THE BEATLES - PLEASE PLEASE ME NORTHERN SONGS BLACK & GOLD PMC 1202 GOOD+ LP

	£		175
	$		232

APRIL/ MAY 1963

THE BEATLES DEBUT ALBUM

PLEASE PLEASE ME

Catalogue no. PMC 1202

UK 1963 Original Pressing

The Rarer 2nd Black & Gold Pressing containing the new Northern Songs Credits

Master Matrices XEX 421-1N/ XEX 422-1N

The 1st and 2nd pressings were in a Gold text for PLEASE PLEASE ME and the run began on 22nd March 1963, and lasted only until some time in May as EMI were in the process of changing to a Yellow text. It has been documented that newer and more familiar Yellow and Black label for 3rd and following pressings were in the stores on around the 1st June 1963.

The first pressing has “Dick James Mus. Co”  incorrect publishing credits for “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Misery”, “Do You Want To Know A Secret” & “There’s A Place”.

This second pressing is distinguished from the first pressing as the “Dick James” credits were altered to read “Northern Songs” instead. This change occurred very quickly in late April as the typesetter for the credits wasn’t informed that the Beatles had worked with Dick James to set up their own, new, “Northern Songs” publishing company for Lennon and McCartney’s original songs.

These 2nd pressings are about twice as rare as the 1st pressings due to the shorter amount of time to press them, just a few weeks.

All Black and Gold PLEASE PLEASE ME LP's that come up for sale are rare, and most of them will therefore have the incorrect Dick James credits for The Beatles composition song titles. 

This copy has the corrected Northern Songs credits.

The Sleeve: Original Sleeve in Poor condition

The spine is split in the middle but is mostly intact adjoining the front of the sleeve to the fold-over flap on the back of the sleeve along the spine, and the top fold-over flap is intact from the spine corner up to the first 'P' of PLEASE PLEASE ME, this allows the LP to slot in to a certain degree.

The iconic photo on the front is still glossy and apart from the edge wear it doesn't have many creases at all.

Has large 'mono' on top right in bold lower case letters.

All Tony Barrow text legible on reverse and front pictorial clear and bold.

No stickers or handwriting or writing imprints on the front or the reverse.

 The bottom flipback is missing and so the Printed & made by Ernest J Day Ltd. Patents Pending is not present, the 'Photo: Angus McBean' text is not present on the front as has worn away, and so hard to indentify as a Gold Sleeve. However, this has had one previous owner who bought it as a teenager in 1963 and so this is very likely a Gold sleeve, as most Northern Songs Gold & Black pressings would have came in the Gold sleeve.

Inner Sleeve: This is the very 1st variation type of EMI Emitex advertising sleeve that came with Please Please Me. It has a lighter type paper and poly-lined interior. It has Patents Applied For printed in the left hand corner and Made In Great Britain in the lower right.  It is in Very Good Plus to Excellent condition with all edges intact and there are no splits, and the interior poly-lining is completely intact at all seams. The die-cut text is still complete and sharp. There is just some light discoloration to the white of the sleeve and a few creases. These originals very rarely survive as well as this one has.

The Vinyl: Good Plus Condition. This heavy slab of vinyl still retains a jet black shine and depth. There are no feelable scratches or marks. It has quite a lot of superficial stylus hairlines (i.e. no scratches at all that you can feel). The surface is smooth to the touch and in normal light the vinyl surfaces look very good for such a notoriously rare 53 year old LP. There are also some several scuff patches here and there on both sides when looked at under bright light, these also can not be felt.

The vinyl is clean, the record lays completely flat on the turntable, and has no warps and shows no groove wear.

Heavy robust sixties vinyl weighing at 172 grams.

Labels are Very Good Plus. Text is clear and bright, the perimeter area around the spindle location point has minimal spindle wear and hardly any scuffing to the label around its perimeter which is quite unusual to find in such good condition. Several short spindle line marks can be seen on side 1, but on Side 2 there are no spindle traces that can be seen. No handwriting or stickers or sticker residue. The Gold print has held particularly well on this copy and it is fully complete and bright, it contrasts well against the black background which only has a little fading around the outer rim area.

Has the MT tax code embossed on side 2

The Original Parlophone Co. Ltd text around rim.

Mother/ Stamps:

Side 1 - 2 GM

Side 2 - 12 GP

The Audio: Good Plus. There is some light background noise every now and again which is mainly noticeable in quieter parts. Track change lead-in's to the songs particularly at the start of each side have some soft ticks, and some soft ticks can also be heard in some of the quieter audio. This is nothing unusual for a 1st or 2nd pressing of Please Please Me.

 There is a potential stick on the track 'Misery' which will depend on the weight of the stylus arm as to whether it sticks or not. If the arm is heavy similar to sixties equipment it can play through, but on more modern equipment it will most likely stick. The record has not been professionally cleaned and has been kept as it is having had one previous owner.

There are no detractions other than mentioned that can overcome the audio anywhere such as skips, jumps, or pops or loud ticking. The robustness of these early heavy pressings ensures that the appearance of record with a surface that looks like it has received many plays can still deliver a good audio definition, and will still last a lot longer.

The release of Please Me is said to have signalled the start of the sixties proper. This Beatles artifact is still a playable example and it's value can only increase over time.

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This LP will be securely delivered in a professional cardboard LP mailer with cardboard stifferners.

A plain anti-static inner sleeve will house the record and the original will be placed separately.

A high grade PVC sleeve is included to further protect the sleeve as shown.

UK delivery is included and is by next day special delivery.

Overseas delivery will be tracked and a tracking number will be given.

I use the official grading system for rare records from the Record Collector Magazine.

Happy to refund on return if not satisfied.