URIAH HEEP Look at Yourself RARER ORIG UK 1971 ISLAND/BRONZE EX LP, SUPERB COVER

	£		144
	$		191

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all – in fact I think these things should be banned as records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS. Full details nearer the end of the listing.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take up to 4 to 6 weeks 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. I will always keep my P&P prices as low as possible, and even after yet another Royal Mail price hike from April this year, I have NOT raised my prices and will never compromise on solid, safe packing that is invariably heavier than most you will get. My P&P offers probably the best value-for-money for vinyl records available, and I even will pay for full 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. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives.

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. I do not like this practice as it is most often used to phish out the price to beat. Ebay does not approve and neither do I – so only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: URIAH HEEP

Album Title: Look at Yourself

Producer(s): Gerry Bron

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Look at Yourself; I Wanna Be Free; July Morning.

Side 2: Tears in My Eyes; Shadows of Grief; What Should Be Done; Love Machine.

Label/Format: Bronze – ‘Age of Man’ format with the original ILPS Island catalogue number and ‘i’ logo as clearly seen on the label scan. This also included on the cover. Both are matt smooth finished.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and highly attractive with hardly any spindle traces at all – these are little short of immaculate.

Cat Number: ILPS 9169

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: 128 grams. A very good solid weight for this record.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Scarce: and rarer still with the very first A-1U / B-1U matrixes as seen below. This a genuine first issue with the Island credits and the cover with the fixed (non-removable) mirror. Later ones had the mirror more as an insert that slid out of the sleeve. Finding these with undamaged die-cut edges to the gimmick cover are very hard to find these days. Also the flipback style inner sleeve has no edge splits. For me, the most important factor is the sound, this copy plays beautifully throughout.

Original Year of Release: 1971

Matrix Nos: ILPS 9169 A-1U / ILPS 9169 B-1U [this cut with wide grooves that go very close the label rims]

Stamper Codes: 1 RT / 1 AG

Run-Out Groove Etchings: ‘PORKY’ (on side one)

Musicians: Ken Hensley - organ, piano, guitar, acoustic guitar, vocal; Mick Box - lead guitar, acoustic guitar; David Byron - lead vocal; Paul Newton - bass guitar.

Brief Info: Uriah Heep’s third album and first on Bronze Records, which at first came under the imprint of Island (ILPS) Records. This is an album that got them (and the owner) more noticed by the gimmick mirror cover, and the slightly more commercial sound. Still unpopular with the critics of the day, but their fans loved them. It includes one of their greatest tracks, the brilliant ‘July Morning’, one of their live favourites. The sleeve has always been the utmost difficult part of this set, one that never wears well and that is something of an understatement. With a very large die-cut box and an ultra shiny fixed mirror , this is usually seen in very poor condition. The ‘mirror’ itself usually covered in scratches and gouges and dulls very quickly if not stored well. Often warped and distorted, this example, including the fragile border in superb condition. One with considerable upgrade potential and one of the shiniest, freshest mirrors I have yet seen.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(+): and possibly undergraded at that. A cover seldom seen without often significant wear and damage. A single format, unlaminated with the front cut out square for the reflective mirror. Importantly, this mirror is adhered and made into the cover, so this cannot be removed. Later ones were an insert and could be taken out. Manufactured and distributed by Island Records and printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group, again later ones were made by Robor. This includes the lyric inner sleeve.

Cover Front: One of the very finest I have seen, this from the same lot as the superb ‘L.A. Woman’ by The Doors I am also offering. Firstly the mirror: this is superb and very flat with immense fresh shine. Any friction rubs or dulling minimal and light, any marks even finer than hairlines, they rarely, if ever are seen better these days. Next the die-cut border: this is also superb and totally undamaged with barley any burring or thickening. The lack of creasing to the square edges of the mirror border is incredibly unusual and lovely to see. The silver-grey ink that makes up the frame of the mirror is impressive and also seldom escapes rubbing, often heavy. Again, little is seen with only gentle traces here-and-there. There are some fine hairline type surface crease on the spine edge, but not a great deal else, the lack of sticker marks is equally good news. As far as these go, this front will take an immense amount of beating and sets a very high standard for one of rock’s most challenging covers.

Cover Back: Again impressive with and marks or blemishes quite few, small and light. Any rubbing gentle and no ugly ring wear which is seldom avoided.

Top Edge: Still very straight, the actual fold has hardly any wear. The end card panel has a little minor thickening seen viewed end-on.

Bottom Edge: Again straight, this storage edge has fared superbly. Only a couple of tiny rub traces and little else.

Right Edge(s), and Type: The front has a real folded edge that encloses the mirror, this remains straight with little wear – a couple of smallish rub/chips only. The machine trimmed back edge is neat with any thickening light.

Spine and Text: Horrendously prone to wear, this spine is little short of as-made with only natural minor crinkle. Solid and very straight with barely even a trace of wear. All the bold text present and unworn, rarely seen like this.

Corners: Small tip rubs only with very fine shape retained without bashes or dinks of note.

Cover Summary: This would have been a spectacular gimmick cover within the Vertigo Spiral range, but they had now made the move to Island-Bronze. When such a large amount of card is removed to make a ‘window’, for the mirror, the weakening of the cover’s structure is more than obvious and often the reason why the spine edge area attracts creasing – in this case only fine and light. One with such clean and shiny mirrors and perfect frame edges are very hard to find, and that no exaggeration, purely a fact. This is very impressive indeed and the mirror and its frame edges superb. Massive upgrade potential, this should please many, if not most collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT(+): an unlined double-sided text/lyric inner sleeve with external flipback construction. I feel sure later copies omitted this lyric insert altogether. Generally clean with only a little tone spotting mainly near bottom right corner of the non-lyric side. Hardly creased and still very white overall. A wide top-opening recessed edge, still neat, crisp and untorn, all the edge folds unsplit with no repairs.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT: and this does this lovely record scant justice, I think it’s probably worthy of a (+). Under angled light, some very fine wispy surface marks or hairlines are evident, but the lack of penetrating stylus scratches is the really positive factor and this record – unusually – looks little played. These minor surface traces are totally superficial and non-sounding, and most used records rarely escape these types of minor blemishes. Very clean with excellent shine, and solidly pressed. The most important factor is always the sound and audio quality – this was a joy to play-grade and offers that supreme warmth and detail vinyl offers with (of course), the original mix and sound. Visually a very fine 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 much more elusive ILPS first issue plays even above it’s visual grading with very little to fault. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound with no tracking issues*. Few available copies will outperform this one significantly I feel sure. Little of note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this elusive album which remains one of my favourite within their catalogue. This copy will prove very difficult to find significantly better and the cover will better most around. Taking the whole package, a copy I can strongly recommend, these are seldom seen with better covers, inners, record or sound.

* 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 2.2 grams.

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 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 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 it’s 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. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. 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 Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2.2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired with Tellurium Black 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.

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, better quality packaging costs, I offer probably the best-value and safest shipping possible for ultimate confidence. The boxes and ultra thick double-wall stiffeners 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 minuscule in over 14 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. Oneadayrecords is a MAILER-FREE ZONE – they offer next-to-no-protection, and should be banned, no ‘professional’ should consider using them in my opinion. 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). All postage costs are below and at the top of the listing.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: Please ask me first.

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 withdrawals. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

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] = £4.75

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

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

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 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 [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced 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: 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’.