PICNIC Rare Harvest LP, Lost Pink Floyd track

	£		53
	$		70

Hi, I am Mike, I am 46 and have been a music collector and enthusiast for over 33 years now. We all wish we could turn back the clock and buy those wonderful brand new records from the 60s and 70s, but alas, this is not possible; so I always try to offer the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. No vinyl/music lover really would choose to buy second-hand, but this is only way now to own these valuable, prized and ellusive items now. 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 potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records sparingly on Ebay - on average ONEADAY, hence the name - time rarely allows for more as I Play-Grade virtually every record I offer in their entirity, not just bits to guess a grade (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 reader – 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 its good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. 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. I am enthusiastic , and have a fair degree of knowledge about many gentres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps or sticks or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

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, you never know - I may just have a copy in stock. I by quality single items and collections also (Email me please if you have quality items for sale).

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Please read all the information carefully - these adverts take an age to compile properly - so it’s well worth a few minutes of your time to read the details thoroughly. I really cannot take any responsibility if any bidder fails to read any facts that are clearly stated in the advert - Thankyou.

Artist or Band: VARIOUS ARTISTS on HARVEST

Album Title: Picnic (A Breath of Fresh Air)

Cat Number: SHSS 1 Stereo (Not Issued in Mono).

Label and Condition: Harvest, classic yellow and green format and a pre-EMI copy. Clean examples of this superb label, that show between light+ to moderate(-) spindle marks. This set looks to have received less than average plays on this evidence, the actual records suggest less even. (Please see label scans for all information needed - all four are similar, no writing and clean).

Country of Manufacture: Gt Britain

Rarity: Scarce, I would think this was only available a fairly short time, but I dont know that for certain.

Original Year of Release: 1970

Matrix Nos: SHSS A2, B1 and A1, B1

Brief Artist & Album Info: No, not just another sampler, far from it. Every collector will know those interesting black and white Harvest advertising inner sleeves with those rather more obscure (and magnificent) early Harvest bands album covers printed on them. All the super rare ones that sold modestly (or less) between 1969-1970. This double sampler set has a track by them all, it has a wonderfully unique Hipgnosis designed gatefold cover too, and like the early and ellusive albums, this one shows up all too rarely these days. Apart from some superb progressive music by the band’s all collectors want this set includes a Pink Floyd track - ‘Embryo’ - that is unique to this double set. It must rank as the famous band’s rarest song, never a single (or B-side), and not issued on any official album. Its a lovely song too, written by Roger Waters, this would have been perfect on the Ummagumma album, it was produced by Norman Smith of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn fame. The bands featured on this, arguably the best ever and most collectable sampler are: (numbered to cross-reference the tracks below) 1. Deep Purple 2. BJH 3. Pink Floyd 4. The Battered Ornaments 5. Shirley & Dolly Collins 6. Pretty Things 7. Roy Harper 8. Bakerloo 9. Kevin Ayers 10. The Greatest Show on Earth 11. Third Ear Band 12. Syd Barrett 13. Forest 14. Pete brown and Piblokto! 15. Panama Limited 16. Quartermass 17. Michael Chapman 18. Tea & Symphony 19 Edgar Broughton Band. Impressive line-up dont you think? I wish I had this lot to offer, and they do come along occasionally. - I am a huge fan of this classic progressive label and I search for any item that is available. Don’t take this as an ordinary sampler, this is a very collectable set and should be included in any serious Harvest collection. This has a neat cover with some minor ageing - the records are mostly fine too, clean and play well with just the odd minor flaw. Details are below.

Cover Grade and Format: EX, gatefold format, laminated front and back, designed by Hipnosis.

Cover Lamination: Strong laminate with no peeling or dry areas. A few mainly light creases, the biggest near the very top of front, and it shows little. Clean and shiny and attractive. There are a few light press marks/small light indentations but again unless searched for they show little. This laminate retains a nice look.

Cover Front: Attractive with little real wear or damage. Clean with great original artwork. There is just a faint ring trace but little else of any real note.

Cover Back: Similar to the front with a slightly more pronounced ringmark. Both sides retain great rich colour under the laminate.

Cover Gatefold Inner: Real nice and little to fault really.

Top Edge: Virtually unworn.

Bottom Edge: Similar again, odd tiny chip.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Sharp with little wear, fine line mark where the laminate ends short, all very common on these types. Record entered on right hand edges.

Spine and Text: Solid and square with little wear, the word ‘PICNIC’ is fully intact and unworn under the solid spine laminate.

Corners: All four show a little minor wear, mostly on the very tips. All still quite nicely shaped.

Cover Summary: A fine all round example of this scarce early 70’s cover, one that could prove hard to find vastly better. This strong item should please many collectors.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: All sides visually are EX. All are clean and shiny, pressed on heavy vinyl and remain jet black. Little more than light surface traces, odd tiny scuff or hairlines, few sound and the vast majority of this set plays really well with easy tracking and solid sound.

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: Of the 19 songs I would say most play to a very high standard with great sound and little blemishing. The Kevin Ayers track has a little surface sound/mild distortion in the form of light clipping, similar on Third Ear Band - this is a quiet instrumental and is a real test to find perfect. The other pretty minor flaw is a two rev groove sound on the roy Harper song which is maybe a tiny pressing fault as nothing can be seen. So for the vast majority all four sides give a strong account of themselves. The odd isolated light tick or surface sound maybe, but this will not be found much better easily. The assortment of fine progressive music is wonderful, the original albums are so highly prized and sort after. For those who have just seen the inners and never the albums, Picnic gives a great insight into these lesser known and collectable Harvest artists. The Pink Floyd song plays well (its a quiet one with a slight psych feel) and its worthy of any price alone, why to this day it has not been issued elsewhere I dont know. Most collectors will appreciate this set, maybe not quite for the perfectionists, but as this does not come along that often it might be worthy of consideration even by these.

Mono vs Stereo, an overview: Always a matter of opinion which is better or more important. For any serious collector where there is a choice e.g. Beatles, Stones, Hendrix etc. both are essential. True Stereo albums give great imagery and presence whereas mono albums usually are more dynamic, louder and present the detail more clearly. Mono albums are far harder to find in genuinely top playing condition. Most were heavily played, particularly the truly great bands and artists, often covered in mark and scratches, many severe and labels that were a mass of spindle marks. The majority were played on vintage and unsubtle decks with heavy tonearms and thick styli (often sapphire, not diamond, that chipped more easily) that rendered heavy wear in a very short time to many a fine classic record. Wear to the delicate groove walls, particularly the innermost tracks to the labels were most vulnerable where the tracking angle became more severe and the backdrag actually stripped the delicate groove walls. This resulted in surface noise and mild/moderate distortion or worse. These old decks tracked by sheer weight and little of any refined engineering. Next time you see such a deck at a local record fayre, feel the weight of the arm, it almost makes you wonder how any records survived at all. The point of this paragraph is emphasise that when a truly clean, lightly played and great sounding 60s mono album (or stereo come to that) is offered, treasure it, because for sure they are truly getting vary rare and precious - beware - demand only play-graded records. As a general guide to rarity, mono was the far more common format from 61–65; Around 66–67 the balance was roughly equal, then from 68-69 the balance swung more to stereo, making monos from these dates far scarcer, even rare - this guide is important and effects values greatly.

Track Listing: 1. Into the fire 2. Mother Dear 3. Embryo 4. Twisted Track 5. Glenlogie 6. The Good Mr Square 7. Song of the Ages 8. The Worried Feeling 9. Eleanor’s Cake Which Ate Her 10. Again and Again 11. Water 12. Terrapin 13. A glade Somewhere 14. Golden Country Kingdom 15. Round and Round 16. Black Sheep of the Family 17. Postcards of Scarborough 18. Maybe My Mind (With Egg) 19 Old Gopher.

Album Played For Grading: Yes.

Final Summary: A stunning array of bands, some classic songs and with the hugely important, unique on this album Pink Floyd song, ‘Embryo’ it should appeal to the Floyd officianados too. Some of these originals are largely ‘lost’ now - how often will Pete Brown, Battered Ornaments, Bakerloo, GSOE, Forest, Panama Limted, Quatermass and Tea & Symphony items appear on vinyl these days? Its just great to hear them again on the format they originally were released on. You will enjoy them too – Mike.

Payment Details please read carefully:

UK First Class: = £2.50; Recorded Delivery (Recommended) = £4.00 Special Delivery (Next day, insured up to £250), the best service available = £6.00

Europe Air Mail: = £4 Insured: £8.00

Overseas, non-Europe e.g. USA, Japan, Australia etc. Airmail:= £7; Insured with recorded delivery (where available) = £11.00

Singles: (Packed to the high standards of the LPs)

UK First class: = £2.00 Insured: £4

Europe Air Mail = £3.00 Insured: £5.50

Overseas, non-Europe (as above) Airmail £3.50 Insured: £6.00

Doubles add extra £1, triples add extra £2. Box sets add extra £3 (£4 overseas and Europe)

Any item that sells for over £85 will be sent Special Delivery in the UK at no extra cost. Items over £125 get the same service Overseas. This is gives peace of mind for the winning bidder and myself for valuable items. Reduced postage of course for multiple items.

The winner bidder chooses his/her posting method and if uninsured is chosen, its their decision and they have to stick with it, I can accept no responsibility if an item is lost in the post. I can only try to claim at standard levels if no enhancement is chosen (£28). PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT use surface mail, its too slow, with a higher risk of loss and damage.

Mailing Details: Please note I do not profit on postage (my packing standards are high and the package weighs a little more. All records are sent in plastic covers with the record taken out of the sleeve and sent in professional mailers with FOUR professional stiffners for extra protection (if space allows), I do NOT use old cardboard boxes or cereal packets for protection. More expensive items are also inserted into a de-luxe heavy duty padded bag AS WELL to give that extra protection. I truly want ALL my items to arrive to their destination in the same condition they leave me. I will also include in most cases a brand new lined inner, but will include the original inner if available and in a condition to be given.

I accept cash for payments worldwide in UK Pounds Sterling, Euros or US Dollars - but this at the senders own risk. Please send registered and insured if this method is chosen. I cannot accept responsibility if any cash payments do not turn up. This system is very reliable and rarely goes astray. The same goes for any shipped uninsured item, I can only try to claim for any undelivered or damaged article at basic insurance levels if no enhanced insurance is requested and paid for (unless the value threshold is high enough for me insure as standard, see above)

Overseas bidders please note conversion rates for Pounds to Dollars and Pounds to Euros will be charged at 1.7 to cover PayPal or cash conversion costs.

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.

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 interesting 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.