Tramp - S/T, 1969 original Music Man label, nice copy

	£		41
	$		54

The Item For Sale Is:

Artist: Tramp

Title: Tramp

Release info: Music Man (SMLS 603) 1969 Original UK Stereo Issue

Condition (Sleeve 1st) : VG+/VG+

Track List:     Own Up

Same Old Thing

What You Gonna Do

Somebody Watching Me

Too Late Now

Baby What You Want Me To Do

Street Walking Blues

On The Scene

Month Of Sundays

Hard Work

Another Day

Band:                     Danny Kirwin - Guitar

Little Brother Dave (Dave Kelly) - Vocals

Bob Hall - Piano

Bob Brunning - Bass

Mick Fleetwood - Drums

Memphis Lil (Joanne Kelly) - Vocals

Produced By:        Peter Eden

Very difficult to find late UK blues boom item in decent condition. All of the band members are well known to afficiandos, Fleetwood and Kirwan from Fleetwood Mac, Brunning also played in the early line ups of Fleetwood Mac as well as in the Brunning Hall sunflower band with Bob Hall and I haven’t actually checked this anywhere but I believe those two were also involved in an early line up of Savoy Brown (could be wrong about that!), and of course the two Kellys made many records under their own names.

Sound wise it’s typical late sixties blues rock, very much from the same mould as Fleetwood Mac and Chicken Shack, enjoyable enough in it’s way but it’s not for me, love Kirwin’s guitar sound though, always thought he was much under-rated in Fleetwood Mac where all of the attention seems to be given to Green and Spencer, here he plays the majority of the lead and rythym parts and really gets to show how good he was.

Condition:

Sleeve: Acceptable but nowhere near mint. It’s a standard single sleeve made of slightly thickish card which is laminated on the front only manufactured by West Central Printing of London.

The front is in pretty good shape, the laminate still has a nice shine with no tears or writing anywhere, it’s pretty much crease free with one exception, approximately a third of the way down the open edge there is a very mall tear, approaching a centimetre long and there’s a light crease forming a triangle with this crease and the open edge, this sounds quite serious but in the grand scheme of things it’s not that bad, at arms length in a PVC sleeve (which I’ll supply) you’ll be pushed to notice it, I’ve included a photo of the tear alongside my finger to illustrate how small it is. Elsewhere the only thing to note is a very very light circular indentation where the record sits, this is nothing to worry about but I’m storing record and sleeve seperatley so that it doesn’t get any worse, there’s also the light line down the open edge where the lamination has shrunk over the years but nothing can be done about that and every copy has that line. There is the odd light dirty mark on the laminate but really nothing serious and it could be cleaned easily.

The unlaminated rear sleeve is also in pretty good shape. It’s predominately white so does show some very light ageing but nothing to worry about, the only other thing to mention is the lines around the edges of the flaps where the lamination has shrunk, doesn’t look too bad and could be cleaned up. There’s no writing, tears or creases anywhere.

The top seam is totally unworn.

The bottom seam is also totally unworn.

The spine is totally unworn and is square and clean with all of the writing clearly readable.

Record: The disc is also very nice without being mint. It’s made of thickish vinyl which has a bit of a primitive look about it as befit’s a very small label, it’s certainly not as primitive looking as some private pressings of the era but compared to say a Decca or RCA album it just looks a little bit rougher. It’s very clean though and has a nice dark shine. Viewed under normal light and it looks real nice. When viewed under a harsh light there are only a few light hairline marks to be seen, these are caused by taking the record in and out of the sleeve and are totally inaudible.

The two labels are in perfect condition. Both are very clean with no writing, stickers or tears and very little visible spindle wear.

When played it’s enjoyable, there are small flaws but nothing to really spoil your listening pleasure. The sound is full and clear and has a good dynamic range. There are occasional very light clicks which for the most part are only audible between tracks but (on track two especially) occasionally do occur during the music, I have to stress how light these noises are and also that when I played this they didn’t detract at all from the music but they are there although most will only be heard at high volume, now it’s possible that these are caused by the low budget pressing, I have had copies of this record before and they were simialrly noisy but whatever the reason I’m being straight and telling you that occasionally (and it is only very occasionally) there is the odd light click to be heard. That aside there’s really nothing to spoil the music, there’s no nasty loud pops or clicks, certainly no deep scratches, it’s just a good playable enjoyable copy.

All in all, well, I guess I could have called this EX/EX certainly I’ve received worse condition records grade as EX or even M-but I’ve downgraded it for the reasons given but that shouldn’t put you off, this is a hard one to find and it will be a tough challenge to find a better copy than this.

If you do decide to bid for this item I wish you luck and if not, well, thanks for looking and remember to look at my other items for sale you may find something more to your taste there.

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