PINK FLOYD DARK SIDE OF THE MOON 1ST UK PRESS SOLID A2/B2 SUPERB NEAR MINT

	£		800
	$		1,060

Here is a really outstanding example of this 1st pressing which is complete with the original black poly-lined inner sleeve, earliest posters and stickers and the correct, earliest 'midnight blue' cover with a sealed and folded left edge. It’s also one of the best-sounding copies I have ever heard.

The disk has the following 1st press matrix numbers:

Side 1: SHVL 804 A-2

Side 2: SHVL 804 B-2

Detailed description

Vinyl: The vinyl looks superb. It has retained its original high sheen with very little to see: just a handful of small or light marks, but there is nothing bad anywhere. It is very hard to find copies that look as good as this. I have played the entire record and it sounds fantastic with almost nothing to report. This is EASILY one of the very best 1st pressings of DSOTM that I have ever heard. Please note that this copy does NOT have the pressed skip in 'Money' often found on first pressings - there are no jumps or skips anywhere. Like most Pink Floyd albums Dark side of the Moon has lots of quiet and sparsely arranged passages and because of this it is very hard to find an original copy which genuinely plays Mint all the way through, and there are some sections which are always 'difficult' on original vinyl copies of this album (e.g. the long-fade explosion noise at the end of 'On the Run', the heartbeat fade-in at the beginning and fade-out at the end of the album, the quiet end section of ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’, the intro to ‘Us and Them’ etc), but this copy is one of the best I’ve heard with only one issue* in these parts, with the rest of it playing flawlessly. *The only thing that stops this from being perfect is at the very beginning of side one in the heartbeat fade-in (there is a momentary surface noise just before the heartbeat begins, followed by six clicks, of which the first four are louder than the last two), but this is all in the very quiet fade-in, before the record has got properly going, and everything is over more than ten seconds before the first bit of spoken dialogue. After that, everything sounds great and is probably the best copy I’ve heard. So, a bit of noise and a few clicks at the very beginning of the album, before the record has really even got started and then near-perfect audio after that. I’m not sure how this should be graded because, apart from the very beginning, I would probably play-grade this copy as a VERY SAFE Near Mint. For side one most of it is Near Mint (NM), but the heartbeat intro is lower, and side two is Near Mint (NM).

Labels: Both labels look great with no damage, writing, stickers etc, just some spindle marking.

Sleeve: This is the original 'midnight blue' cover with sealed and folded under left edge. It is nice and clean with no writing, splits, tears or stickers etc and just very minor signs of use. It’s very hard to find these original covers as good as this.

Inner sleeve: This is the original black, poly-lined inner sleeve. There are no tears or splits and just very minor signs of use.  This is easily one of the best I’ve seen.

Posters: These are the original matt posters. They have never been on display and so have no pin-holes, sellotape, blu-tac etc. They have no tears, splits or damage, and minimal signs of handling or age, I think it would be hard to find a better pair of original posters.

Stickers: These are the original PERMANENT stickers with the wavy-line on the backing paper. They are both unused and look superb with no issues.

Detracting features not covered above:  None. This is a superb example which looks and sounds amazing – I think it would be very hard to find a better one.

All photographs are of the actual item for sale. Please ask any questions before you bid or buy.