Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts,gfold,inner,1stUK

	£		71
	$		94

Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts

ORIGINAL COPY. FIRST UK PRESSING. Released 1971.  Stereo. Charisma Records, catalogue number; CAS 1051, Matrix numbers; CAS 1051 a-1u /b-1u.

Superb condition first press copy complete with lyric insert. The best one I've ever seen. Full review and track listing below.

The last comparable condition copies sold on eBay for £40-65.

99p start.

Sleeve Condition : EXCELLENT (NEAR MINT).

A beautifully preserved gatefold sleeve, strong bold colours, just very minor edge rubs.

Vinyl Condition, Visual:  MINT.

Looks like it's 1971 in Woolworths.

Vinyl Condition, Audible: EXCELLENT (NEAR MINT).

No faults, damage or wear. A few tiny static/dust crackles in a few isolated places.

Label Condition :  MINT.

Pink Charisma scroll label

This item is offered with a money back guarantee, please see below.

Our accurate condition gradings are based on those used in the UK 2008 Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide. Please see below for a complete explanation.

International bidders welcome – Internationales Bewerber Willkommen – Bienvenue Internationale De Soumissionnaires – Recepcion Internacional De los Licitadores

Please read the description and terms of sale carefully and contact me with any questions or further information you may need before you place a bid.

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Please see our other items currently offered. We will be uploading more items every Thursday evening. Thank you for looking. I wish you very good luck bidding. Regards, Tom Fisher.

Why you should buy from Rat Records:

I GUARANTEE this item to be in the condition as described above. If it is not as described, I offer you a full refund of the sale price and sale postage.

Please check my 1750 plus 99.9% positive feedbacks, from over 2100 separate transactions accrued over 8 years on eBay.  That's a lot of record listing and satisfied customers.

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I have been trading in records and CDs for over 20 years in London and have owned 4 shops before the current one.

I never describe our records as Mint unless they really are superb. Correspondingly my Excellent (Near Mint) is a very high standard. All my records are play graded. As part of my gradings I listen to each item. I will contact you by the next business day after the auction has finished. Items are despatched the next working day after payment clears. I will keep you informed by email throughout the sale.

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Postage Options:

UK, First Class Recorded Delivery: Costs: £3.00, Delivery time: 1-2 working days, Online tracking, Signature required, Insured up to £30. Multiple Purchase Discount: 2 LPs: you pay £1 less.

UK, Special Delivery: Costs: £5.00, Delivery time: next working day, Online tracking, Signature required, Insured up to £250. Multiple Purchase Discount: 2-3 LPs: you pay £8.50.

Europe, airmail, Costs: £3.50, Delivery time: 3 working days. Multiple Purchase Discount: 2 LPs: you pay £1 less.

Japan, USA, rest of world, airmail, Costs: £5.50, Delivery time: 5 working days. Multiple Purchase Discount: 2 LPs: you pay £1 less.

For airmail items worth over £30, we strongly recommend buyers pay an additional £5.00 for the International Signed For service which insures the item up to £500 and prioritises delivery.

UK Record Collector Grading System:

MINT: The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in the sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition.

EXCELLENT (US version of this term: Near Mint): The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in the sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing.

VERY GOOD (US version of this term: VG++): The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover, or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.

GOOD (US version of this term: VG): The record has been played so much that the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches. The cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits etc.

Tracklisting:

Van Der Graaf Generator's third album, Pawn Hearts was also its second most popular; at one time this record was a major King Crimson cult item due to the presence of Robert Fripp on guitar, but Pawn Hearts has more to offer than that. The opening track, "Lemmings," calls to mind early Gentle Giant, with its eerie vocal passages (including harmonies) set up against extended sax, keyboard, and guitar-driven instrumental passages, and also with its weird keyboard and percussion interlude, though this band is also much more contemporary in its focus than Gentle Giant. Peter Hammill vocalizes in a more traditional way on "Man-Erg," against shimmering organ swells and Guy Evans' very expressive drumming, before the song goes off on a tangent by way of David Jackson's saxes and some really weird time signatures -- plus some very pretty acoustic and electric guitar work by Hammill himself and Fripp. The monumental "Plague of Lighthouse Keepers," taking up an entire side of the LP, shows the same kind of innovation that characterized Crimson's first two albums, but without the discipline and restraint needed to make the music manageable. The punning titles of the individual sections of this piece (which may have been done for the same reason that Crimson gave those little subtitles to its early extended tracks, to protect the full royalties for the composer) only add to the confusion. As for the piece itself, it features enough virtuoso posturing by everyone (especially drummer Guy Evans) to fill an Emerson, Lake & Palmer album of the same era, with a little more subtlety and some time wasted between the interludes. The 23-minute conceptual work could easily have been trimmed to, say, 18 or 19 minutes without any major sacrifices, which doesn't mean that what's here is bad, just not as concise as it might've been. But the almost operatic intensity of the singing and the overall performance also carries you past the stretches that don't absolutely need to be here. The band was trying for something midway between King Crimson and Genesis, and came out closer to the former, at least instrumentally. Hammill's vocals are impassioned and involving, almost like an acting performance, similar to Peter Gabriel's singing with Genesis, but the lack of any obviously cohesive ideas in the lyrics makes this more obscure and obtuse than any Genesis release.