Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet Stereo Gatefold Decca 1st Pressing SKL 4955 1968

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                                          Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet Stereo Gatefold Decca 1st Pressing SKL 4955 1968
Beggars Banquet is the seventh studio album of the Rolling Stones released in the United Kingdom by the Decca Records on 6 December 1968. It is regarded as the Stones' timeless classic that marked a comeback to their original style influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. The record is characteristic of instrumental experimentation with Afro-Cuban claves and congas and South Asian tanpura, tabla and shehnai. It was also the last full album Brian Jones recorded with the band before his death.
The iconic Sympathy for the Devil was inspired by Baudelaire poetry and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and Street Fighting Man was written as a tribute to a political activist and public intellectual Tariq Ali, and student protests and riots of May-June 1968 in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
Label: Decca Records Catalogue Number: SKL 4955 Format: Vinyl, LP, 33 1/3 RPM, 12", Album, Stereo, First Pressing Record Company: The Decca Record Company Limited Publishing Company: Mirage Music Ltd Original Release: 6 December 1968 Recording: Olympic Studios, London, March-April 1968 Phonographic Copyright ℗: 1968, DECCA Country of Manufacture: Great Britain Sleeve printed by Garrod & Lofthouse International Limited Patents Pending Genre: Rock Style: Blues Rock, Rock & Roll, Classic Rock, Country Blues, Heavy Rock
The Rolling Stones Credits Mick Jagger (lead vocals, backing vocals, harmonica, maracas) Keith Richards (electric guitars, acoustic guitars, slide guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals, opening lead vocals) Brian Jones (slide guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, Mellotron, sitar, tambura, backing vocals) Bill Wyman (bass guitar, double bass, backing vocals, shekere, maracas) Charlie Watts (drums, claves, tambourine, tabla, backing vocals)
Collaborators Credits Jimmy Miller (producer) Nicky Hopkins (piano, Mellotron, Farfisa organ) Rocky Dzidzornu (congas) Dave Mason (shehnai) Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithfull (backing vocals) Michael Joseph (photography) Tom Wilkes (design)                                                                                                                 
A lacquer was cut by the engineer Tony Hawkins at Decca Studios, the recording and mastering studios in West Hampstead, North West London, and the record was pressed by Decca Pressing Plant of The Decca Record Company Limited in New Malden, Surrey. Matrix numbers stamped in the run-out area are XZAL-8476-2K on Side 1 and XZAL-8477-3K on Side 2. A tax code JT is stamped at the 12 o’clock position on both sides.
The record features the first nongrooved blue ED3 label with nonboxed DECCA logo and silver print. A big size catalogue number has a dot between SKL and 4955. Speed 33 1/3 is not indicated. A publishing company Mirage Music is placed above a copyright box BIEM/NCB on the left side of a label. A tax code J/T is printed lower centre underneath a ℗ 1968 phonographic copyright. Track titles and credits in Times New Roman serif typeface are centred on their individual lines.
A plain white gatefold sleeve is styled like an invitation - Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet R.S.V.P. This is an original first version with a Sleeve printed by Garrod & Lofthouse International Limited  Patents Pending text on the back cover. An elaborate gatefold artwork pictures the great hall of a neo-Tudor Sarum Chase mansion at 23 West Heath Road, Hampstead, London, which was decorated by Jackie Crier in a mediaeval style for a shoot on 7 June 1968. A black and white photograph of the Stones at a banquet table dressed in outlandish tatterdemalion attire was taken by Michael Joseph and hand-coloured by Mick Jagger.
The back cover bears an original label of Jelmoli, one of the oldest and best known department stores in the world located along the famous Bahnhofstrasse in Zürich.
                                                                                                         Condition
A condition of the record is Very Good (VG). The vinyl has light scratches and scuffs consistent with use and age, and retains most of its original gloss. There are also some marks around spindle holes. The condition of a gatefold sleeve is Very Good Plus (VG+) with slightly frayed edges and bent corners. An inner sleeve is not original. A condition is graded by visual inspection and in accordance with Goldmine® Grading Guide. 
                                                                                                       Provenance
A private collection of vinyl records.

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