LED ZEPPELIN IV ORIGINAL 1ST PRESS A3/B3 UK VINYL LP IN GREAT CONDITION

	£		64
	$		84

LED ZEPPELIN - 

4   IV

ATLANTIC

2401012

1st UK Press  1971

 Features "Misty Mountain Top" misspelling. Feather pointing upwards.

First press matrices A//3 B//3 with the earliest stampers and "PORKY" and "PECKO DUCK" etched into the deadwax. This is the genuine FIRST PRESS with the correct A//3 B//3 matrices. (A//3 B//4 would be a second press though also majorly scarce.) It has the continued cat. number without a hyphen again indicating the first proper press.

George Peckham mastered this album with Jimmy Page and Phil Carsons from Atlantic Records. Page called back after the session to say how pleased he was with the results and that he wanted George to master all future Led Zeppelin Lps. his "Porky's" inscription would go on to also appear on later albums. 

'Following the staggering reunion triumph at the O2, which I was lucky enough to be at, interest in Led Zeppelin has become greater than ever, with the site for the Ahmettribute.com tribute concert receiving an unbelievable 120 million hits, with 25 million people apparently registering for a Zeppelin ticket, its as good a time as any to invest in an original copy early press of this classic Zep album.'

"Four Symbols" spent an amazing 57 weeks in the UK charts. The green & orange label pressing's would far outsell the red and maroon colour early pressing's. The Plum label variants were only available for 12 of the 57 weeks, during which time Atlantic prepared to launch their new labels and the new catalogue numbers.

Label changes usually took place incrementally, with a necessary cross over period needed to bridge the change of the records and covers already in record shops, taking into account the most recent releases that were still selling.

The classic Plum label design was changed by Atlantic to a green & orange colour in March, 1972, when the second pressings of "4 Symbols" were made, with a new catalogue number, 'K 5008,' replacing the first issue's 'De Luxe 2401 012.'

Vinyl: EX . Great heavy first UK press vinyl . A beautiful heavy glossy vinyl.   Under a strong light some wispy retraction paper traces can be seen. Any LP will have this as soon as they are taken out of its sleeve. These are totally invisible in normal light. There is just one shallow hairline visible on each side, these are non-feelable and do not impact on the wonderful sound.  The last track "Stairway to Heaven" is of course most wonderful with tremendous depth never heard again on cd reissues, the track plays mint like all the rest of the album!!! I subjected the record to a detailed listen on my high end system and it did not disappoint. This sounded better than any re-issue like only a first press can. Lovely channel separation without any distortion or crackle. Their is still some vinyl debris in the spindle hole indicating minimal play. This vinyl will be an upgrade for most.

Gatefold sleeve:  VG+ to EX. A great gatefold sleeve for this first UK press version. Light edge and spinal storage wear. There are two small creases.  This is a very hard sleeve to find in such great condition as many owners did not look after their albums properly. This copy is well preserved and has been carefully stored as all other albums from this wonderful prog collection. The inside gatefold is a splendid EX, untouched. The spine is really nice with hardly any wear.  On account of that VG+ to EX. More from this wonderful collection will be listed in the near future.

Labels: NM. A very sought after item as this has the label miss-spelling "Mist Mountain Top" instead of "Hop". A very rare item!!

This also has the original inner sleeve which is made of a vulnerable paper much like the good old blotting paper. Most of these have gone missing. This is still present although it has a full bottom seam split and a tiny tear near the top . It has the lyric to "Stairway" printed. A lovely item and quite rare in its own right with many replaced by later re-issue copies which have normal smooth paper and are far lighter in colour. I will send it along with the vinyl in a separate plain inner.