YES Yessongs MUCH RARER ORIG UK 1973 EX LPs. UNIQUE ROBOR, WIDE SPINE COVER/BOOK

	£		78
	$		103

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.95. Europe (including Russia) £12.95 (£1 per extra record). Rest of World £19.95 (£2 per extra record). All my records are sent in boxes and the price of them has increased over time and these are my first price increases for nearly 10 years. Royal Mail prices have also gone up again. I will never compromise on quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take longer from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: YES

Album Title: Yessongs

Producer(s): Yes & Eddie Offord

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Opening (Excerpt From Firebird Suite); Siberian Khatru; Heart of the Sunrise.

Side 2: Perpetual Change; And You and I.

Side 3: Mood For a Day; Excerpts From The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Roundabout.

Side 4: Your Move; I’ve Seen All Good People; Long Distance Runaround; The Fish.

Side 5: Close to the Edge.

Side 6: Yours Is No Disgrace; Starship Trooper.

Label/Format: First Atlantic format with the original deeper green and brick red colour that includes the CBS ring ridges. Also correctly showing NO Warner logo, those came a little later. These have matt, fairly smooth surfaces, the odd one with a rustic type finish.

Label Conditions: All six very clean, fresh and attractive with any spindle traces very few, fine and faint. This original appears little used.

Catalogue Number: K 60045

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps or Lateral Movement: Assume all records I offer have no significant warping or lateral movement to cause sound or tracking issues. All should play fine even on budget turntables.

Weight of Records: 137 / 143 / 140 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: This very first issue is much rarer than subsequent pressings. It has the more elusive and different cover which was manufactured in a very different way. Most seen have a split opening spine to reveal one of the Roger Dean artwork spreads, but true first issues were different. A first issue cover has a solid, super-wide spine, and the openings are all on the right and open more like a book, these were far more limited and seldom seen. Also original pressings included three inner sleeves with the famous YES logo, later ones were simply plain. First issues also invariably have much heavier pressed records with darker labels. But the format of the main cover is the thing that sets it apart the most.

Original Year of Release:

Matrix Nos: K60045 A1 / K60045 B1 / K60045 C1 / K60045 D1 / K60045 E1 / K60045 F1

Musicians: Jon Anderson – lead vocals; Chris Squire – bass guitar, backing vocals; Steve Howe – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals; Rick Wakeman – keyboards; Bill Bruford and Alan White – drums (on different tracks).

Brief Info: In terms of the music, Yessongs has to be the greatest ever Yes album. A triple live set with the songs featuring on their very best three studio albums: ‘The Yes Album’, ‘Fragile’ and ‘Close to the Edge’. This is the band at their exhilarating best with stunning musicianship and includes the brilliant Rick Wakeman ‘Six Wives of Henry VIII’ solo that concludes with a breathtaking air raid performed on his arsenal of keyboard electronics. All tracks are magnificent, and the very best moment for me is the jaw-dropping Chris Squire bass guitar solo with drums that is the much extended version of ‘The Fish’. The album is lavishly packaged with no fewer than three gatefold spread artworks by the brilliant Roger Dean. Here accessed in book style from one side on this much rarer super-wide solid spine original cover that includes the colour book and YES logo inner sleeves. The records appears hardly played and five of the six sides play with hardly anything to fault. Just one has a few very gentle faint ticks and being honest, finding all six sides with much fewer blemishes will prove difficult. This is the first, very first issue I have had to offer in years, and although the cover is not perfect with a dink to one corner, it still is a very nice one and considerably rarer than the standard version with the narrower split spine opening.

Cover Grade and Format: NEAR EXCELLENT: arguably a harsh grading with the main issue being a moderate dink to the top right corner. An unlaminated triple gatefold format with matt, smooth surfaces. This the original format with the massive super-wide solid spine and three openings on the right. All artwork created by the prized graphic artist Roger Dean. Printed and made in England by Robor Ltd with the ‘Patents applied for’ text. Later standard covers were made by Shorewood. This includes the colour book and the three YES logo inner sleeves, again later ones only had plain inners without the logo.

Cover Front: The outer surfaces on this cover are very prone to wear and rubbing, this has little at all. But it does have a few mild creases near the top corner area where the dink is less evident than the back. These have not broken the ink, so visibility is less apparent than it could have been. There is also a tiny crease on the lower left corner tip. This retains deep colour without fading or ring wear, minimal other creasing and no sticker issues. Any surface marks or blemishes, few and faint.

Cover Back: A moderate dink and crease to the top right corner tip area is the only noteworthy issue on the back with any marks or blemishes very few and faint. The lack of ring wear to this rarer Robor-made cover is a major plus however.

Cover Inner Gatefolds: All three have a moderately mild crease at the top of the hinge fold from the dink. The odd gentle trace of burring on the openings being fairly critical. Little else to fault on these fantastic Roger Dean spacy landscapes which are all very clean, fresh and attractive with any surface marks minimal and light.

Top Edges: This has four folded edges, all are mainly straight, flat and flush with any rubbing little and light, a small fine one on the central front the most noticeable, but still minimal overall.

Bottom Edges: Similar again with even less rubbing. There is some moderate thickening to one of the imner edges card end, unless absolutely perfectly constructed, this is near impossibly to avoid totally.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Four opening edges for storage of the three records and the book. They remain mostly sharp with any thickening quite little and light, predictably mostly to the outer ones.

Spine and Text: As stated, this is the original super-wide solid spine with NO opening on this area as seen, those came with the subsequent reprintings where the format changed quite considerably as explained in more detail above. This is still solid, straight with minimal compression and folded square, so the edges meet up very closely together and parallel. Still very erect with no real tilt and certainly no crushing. The top has a little surface creasing from the dink, but little else to fault. The text is unworn and centred quite low as-seen.

Corners: I have mentioned the top rear corner knock already and it is moderate with some creasing. Any other tip wear, blemishes or rubbing is small and light. Given the format of this cover, this has fared well in these areas bar the one knock. Excellent shape is mostly retained.

Cover Summary: This lesser-seen original format cover remains strong with not a huge amount else to fault bar the dink and will prove difficult to find much better apart. Still attractive for most or its considerable areas, this item should please many collectors, but not for purists who want perfection at any cost.

The Inner Sleeves: NEAR EXCELLENT: or thereabouts. Three unlined solid white inners with the Roger Dean ‘YES’ logo printed on one side of each. All gently aged with some mild creasing/crinkle and reasonably light discolouration. No ugly large hard creases and against the odds, all are intact, and that is very unusual. Most seen have large splits to their edges. They all have the ‘PATENT Nos. 112555’ text.

The Book: EXCELLENT: a 12-page colour book featuring live shots of the band members. Still clean and fresh with no hard creasing or tears, any crinkle or surface blemishes gentle and light. This is held together by its two original spine punched staples which are solid and unloosened. Any handling marks to quite revealing semi-shiny surfaces also light.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT: arguably better. A very fine visual set that are very clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. A copy appearing little used on all the evidence with any surface marks very light, fine and faint as seen critically under bright light. Viewed in average room light, hardly anything even registers. I am actually uncertain what causes the few light ticks mentioned above. Visually fine records that should please many 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 snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This quality triple live set plays mostly even above their high visual gradings with little else to fault bar a few gentle light ticks mainly on one side. These offer strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is high with a wide dynamic range and detailed sound. A spectacular performance by a band at their very best, I suppose it could be argued the sound quality is not as high as modern live albums, but at around 47 years old, technology was not quite as advanced. However, this is still a great listen with brilliant progressive rock music. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and this are very clean pressings with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises as such. Few available copies will outperform this early first pressing I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain these records have been played only lightly and has been mostly well stored and carefully handled within a non-smoking environment. Little overall spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this impressive set. It could prove difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly recommended – again, unless perfection is mandatory. Just finding the genuine and complete first issues of this is difficult enough.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest 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 all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to 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 it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR Camera.

PACKING – THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

Payment Conditions:

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

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

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 necessarily 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, 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.