ELTON JOHN Madman Across the Water UK 71 SUPERB EXAMPLE

	£		47
	$		62

ONEADAYRECORDS – Delivering Quality Music to the World

Please see my Detailed Packing Description Further Down & All Shipping Costs and Options – NOTE: I now apply the Ebay ‘4-day’ rule for non-payment.

Artist or Band: ELTON JOHN

Album Title: Madman Across the Water.

Producer(s): Gus Dudgeon.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Tiny Dancer; Levon; Razor Face; Madman Across the Water.

Side 2: Indian Sunset; Holiday Inn; Rotten Peaches; All the Nasties; Goodbye.

Label/Format: DJM Matt black, silver and yellow format with inner deep ridge and outer bevel near rim (Please see my label scan).

Label Conditions: Both in superb condition: very clean, fresh and attractive with only a couple of ultra faint and tiny spindle traces.

Cat Number: DJLPH 420.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 135 grams. A good solid weight for this record.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: The earlier copies are scarcer, they came with a textured cover, a fixed booklet inside the cover gatefold. These are seldom seen with minimal wear and the record little played. This example is in fantastic condition and far harder like this.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: DJLPH-420-A1 / DJLPH 420 B4

Run-Out Groove Etchings: ‘Rasputin’ (on side two)

Musicians: Elton John is backed by a host of quality musicians including Caleb Quaye, Chris Spedding, Rick Wakeman, Terry Cox and Herbie Flowers.

Brief Info: The fourth Elton John album and as an early issue, another beautiful set with lavish, quality packaging. This did not sell as well as most of his albums, hence early pressings are more scarce especially in top conditions. Solidly pressed and with an 11-page book fixed inside the fully textured gatefold cover. Eleven pages?, well yes, the final page is fully pasted on the right side of the gatefold, hence no back-up page, it is also secured by two original staples. The artwork looks like denim and with the original texturing, feels like it too. Massively wear-prone of course, few will look better than this. Owned from new and for most of it’s existence, cover protected thank goodness – any wear is minimal. The quality pressed record looks little played sound is truly superb. This one almost sets the standard and is a typical quality album with wonderful packaging.

This Cover’s Potential for Wear: Very High+.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(++): an unlaminated gatefold matt format with all four faces textured. The inside has an 11-page, double stapled book inside, secured by the last page being glued to the right face. Another de luxe original cover and beautiful in a rich deep blue. Printed and made in England by Garrod & Lofthouse.

Cover Front: The front is gorgeous and rarely seen with little wear, indeed this has practically none. Any tiny amount seen are a couple of faint extreme edge rubs or small corner tip rubs. Supreme rich colour, I can hardly believe how near pristine this surface is. Not even a trace of speckle to the textured surface let alone rubbing. How many of these will be seen without a single crease on the front?, I cannot see even a single edge hairline. Incredibly fine artwork and in near reference condition.

Cover Back: Stunning with even less blemishes than the front (if that is possible), this truly does look like real denim. Let’s put this into context: a soft dark card cover with texturing with a fairly thick LP inside for the best part of 40 years and no ink loss or ringwear. It’s almost beyond belief, but seeing is believing and true. If anyone has a front and back better than this with the original format cover, I would love to see it.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Superb again, the main front and back inside faces are little short of immaculate. The 11-page book the same – this truly looks brand new. Ultra secure and unworn with the two original staples unloosened at all. All pages clean and exceptional and looking barely even touched with no creasing, grubbiness or wear. A beautiful book, also in blue with artwork and lyrics, another pure class designed cover.

Top Edges: Both these delicate edges look almost unworn.

Bottom Edges: The back edge near the right corner area, has rubbed, minus this, a Mint(-) grading would have been mandatory.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, sharp with little wear and no feathering or trimming. Record enters on the back edge, the front is sealed.

Spine and Text: Close to perfect, any tiny rubs confined to the very ends. Solid, straight, uncompressed and square, both right edges meet up perfectly together and parallel. All text is perfect and unworn, rarely can be stated on this vulnerable cover.

Corners: The spine pair have minimal traces of wear. Small tip rubs on the right four, the top pair only tiny. All retain excellent shape.

Cover Summary: A very strong and visually, highly impressive all-round example of this very fragile early 70’s cover, one that will prove very difficult to find much better. Edge and corner rubs on such covers are immensely hard to avoid, but the main faces including the spine and book are in supreme condition and more than compensates. Who wants to look at edges with such beauty on offer elsewhere? This rarer original item should please many, if not most collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: This one came with a plain white unlined inner. Only aged a little with dome darkening around the edges. The corners are angled cut in manufacture and all edges are unsplit.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: MINT(-): a superb visual copy that is very clean, shiny, intense black and very solidly pressed. A copy hardly even played on all the evidence with barely any surface blemishes even worthy of mention. Arguably even undergraded, but I refuse to grade any played record full Mint. Visually a super record that should please all 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 B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or minuscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This impressive record plays even above its high visual grading with nothing to fault. Strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. A quality, clean pressing with barely any traces of surface sound at all and no pops or clicks were noted, truly, I cannot imagine a cleaner early copy of this early Elton John classic. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played very lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled, almost certainly in a non-smoking environment. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this wonderful record. This copy will prove immensely difficult to find better and can be strongly recommended.

Now one of the most established sellers on Ebay and still offering the finest and most accurately described and graded 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 as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records sparingly on Ebay - on average ONEADAY, a couple more at weekends if time permits, hence the name - time rarely allows for more as I Play-Grade virtually every record I offer in their entirety, not just bits to guess a grade - visuals alone do not always tell a true or full story. I will 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 its good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programmes. What you see is what you get and scanned labels will give a more accurate representation of the genuine colour than flash photography where light is variable. I cannot guarantee total accuracy for colours however but most will be very close. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert and vice-versa. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, 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 Rondo Red moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Nait 5i with Project USB phono stage and Chord interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with QED Silver terminated cable). All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional VPI-17 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 D5000 SLR Digital Camera.

First-time, zero-rated bidders, who do not ask permission to bid, will be cancelled immediately and blocked – NO exceptions. For winning bidders who I consider excessively slow to make contact or submit payment, I will use my right to block future bids. If any bidder who wins in the final seconds is present to do so, surely they can at least email me to inform of intention and payment method? If swift or prompt payment is a problem, please do not bid.

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.

I now offer the fastest possible posting, often the very next day after payment is received or within two to three days maximum (unless on holiday). I only use FIRST-CLASS Mail. The record’s cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my new VPI-17 Pro vacuum system to give ultimate clean grooves and playing surfaces and the best possible looks and ultimate sound quality. You will NOT get tired, dull looking, dust infested records inside worn and foggy covers with tatty inners from this seller and that’s a promise and guarantee. All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT Mailers, these do not offer any real protection). The record(s) are REMOVED from their main cover to avoid edge splits and placed within a brand new polylined inner. The record’s original inner will be included if available. The boxes are then reinforced with at least TWO, ULTRA THICK stiffeners for maximum extra protection – these are FOUR TIMES thicker than commercial stiffeners and are custom-made for oneadayrecords. Really rare and expensive albums will even be Double Boxed if deemed necessary and possible. When larger boxes are used, the thick record and stiffener ‘sandwich’ is then thickly embedded into bubble-wrap to bulk out the record inside the box to centre the item inside to reduce the risk of damage still further. Printed address labels are used for clarity as well as a sender label. Customers requests or special needs for P&P will be respected if at all possible but ‘Signed-For’ posting is NOT an option anymore. I do not profit on posting and the cost of this lavish packing is NOT even charged for, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners and bubble wrap make a near impregnable fortress for safe shipping and this is used inland and overseas for ALL my records, not just the rare and expensive. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is less than one in two thousand based on over 7,000+ items sold in nearly 10 years of Ebay trading and I consider that pretty exceptional. The only damage rate acceptable for this seller is ZERO and I think my packets will offer just that. It would take a vicious postman or postal service to damage these for sure. Even one of these stiffeners cannot be bent by hand, so what chance 3 or 4 inside a box? Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE. I discount of course for multiple purchases with a maximum of FIVE records per box (one double can sometimes be included subject to total weight). I will not respond to questions on shipping costs as all the details are included here and on ALL of my adverts. Details below:

NOTE: First Time Bidders: I will cancel ALL first-time bidders with no feedbacks or excessive negatives who do not ask me if its OK to bid first – NO EXCEPTIONS.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of FOUR days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the, 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 and they take the Ebay consequences (a strike or removal from the system). Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied. If you cannot pay, DO NOT BID.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent via Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£46 maximum]) = £10. (Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £3 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£46 maximum]) = £14. Add £4 per extra LP. (Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

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

Potential Bidders: Please do not bid if you have negative feedback unless checking first, I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask and thanks for looking.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer, so read the item description carefully. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help. Thank You.

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, actually 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.

The Argument for Vinyl Original sound and mix (mono mixes are rarely available on CD), high quality sound on clean copies (played on a hi-end dedicated analogue system – breathtaking sound!), beautiful, large format covers, artwork, inserts and even full size posters etc; huge investment potential, and the pleasure of owning ‘the real thing’.