NUCLEUS Elastic Rock Rare Vertigo Spiral LP

	£		45
	$		60

Formerly mpsmith...

Hi, I am Mike, I have been a music collector for over 30 years now. My Ebay name has now changed at the request of Ebay for security - little else will change I hope, I will still try to offer the finest and most accurately described and graded 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 as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any interested collector. You may notice I only submit one or two items a day for Ebay; time rarely allows more as I Play-Grade every record I offer (on a Rega 3 deck with Ortofon cartridge) - visuals alone do not always tell a true or full story - I will mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector. 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 its good. A ten pounds record that plays close to new is as important to the collector as a 250 pound record that plays less well. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programmes. What you see is what you get. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. Good luck.

Please Note: I will now offer any item to the runner-up after the mandatory Ebay 3 days if no contact is made by the winning bidder. The same applies if no payment is received within the mandatory 7 days so any bidder who has just lost out can still email me to reserve the item as priority second chance. Item wants are always welcome - email me with anything needed. I also will buy quality single items or collections of original quality rock, 60s popular, folk, prog, psych and underground etc.

PLEASE READ ALL DESCRIPTIONS AND CHECK PICTURES CAREFULLY FOR ALL THE INFORMATION GIVEN.

Artist or Band: NUCLEUS

Album Title: Elastic Rock

Cat Number: 6360 008 Stereo.

Label and Condition: Veritigo Full Spiral size spiral on side one and large spiral above centre hole on side two. Two super clean examples of this most famous progressive label. Spindle traces are only light and light+. (Please see label scans for all information needed).

Country of Manufacture: England, UK

Rarity Factor: Scare, becoming very scarce infact, this is never an easy one to find.

Original Year of Release: 1970

Matrix Nos: 6360008 1Y2 and 2Y1

Album Information: Fronted by jazz man Ian Carr, Nucleus were formed as a progressive jazz rock band to make more experimental music and being signed to the Vertigo label there was no holding back or limitations. Elastic Rock is a masterly album, quite magnificent in fact. The band’s debut album and first outing on this most desirable and famous prog label. Melodic and assessible and featuring some amazing solos, especially on the that most wonderful instrument the soprano saxophone. This is one not just for the progressive collector but also the jazz rock enthusiast too. The cover features artwork by Roger Dean (of Yes cover fame) and is typical of the Spiral age format. It has a die cut intricate cut out on the front and the usual gatefold cover design. This one on offer has some wear and an ‘improved’ sticker removal mark, but the record is nice and plays generally well - more details below.

Cover Condition and Details: VG+, gatefold, die cut out front, printed and made by E. J. Day Group, London and Bedford. Falling below my normal threshold of EX-, but only just. This is a scarce one now and the record makes up for this. Being unlaminated and virtually black all over, how many of these are going to be found in top condition?, finding this at all is not going to be easy in itself. These types are always the most prone to rubbing and unless they have been kept in cotton wool for 30 years most will have some rubbing. All this said this is not so bad, for sure I have seen far worse examples of similar covers.

Cover Lamination: None (unfortunately)

Cover Front: Pretty simple all over black, this has light(+)/moderate(-) rubbing and a sticker removal mark near the top, this has been filled and greatly improved. Sticker removal marks on Vertigo covers again are common. The card used rarely withstood price tag removal unless the most peelable ones were used by the shops - unfortunately around this time many were not that removable. The die cut window is pristine and sharp with zero wear, the shape is perfect and there is no freying or tears. The front gatefold is single ply thickness but is still shows no creases or splits. This maybe is not such a bad example at all really.

Cover Back: Similar to front without any sticker damage, less rubbing and still solid.

Cover Gatefold Inner: Here is the real bonus - the inner gatefold is superb with hardly any wear at all, Clean and super attractive and far more interesting than the outer covers.

Cover Edges/Corners: Put into context of potential horrendous wear these edges are all quite nice with still a very neat appearance and still clean cut. Some light wear yes, but any example of this cover would be hard to better these. Even the entry edges (right hand side) are still sharp and show little wear, a tiny bit more on the back maybe but far better than could be expected for this one. The spine is quite presentable too, with all the text intact and still clear and very readable, the wear potential for this again would be huge, this is neat and quite acceptable. Cornerwear is again really only modest and all look fairly neat. This ultimatley fragile cover regarding ink stability really is not bad at all really - yes is has wear, the pictures show this, there is no improving as stated on my preamble. If you are a fussy collector maybe wait for a better one, but if you can take a cover with some wear/minor sticker flaw this should suit you fine.

Vinyl Condition: EX, clean and shiny and pressed on heavy vinyl. Visually this is one of the cleanest Spirals I’ve seen for a while. There is a tiny fine scratch (approx 5mm) on one track on side 2, this sounds as light ticks for a few revs only. Apart from this I can see few other marks at all, even surface marks. This record has clearly been lightly played. My play-grade revealed a fine copy that sounds pretty amazing. Brilliant improvised jazz-rock - not dissimilar to Soft Machine at times but less manic and more together and easier on the ear. Some very light, and pretty minor surface sound near the beginning on the quiet passage, but this is extremely light and soon passes - this for the most part a very fine clean pressing with great sound. The majority of this difficult record plays supremely well and little spoilt my pleasure in hearing this one on vinyl. There is no distortion or sound degrading, this sounds likely to have been lightly played on a fine deck. The detail and presence of this innovative and complex music is astonishing - this band were certainly one of the finest to record on this legendary and cult label. Sales would have been limited hence its scarceness - that goes without saying, the same for many acts on early Vertigo - this label did not make records to top the sales charts, it specialised in new bands wanting to break new ground with difference sounds and experimentation. This one falls into that bracket nicely. This record comes in its original Spiral inner which is near and unsplit with a nice clear clean cut window. Just the usual browning around the gum areas.

Track Listing:1916; Elastic rock; Sriation; Taranaki; Twisted Track; Crude blues 1; Crude blues 2; 1916 The battle of Boogaloo; Torrid zone; Stonescape; Earth mother.

Album Played For Grading: Yes.

Final Summary: A connoisseur’s Vertigo band, I would guess many collections does not include this one. Nucleus on this recording were: Ian Carr - Trumpet/flugelhorn; Karl Jenkins - Baritone/oboe/piano/electric piano; Brian Smith - Tenor/soprano/flute; Chris Spedding - Guitar; Jeff Clyne - Acoustic bass/electric bass and John Marshall - Drums/percussion. A top quality line-up, the instrumentation will tell what’s to be expected here and you will not be dissapointed. Yes the cover is not quite as good as I would like it, but you could wait a long time to find one significantly better, the record bar the tiny mark is as clean as you will find - this is still a very fine set and should please many collectors, if not the connoisseur collector who only wants perfection at any cost - Mike.

Payment Details please read carefully:

Buyer pays: (UK) £2.50 P&P , for first-class delivery with standard £28 insurance. Items that sell over £75 will be sent via Special Delivery which are insured for £250.

Europe: £4. This is covered up to £28 (45 Euros) insurance and would be sent 1st-class airmail. A recorded airmail service is now in place for Europe too: this means any item will be fully covered to its true value, No customs sticker is needed for Europe, so this is a worthwhile investment. This costs extra £3, the item is tracked and the item has to be signed for - I will use this service to Europe as standard for very expensive rare items e.g. records over £75.

USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and other Far Eastern countries etc: £5.50. This is covered up to £28 (43 US Dollars) insurance and would be sent 1st-class airmail. Please note I do not profit on postage (my packing standards are high and the package weighs a little more).

Extra insurance is available for non-UK items but will cost an extra £4, the item will be covered for up to £500 insurance.

PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT use surface mail, its too slow, with a higher risk of loss and damage.

Overseas bidders please note conversion rates for Pounds to Dollars and Pounds to Euros will be charged at 1.65 to cover PayPal or cash conversions.

PLEASE NOTE: Any PayPal user can now pay me with UK Sterling if they wish with no need to convert to US dollars (although they still can if they wish to). Any instant PayPal transaction from anywhere in the world will mean the item will be sent immediately - it makes deals fast and very efficient.

Mailing Details: All records are sent in plastic covers with the record taken out of the sleeve and sent in professional mailers with a minimum of TWO stiffners for extra protection. More expensive items are also inserted into a de-luxe heavy duty padded bag AS WELL to give that extra protection and three or four stiffners. I truly want ALL my items to arrive to their destination in the same condition they leave me.

Potential Bidders: Please do not bid if you have negative feedback unless checking first, I will cancel any bids I feel are timewasters. I now only accept PayPal, International money orders or cash from overseas bidders (UK Sterling, US dollars or Euros). Cash, cheques, postal orders and PayPal are fine from the UK. I allow maximum 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if this does not happen I will relist the item and may send negative feedback unless an explanation is given. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask. Please keep watch on my Ebays, I have other intesting items coming very soon. Thanks for looking.

My Guarantee: As listening to every single record I offer all the way through is difficult timewise, can I make it clear if any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund minus the Posting and All Ebay costs as long as the item detail has been read and understood. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer. I still endeavour to play all the items in their entirity for grading if at all possible and is usually the case.