SPIROGYRA – St. Radigunds – Very Rare Orig UK 71 B&

	£		102
	$		135

Hi, I am Mike, now 48 and have been a music collector and enthusiast for over 34 years now. We all wish we could turn back the clock and buy those wonderful brand new records from the 60s and 70s, but alas, this is not possible; so I always try to offer the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. No vinyl/music lover really would choose to buy second-hand, but this is only way now to own these valuable, prized and elusive items now. 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, 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 (on a Rega 3 deck with Ortofon cartridge) - 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 reader – 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. The only thing I cannot guarantee one hundred percent is exact colour matching - this depends on the lighting at the time and that is out of my control, but I feel sure most items will be very close to the actual real item. Variation can sometimes occur too in colour of the label scans and labels taken next to the sleeve with a digital camera, the scanned full label pictures should be the most accurate. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert. 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 or sticks or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Album Title: St. Radigund’s.

Producer(s): Robert Kirby.

Engineer(s): Jerry Boys.

Track Listing: Side 1: The Future Won’t Be Long; Island; Magical Mary; Captain’s Log; At Home in the World; Cogwheels Crutches and Cyanide. Side 2: Time Will Tell; We Were a Happy Crew; Love is a Funny Thing; The Duke of Beaufoot.

Label/Format: B&C – Matt black with ultra fine textured finish, green logo. Inner circle ridge and outer rim bevel.

Label Conditions: Both practically as new, with one ultra faint spindle trace on side two and none on side one. One small ‘shiny’ spot on side two should be visible on my scan, probably a small adhesive smudge – it’s minor.

Cat Number: CAS 1042.

Mode: Stereo.

Weight of this Record: 132 grams. [These days, many modern Audiophile reissues are pressed on super-heavyweight 180 gram vinyl. Only a small percentage of ‘vintage vinyl’ was ever pressed this heavy. Records pressed in the 1960s averaged around 140 to 150 grams. Records pressed in the 1970s were usually lighter and averaged more around 115 – 125 grams]. (This was based on ‘average’ weights for 20 records from these eras. Later pressings were usually lighter still).

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: Quite rare.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: CAS 1042 A-2U / CAS 1042 B-1U

Stamper Codes: 1 R / 1 R

Musicians: Steve Borrill – Bass guitar; Julian Cusack – Violin, keyboards; Martin Cockerham – Guitar, vocals; Barbara Gaskin – Vocals.

Brief Info: St Radigund’s was the first of three albums this short-lived progressive folk band made, all three on different labels – B&C, Pegasus and Polydor – all three are rare, the final one being extremely rare and near impossible to find. Obviously all three failed to sell which is something of a mystery to know why. Spirogyra’s (not to be confused with a funk-pop type band later), music is superb and Barbara Gaskin’s vocals are up there with the very best of this type. Other folk-rockers like The Spriguns and The Trees are similar types – wonderful music, but poor sellers and highly elusive now. Very slightly off-beat, folk-rock, slight hints of Comus but nothing like as wierd or extreme of course. Catchy, even haunting melodies that stick in the mind with great strings work too, this excellent album is one for the folk-rock genre fan. This is a very fine copy, the record played just once to me – it does have a tiny mark at the very start of side two that has a few clicks – the owner said it present from new – that apart, it plays supremely well and this is not the easiest record with some quiet passages. The cover has a little light wear too, but just looking at it will tell you it’s a very difficult one being brown and unprotected. The lyric inner is superb and little short of the condition it was manufactured in. The tiny mark apart, this is a superb record and never underestimate its rarity. This is progressive folk-rock at its very best.

Cover’s Potential for Wear: Very High. All the ingredients for rubbing and ringwear and few will ever be found with none. My pictures have slightly over-emphasised wear on the front and back, the flash highlights rubs on dark covers

Cover Grade and Format: EX, even with a little light rubbing, this is well worthy of this grade. A single, unlaminated format, it was printed in England by the E. J. Group, London and Bedford.

Cover Front: Not bad at all and it will take something pretty outstanding to better it significantly. Clean with only minimal fine creases that hardly show and still retaining a very dark, unfaded finish. There is a very light rub arc at the top and a larger one at the bottom, but hardly excessive for a cover that can often resemble a dartboard with large multiple rings all over it. Other rubs are minor, light and faint. In context any wear on this front is very light indeed.

Cover Back: Pretty much identical to the front with the same rub types and positions too.

Top Edge: A very few light and small chips, odd rub traces.

Bottom Edge: Light rubs.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, quite sharp with little wear or feathering. Record entered on this right outside edge.

Spine and Text: Solid, straight, uncompressed with manufacturer’s nipped ends still quite neat and pronounced. All text is perfect and unworn and this delicate spine surface has little wear at all.

Corners: Light tip rubs as you would almost certainly expect but only small. All retain excellent shape and clean definition.

Cover Summary: A very strong all round example of this very fragile early 70’s cover, one that could prove very difficult to find much better – certainly most examples with have far more rubbing and more unsightly ringwear too, any present on this one is very modest in context. This splendid item should please many collectors.

The Inner: Mint(-) and pretty much as manufactured with few marks or blemishes. Unsplit, torn with barely any creasing at all and still lies dead flat. A mildish record impression but all with have it at the very least. This inner is just as ringwear prone as the cover but this has not rubbing or red inkloss erosion at all. The top entry edge is shaped and still perfect with no evident of being ‘used’ at all. Outside flipback construction and both neat bar one small kink on the right one but clearly manufactured that way. This splendid lyric inner will not be found better easily, ever.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EX++/Near Mint. Yes there is a tiny mark at the start of side two that encroaches 1 millimetre into the music playing area with a few brief clicks on the violin introduction. A relatively minor blemish for what is a near perfect record that apart. It just proves again the value of play-grading. This mark could have probably been missed by any seller, myself included and that’s being totally honest, it’s that small, bar for playing it first. 2mm in total with half on the run-in grooves). The owner did tell me it was there from new but decided it was sufficiently minor enough not to return – as the rest of the record plays so well, well maybe so. I certainly remember not every record purchased from new was perfect which is reitterated by several dealer friends, returning a new record because of a scratch was not so uncommon (especially in the 1970s). The tiny mark apart, a superb visual copy that is super clean, shiny, jet black and quite heavily pressed. A copy now played just twice after my play-grade, and few will have so few listens on the clock – and probably most will have far more unwanted marks or sounds than this still superb copy. Visually a super record that should please most collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes.

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This wonderful rare record plays mostly up to its high visual grading with little to fault bar the aforementioned few clicks at the very start of side two (there mentioned it again, no excuse for missing this information is there?). Strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear, including the violin which is always the most difficult instrument to track perfectly. Sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and generally a very clean pressing for a fairly difficult album. Few copies will outperform this early pressing significantly I feel sure. If total perfection is mandatory, this is not the copy for you, if a few brief opening clicks are acceptable, this copy will take a huge amount of beating and quite honestly, those apart, nothing else spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this wonderful record. This album could still prove very difficult to find significantly better – just finding it at all will never that easy and rarely, if ever, a twice played copy.

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 neccessarily 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’.

My Terms For Bidding

Debutant Bidders: Many sellers refuse first time buyers: I do not follow this practice (everybody has to start somewhere), but I would appreciate any first timer letting me know their intentions for payment method and very prompt communication, preferably before any bid or soon after the auctions ends. This gives confidence that their intentions are honourable, and I in return guarantee extra special good feedbacks to get zero rated Ebayers off to a flying start to help them with future transactions.

Please Note: I will now offer any item to the runner-up after the mandatory Ebay 3 days if no contact is made by the winning bidder unless prior notice of any delay is given beforehand. The same applies if no payment is received within the mandatory 7 days so any bidder who has just lost out can still email me to reserve the item as priority second chance. Item wants are always welcome - email me with anything needed, you never know - I may just have a copy in stock. I buy quality single items and collections also (I am regularly told I offer the best prices – please Email me if you have items for sale).

Payment Details please read carefully - I know its boring but essential:

UK First Class: = £3 or Special Delivery (Next day, fully insured), the best service available = £7.00

Europe Air Mail: = £4 Insured & Signed For: £8.00.

Overseas, non-Europe e.g. USA, Japan, Australia etc. Airmail:= £7; Insured & Signed For (where available) = £11.00. Doubles add extra £1. Reductions for multiple items for all.

Any item that sells for over £75 will be sent Special Delivery in the UK at no extra cost. Items over £100 get the same service Overseas. This gives peace of mind for the winning bidder and myself for valuable items. Reduced postage of course for multiple items.

The winner bidder chooses his/her posting method and if uninsured is chosen, its their decision and they have to stick with it, I can accept no responsibility if an item is lost in the post. I can only try to claim at standard levels if no enhancement is chosen (£30).

Mailing Details: Please note I do NOT profit on postage, in fact I lose money on most packets (my packing standards are very high and the package weighs a little more - I simply refuse to compromise with poor packing. All records are sent in plastic covers with the record taken OUT of the sleeve and sent in professional mailers with FOUR proper stiffners for extra protection (if space allows). More expensive items are also inserted into a de-luxe heavy duty padded bag AS WELL to give that extra protection. I truly want ALL my items to arrive to their destination in the same condition they leave me. I will also include in most cases a brand new inner, but will include the original inner if available.

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can accept PayPal or IMO’s from overseas bidders.

Potential Bidders: Please do not bid if you have negative feedback unless checking first, I will cancel any bids I feel are timewasters. 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 minus the Posting and All Ebay costs as long as the item detail has been read and understood. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer.