BEATLES 1967 UK Parlophone LP **Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts...** Mono FIRST PRESS
£
81
$
107
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Description
The Beatles 1967 UK Parlophone PMC 7027 Mono LP 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band'.
First pressing with the matrices XEX 637-1 and XEX 638-1 in the dead wax run-offs on the record. Also has the required 'The Gramophone Co. Ltd.' and 'Sold in U.K.' label texts to reinforce the credentials.
Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd. laminated (inside and out) gatefold sleeve with the visible inside top flipbacks. This example is in particularly fine shape and feels clean and fresh to the touch. It's solid, square and sharp with no rips, tears, splits or writing. I reckon it's not seen much action over the decades as the laminate on the inside fold creaks when you open it! Only negatives I can say about it are it has miniscule rubs at the spine corners, the back shows a hint of ringwear and there is some mild laminate shrinkage creasing which is commonplace. So at over five decades old it can be forgiven a few blemishes but it's one nice sleeve and I rate it 8.5 /10 for condition.
9 /10 for the cut-out insert with just a tad of foxing (age browning) on the plain rear.
The original 'Made In Great Britain' red and white 'flame' bag / inner sleeve is in nice solid shape as typically the bottoms are prone to 'knifing' by the disc but this one is good. Nothing detrimental to say about it apart from expected creases, a tad of ringwear and some glue browning down a side seam. One of the cleanest I've seen for some time so 8.25 /10.
So, on to the vinyl itself. At 145g on my scale the shiny vinyl is of a nice medium weight and has signs of several+ plays as witnessed by the spindle tracks on the clean labels around the hole.
Angling the disc in room daylight at the window it looks very clean. Yet beneath the evil and unforgiving table lamp I see scuffs and light hairlines which I figure is more down to storage over the years as opposed to poor handling and use as whoever had this record before me knew how to look after it. As such I give the vinyl 8.25 /10.
And should you disagree with my subjective assessments then no problem to return of course.
I'll pack the vinyl in a separate poly-lined inner sleeve to save the flame bag from any harm in transit.
99p start and the auction will run to the end.
A fellow eBayer Tim suggested I give it a play grading so I had to agree he was right.
I'm playing it now on my Linn / Naim hi-fi system. What an album. Yet 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' were recorded first for the Sgt. Pepper project but Parlophone needed a single release pronto so the tracks were snatched and issued as a double 'A' side. If only they had been included on the LP! They would have taken it from monumental to blistering.
Enough of that. I'm hearing occasional mild ticks on the dead bands between the tracks and maybe the odd faint pop across the album. On 'Within You Without You' I'm not sure if I hear a short skip and I've tried it a few times...the time signature is novel and the vocal phrasing gets in the way.
Overall then I believe the LP plays well and is more than good enough for my ears. Aurally I rate the record 8.5 /10.
cheers Charles
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