PINK FLOYD'S

"A nice pair"

The piper at the gates of dawn

Very rare. W.R.Phang on front cover. UK pressing 1973. The Gramophone Co. EMI Harvest.

EMI HARVEST SHDW 403

Album Title: A Nice Pair [Harvest double reissue of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets] This one has the original ‘W. R. Phang Dental Surgeon’ cover, that was withdrawn soon after issue due to rules of advertising.

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: PIPER: Astronomy Dominé; Lucifer Sam; Matilda Mother; Flaming; Pow R. Toc H. Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk.

Side 2: Intersellar Overdrive; The Gnome; Chapter 24; The Scarecrow; Bike.

Side 3: SAUCERFUL: Let There Be More Light; Remember a Day; Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun; Corporal Clegg.

Side 4: A Saucerful of Secrets; See-Saw; Jugband Blues.

Label/Format: Harvest – yellow and green format.

Label Conditions: Both looking very clean, fresh and attractive .Excellent

Cat Number: SHDW 403

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Weight of these Records: 125 / 121 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: With the original ‘Phang’ cover this set is scarce, later repressings of this one are more common with the ‘Phang’ picture (top right front) replaced with a figure in front of a building. Clearly, the company wanted to use existing covers for a while, so a carefully placed price sticker was used to cover the Densist’s practice (which was indeed real) until new cover’s were printed.

Original Year of Release:This Harvest issue was released in 1973.

Matrix Nos: YAX 3419-1, YAX 3420-1, YAX 3633-1, YAX 3634-3

Brief Artist & Album Info: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn: During the spring of 1967, while The Beatles were at Abbey Road finishing Sgt Pepper, Pink Floyd were upstairs recording an album that would have a similarly immeasurable effect on the development of psychedelic rock. It’s name taken from the famous children’s books The Wind in the Willows (one of Syd Barrett’s favourites), The Piper at The Gates of Dawn was a child’s garden of acid, an album-length exposition on the effects of LSD on a troubled mind. One of the first ‘head’ albums, it was rumoured that the tracks contained sounds - conversations, even - that one could only hear while tripping. All very likely, this legendary album is as important now as it always was.

A Saucerful of Secrets: Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking follow-up is a classic in it’s own right too. Saucerful features two of the band’s finest songs being the title track and the astonishing classic ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ with one of most haunting keyboard lines ever recorded - this is classic psych space rock that was rarely equalled. The Floyd were wierd in those early days, too wierd maybe for the US listeners - it failed to even chart there - it made only Number 9 in the UK. It was the last Floyd album to feature the legendary founder member Syd Barrett, but only includes one of his songs, the magnificent ‘Jugband Blues’. Unable to cope with the pressures of success and excess and inconsistent live performances, he was replaced by Dave Gilmour and this band remained together for many years. Hearing this album played live in 1967 must have been quite an experience. Few others were doing music quite like this and this album nostalgically is up there with the very best, keeping alive those heady days of experimental music and substances.

This Set: A Nice Pair was issued in a gatefold cover with totally different artwork, the two inner sleeves have the original front covers shown in a sepia-like finish. This original cover on offer here has the withdrawn ‘Dr Phang’ artwork, this had to be changed for legal reasons. Many of the original covers were obscured over with a large round price sticker before it was then reprinted with the Dental Surgeon picture removed and replaced.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(++):. An unlaminated gatefold format with matt smooth surfaces. Printed in Great Britain. It has the text file under POPULAR: Pops Groups on the top right back corner and also available on cassette and the long defunct cartridge format on inner left bottom corner. This is the original Dr Phang .Cover spine in excellent condition .

Top & Bottom Edges:EXCELLENT(++) Straight, clean and looking unworn.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, mostly very sharp with barely any wear and both guaranteed untrimmed. Records entered on these edges.

Spine and Text: Practically mint as made: solid and square with no wear, text is near perfect and unworn, very bold and clear.

Corners:  All retain excellent to near mint shape.

The Inner Sleeves: Both Mint(-): with cut and shaped corners, they were unlined with a wide top opening. Both looking almost like new with genuine freshness retained. Super clean and with no rubbing or ring marks and all edges solid and secure – an exceptionally nice pair.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: Piper =EXCELLENT.Saucerful = EXCELLENT: a nice pair by name, a nice pair by nature. Both very clean, shiny, intense black and quite solidly pressed. These records have hardly been played, there is no doubt about that. Piper is superb and plays the same. Saucerful side one is equally impressive. Side two  has a few crackles. Both these albums as originals are totally unforgiving of old equipment of the day and so few will offer the sound the most discerning collectors want.

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 in the studio to check , record is in excellent condition ,there are a few crackles here and there but overall sound quality is excellent ...

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This super pair play up to their high visual grading with very little to fault . Strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very full, detailed sound. Piper is simply stunning especially . Both channels here are clean and sharp, I feel certain these records have been played very lightly and has been generally well stored and looked after within a non-smoking environment. The vast majority of all four sides are impressive. I can hardly remember hearing this immensely difficult song playing quietly on vinyl. The early Harvest pressings are in no inferior to the Columbia’s but were only available in stereo. Enjoying the early Floyd sound via this Nice Pair is a great compromise which for many collectors and vinyl fans is sensible. Overall, this is a very fine copy – records, cover and inners – high recommendation is merited.

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