HAPSHASH & THE COLOURED COAT 1st INSANELY RARE'68 IMPERIAL PROMO-ONLY MONO LP NM

$

56

WE CURRENTLY HAVE  NEARLY 1,400
LISTED ITEMS.   TO DISPLAY ALL OUR AUCTIONS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER (BY ARTISTS’ NAMES)  ►CLICK HERE

►Click here to see our ROCK auctions ►See our JAZZ auctions ►See our BLUES auctions ►See our COUNTRY auctions ►See our CLASSICAL auctions ► See our STILL SEALED ITEMS ►See our PROMO auctions ►See our SOUL auctions ►See our AUDIOPHILE auctions

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

·       HAPSHASH AND THE COLOURED COAT – THE SELF-TITLED FIRST ALBUM (full title: “Hapshash and the Coloured Coat , Featuring the Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids”) – ORIGINAL 1967 IMPERIAL RECORDS MONO LP-12377

·       ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

·       *** PROMOTIONAL COPY; THE RECORD HAS STOCK LABELS; HOWEVER, THE PROMOTIONAL STICKER ON THE COVER CLEARLY IDENTIFIES THE ITEM AS PROMOTIONAL ***

·       *** ULTRA-RARE PROMOTIONAL-ONLY MONO PRESSING; MONO VERSION OF THIS ALBUM WAS NEVER COMMERCIALLY RELEASED IN ANY WAY OR FORM ***

·       ORIGINAL BLACK IMPERIAL LABEL WITH THE GREEN LEFT MARGIN AND RED LOGO

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

·       ORIGINAL, THICK CARDBOARD COVER (AMERICAN STYLE); STEREO COVER WITH PROMO MONO STICKER AFFIXED TO THE FRONT PANEL (NO 'PROPER' MONO COVERS WERE EVER PRODUCED FOR THIS TITLE)

·       CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS

·       THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

If they are remembered at all nowadays, Hapshash & The Coloured Coat are remembered for being a design outfit that produced an array of noteworthy album covers (including Cream's Disraeli Gears and Art's Supernatural Fairy Tales) and posters from the psychedelic era, rather than for their lasting contributions to music. That might be expected when two out of your three band members were not musicians, but graphic designers and boutique owners. However, with founding Procol Harum member-music producer Guy Stevens on board and with backing by the members of Art (who later went on to form Spooky Tooth with Gary Wright), Hapshash unleashed one of the truly wild albums to have been christened in the diethylamide seas. And yeah, they did the album cover.

Looking at said album cover and song titles, Featuring the Human Host is an entity obviously begot and bred in Anno Domini 1967. The album must have somehow made it out of the U.S. to Germany, for it is a startling and pretty undeniable antecedent of Amon Düül I, with heaps of communal percussion and primal, improvised chanting. Düül must have intercepted it, listened to it by day, howled along with it by night, basically absorbed it into their bloodstream. The only major difference between this and an album like Psychedelic Underground is that Hapshash's songs are typically grounded in one chord and that apparently was one chord too many for Düül.

On the first track, the lead singer belts out "H-O-P-P-Y" over and over again in full zeal. There's no way it would have the same charm had it been "H-A-P-P-Y," which I suspect is probably what he was actually intending to sing if he wasn't fried out of his mind on acid. "The New Messiah Coming 1985," apart from having one of those ominous 1960s prediction titles a la Hendrix' "1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)," is a strangely beautiful parade of acoustic guitar, slide guitar, various percussions including gong, and lunatic falsettos near the end.

No doubt about it, this is the real hallucinogen deal…the sound of guys going the full, Icarus distance, and fuck all whether or not they return. It seems they didn't, by the way, or not entirely. According to the liner notes, the legend is that one of them soon died as the result of a bad trip (presumably Stevens, who died in 1981), and a second member was psychiatrically institutionalized. Listening to this music leaves little doubt about the veracity of such claims.

Definitely an album that should be heard at least once in your lifetime, and dare I suggest it, you should own. No, you might not like it, you'll probably very well hate it in fact, but you should keep it just the same and play it every once in a while if but for principle alone. H-O-P-P-Why? This is an album that is about as unshackled from the constraints of record company intervention as one can get, while still containing music that still remains oddly listenable. True, as philosopher Blaise Pascal once said, "It is not good to be too free" and I'm not defending Hapshash's dodgy means to attaining this spirited end. But especially in today's manufactured, utterly non-spontaneous popular music climate, you are not likely to find anything approaching the freedom found here.

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ANONYMOUS ONLINE REVIEW)

What we have here technically DOES NOT EXIST and is not supposed to exist. To our best knowledge, the existence of this PROMO-ONLY mono version of this great album has never been substantiated, and none of the price books and guides currently in print make any reference to its history or background. According to both Tim Neely and Neil Umphread price guides (multiple editions), there is no such thing… The historical importance of this item cannot be overestimated: this is an equivalent of discovering a long-lost animal or plant species!!!.

The PROMOTIONAL, RADIO STATION-, AUDITION OR DEMONSTRATION COPIES AND RELEASES (such as the one we have here) were often distributed among the radio stations before the record was released to the public, sometimes as much as four months ahead. These records are generally considered to be the "first among equals", which is to say the VERY FIRST generation and the VERY FIRST pressings of the particular title; a PROTOTYPE and the earliest known official pressing of the record. (a rather moot point here,  since this rare promo-only MONO version of the album was never commercially released to begin with).

For additional historical or discography information on this album, including track listing ►click here

TO SEE IF WE HAVE OTHER LISTED ITEMS BY THIS GROUP OR ARTIST ►  CLICK HERE

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

·                               CONDITION:

·                               RECORD

 (IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

(a)          WE GRADE THE VINYL  AS  NEAR MINT. Some VERY LIGHT AND SUPERFICIAL abrasions – mostly sleeve scuffs -  are (barely) visible, but are probably inaudible,  and do not affect visual integrity or beauty of the vinyl. The original luster is very much intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.

(b)          The record comes in the original stock inner sleeve.

(c)           The record is pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

(d)          PROMO-ONLY Mono pressing of this title is much rarer, and by far more  preferable to its stereo counterpart. We think that the mix is more natural, humane, "organic" and that the mixes are somewhat different than on the stereo version. We estimate that stereo copies of this album outnumber mono pressings by a ratio of at least 100:1.

(e)           Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

·       COVER

THE COVER IS NICE --- ABOUT EXCELLENT OR VERY GOOD++ (VG++).

The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:

-         Minor shelf wear noted on the top and bottom seams (nothing significant)

-         Cover has some light ring wear (nothing significant); On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the severity of ring wear as 3

-         Cover shows some light yellowing on back side, apparently from aging.

-         Back cover has circular tarnish (grayish, dust-covered sections, which closely follow the contour of the record),  probably caused by friction or by rubbing against other covers during the storage. The tarnish is similar in appearance to a common ring wear, but, UNLIKE ring wear, these grayish areas may be possible to clean up with a minor effort and with a right cleansing solution.

-         Cover has a few tiny wrinkles along the spine

NO OTHER IMPERFECTIONS ON THE COVER:

-        No split seams

-        No cut-out (drill) holes.

-        No cut-out corners

-        No saw-marks or indents

-        No writing

-        No stamps

-        No tearing: no chips, dents or nicks on the seams

-        No peel-off marks

-        No stains

-        No mold or mildew spots

-        No stickers or labels

-        No water damage

-        No razor marks, scratches, pressure marks, lines, streaks, or  cuts.

-        No warping

-        No wax, glue, paint or liquid drops on the cover

-        No glue traces or wax residue.

-        No bar codes

-        No RIAA stamps or stickers. 

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

We offer THREE postage rates for both Domestic and International Mail: Media Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for domestic, and First Class, Priority International Mail, and Express International Mail for international orders. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND that you pay for USPS International Priority Mail OR International Express mail when making a payment in order to obtain tracking information, which is NOT available for First Class International shipments.

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from country to country. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates ►click here. While you can be rest assured that ►our packaging is careful, sturdy and impact-proof, please note that damage, loss or theft in transit is always possible, and in the case of some countries even PROBABLE. To discuss this potential problem and ensure flawless delivery, please contact us thru eBay BEFORE placing a bid.

WANT A DISCOUNT ?!? 

IT’S EASY: CLICK ►HERE TO see HOW!

(please note recent changes in our policy)

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

FOR OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION, CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW:

►OUR VOLUME DISCOUNTS AND POSTAGE REBATES ►OUR GRADING POLICY ►ITEMS WE DO NOT GRADE ►HOW TO ACKNOWLEDGE WINNING BID OR RESOLVE A DISPUTE ►OUR PAYPAL “CHARGEBACK” POLICY ►ACCEPTABLE PAYMENT METHODS ►OUR REFUND POLICY ►POSTAGE RATES AND DISCLOSURES ►PAYMENT DEADLINES ►FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

OUR REFUND POLICY :

WE OFFER UNCONDITIONAL MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE WITHIN 14 DAYS FROM THE RECEIPT OF THE MERCHANDISE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED (THE BUYER PAYS FOR THE RETURN POSTAGE); Still sealed items MUST be returned sealed in order to be eligible for a refund Some restrictions apply. Please read our complete refund policy before placing a bid. ►Click here  for the full text of our policy

© 2001,2007 MDJ. All rights reserved.