UK FOCUS original 1973 DEROY HIPPY FOLK

	£		58
	$		76

FOCUS '73 FOCUS '73

  1973 DEROY DER 911 Handmade type sleeve
Catalogue number gleamed from the MATRIX SCRATCH
Deroy not stated, but there is no doubt it is! NO TAX STAMP GENERAL INFORMATION

A good folk album or good rock album is always difficult to find on the DEROY label, but when one comes along... they are instant collectables... Here I have a hitherto unacknowledged DEROY record, pre-dating many of those famous unknown bands like ENGLAND, BABY SUNSHINE, FAIRYS SMOKE... I have over the years had several Deroy albums, including some terrific 7" acetates, but this stands out for it's lovely home-made psychedlic glossy outer sleeve.

I have owned several of those 'hyped-up' albums, most of which didn't sell for a good reason... this was never made to break into the circuits or arouse some music exec... this is truly a private pressing made for peoples personal use.

The disc and sleeve do not have a TAX STAMP anywhere, nor do they show signs of ever having one.  Despite the nature of this pressing, its is possibly safe to assume that less than 100 copies where ever made.

This is likely to be the only copy you will ever see of this record, an ultimate newly discovered holy grail.

I am trying to work out how to put some sound samples on here... I have some snippets as MP3... these are only snippets (I don't want to give the album away)... you will have to ask me a question about this item giving me your email address and I will forward you some sounds (Usually in the PM when I have access to all my files) your email address will not be used for anything other than this... no spam... no ads.

SIDE 1
1. SOMEBODY STOLE MY GAL
2. ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET
Alice Craddock, Cynthia Fairley, Jill Fairley, Martin Hughes-Games, Colleen Kirwan, Harriet Phillips, Mike Seaward, Jane Showering, Philippa Tingey
3. BEGINNING OR END?
4. MOMENTS OF FUTURE AND PAST
Mike Baker, Jean-Claude Dentes, Joe Gubay
5. NEARLY
6. MISTLETOE
Martin Hughes-Games, David Morris, Mike Seaward

SIDE 2
1. GRANNY
2. FALLING
3. AS I WAS WALKING...
4. BACK STREET
5. MIND SHADOWS
6. PSEUDO SPRING
7. TIMELESS TIME
8. UNCLE DICK'S TOASTER
9. 'A SLY ARRANGEMENT'
Musicians: Martin Hughes-Games, David Morris, Mike Seaward
Readers: Joanna Gray, David Morris, Julia Smith, Lucy Spencer

MUSIC... A collection of musicians and poets come together to create this wonderful slab of plastic, ranging from rough low-tech male lead vocal folk similar to the TONY, CARO & JOHN album released the previous year and some more bouncy female group lead vocal songs, violin/folk instrumental (not fiddle) and poetry... but some of the poetry is a little bit out-there and some set to folky sounds... all-in-all this has a nice psychedelic feel to it... again this reminds me a little of the old Kevin Ayers with Lady June's Linguistic Leprocy stylings on a few.

SLEEVE... Sleeve has some staining around the edges, but the cover is a wonderfull vision of some psyched out chick swinging her hips on what appears to be a very low budget attempt at a drawing of a record player.  The upper-right corner has some small sticker damage, this is white on white and not very noticeable.
The sleeve opens up like a gatefold sleeve, and as a handmade sleeve it has very large fold over flaps for holding the record in place, staples to hold the flaps... sorry it isn't that obvious from the picture... but this sleeve really does have that great homemade feel to it.
The rear of the sleeve has a rather psychedlic pencil sketch printed man (similar inpart to King Crimson's "In The Court" cover), holding a picture of a school rugby team, which has been cut and pasted with legs, heads and footballs in weird positions. (The photo supplied here on Ebay shows just mainly the rugby team, sorry... that's how I cropped the image). VG

THE DISC... Has several surface marks that offer up some background crackle, no skips, no jumps... the central Matrix number is stamped DER911, which is perfect for a 1973 disc on the desirable DEROY label... 1974 had Rowland Myres on DER1063 (which I used to have a copy of, which was lovely and laid back, but it never excited me as much as this little beauty!) VG

The liner notes list the editors, factotum and treasurer of a small school magazine called "FOCUS", this was a first-time venture into a new dimension of publishing for them - sound. Hoping you would 'find it entertainin and diverting.'

Now when you listen to this album, and I suggest you take me up on my sample mp3's (approx 8mb total), all competant stuff... first couple of tracks are a little discouraging (but suprisingly once the female group vocals kick in- it ain't all bad) after that it's all good competant performances from various (and probably specially selected) individuals to perform together and singularly.  This is a record made by top-end teenagers from what sounds like a posh school (I'm guessing by their accents in the poetry areas).

I have already had to supply three Ebayers with samples... each one has responded with varying amounts of praise, from 'good music' to 'sounds great'... I don't want to put you off, but two of the three said they were going to bid... the other didn't mention it, but they were the one who said 'sounds great' !!!!

REMEMBER BID WHILE YOU CAN!

This could be the only opportunity you will ever have of getting your hands on this record... this record didn't do the club circuits... THIS IS A SUPER RARE ORIGINAL DEROY LP!

BID EARLY AND AVOID THOSE SNIPPERS!!!!

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Buy with confidence, if I have supplied an image with this item... it is a photograph of the actual item being offered for sale.
If there is no image and you would like to see one, please ask and I shall add one as soon as possible.