KATE BUSH The Kick Inside SCARCER ORIG UK 1978 EX++ LP & COVER. PLAYS SUPERBLY.

	£		51
	$		68

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: KATE BUSH

Album Title: The Kick Inside

Producer: Andrew Powell

Executive Producer: David Gilmour

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Moving; The Saxophone Song; Strange Phenomena; Kite; The Man With the Child in His Eyes; Wuthering Heights.

Side 2: James and the Cold Gun; Feel It; Oh to be in Love; L’Amour Looks Something Like You; Them Heavy People; Room for the Life; The Kick Inside.

Label/Format: EMI original format with matt, very gently textured surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with any spindle traces minimal and faint. This copy plays superbly, and that is something never to be taken for granted.

Catalogue Number: EMC 3223

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Few vintage records are ever perfectly ‘flat’, so some slight or very gentle arm movement is normal. If any record I offer has more than that, I will mention it, and it can be assumed all I offer should track without issues, even on budget turntables.

Weight of this Record: 116 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: The title itself shows up fairly often, but finding the earliest pressed copies in better conditions is a far different story. The first issues included a fully laminated cover. So many seen are later pressings with an unlaminated cover or even on the EMI Fame label. This is a very impressive example and clearly hardly played, and offering fantastic sound. Yes this one is beautifully pressed and was a joy to play-grade. Quickly produced to meet initial demand, pressing quality and sound was variable and I reject far more of these than I ever offer on that basis. Forget modern repressings, nothing compares to an original when little used and pressed well, and offering the original analogue sound that has not been messed around with.

Original Year of Release: 1978

Matrix Nos: YAX 5389-3 / YAX 5390-3 (machine punched)

Mothers / Stampers: 2 GRA / 1 GOG

Etched Messages: ‘REMEMBER YOURSELF!’ (one side one)

Brief Info: Discovered and greatly endorsed by Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, who features as executive producer, this beautiful debut album made number 3 in the UK charts, but failed to sell well in the US where it failed to even chart. An amazingly original and quite stunning record, Kate’s vocals took a nation by storm via the gorgeous ‘Wuthering Heights’ and this album was justifiably a huge success as was most everything she did afterwards. So not the rarest title I have ever offered, but such a lovely early pressed copy that looks and plays impressively is very special indeed. Appearing little played, this is a challenging recording with complex grooves for that remarkable vocal – it can wear and damage easily, and often have I heard this album crackle and break-up. This sounds lovely with clear, crisp, distortion-free sound and housed in an impressive fully laminated cover. Lyrically sensitive and performed with brilliant backing, it has to rank as one of the greatest ‘surprise’ debuts ever issued. This is a record that will be hard to find better, lacking the usual surface noise and crackle many suffer – as far as debut albums go, this was very special – a Strange Phenomenon indeed.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(++): a single, fully laminated format as only the earliest pressings were. Printed and made by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd. This includes the original 1978-made EMI text inner sleeve.

Lamination – Front & Back: Beautiful artwork for one of the greatest female popular music albums ever. This does it near full justice being fresh and clear with lovely shine and freshness with hardly even a trace if dulling. Just a fine laminate adhesion sliver on the front right edge near the bottom – this amongst the least I have had on this cover that is known for this trait. This cover often has substantial adhesion issues and blistering which this has almost avoided. Any others are very fine edge types, and only three or four of those, few will have less. Importantly, there is no fading, even to the very vulnerable spine surface that often bleaches out in natural light. The back has hardly any blemishes as all, even the laminate ends have avoided pulling or grubbiness. This has been cover-protected from new by one owner, thus it has survived in such lovely condition. The lack of major laminate issues such as large lifts and poor adhesion is a huge plus on this cover, just the one fine sliver is almost the least to be found. Such a shame EMI decided to drop laminate from later examples, but they spared no expense initially, and this, like the album itself, is a piece of quality art. This example does it superb justice as seen.

Top & Bottom Edges: Both quite straight, the top especially so, and smooth with barely any wear and retaining strong unfaded colour.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, very sharp with no thickening. Record enters on this edge.

Spine and Text: Immaculate, very thin, but still solid, straight with barely any compression. The laminate fully retained and the natural brown colour still quite deep with scant evidence of any colour change by light. All the text is strong and present, this perfectly centred on the narrow depth. So many of these totally wash-out when exposed to sunlight, and to find one with stronger colour is never to be dismissed lightly.

Corners: All crisp and very sharp with nothing to fault, that very unusual indeed.

Cover Summary: An impressive example of this famous and beautiful 1970’s cover, one that will prove difficult to find much better. Nothing beats owning a first issued cover, especially when found this fresh and shiny. It should please many, if not most collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT(++): aged very little with the paper still nicely white with any discoluration minimal and faint. Unlined and solid, this has the EMI text as seen with the 378 (March 1978) manufacture date. All edges solid, no hard creasing, any traces gentle and light.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(++): a very fine visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed. A copy appearing very little played on all the evidence (that also unusual), with any surface traces very light, wispy and faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, hardly anything even registers. Visually a super record that should please many, if not 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 equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This quite groundbreaking album, that includes the first No 1 single written and performed by a female artist in the UK, plays up to and mostly even 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 and this is a very clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises. That so often not the case, so-much-so, I seldom offer this album on that basis alone. So many have inherent contact sound, crackle and unwanted sounds making a play-grade all the more important. This does have some quiet songs and passages, so the odd trace is near impossible avoid totally, but few available copies will outperform this early first pressing I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played very lightly and has been very well stored and carefully handled within a non-smoking environment. Purchased new by one owner who cover-protected his albums. Nothing of any note 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.