Fotheringay Vintage Self-titled 1970 UK 2nd Pressing Island ILPS 9125 NM Play

$

49

• Fotheringay.
• (Self Titled).
• Island "Pink Rim" UK 1970 2nd Pressing.
• Gatefold Jacket.
• Fotheringay's Only Contemporaneous Release.

Item Details
Manufactured in: United Kingdom
Recorded: February-April 1970 By Jerry Boys, Todd Lloyd At Sound Techniques, London
Original Issue: 1970
This Issue: Believed To Be 1970 (based on matrix and label design - see below)
Label: Island Records ILPS 9125
Runout Deadwax Matrix Numbers:
Side 1: (stamp:) ILPS+9125+Aↄ
Side 2: (stamp:) ILPS+9125+Bↄ
The Island "pink eye" label was their 3rd variation from inception. That first pressing variation started in the summer of 1969 and ended in late 1970. This "pink rim" style of label was introduced by Island in late 1970 and was used through 1975. However, my matrix code and label design is an exact match for the first 1970 repress as documented at Discogs.
Was bought new by this seller many years ago and now offered from his private collection (you have absolutely known provenance). Has had just a few plays only on an expertly setup high-end audiophile turntable, arm, and cartridge. Has never been exposed to heat or tobacco smoke and always stored vertically in a specially designed record cabinet (Rackit) to prevent warpage.
Was cleaned on a VPI HW 16 with Audio Intelligent solutions and ultra-pure water rinse (50X purer than distilled water) before my pre-sale sound check. I neutralize residual static charge with a Zerostat immediately after cleaning. I wear nitrile surgical gloves while cleaning and play testing to avoid any chance of transferring finger oils to the vinyl.

Very sensitive play testing was performed straight off my Ayre P-5xe fully balanced phono preamp over Sennheiser HD 600 headphones using a Schiit Audio Valhalla 2 tube headphone amp fitted with NOS Soviet Voskhod matched tubes (see last photo).

Track list
For track listings, please see my attached record label photographs.

I never take "distant" photos nor the so-prevalent type with the LP sticking halfway out of the jacket. I take close-ups under photo lamps so you can see nearly everything I describe in the jacket grading. It is virtually impossible to know the true vinyl condition from any photograph. That takes very bright and close visual inspection PLUS play testing with thorough coverage on high resolution equipment.
Grading Details
Note: Grading LPs by text characters is subjective and at best are only a guide as no two used records are of exactly the same quality. Please, refer to both my photo evidence and detailed descriptions to judge by YOUR OWN grading standards. Questions are always welcome. eBay no longer allows me to enter separate grades for each side of the sleeve or record so you may not see any in the box above but are listed below. Play quality is personally most important to me so vinyl visual qualities are graded and described in detail separately for your complete assessment.

Outer Jacket Inspection/grading:
VG++/VG+/NM-/NM-
The jacket front still has an overall smooth semi-gloss finish. There is a very light start of ring wear at the enter top whose arc does not get past the top of the heads. Tilting under bright light I couldn't detect any ring wear along the bottom edge. The most noticeable flaw is the crease seen in my photo in the lower left corner. There is one more very small and faint crease above that. I think its closer to NM- than VG+ so I'm giving it an extra plus. The rear face has similar smooth surface like the front, but it's light ring dulling extends top center down long the sleeve opening side and just beyond the "i" at the bottom. My bright photo lamps exaggerate it's visibility on the left side. In person it is much harder to detect under normal light. The last notable artifact on the rear face are two fine creases seen in my photo at the top edge. I think it is closer to VG+. There is some rub wear at all four corners and touches of it along the bottom edge. Both inside gatefold faces are NM- as they have very little visible wear.

Vinyl visual inspection/grading:
NM-/NM-
Side 1 has one faintly reflective hairline running through tracks 3 and 4. Its very light and appears to be sitting only on the very top vinyl surface. But, I did make a note to play test those tracks 100% just to be sure there was no effects on play quality. Otherwise, Side 1 looked near perfect. Side 2 also looked visually near perfect except for an exceptionally light surface hairline running thru T3 and a tiny bit into T4. I also made a note to check these tracks very carefully during play testing.

Play Testing:
NM-/NM
Extensive play testing was performed after visual inspection (continuous written notes were taken). I listened to the beginning, middle, and end of each track for a few minutes on each needle drop. When the track width was noticeably greater I took more play samples to get good coverage. I also listened to all lead-in, lead-out and transition grooves between each track. Some tracks were played all the way thru when digitizing my favorites to 96k/24-bit WAV files. This allowed me to go back and re-check some of my notes on digital playback in ProTools. Here is rundown of each side from those notes.

Side 1 Play
Based on my visual notes I had needed to play tracks 1 and 2 100% but was planning in digitally recording them anyway. T1 starts off gently and I did detect some very low level crackle down under the music when it was quietest in that intro section. The crackle went away quickly but then there were occasional random single "micro-ticks" here and there. None of those light pressing artifacts distracted from Sandy's wonderful vocals. The volume took a large leap upward at 0:48 into the track reaching very high peaks (-3.4 dBFS on my ProTools meters). From then on the vinyl stayed inaudible below the music. The best audio fidelity attributes were a very deep stereo depth, (especially on backing harmonies) and instrumentation placement. It is very clean and clear. Jerry's electric lead is truly gorgeous. I couldn't believe that I did not yet have T2 already digitized as it was among my favorite cassette "mix tapes" for our wilderness sailing trips on Lake Of The Woods and Lake St. Croix. Its a gentle dreamy tune that brings me back my best life experiences.. Again because of the track's lower volume levels I heard a few random "micro-ticks' just during the 1st verse and again at the very end. They were non-distracting from this great music.  T3 was play tested 100%. Trevor has lead vocal and it was cut at high levels. No vinyl noise at all was detected, even on the outgoing transition grooves. T4 was recorded. It is a quieter  all-acoustic folk tune. About 30 seconds into it I did pick up 3 random ticks barely at the threshold of audibility and only in one channel. Again, non-distracting. T5 is very powerful music. Not a bit of vinyl noise detected all the way through, even into the lead-out grooves.

Side 2 Play
T1 is a very popular classic Gordon Lightfoot country-folk original done here in a folk-rock style that will hook you. There is a very long and slow fade-in from it's start up to full volume so during the first few seconds I picked up 2 single low-level ticks. Once ramped up the vinyl was dead quiet. I recorded T2 as it was another must-have for my digital archive and I've long admired this all-acoustic Denny vocal. I detected a few low volume ticks only in the middle of the track. T3 is another Trevor lead vocal I listened to 100%. It had no vinyl noise at all. T4 is a long track so I took many needle drops play testing it. Done in traditional style its one of Sandy's very best. No crackle detected throughput even though it has many quiet openings for anything to get through. Only random single "micro-ticks" were detected at the lowest audibility and very infrequent. My notes said that of all the quieter acoustic tracks this one had the cleanest vinyl of the whole album.

Fairport Convention introduced me to Sandy Denny and naturally on to Fotheringay when she organized that band. They were working on their second album while doing a lot of touring but never finished it and that's a shame as they had so much potential. I was a little torn about what final grade code to assign. Does NM mean that the vinyl plays with near-zero noise or plays exactly the same as it did on first play with whatever pressing artifacts it natively had? I tend to subtract points for the more noticeable vinyl artifacts even if the the record was pressed that way. I'm convinced that the artifacts I detected were always there from the start but decided to add a minus for Side 1 because it had just a little bit more non-distracting vinyl noise than Side 2. Both sides however play very strong. Given its age, I really doubt one would be able to find a copy that plays better than this vintage 1970 2nd pressing.

Packaging

• Record will be placed outside the jacket to protect against seam splitting.
• Original inner sleeve is included separately.
• Record has been placed into a new MFSL-style "rice paper" plastic sleeve, as the original is only paper and may be holding onto some dust and potentially abrasive. This will keep vinyl surfaces clean during shipping and ultimate buyer usage.
• Outer jacket is contained in a new clear polyethylene protective sleeve.
• Sent in high quality record mailer with cardboard stiffeners and all corners double-taped.

Shipping

• Shipping will be via USPS Media Mail for a flat charge of $3.98 per single album sale.
• A combined shipping discount is available on multiple sales completed on the same day($3.98 plus $0.50 for each additional LP).
• If you do buy more than one LP  on the same daydo not pay immediately but wait for my all-combined invoice.eBay does give you the option to "Request an invoice from the buyer," but this option is not available on the eBay mobile app. A discount for the combined items will show on that invoice. Then, once payment is received, the items will ship.