THE WORLD OF OZ Rare Orig UK 69 Late Deram MONO EX++ LP

	£		113
	$		150

ONEADAYRECORDS – Delivering Quality Music to the World.

Artist or Band: THE WORLD OF OZ

Album Title: The World of Oz.

Producer(s): Wayne Bickerton.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: The MuffinMan; Bring the Ring; Jackie; Beside the Fire; The Hum-Gum Tree; With a Little Help.

Side 2: We’ve All Seen the Queen; King Croesus; Mandy-Ann; Jack; Like a Tear; Willow’s Harp.

Label/Format: Deram – original large brown mono format. (Please see my label scan).

Label Conditions: Both very clean and highly attractive with only very light and faint spindle marks and no wear around the hole area.

Cat Number: DML 1034.

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: 145 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: The album itself is quite rare and mono examples will be rarer still. By 1969, only a small percentage of albums were even being issued in mono – major labels like Island had largely made format redundant way before this year and this album can be considered a ‘late’ mono. This was not a big seller in either format to be honest and finding a mono example will never prove easy. Deram is a very collectable label with some very obscure and unusual artists, many are one-offs, as this one.

Original Year of Release: 1969

Matrix Nos: ARL-8686-1A / ARL-8687-1A

Stamper Codes: 1 B / 1 B

Musicians: Dave Rea - drums, David Kubinec - Guitar, organ, Tony Clarkson - bass, Christopher Robin Evans - guitar, piano, vocals.

Brief Info: With just three singles and this one album, World of Oz were another Deram act to fall into obscurity. A label of classic one-offs including Mellow Candle and Room, this album is not as rare as those two but it not seen that often either. I love this record, a catchy blend of psych-pop that at times reminds of early Bee Gees and psych-era Hollies. It rarely gets the praise it deserves, with justice this should have sold in larger numbers. This copy looks little played and includes a lovely cover and inner. This is an ultra critical album for sound with an intensely loud mix and harmony vocals. Like the aforementioned Hollies and Bee Gees, this also often suffers from clipping to the sound and I have yet to hear a copy, especially in mono that escapes totally. The inner band songs are highly vulnerable where the tracking angle gets more critical and clearly the thick mono pick-ups are ruthless to these complex grooves. Certain Beatles albums suffer from this too with practically every album including one or two songs that rarely escape from high frequency clipping or break-up. This does have some surface sound or clipping on sides one’s ‘Hum-Gum Tree’ and ‘With a Little Help’ and a trace on the final song. Ranging from light to moderate but the rest of the album plays beautifully. Such blemishes are of course impossible to see but can be heard, in terms of visual quality, this record looks unbeatable and barely even played. I truly think a ‘perfect’ playing copy of this record in mono will prove near impossible to find. Such mono records were never really designed to be played on high-end stereo turntables with ultra critical, fine, lightweight stylii. With all considered this rare record plays very well indeed and most all of the other unmentioned songs having flawless sound. If a little surface sound/groovewear is not acceptable to you, please do not bid.

This Cover’s Potential for Wear: Quite high.

Cover Grade and Format: Mint(-) or as close too as they really will get. A single format with front Clarifoil laminate that wraps around the closed edges and to the back via the spine. The back has a mono/stereo peep-hole, in this case the red inner fills to indicate its a rare mono copy. Printed and made in England by Clout & Baker Ltd.

Lamination & Front: A stunning front of the highest quality. Beautiful shiny and crystal clear laminate with no friction rubs or dulling. Even under light this has largely avoided any fine surface marks and has only a couple light press marks. A few very fine line laminate lifts along the spine edge also has little visual impact simply because its so thin. Few Clarifoil covers avoid this but here it’s truly minimal and almost the least that will ever be seen. The beautiful artwork can be seen to maximum advantage under this unaged laminate. The right edge ends several millimetres short of full width but even the exposed strip is like new with no grime-line formation of dulling. There are a very very fine surface creases but with normal viewing, they are practically invisible. The lovely nipped spine ends stand out on front viewing, another fine detail from this exceptional cover, what a real delight this one is.

Cover Back: Little short of perfect and beautifully preserved and incredibly white. No creasing, no ringmarks and a perfect peep-hole. Almost as clean and fresh as it was made, try to find this looking better.

Top & Bottom Edges: Both unworn.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, sharp with no wear or feathering. Record entered on this right edge.

Spine and Text: Realy lovely again and practically devoid of wear. The ends are nipped in manufacture and both retain very fine shape and clean definition. Solid, straight, with minimal compression, all text is perfect and unworn under the solid and uncracked laminate and even this retains a lovely shine and it totally unyellowed or aged.

Corners: All in incredible condition with no creasing or wear. Pointed shape retained by all, almost as made.

Cover Summary: A superb all round example of this delightful cover, one that will prove very difficult to match or find better. The artwork is stunning as I hope my close-up picture shows. This beautiful item should please most-all collectors.

The Inner: Mint(-). This important red Decca-style lined inner fills the window on the cover’s back to identify a mono copy. The stereo inners were blue. This is clean, fresh and with no creasing, edge tears or splits, the window is pristine and lining solid. Totally unaged with no gum browning or toning, this has to be one of the very best Deram inners I have ever seen and a mono version will be very difficult to find like this.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EX++ with just a light surface mark on first song on side two, this is totally ignored and has NO sound at all. A superb visual copy that is super clean, shiny, intense black and heavily pressed. A copy very lightly on all the evidence. Visually a super record that should please most collectors again.

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 rare mono record largely plays up to its high visual grading but does have some light to moderate clipping on the tracks mentioned in my ‘Brief Info’ paragraph above. This why I always say play-grading is essential. Groovewear or ‘tracking sounds’ cannot be seen, only heard, and I leave nothing to guesswork – superb visuals are only half the story, and this record really looks superb. No pops or clicks were noted. It has a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound but this album seems particularly intolerant of heavy mono stylii especially if they were slightly misaligned or worn. With the complex and intense vocals it seems almost impossible to find this album with no clipping on the innermost songs. I call this ‘inner band syndrome’. Hi-Fi buffs will know the tracking angle becomes more critical near the records centre and this is when groovewear is most likely to occur. The more intense and complex the sound, the more likely it is to happen and although this record looks hardly played, it may have been subjected to a slightly out-of-line stylus or even a lightly worn one. Hollies albums are also highly prone to this as they too have intense complex vocal harmonies that are loud in the mix. The aforementioned songs have some patchy clipping to the high frequencies but not severe, but on my clinical system, it was noticed more from the left channel. As stated, I have never heard this album that has played ‘perfectly’, this clipping seems almost impossible to avoid and just one play could inflict such sound wear. A recent mono copy of a Galliard album I sold a few months ago had the same such sound on the final song but the rest played perfectly. Such clipping is often blamed as ‘static’ which is total nonsense. Static causes the odd discharge ‘spike’ crack through the speakers, not crackle, and anyway is easily removed with a carbon-fibre tracking brush. So a fine copy, but some mainly fairly light groovewear on the final two songs on side one – side two has mostly escaped with little detected. So most of the songs play superbly with nothing to fault but those critical two on the end of side one do clip and sound a little less ‘focused’. If this is an issue, please do not bid. This copy will still prove difficult to find significantly better and can be cautiously recommended. It will not be good enough the for discerning audiophile purist but many, more ‘average’ collectors will enjoy it. A lot will also depend on what future equipment this clinical record will be played on - far less revealing turntables than an LP12 and speaker systems will make any unwanted sounds far less apparent of course. I have clearly mentioned what I heard – you now decide.

Now one of the most established sellers on Ebay and still offering the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. 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 collector – 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 total accuracy for colours however but most will be very close. 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, sticks, warps 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 Ortofon Samba Moving Coil cartridge (tracks at 1.8 grams). Amps: Naim Nait 5i with Project USB phono stage and Chord interconnects. 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.

First-time, zero-rated bidders, who do not ask permission to bid, will be cancelled immediately and blocked – NO exceptions. 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: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets out ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is no bad thing. Also: any item with a value over £40 will have to be insured as well, but for any item that sells for over £150, I will pay the extra insurance (then the lower shipping price applies).

I now offer the fastest possible posting, mostly the very next day after payment is received or within three days maximum (unless on holiday). All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT mailers) 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. The boxes are then reinforced with TWO VERY THICK stiffners for even extra protection – these are FOUR TIMES thicker than commercial stiffners and are custom-made for oneadayrecords. Really rare and expensive albums will be Double Boxed. 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. Printed address labels are used for clarity as well as a sender label. 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 at all possible but ‘Signed-For’ posting is NOT an option anymore. I do not profit on posting and offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is less than 0.1 per percent based on over 4,000+ items sold in over 8 years of Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. I discount of course of multiple purchases with a maximum of FOUR records per packet. I will not respond to questions on shipping costs as all the details are included in the advert.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: I will cancel ALL first-time bidders with no feedbacks or excessive negatives who do not ask me if its OK to bid first – NO EXCEPTIONS.

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 – it’s always worth asking.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

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

1 LP (First Class Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4. (Only for items under £40)

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7 (Compulsory for items over £40).

Posting & Packing: ALL EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA including RUSSIA and nearby countries. (Airmail Only):

1 LP, value less than £40 (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£39 maximum]) = £8.

1 LP, value greater than £40 (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Insurance to Item’s ‘Sold’ Value, [£500 Maximum]) = £11.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (any part); Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP, value less than £40 (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£39 maximum]) = £12.

1 LP, value greater than £40 (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with included Insurance to Item’s ‘Sold’ Value, £500 Maximum) = £15.

For items that sell over £150, I will pay the insurance, so the lower shipping price will apply.

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

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.

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’.