TO PAGHAM AND BEYOND... SKIN ALLEY LP 1970 EX/VG+

	£		27
	$		35

‘To Pagham And Beyond…’ Skin Alley CBS S64140 (1970) UK press.

A very rare album and a prog rock classic by this English/US band featuring Thomas Crimble (later of Hawkwind).  Features the song ‘Sweaty Betty’ with the immortal line: ‘Leave your knickers by the door, bay-beh.’ This was the band's second LP and was a UK only release.

I buy a lot of records on eBay and I expect sellers to grade conservatively and to be honest about the condition of used vinyl so I have listened to this LP all the way through 3 times on my SME 10/SME M-9/Dynavector 10x5 turntable before listing it and I have tried to give an honest assessment below.

Outer sleeve: Gatefold sleeve. The spine is faded and there is moderate wear at top and bottom.  Very slight wear to the seams. There is no feathering of the cardboard. The sleeve manufacture information reads ‘DEEPAK Printed and made by QUALITY STATIONERY LTD.’  There is no writing, tears or marks.  The original owner has stuck a green ‘Dymo’ label with his name on it in the top right corner of the front (see photo).  This is quite neatly done.  Overall, I would confidently grade the sleeve EX.

Inner sleeve: Original CBS generic printed inner advertising contemporary ‘Sounds of the 70’s’ releases by Simon and Garfunkel and others.  No tears or seam splits.  Some light foxing (brown age marks). 

Labels: Very nice, clean, deep orange CBS ‘walking eye’ labels. Some light spindle marks.  The spindle hole is perfectly round and undamaged. The original owner has put a green ‘Dymo’ label with his name on it on the label on Side B (see photo).

Vinyl – The vinyl looks very clean and has a nice glossy sheen. There are some hairline scratches and a few pinhole etches.  There are a number of tics or pops at various points on the album.  The loudest of these is about 30 seconds in to the first side and is quite obtrusive but it’s a single loud pop.  On the first track of side two there are 2 quite loud pops in succession and then it’s pretty quiet from then on. On a few other tracks there are mild tics and pops throughout much of the track but they are recessed and do not detract from enjoyment of the music.  There is very little other surface noise and the LP is mostly quiet between tracks.

Vinyl flaws aside, this is a good, vibrant-sounding pressing with excellent stereo separation

In my view, then, having listened to it a few times all the way through on a so-called ‘audiophile’ system that is very revealing of vinyl flaws and personally being quite critical about vinyl generally I would say this was a very listenable, playable copy.  Without wishing to sound snobbish were it played on, say a Technics turntable with a Stanton cartridge, I doubt any of the imperfections I have mentioned above would be heard at all aside perhaps from the one on the first track.

I consider that an EX record should look and sound like a mint one that has been played a number of times but carefully handled so I will grade this VG+ but I think you will find it is actually better than that grade suggests.  I suspect many would grade it EX on a visual assessment alone.

I have cleaned this on a Clearaudio Smart Matrix record cleaning machine first using L’Art du Son fluid and followed by a wash in ultra pure water.

Guarantee: I want you to be happy with your purchase. If you are unhappy with this record and return it to me in the same condition it was sent to you in and within 7 days of your receiving it, I will refund you the purchase price in full.  Postage cannot be refunded.

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The last one of these on eBay went for £48, described as EX/EX (see item number: 250665300233) so I have set a reasonable starting price rather than a reserve on this hard-to-find LP.