CAPTAIN BEEFHEART Mirror Man VERY RARE ULTIMATE (111) UK MAY 1971 1st PRESS LP.

	£		267
	$		354

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World.

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all. More details on this nearer the end of the listing.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take up to 4 to 6 weeks 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 ‘4-day’ rule for non-payment. I try to keep my P&P prices as low as possible even yet another Royal Mail price hike, I will never compromise on solid, safe packing that is invariably a little heavier.

Artist or Band: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & HIS MAGIC BAND

Album Title: Mirror Man.

Producer(s): Bob Krasnow.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Tarotplane; Kandy Korn.

Side 2: 25th Century Quaker; Mirror Man.

Label/Format: Buddah – original intense black matt finish (Please see my label scans).

Label Conditions: Both in lovely condition: very clean, fresh and attractive with only a very small few mainly light spindle marks that only really show under angled light on very revealing labels. An ultimate first issue copy that appears very little played, reitterated by superb sound clean audio quality.

Cat Number: 2365002.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 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: 130 grams. A very good average weight for the time.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: Quite rare as an original, and they hardly get earlier than this as confirmed by the matrix numbers and stampers, also the date-code on the inner sleeve (more information further down). A brief chart entry in the UK but still largely ignored in the US.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: 2365002 A // 1 420 1 1 1 & 2365002 B // 1 420 1 1 1 (never easy to find these)

Musicians: Captain Beefheart – vocals, harmonica, oboe musette; Alex St. Clair Snouffer – guitar; Jeff Cotton – guitar; John French – drums; Jerry Handley – bass.

Brief Info: A delayed issue album that was recorded around the same time as ‘Safe as Milk’ and was intended to be issued as a double album to follow the legendary debut. The other songs were re-recorded and issued as ‘Strictly Personal’. Buddah owned the original sessions and these were issued in 1971 as this single album ‘Mirror Man’. With just four tracks but very long. An intense blues workout for a highly talented band with less vocals than usual from the Captain. Clocking in at over 52 minutes, this is way over average for a vinyl record. Some thought the tracks over-long, but I disagree. This is pure blues that shows-off the skills of the early Magic Band to perfection. No others sounded quite like this, Beefheart playing the music he loved. The record is in beautiful condition and actually matches (at the very least) my own personal copy, and it offers nigh-on pristine sound. Also an ultimate first ever pressing with all matrixes and stampers ‘1’. With vast duration, these can often crackle, but this one reminds of new and finding an available copy of this record better will prove near impossible. The cover is notoriously difficult with it’s complex cracked mirror die-cut front, this one has survived intact with no tears and not a great deal to fault. Special mention also for appears to be a routine Polydor inner sleeve, it has the prized 0571 date code (May 1971), the year and month this legendary Beefheart album finally made UK release, match that with ultimate first pressing matrix and stampers and you have an exceptional copy of a quite remarkable album.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(+): an unlaminated gatefold format with the front having a very complex die-cut broken mirror effect window with multiple spikes and jags. It has a wide spine and a single thickness front, hence beyond fragile. Even more so with central inside entrance for the record. Printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group. Includes the original Polydor-style inner sleeve.

Cover Front: Another strong contender for the most fragile covers of the era. The central area is a die-cut window of multiple jags and points to resemble a broken mirror. These are usually seen in terrible condition, often torn and badly creased. This front is fully intact with NO tears or repairs and the the majority of the spiked ‘shards’ still pointed and neat to very neat. A few fine and light surface creases to these ultra delicate parts, this near impossible to avoid, protective covers often the culprit as they easily catch. The rest of the front shows little rubbing with just a gentle and small spot of price sticker evidence near the top right corner area. Single thickness card rarely escapes and being weakened considerably with a large area of card removed for the ‘window’, the lack of tears or splits – or even pieces of the spikes being sheared off – are major pluses. There is a modeate crease near the top left corner with only fine spine edge hairline type surface creases. The spine is somewhat understrength for an already weakened front, and given all the facts, the lack of wear on this area is also good news. This front will take a considerable amount of beating and still looks reassuringly fresh and attractive.

Cover Back: The back, although totally solid with no due-cut areas, is also prone to all forms of wear. This has very little just only a little light rubbing to the very edge of the edges. Almost the very least to be expected on a dark border cover. The silver text area is is nigh-on pristine and the lack of ring wear and rubbing to the main surface is unusual and great news again. Any marks small, few and faint and barely any creasing. This sets an equally high standard as the front.

Cover Inner Gatefold: I have taken a more close-up view of the spikes with a dark backdrop so the clear detail of the lack of damage can be clearly seen. The fragile left white side has little to fault, the odd hint of set-off where colour rests upon bare card is nigh-on impossible to avoid, but hardly any here. The odd gentle surface crease or two, little else. The right graphic and silver ink side also has little to fault, a few small light marks and that’s about it. Both these equally challenging faces are near exceptional and will not be hard to better.

Top Edges: Very neat and still quite crisp with minimal traces of any thickening or burring.

Bottom Edges: Largely the same with a little more thickening from weight support in storage.

Right Edge(s), and Type: The back edge is fully sealed and with barely any hint of wear. The single thickness front is clean, sharp and has avoided any thickening or burring. The flimsy spine has gently flattened a little, but when lightly pulled erect, both edges meet perfectly together, flush and parallel. All conclusive proof of no enhancements or trimming, if that were the case, the front edge would lie somewhat to the left of the back.

Spine and Text: This original has a very wide spine which has remained uncrushed with no compression. But these single thickness formats that have to support the weight of a heavy record will rarely not flatten with pressure within a rack storage system. So the bottom fold cannot quite support an erect spine and will lie a little flatter. It can be gently pulled upright, but will move back again. This is superbly folded square with all edge parallel and flush with spine support. Both folds have a trace of white on the actual creases that can hardly be avoided, here minimal. The actual spine surface area is impressive: straight with no crushing to the card, just small end rubs. All text is perfect and unworn and no rubbing to speak of to the main area.

Corners: Small spine end tip rubs, very little on the right ones. Fine to very fine shape retained, even up to excellent by some.

Cover Summary: A strong all-round example of this immensely fragile early 1970’s cover. So few will offer so few blemishes – I consider such a neat spine and die-cut broken mirror front like this the exception rather than the rule.It will never prove easy to find better and most collectors should enjoy it.

The Inner Sleeve: NEAR EXCELLENT: only marked down for some near moderate darkening which is very difficult to avoid. A Polydor-style lined inner with very little creasing and all edge unsplit with no repairs. The polylining remains clear as seen through two mainly crisp and untorn window circles. Very importantly, this inner is date-coded 0571 (May 1971), the month and year this record first hit the UK market. Tie that in with ultimate first issue matrixe and stampers (as seen further up), you have a very rare example of this album.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+): a very fine visual copy that is very clean, shiny, intense black and very solidly pressed. A copy only lightly played on all the evidence with any surface marks ultra fine and faint as seen critically under bright angled light. Merely super-fine whispy traces, even finer than hairlines that few records will avoid as a bare minimum if scrutinised closely enough. Visually a lovely first-issue record that should please 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 snippets 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 minuscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This very impressive vintage record plays even above it’s high visual grading with barely anything to fault. Strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds barely even registered and importantly, an exceptional clean pressing – even more so for a Buddah record which could sometimes be crackly – have you heard some of the Melanie albums from this time? This is a long blues workout, it could even appeal to blues connoisseurs who found van Vliet’s vocals a little too extreme, an album with far less vocals than anything else he made. Few copies will even match let along outperform this early pressing significantly I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played very lightly and has been clearly carefully handled. I doubt if this record has seen light-of-day for decades and that often means bag-rash – but NONE here at all. Being such a long album also means the groove-widths are more compressed, making the playing surfaces more prone to marks and damage. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this wonderful record, a Beefheart classic that deserves to be heard again soon. This record will prove very difficult to find better and it merits my highest possible recommendation.

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/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Rondo Red moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Nait 5i with Project USB phono stage and Chord interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with Terrarium Black terminated cable). All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional VPI-17 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 D5000 SLR Digital 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.

I now offer the fastest possible posting, often the very next day after payment is received or within two to three days maximum (unless on holiday). I only use FIRST-CLASS Mail. The record’s cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my new VPI-17 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. All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT Mailers, these do not offer any real protection). The record(s) are 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 at least TWO, ULTRA THICK stiffeners for maximum extra protection – these are FOUR TIMES thicker than commercial stiffeners and are custom-made for oneadayrecords. Really rare and expensive albums will even be Double Boxed if deemed necessary and possible. When larger boxes are used, the thick record and stiffener ‘sandwich’ is then thickly embedded into bubble-wrap to bulk out the record inside the box to centre the item inside to reduce the risk of damage still further. Printed address labels are used for clarity as well as a sender label. 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 the cost of this lavish packing is NOT even charged for, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners and bubble wrap make a near impregnable fortress for safe shipping and this is used inland and overseas for ALL my records, not just the rare and expensive. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is less than one in two thousand+ based on over 10,000+ items sold in over 12 years of Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. The only damage rate acceptable for this seller is ZERO and I think my packets will offer just that. It would take a vicious postman or postal service to damage these for sure. Even one of these stiffeners cannot be bent by hand, so what chance 2 inside a box? Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE. I discount of course for multiple purchases with a maximum of FIVE records per box (one double can sometimes be included subject to total weight). All postage costs are below and at the top of the listing.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: Please ask me first.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of FOUR days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the, 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 and they take the Ebay consequences (a strike or removal from the system). Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

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] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £8. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £3 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

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: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. 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. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer, so read the item description carefully. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help. Thank You.

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, 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’.