STEPHEN STILLS 1st Album SCARCE ORIG UK 1970 Nr EX ATLANTIC PLUM LP, FINE SOUND.

	£		28
	$		37

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Postage: UK £4.95. Europe (including Russia) £12.95 (£1 per extra record). Rest of World £19.95 (£2 per extra record). 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: STEPHEN STILLS

Album Title: Stephen Stills

Producer(s): Stephen Stills

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Love the One You’re With; Do For the Others; Church; Old Times Good Times; Go Back Home.

Side 2: Sit Yourself Down; To a Flame; Black Queen; Cherokee; We Are Not Helpless.

Label/Format: Atlantic – Original red and maroon ‘Plum’ format with matt, fairly smooth surfaces.

Label Condition: Still clean, fresh and attractive examples, spindle marks err on the lighter side of moderate, but fine and quite light, the record plays very well.

Catalogue Number: 2401004

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 Record: 146 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Moderately scarce on the plum label.

Original Year of Release: November, 1970

Matrix Nos: 2401004 * A ? 1 1 1 2 & 2401004 B//2//2 1 1 1 1

Musicians: Stephen Stills – vocals, guitars, bass, piano, organ, steel drum, percussion; Calvin Samuel – bass; Dallas Taylor, Conrad Isedor, Ringo Starr – drums; Johnny Barbata – drums; Jeff Whittaker – congas; Jimi Hendrix – guitar; Eric Clapton – guitar; Booker T. Jones – organ, vocal; Sidney George – flute and alto saxophone. Vocals/backing vocals: David Crosby, Graham Nash, John Sebastian, Rita Coolidge, Priscilla Jones, Claudia Lanier, Cass Elliott, Henry Diltz, Liza Strike, Judith Powell, Larry Steele, Tony Wilson, Sherlie Matthews.

Brief Artist & Album Info: Stephen Stills’ debut and one of the truly great ‘solo’ classics from this period – a five star recording in every department. A highly inventive and successful time for the man, in the space of a couple of years, he made two solo albums, released the superb Manassas double set and was part of CSNY. His fellow colleagues make guest appearances on this album, amongst a host of others including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. This sublime release proves Stills a highly talented musician, the material is varied. The opening track is a trademark diamond of his and all-round, this album was probably never bettered. The only real surprise it made only 30 in the UK, so not quite selling in the numbers it justified. This is a very fine example with the fully laminated cover and gorgeous ‘plum’ labels.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT: a single format, laminated both sides. Printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group, includes the Philips-style date-coded inner sleeve.

Lamination – Front & Back: For me, one of the most beautiful pieces of artwork to be put to an album cover and this one does it fine justice. This one is fully laminated, not all were, I have seen several 2401004 originals with full matt covers. Both sides retain excellent shine, clarity and freshness with minimal dulling. There is a single moderate lift on the rear spine edge and only small one on the front, also on the spine – this is a cover very prone to this and rarely seen with none. As these are on plain white areas, they have far less visual impact. Some mostly modestly mild laminate creasing mostly near the sides of the front, and little at all on the back, again largely ‘lost’ against the pale artwork and little detracts overall from its beauty. A cover with four distinctive laminate end areas – one on the front – three on back, these revealing areas show only modestly light age toning to politely remind of age.

Top & Bottom Edges: Both thin, but still quite straight, smooth with no wear.

Right Edge(s), and Type: These storage edges are still impressively sharp with barely any thickening.

Spine and Text: Again thin, but still very solid and straight with any compression light. All text perfect and unworn under the smooth, clear and unpeeled laminate. The text matter superbly centred on the narrow depth to make this impressively attractive to view, few will be found better in that respect.

Corners: Any tip wear or creasing tiny, very little and light with excellent shape largely retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A strong all-round example of this classic early-1970’s cover, one that could prove difficult to find much better. It should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT: or thereabouts. A Philips-style polylined inner with neat undamaged window circles and the polylining still fairly clear. Only mildly aged with the usual darkening of the paper. Very little creasing on this one with the edges still intact, this one date-coded 0171 (January 1971) with the dual patent numbers 800513 & 973939.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: NEAR EXCELLENT: arguably better. A fine looking record that is clean with equally nice shine and solidly pressed. A copy with modestly played on all the evidence with any surface marks mostly very light, fine and quite faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light little register. Visually a splendid 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 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 very early plum label record plays even above it’s high visual grading with to fault. Offering strong, clean sound being sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound with no tracking issues*. Any surface sounds few, minimal and faint, overall, a clean pressing, also superbly recorded and produced. These ‘Plum’ pressings carry all that beautiful detail and delivery of the music, with clarity and realism that no other format quite matches. Just listen to that incredible acoustic guitar opening for example. Few available copies will outperform this significantly I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played modestly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled. Nothing of any real note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this impressive vintage album, this has been a long-standing favourite of mine. It could prove difficult to find significantly better and can be highly recommended.

* 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.