SPRING - 'SPRING' - UK NEON NE6 - ORIGINAL VINYL

	£		486
	$		644

Before we get into my Spring LP, I just wanted to pay my own (long overdue) tribute to the late Pat Moran, their lead singer and later a succesful record producer in his own right. I was lucky enough to have seen Spring supporting Mo Tucker's Velvet Underground at Birmingham University and Spring were just brilliant that night. When we walked into the venue we saw the usual WEM speaker columns and little Audio Master mixer near the stage, but noticed next to them these large dark cabinets that seemed hollow inside, There was a cable  running from the stage down the centre of the room to some sort of control desk. We had seen something like this once before, when we went to see Iron Butterfly (and Yes) at Birmingham Town Hall. The sound that night was miles away from what we were used to in the UK at the time! So we thought we were in for another great sound from an American band again! Spring eventually ambled on to the stage in the dark and instantly shook us with the shear volume and scale of their music, which was also so clear. This 'new' equipment belonged to Spring, not The Velvet Underground! Was the first number 'Grail', I can't remember now, but the band's Mellotron's sounded just amazing, yet so loud, but could just hear everything! Immediately you know that these guys could really play! The guitar and organ solos cut through crystal clear, Pick Wither's drumming was perfect and all underpinned by the massive sound of the Mellotrons on stage. And standing in the middle of all this was the diminuative figure of Pat Moran, sometimes joining in on one of the Mellotrons, who's simple, yet strange vocal style sat perfectly with this wonderful music. Five of us went to that gig and three of us purchased the LP over the coming weeks and remember this was a big spend for 19 year olds in those days, but that was the impact Spring playing 'live' had on us. Roll forward to 1995 and I'm making a film based on my own record collection, about rare record sleeve 'art' to be called 'Rare, Precious or Beautiful'. The Spring sleeve was in the pile so brilliantly filmed by Ken Morse (the UK's leading Rostrum Cameraman) and I wanted 'Grail' on the soundtrack and through their music publisher I was dispatched to Chiswick in London to meet now succesful record producer and former Spring front man - Pat Moran at his home. He was very welcoming and he was glad that Spring was being used on the soundtrack and featured amongst the rare sleeves on show! Pat also agreed to be filmed and interviewed for the film talking about Spring's legendary triple gatefold sleeve, how it came about and what happened on the day of the shoot. Pat seemed very proud of the body of work Spring did and there was a real fondness for that period of his life and he seemed to enjoy being made to remember what had gone on around the creation of this very famous sleeve. He was chuckling as he remembered that the soldier lying in the forground of the picture was in fact the band's roadie and although it looks like a warm sunny day it was in fact a bright but cold day and the water was freezing and said roadie was cursing the band and the photographer for keeping him lying their soaking wet and freezing for so long! So, thank you Pat Moran for some remarkable music and your generosity shown towards me when we met, two moments in my life I will never, ever forget!

Now the LP...this is a superb, UK pressed, VINYL, NEON Records copy! My original copy  having seen better days, I found a much better condition second copy and this is the one I am selling here. It is in EX / EX condition. The non-laminated outer sleeve is a strong EX with the expected but very light corner / edge ware (but nothing that could be described as 'damage!)  and really nothing else wrong with it at all - no tears, splits, sticker marks or areas of the sleeve with loss of colour and there is a lot of sleeve here! The jet-black inside of Spring's gatefold sleeve often has a few tiny white dots from the printing process and this copy only has a couple! So all in all a really very nice sleeve! The vinyl is clean, shiny looking, with just a few withdrawl type marks, no scratches or any kind of serious or visible damage. The record has been cleaned on a VPI Typhoon record cleaning machine and has superb, loud audio with absolutely no hiss, crackle or pops, not even in the quiet bit! The name of the previous owner is writen in really tiny, neat pen on the Neon label, but in such a way is to not hamper the design, it kind of fits into the design, not across it if you get my meaning. The pen is very light and as the Neon Labels are 'laminated' (i.e. not matt), it most probably would come off with the correct solvent, but it is so un-intrusive to the eye, I have never bothered! The original poly-lined inner is present, but as often happens the poly has come away from the paper (this is the moment you get the withdrawl marks!) and I would no longer stick this vinyl into that bag as I can fly! So you get this original bag, a plain black bag I added when I first got this copy and a new white bag supplied after the cleaning. So all in all a great copy, one the winner can be proud of! I start all my vinyl auctions at £4.99, even this one! It can be collected from West London or will be sent by at least 'Signed for' service. I pack all my records well to arrive with the winner as they left me! If not satisfied, I offer a full refund.

Correction...for those who have see 'Rare, Precious or Beautiful', the Spring track I wanted and is in fact on the 'soundtrack is 'Golden Fleece' and not 'Grail'. Doh!