or promp payment is a problem, please do not bid.

POSTING & PACKING: What You Get: All records are posted in professional mailers or boxes as deemed appropriate for the individual item with the record(s) REMOVED from their main cover to avoid edge splits and placed within a brand new polylined inner. The record’s original inner will be included if available. Records are posted with TWO (at least) massively thick stiffners for protection and also heavier protection if deemed necessary depending on the content. These stiffners are the thickest possible and custom supplied for ‘Oneadayrecords’ – these are NOT commercially available and you will not have seen thicker protection anywhere. The cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW heavy duty soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my Moth Pro vacuum system to give ultimate clean grooves and playing surfaces and the best possible looks and ultimate sound quality. You will NOT get tired, dull looking, dust infested records inside worn and foggy covers with tatty inners from this seller and that’s a promise and guarantee. Customers requests or special needs for P&P will be respected if possible. I never make profit on posting and offer probably the cheapest and safest shipping possible. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends, with total costs including ‘standard’ or ‘optional’ P&P. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is less than 0.2 per percent based on over 2,000 items sold in over 5 years Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. Since the introduction of my ‘special’ stiffners it’s a rate of zero.

PLEASE NOTE: I will now only send packets to Russia with Recorded Delivery at a cost of £7 per single LP. If this is unacceptable to Russian collectors, please do not bid. I only want my records to arrive safely and this gives packets a better chance to do so. Also ALL UK packets will be sent with either Recorded or Special Delivery as standard (both have to be signed for). All shipping costs and rules can be found after my description. If they are not acceptable, please do not bid.

Artist or Band: THE HOLLIES

Album Title: Hollies’ Greatest.

Producer(s): Ron Richards.

Track Listing: Side 1: I Can’t Let Go; Bus Stop; We’re Through; Carrie Anne; Here I Go Again; King Midas in Reverse; Yes I Will.

Side 2: I’m Alive; Just One Look; On a Carousel; Stay; Look Through Any Window; Stop Stop Stop; Jennifer Eccles.

Label/Format: Parlophone – Original yellow and black format. Please see all details on my scans.

Label Condition: Both superb: Parlophone’s will rarely be seen looking much better than this pair. Clean and beautifully defined with hardly any trace of wear at all. Any spindle marks are very light and minimal and we all know old steel spindles left their marks readily but not here. There is no wear around the hole rims and clearly, this beautiful record has been played very little reitterated by beautifully clean and focused sound.

Cat Number: PMC 7057.

Mode / Speed: Mono / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 131 grams. [These days, many modern Audiophile reissues are pressed on super-heavyweight 180 gram vinyl. Only a small percentage of ‘vintage vinyl’ was ever pressed this heavy. Records pressed in the 1960s averaged around 140 to 150 grams. Records pressed in the 1970s were usually lighter and averaged more around 115 – 125 grams. Some records pressed around 1973 were very thin and light due an oil crisis and shortage around this time. Some records were even issued on recycled vinyl from this period and sounded poor with crackle and surface noise evident from the very first play. If any record I buy is deemed ‘recycled’, I will never offer it, I have a very simple test to detect these records if I suspect this to be the case other than audible imperfection. Some records from this period were even pressed on other materials the most notable was ‘Dynaflex’, used by RCA around this time. Although inferior to vinyl, this at least mostly sounded reasonably acceptable but pressings on this material were wafer thin and flimsy. Beyond the 70s, records often became thinner and lighter still but most played fine but were never quite the quality as from the ‘Golden Era’]. (This was based on ‘average’ weights for 20 records from these eras. Later pressings were usually lighter still).

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: More easily found on the later silver and black 70s format, mono originals are far harder to find especially in supreme playing conditions. This Hollies album was justifiably popular and those who bought them usually played them heavily. The playing surfaces on this copy proves what an exceptional record this is. It has avoided any overplaying or abuse from blunt worn mono needles that wrote-off so many gems like this. With a lovely clean cover and inner included also, this set will prove very hard to find like this again and is one for the 60s connoisseur.

Original Year of Release: 1968

Matrix Nos: XEX 693-1 and XEX 694-1. Stamper Codes: 1 GH / 1 GM

Brief Artist & Album Info: Along with The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Kinks, The Hollies made some of the very best singles of the 1960s, every song included on this fantastic singles compilation is a classic and the icing on the cake here is the fact its a mono original copy and it plays almost like a brand new record and never take this for granted on any mono pressing especially by this band. I consider Hollies albums in mono amongst the hardest to find that will play well throughout. The intense sound, complex harmony vocals and volume nearly always incur high frequency distortion and break-up. Well I guarantee you will never hear this selection in breathtaking mono better than on this super clean, lightly played record. The detail and dynamics are quite incredible and I heard fine detail and sound I feel sure I had never heard before. From start to finish crystal clear sound and a pure feel-good factor this band’s singles (and albums) always give. The Hollies in the 60s were quite brilliant and their singles collection from this period are second to none. The mono mixes here are vastly superior and any connoisseur collector is likely to agree, what a joy to hear these gems so clear and clean, I fear most of the seven inch singles would not get close to these. Not just another compilation, this is a definitive collection of some of the finest singles ever made by one of the finest 60s bands, do not miss this one.

Cover Grade and Format: Strong EX+, single format with laminated front that wraps around the close edges on to three large rear flipbacks. PMC 7057 on the back with Also available on Stereo No PCS 7057. File under POPULAR: Pop Groups on the top right. Three large flipbacks on rear and text ‘this mono record’ etc and reference to New Emitex record cleaner. It was printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse and has the original Patents pending printed as well.

Lamination & Front: Very clean, clear and shiny with barely any traces of friction rubs or dulling and all is fully adhered with no blistering or lifting. Fresh and attractive with few marks, none heavy or creases and great band artwork. The laminate ends a few millimetres short of full width and even this exposed strip of clean with barely any wear. This classic front cover will prove difficult to find much better.

Cover Back: An easy match for the wonderful front. This has lost little of its whiteness over the years and bear in mind the great age. Any wear is very light indeed with the main back panel clean and avoiding grubbiness or creasing of any significance. The extreme left edge has toned to the tinniest extent but this is really nit-picking. All the artwork and text is pristine with no rubbing or ring marks. All three flipbacks are neat with no damage or edge burring. Even the ends have avoided grime-line build up and look very attractive overall, all the imprint credit text is immaculate. Oh so often are these perilous flipbacks seen ripped or damaged and only small percentages ever avoid some disaster but these surfaces even have very few creases and that is fairly unusual. So both the main sides look lovely and defy their great age, few will better them significantly.

Top Edge: Unworn.

Bottom Edge: Unworn.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, fairly sharp, not the cleanest of cuts in manufature but with little wear and no feathering. Record entered on right outside edge.

Spine and Text: Near perfect: Solid, straight with minimal traces of any compression, all text is perfect and unworn under very solid and uncracked laminate.

Corners: Tiny tip rubs on the right pair and all retain neat and attractive pointed definition.

Cover Summary: A beautiful all round example of this scarcer late-60’s mono cover, one that will prove difficult to find much better. This strong item should please most collectors.

The Inner: This copy included the sepia EMI promotional inner that has the ‘Patents applied for’ text. These were not lined and amazingly the edges have survived unsplit or torn with hardly any creasing either. This inner promotes other EMI and Parlophone acts from the 60s up to 1967 and includes: The Seekers, The Beatles (Sgt Pepper), Lulu, Pink Floyd (Piper) and Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. Finding these innes better is never easy either.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: Strong EX+ and plays near Mint. Super clean, shiny, intense black and quite heavily pressed. A few light surface marks and one small mark, that was a slight worry before play-grading but delighted to say NO SOUND whatsoever. A splendid mono copy with minimal plays on all the evidence and sounding magnificent. This again should please many, if not most collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippetts or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or miniscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This fantastic mono pressing plays even above its high visual grading with nothing to fault and must rank as one of the very best (difficult) mono albums I have ever heard in terms of pure clean sound, as I have stated already, I have always found Hollies albums very difficult to find perfect in mono. Just a few plays with a blunt pile-driver stylus ruined so many of their early records making the delicate vocal harmonies clip and distort, destroying the marvellous effect, this is so often the norm rather than the exception - this clean sounding record is THE exception. Strong, DISTORTION-FREE sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is tremendous with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal to none and few copies will play better than this, most would be just happy to match it. Both channels are clean and sharp, I feel very sure this record has been played very lightly and has been generally well stored and looked after, almost certainly in a non-smoking environment. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading these 14 classic tracks, what a joy to hear them all so clean with that mono mix that does give them that extra clout and clarity. The bass tones are certainly richer and deeper and the sound is just so right for its time. This copy will prove difficult to find better for high quality, clear and noise-free sound and is highly recommended.

End Piece: This truly was a thrilling play-grade, I have always loved the Hollies early records, it bought back happy memories of my dad played these back in the late 60s on his Alba radiogram (a stereo unit) and this was my first time hearing all these gems on my LP12 in superior mono, the difference really is vast with a far stronger more detailed sound. If you need this fine set for your collection I promise you will find it difficult to find a better copy for sound, this is a treat from beginning to end - dont lose it.

SHIPPING COSTS & OPTIONS:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (First Class Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4 (OPTIONAL).

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7 (OPTIONAL).

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA (NOT RUSSIA, see below) (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet Standard with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) = £5.

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with included Insurance to Item’s ‘Sold’ Value, £500* Maximum) = £9 (OPTIONAL).

Posting & Packing: RUSSIA (Recorded Only, if this is unacceptable, please do not bid):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ only £7) = £9 (OPTIONAL extra insurance as above).

Posting & Packing: OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. US; Australia; Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet Standard with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) = £8.

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with included Insurance to Item’s ‘Sold’ Value, £500* Maximum) = £13 (OPTIONAL).

* If Rules allow for that country.

PLEASE NOTE: I always get a Royal Mail ‘Proof-of-Posting’ receipt for ALL packets that are sent out and I am happy to prove this to any customer who wishes to see it via email.

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can accept PayPal from overseas bidders.

The customer can choose their method of shipping with the exception of second class or surface mail overseas – these I will NOT use. The winner bidder chooses his/her posting method and if uninsured is chosen, its their decision and they have to stick with it, I can accept no responsibility if an item is lost in the post. I can only try to claim at standard levels if no enhancement is chosen (£35).

Potential Bidders: Please do not bid if you have negative feedback unless checking first, I will cancel any bids I feel are timewasters. A maximum 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask and thanks for looking.

Debutant Bidders: Many sellers refuse first time buyers: I do not follow this practice (everybody has to start somewhere), but I would appreciate any first timer letting me know their intentions for payment method and very prompt communication, preferably before any bid or soon after the auctions ends. This gives confidence that their intentions are honourable, and I in return guarantee extra special good feedbacks to get zero rated Ebayers off to a flying start to help them with future transactions.

Please Note: I will now offer any item to the runner-up after the mandatory Ebay 3 days if no contact is made by the winning bidder unless prior notice of any delay is given beforehand. The same applies if no payment is received within the mandatory 7 days so any bidder who has just lost out can still email me to reserve the item as priority second chance.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund minus the Posting and All Ebay costs as long as the item detail has been read and understood. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT neccessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, actually a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.

The Argument for Vinyl Original sound and mix (mono mixes are rarely available on CD), high quality sound on clean copies (played on a hi-end dedicated analogue system – breathtaking sound!), beautiful, large format covers, artwork, inserts and even full size posters etc; huge investment potential, and the pleasure of owning ‘the real thing’.