YES Close to The Edge SCARCE ORIG UK 1972 EX+ LP, NICE INNER, PLAYS IMPRESSIVELY

	£		90
	$		119

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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, 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: YES

Album Title: Close to the Edge

Producer(s): Yes and Eddie Offord

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Close to the Edge.

Side 2: And You and I; Siberian Khatru.

Label, Format & Condition: Atlantic – green and brick red format with matt, fairly smooth surfaces. This album was not issued on the plum format.

Catalogue Number: K 50012

Country of Manufacture: England

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: 138 grams.

Rarity: Moderate, but finding early textured cover copies without heavy wear is more difficult. Even hard to find the record lightly played and offering clean enjoyable sound. With considerable quiet passages, including the very beginning of the title song, pressing quality is even more crucial. And often this is badly blighted by crackle, repetitive clicks and pressing issues. Clarity loss is common the several demanding parts including the deep organ part. This copy has a fine fresh looking cover and the record plays very well indeed with little unwanted. The inner sleeve is also difficult and often badly rubbed as well, again this in fine condition with just an edge rub each side (same edge). Clean all-round examples are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Original Year of Release: 1972

Matrix Nos: K 50012 A1 / K 50012 B2 (I am a great believer that the prized A1 matrix for the title song offers the very best sound quality unmatched by others)

Musicians: Jon Anderson – vocals; Steve Howe – guitars, vocals; Chris Squire – bass, vocals; Rick Wakeman – keyboards; Bill Bruford – drums, percussion.

Brief Artist & Album Info: Arguably the most popular album in the Yes catalogue, their fifth, it charted at 4 in the UK and 3 in the United States – for me musically, it’s the perfect Yes album. A musical suite of three parts with stunning musicianship and super-fidelity production, also beautifully packaged. Pure prog-rock of the highest quality, Yes remain within this field as popular today as they were back in the early 1970s and long may they continue to be. With their very strongest line-up ever of Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Squire and Wakeman, the music this band made was magnificent, and by now progressed way above most of the competition. Everything about finding a top copy of this record is demanding – the cover, a delicate non-laminate and textured is heavily prone to all forms of wear and most have it. Later copies had the cover made smooth with the texturing removed, it even had a more glossy finish. The inner is equally delicate and often suffer horrendous ring wear, rubbing and large sliced edges – indeed many are seen with tape all round. And the record itself with so many quiet passages, will highlight any defects on less than perfect copies with great ruthlessness. The beginning is very similar to the opening of Pink Floyd’s More album, with silence that gradually fades in with delicate bird song until the band kick-in hard with a stunningly complex instrumental break. Two issues make this extra difficult: the actual pressing quality was hugely variable in a year of oil shortage. Later copies especially were often noisy and simply were not up to the capability of reproducing that deep organ break on side one or that intense Mellotron on side two without distortion and crackle. Also, this was highly intolerant of heavy tracking and thick stylus that stripped away those very complex grooves meaning poor sound again. This is a demanding and highly rewarding album that fails to age, it sounds as fresh and exciting now as it did when first made and this copy does is fine justice.

Cover Condition and Details: EXCELLENT: arguably better with most wear on the vulnerable bottom storage back edge. This is unlaminated and textured on ALL surfaces with a leather-like matt finish, including the inside. Slightly later ones had the inside made smooth whilst the outside was still textured. Cover design by Roger Dean and made in England, uncredited. Includes the original deep green lyric inner sleeve.

Cover Front: Deceptively difficult and rarely seen devoid of major rubbing, fading and ageing. Later examples were made without the texturing and were coated giving them far more resilient finish – but looking way inferior in terms of style. The first texturing is distinctive with a leather-look and even feel to the card, quite pronounced and complex, it gives all surfaces genuine class and a luxury feel. This front has minimal traces of ageing or wear, any rubbing very little, gentle and faint with virtually no creasing. No fading or sticker issues, this gives scant clues of its true age and will prove difficult to find better.

Cover Back: The back is almost the same, just a fine sliver or a rub on top left edge and a very small corner tip rub on the lower left, little else. The lack of ring wear is a huge plus also the lack of creasing again. Not seen often in this lovely fresh condition.

Cover Gatefold Inner: Beautiful artwork and another classic Roger Dean landscape graphic – practically unworn and ultra clean and fresh. The futuristic landscape picture has a stunning green pastel hue and the top an equally impressive gorgeous blue colour. All this with the rarer textured surfaces, as stated above, this one is more often seen smooth – possibly changed shortly afterwards to save cost?

Top Edges: Both in amazing condition, straight, flat and flush with barely a trace of rubbing.

Bottom Edges: Again straight, the front with hardly any wear again, the back with patchy less than moderate rubbing that is seldom avoided on these dark green storage edges.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, mostly sharp with any thickening very light as seen viewed end-on. Guaranteed untrimmed, the record enters on the back edge.

Spine and Text: A superb spine lacking the usual wear and light fading most acquire now. Very solid, straight with barely any compression. Folded square, so the edges are flush and parallel. The surface barely worn at all with all text present and solidly intact, also nicely centred as-seen.

Corners: Light tip rubbing only, and few survive with less these days. Excellent shape mostly retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: Being so prone to wear, I feel this is a near exceptional example with most of any wear on the bottom back storage edge. I have seen very few with less wear and to see all the major surfaces like this is almost a thing of beauty. The owner by and large kept this cover protected and it makes a big difference. The fully textured originals are harder to find and few will escape much less wear, this should please many fans and collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT: this being somewhat critical for an inner that is rarely seen in better condition. A smooth matt unlined green lyric inner, it has the flipback construction on the inside. One edge, the one opposite the side entrance has a central, quite fine rub both sides, but that apart, the two surfaces have little else to fault, and that is unusual. being so dark in colour, this suffers badly from ring wear and is rarely ween without it – well this one has none – and barely any rim impression at all. The lack of creasing a huge plus as well. Just one fine, neat edge split on the rubbed edge. This I neatly repaired to stop it widening in the future and this repair barely even registers, but I will always mention such issues. Not seen too many of these better and it remains very attractive indeed as-seen.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT(+): a very fine visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and solidly pressed with more weight than most record of this time. A copy with minimal plays on all the evidence with any surface traces very light, equally fine, wispy and faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, barely anything even registers. Visually a super 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 equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This prog-rock classic plays even above it’s high 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. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and this is an exceptional clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises. Few available copies will outperform this early pressing significantly I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played only lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled within a non-smoking environment. Little of any note spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this wonderful record – with some very quiet extended passages, the odd contact blemish is near impossible to avoid. But it will prove very difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly 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.

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 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.