Pink Floyd, The Wall, 1st UK Harvest, Very Good, A-3U, B-3U, A-1U, B-2U

	£		75
	$		99

Harvest Records 1st issue with title insert on cover

Very first pressing taken from the first generation master tapes.
 
Condition:

Vinyl

Visually – small scratches, hairline surface marks and slight scuffs. Placing the LPs on the turntable at watching it turn at eye-level the record are virtually flat with a slight rise/fall of maybe a 1mm. Not saying this is perfect but few LPs are exactly flat. This is a little spindle wear, but not too much.

Grading is a very subjective matter so I’ve provided a bit of detail of each side and some of the more obvious flaws.

I have listened to the entirety (Sides 1 – 4).

Very Good
Surface noise will be evident upon playing, especially in soft passages and during a song's intro and fade, but will not overpower the music otherwise. Light scratches that will affect the sound. No skipping.

Side One
Faint noise faint clicks on quieter passages. “Another Brick in the Wall” plays with no noticeable defect.

Side Two
Track 1: "Goodbye Blue Sky" noticeable clicks starting at around 1:10 and until fading around  2:00 about 20 Track 6: "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 3)" a few faint clicks and surface noise on this quieter passage.

Side Three
Faint noise faint clicks on quieter passages.
Track 2: Two louder clicks mid-way through "Is There Anybody Out There?"

Side Four
Track 3: Three louder clicks mid-way through "Run Like Hell"
Track 6: "Outside the Wall" faint clicks and surface noise on this quieter track.

Overall the sonic quality is superb when the band is playing at full flow eg "Young Lust", "Comfortably Numb", "The Show Must Go On".

I’m classifying the item as Very Good – if you want something Mint / in perfect condition, please look elsewhere.

Cover and Inners:

Near Mint
The gatefold cover has the original acetate sticker “PINK FLOYD THE WALL” on the front which is firmly attached and has unlikely ever to have ever been removed. There is a little bit of grubby fingerprints on the rear back cover (I almost didn’t notice) – see photo. Similar on Side 3 inner (see photo). Other than these fairly minor faults, could grade this as Mint.
There are no seam splits, corner and edges are in excellent condition, and surfaces are clean and bright without marks (other than the fingerprints mentioned). No writing or doodles. I have never seen better quality artwork for this album.

The very first pressings of The Wall are also characterised by the following features:

Cover Sticker: •  Issued with a transparent sticker on the front cover that says (in black Scarfe lettering): "Pink Floyd The Wall."
Front Cover:
•  The Wall is cream coloured, not white, with the bricks outlined in purple.
•  The cover is made from a single sheet of wrap-around cardboard, and is of a thicker cardboard than on later printings.
One seam join and that is at the top of the gatefold where the single sheet is joined.
•  The bricks on the front cover are not aligned right to the bottom of the cover.

Back Cover: •  There is no barcode on the back cover.
Inside Cover:
•  The credits on the inside cover do not list the members of Pink Floyd. It only says "Words and Music - Roger Waters."
•  Inside cover “Produced by” credits are for David Gilmour, Bob Ezrin & Roger Waters.
   Later pressings have Roger Waters listed first.
Inner Sleeves:
•  Heavy cardboard inner sleeves with rounded corners and a nine-inch thumb notch.
•  Inside of inner sleeves are light brown - later pressings were white inside
•  The inner sleeves catalogue numbers are on one line in the bottom right corner.
   (Later pressings had the catalogue numbers on three lines.)
Picture label:
•  Text around the top edge of the label starts at 7 o'clock and says: “All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved. Unauthorized public performance, broadcasting and copying of this record prohibited. Made in Great Britain. EMI Records (U.K.)”
•  Darker blue background to the label than later pressings.
•  Thicker vinyl than later pressings.
Because it was anticipated that this LP would be a big seller, there were around thirteen first pressings of the LP manufactured. Below are the matrix numbers for this LP -

Stampers: A-3U / B-3U // A-1U / B-2U:
Record 1: SHSP 4111 A-3U 1 TML-S / SHSP 4111 B-3U 4 YML-X 
Record 2: SHSP 4112 A1-U P1 1 TML-M / SHSP 4112 B-2U 1 TML-M (all stamped)

See photo montage of the pictures of the Stampers (as best as I can get – they are hard to photograph).