YES Fragile – RARER ORIG UK 1971 EX– ATLANTIC PLUM LP, PLAYS IMPRESSIVELY.

	£		27
	$		36

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.95. Europe (including Russia) £12.95 (£1 per extra record). Rest of World £19.95 (£2 per extra record). All my records are sent in boxes and the price of them has increased over time and these are my first price increases for nearly 10 years. Royal Mail prices have also gone up again. I will never compromise on quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take longer from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: YES

Album Title: Fragile

Producer(s): Eddy Offord & Yes

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Roundabout; Cans and Brahms; We Have Heaven; South Side of the Sky.

Side 2: Five Per Cent for Nothing; Long Distance Runaround; The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus); Mood for a Day; Heart of the Sunrise.

Label/Format: Atlantic, original red and maroon (‘plum’) format with matt, gently textured surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both quite clean and still attractive with deep colour, only a few very fine and light spindle marks. Under light, some gentle dulling patterning is seen from the polylining of the original inner sleeve. This a common trait from those vintage Philips (and others) polylined inners. However, the record’s playing surfaces are unaffected by this dulling.

Catalogue Number: 2401019

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps or Lateral Movement: Assume all records I offer have no significant warping or lateral movement to cause sound or tracking issues. All should play fine even on budget turntables.

Weight of Record: 123 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Scarcer on the plum label, this was quite a late album on this label format, their last prior to the change.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: 2401019 A//1 1 1 8 & 2401019 B//1 1 1 1 3

Musicians: Jon Anderson – lead and backing vocals; Steve Howe – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals; Chris Squire – bass guitars, backing vocals, electric guitar; Rick Wakeman – Hammond organ, grand piano, RMI 368 Electra-Piano and Harpsichord, Mellotron, Mini-Moog; Bill Bruford – drums, percussion.

Brief Info: The fourth Yes album, and for many one of their very best. It sold well, peaking at No. 7 in the UK and 4 in the United States album charts. Superbly recorded and produced with sublime songs and musicianship from what most consider to be the very best Yes line-up. Intricate and complex with some very quiet passages, few early examples will be found without a little contact sound at best. My play-grade mostly a joy with only a few very brief quite light ticks/contact sound towards the end of the short instrumental ‘Cans and Brahms’ and little else overall at all even though the record does have some surface marks. The very wear-prone cover has some, mainly on the edges that seldom escape at best. But still a fine very early example and with mostly very impressive clean sound, it will please many collectors.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(–): or thereabouts. A highly-wear-prone unlaminated gatefold format with matt, smooth surfaces. This has the correct and original 2401019 catalogue number. These original covers had the 8-page booklet glued to the centrefold, the two staples were never punched into the spine. Printed and made in England by MacNeill Press and includes the September 1971 date-coded inner sleeve.

Cover Front: The superb Roger Dean graphic is still quite impressive with most of any rubbing or creasing near the very edges. It retains deep unfaded colour and has no sticker issues for which is surface is ruthlessly unforgiving. So this front has aged a little with moderately mild shelf-wear but overall, given the fragility, it has fared reasonably well.

Cover Back: The back has fared better still with any rubbing only mild, little and light. Hardly creased and the lack of ugly ring wear is always a major plus on this one, any rim area rubbing only gentle and light as-seen.

Cover Inner Gatefold & Booklet: Both left and right main faces have little to fault at all. The 8-page booklet is solidly attached and has only mild and gentle crinkle with no tears, damage or writing. All pages solidly attached by the original staples with no loosening, the staples shows hints of tarnishing.

Top Edges: Both straight, flat and flush with any rubbing light to moderate and very patchy.

Bottom Edges: As above, the rubbing a little heavier and seldom avoided on such cover’s storage edges.

Right Edge(s), and Type: The closed factory cut front is still quite sharp and straight. The back opening edge has moderately thickened, the inner one hardly at all and still sharp.

Spine and Text: Solid, robust and straight with minimal hint of compression, also folded very square, so the edges meet up very closely together and parallel. The surface slightly faded which few avoid totally if stored in racks, but any rubbing light with virtually all the text present and intact. That more of a rarity on this unforgiving cover.

Corners: Tip rubbing is moderate with fine to very fine shape retained with no major knocks.

Cover Summary: A very reasonable looking example of this very fragile and unforgiving early 1970’s cover, one that could still prove difficult to find much better, especially an original where the records tended to be thicker and heavier. Certainly enough to politely remind of age, but still quite an attractive item should please many collectors, but not purists who only want top-grade items at any cost.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT: arguably better. A polylined Philips style inner that has only gently aged with modest paper discolouration and a neat corner crease (often deliberate to stop the record slidine out). The window circles are not the crispest cut I have ever seen, but that purely a manufacture blemish, but they are pretty much as-made, the lining still clear and fresh. A few other light creases and no edge splits. The date-coded 9/71, meaning it was manufactured in September 1971. It is dual British patented with the numbers: 800513 & 973939. The HMO code is 40.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(–)/VERY GOOD(++): a fine visual copy that is clean with fine shine and solidly pressed. Surface marks mostly very light, mostly wispy and faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, little even registers. Visually a fine record that should please many collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This classic prog-rock album plays even above it’s high visual grading with little to fault bar the very brief contact sounds near the end of the short instrumental ‘Cans and Brahms’ as mentioned further up. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any other surface sounds are minimal indeed and this is a very clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises or distortion. Few available copies will outperform this early first pressing for overall sound and both channels are clean and sharp. Little of any real note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this lovely record and being honest, most is fantastic, even that difficult quite ending of side two. It could still prove difficult to find significantly better for sound and can be highly recommended on that basis.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest records I can find. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same – just because an item is rare does not always mean it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR Camera.

PACKING – THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal from­ winning bidders. I only accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT necessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.