CARAVAN In the Land of Grey & Pink SCARCE EARLY UK 1971 EX+ DERAM LP GREAT SOUND

	£		33
	$		44

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: CARAVAN

Album Title: In the Land of Grey and Pink

Producer(s): David Hitchcock

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Golf Girl; Winter Wine; Love to Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly); In the Land of Grey and Pink.

Side 2: Nine Feet Underground – i. Nigel Blows a Tune, ii. Love’s a Friend, iii. Make It 76, iv. Dance of the Seven Paper Hankies, v. Hold Grandad by the Nose, vi. Honest I Did!, vii. Disassociation, viii. 100% Proof.

Label/Format: Deram, red format with matt, quite smooth surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with only very light, few, fine and faint spindle marks and no wear around the hole area. Purchased new by one owner who put his records to tape and cover-protected the sleeves. This splendid record appears hardly played.

Catalogue Number: SDL R1

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 this Record: 135 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Moderately scarce, no chart entry, instead a steady seller during the prog-rock era of the 1970s.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: ZAL-10424.P-1D / ZAL-10425.P-1D

Mothers / Stampers: 1 MA / 1 IC

Musicians: Richard Sinclair – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals; Pye Hastings – electric guitars, acoustic guitar, vocals; Dave Sinclair – Hammond organ, piano, Mellotron, harmony vocals; Richard Coughlan – drums and percussion. With: Jimmy Hastings – flute, tenor sax, piccolo; Dave Grinsted – cannon, bell and wind; John Beecham – trombone.

Brief Info: The third album, and on a third different label by the Canterbury progressive rock band Caravan, it was the last album to include their original line-up seen above. Well received on issue and many regard it was one of their best. Sales were steady rather than spectacular and it failed to chart in the UK. This a lovely fractionally later copy on the red Deram label, hardly played and with superb clean sound and a very fine looking cover with its lovely artwork.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(+): a gatefold format with the outside faces laminated with Clarifoil – Deram were part of the Decca Group – the inside is matt and smooth. Printed and made in England by Robert Stace. Includes the Decca-style blue polylined inner sleeve.

Lamination – Front & Back: Beautiful artwork by Anne Marie Anderson seen to high advantage under shiny, fresh and clear laminate that has no lifting and minimal hint of dulling under light. A small few mainly light laminate creases on the front with modest visibility and even fewer on the back. Still very impressive and pleasing to the eye.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Little to fault inside bar some natural set-off – that is where black ink rests upon white areas when close – a natural trait and few would have thought to put paper inside to stop this happening over many years. This only fairly light and few will not have this as the barest minimum.

Top & Bottom Edges: All mainly straight, smooth, flat and flush with barely even a trace of wear.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Mostly sharp with any thickening little and light. Record traditionally enters on the back edge, these are both naturally open with no adhesive marks on the front.

Spine and Text: An unusually fine spine. With the inside hinge being raised, the spine will in most cases compress and caused the text to sink into a natural central recess and cause laminate peeling. Well, this one has hardly any trace of that and retains full laminate coverage with no issues of any note bar a slight tilt to left. Solid, straight with minimal compression and folded square, so the edges meet up very closely together and very near parallel. The text is unworn under the solid and uncracked laminate.

Corners: Any tip rubs or creases tiny and light, excellent shape mostly retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A very strong all-round example of this classic 1970’s prog-rock cover, one that will prove very difficult to find much better. This beautiful item should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: MINT(–): the Decca-style blue polylined inner is superb and hardly aged at all. The paper incredibly clean and fresh, hardly creased with two immaculate window circles. Even the lining is clear and all edges naturally intact. This includes the ‘Patent No. 1,072,844’ text.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+)/EXCELLENT: a very fine visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. A copy with minimal plays on all the evidence with any surface marks few, very light and faint as seen critically under bright light. The only exception being a small surface scuff on side two that does nothing. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, little else even registers. Visually a super record 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 prog classic album plays even above it’s high visual grading with little to fault. Offering 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 are minimal indeed with barely anything heard at all. A typical high-quality Decca pressed record with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises. Few available copies will outperform this early pressing I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played very lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled within a non-smoking environment. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this lovely record. It will prove very difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly recommended.

* 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.