Item Description
Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, In a world of magnets and miracles, Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary.
The ringing of the division bell had begun.
Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway, Do they still meet there by the Cut? There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps, Running before time took our dreams away, Leaving the myriad small creatures, trying to tie us to the ground, To a life consumed by slow decay.
The grass was greener, The light was brighter, With friends surrounded, The nights of wonder.
Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us, To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side, Steps taken forwards, but sleepwalking back again, Dragged by the force of some inner tide.
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled, We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world.
Encumbered forever by desire and ambition, There s a hunger still unsatisfied, Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon, Though down this road we ve been so many times.
The grass was greener, The light was brighter, The taste was sweeter, The nights of wonder, With friends surrounded, The dawn mist glowing, The water flowing, The endless river, Forever and ever.
PINK FLOYD: The Division Bell LP.
VERY RARE UK PRESSING, ISSUED 28th MARCH,1994.
You might think UK pressings of the four 1960 s Pink Floyd LP s would be the rarest in the whole catalogue, the reverse is true, right from their 1967 debut, A Piper At The Gates Of Dawn , the rarest UK vinyl pressing of them all is their final 1994 album, the sublime, The Division Bell.
I will discuss how and why that happened below, meanwhile compared to the few UK genuine first pressings, 22 years later, there are now by far more vinyl copies available to buy, including a double album.
Tread very carefully though, nearly all of them are counterfeit or bootlegs, if not, pressed in unspecified countries without any reference to the source of the tracks.
They were NOT direct Master Tape sourced, only the true UK vinyl was prepared in Abbey Road and pressed by EMI on top quality vinyl, at their Hayes, Middlesex, pressing plant...just like A Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and every album that followed.
A genuine UK pressing has exclusive machine stamping and even early mastering hand scribing to identify the sides when the white label Test Pressings were made from the same metal stamping discs, not another vinyl edition in the world has that.
Which shows how few actually were pressed because the EMI indexing never required anymore than the initial earliest mothers, it appears only two were made as the maitrix of genuine UK 1994 records have.
The maitrix and hand scribed identification from the Test Pressing stage, does not exist in isolation, both sides of the authentic UK first pressings have the logo of The Mastering Lab, no counterfeiter in the world can include any of the trio of exclusive features in the run-out grooves.
The best example of the third feature with the same machine stamped Mastering Lab logo, is the only studio Pink Floyd double album, The Wall in 1979.
That has exactly the same machine stamped logo, with four sides involved, you normally see a mixture of the three variations produced by The Mastering Lab indexing logo.
A huge selling album made in colossal numbers, with only one small UK EMI pressing batch of The Division Bell made, they still had the same TML prefix followed by one of the the three varying letters, X , S or M , sometimes only TML was stamped.
I had better move on to specific details or I will have nothing left to write about EMI LABEL: EMD 1055 7243 8 28948 1 2 is within the bar code and and on the spine.
Individual colour artwork picture label format per side, without track listings and with standard 1994 EMI UK rim text.
MAITRIX: 8289841 A - 2 - 2 - 1 / 8289841 B - 2 - 1 - 1 OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE, HAND SCRIBED IN THE RUN-OUT GROOVES OF BOTH SIDES SIDE 1: Floyd - A SIDE 2: Floyd - B FURTHER UK FIRST PRESSING VINYL MASTERING RUN-OUT GROOVE FEATURES: MACHINE STAMPED ON BOTH SIDES: TML-X Fully stamped logo / initials of The Mastering Lab, with X signifying Extra , please see my pictures for the compiled maitrix and mastering details unique to the genuine 1994 UK pressings.
I will expand why that seemingly simple indexing is so important in my main description and why the simplicity of that has been either ignored or just overlooked, without that, no other record can be authentic to March,1994.
Side 2 s maitrix has TML-X stamped on the left side and both can be seen within the compiled run-out groove details, I ran out of space to include the same Mastering Lab logo on Side 1, but it is positively stamped.
CUSTOM MADE The Division Bell LYRICS / CREDITS INNER SLEEVE, WITH MATCHING ARTWORK.
UNUSED, UNFADED AND UNSPLIT, WITH ONLY THE RECORD S IMPRESSION, IN MINT- CONDITION.
Most counterfeit albums do not have a lyric inner sleeve or any lyric sheets, no doubt fakes are circulating, UK originals have semi glossy outside s with the inside pure white.
Top opening with the front s centre recessed and shaped in the middle to acess the record.
I should really grade this as straight Mint because it was never used and stored without the record inside since being first purchased, nothing could better this fantastic condition and a minus seems petty beyond the reality of it s purpose.
UK PRINTED DELUXE, HEAVY DUTY GATEFOLD COVER WITH A MASSIVELY WIDE SPINE, BOTH THE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE HAVE A GLOSSY PROTECTIVE TOP SURFACE.
THE BAR CODE STATES, Printed In England AND NOWHERE ON THE COVER OR INNER SLEEVE IS A SPECIFIC PRINTER CREDITED.
ALSO WITHIN THE BAR CODE ON THE BACK, IS THE SPECIFIC UK CATALOGUE NUMBER AND THE TEXT UK: EMD 1055 EMI related covers not crediting printers, was nothing new, that began in the early 1970 s, but I am 100 confident it was the same printer who made every single UK Pink Floyd album cover, right from the summer of 1967, Garrod Lofthouse.
Once again, unused and standing in storage for 22 years traits that affect just about every gatefold cover made from such thick, heavy duty cardboard.
Creating such a wide, square book shaped spine has always involved top and bottom rubbing of some degree, even if you go back the lavishly thick lamination.
The late 1970 s - the current day s glossy top surface are much more prone to wear on the edges and spines, right from the factory gluing and assembling.
Then packaging and distributing to record shops and subsequent unpacking, handling displaying etc.
all took place before you bought an album I do not look for excuses, just tell it how it happened, the same scenario affects shrink wrapped covers because the light rubbing began before the shrink wrapping was applied, but even then it could turn corners,squeeze the spine and contort the cover.
I find it so frustrating to regularly offer the ultimate condition unplayed, true Mint vinyl from every decade, then find myself constantly discussing how unused covers have storage traits if not actual wear.
Please see my pictures for the stunning all round condition, including the square shape spine, there is hardly any rubbing on the bottom of the spine/ lef side corners, the top has some rubbing with fractional bunching from how the cover was folded and glued.
Other to that, the right side corners, the rest of the spine, the opening sides and the edges are near perfect and I can only repeat yet again, some standing in storage traits over the 22 years.
PERFECTLY STORED IN A PLASTIC OUTER SLEEVE AND UNPRESSURED, JUST A GENTLE A RECORD IMPRESSION, MY GRADING IS RIDICULOUSLY STRICT BUT DELIBERATELY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTING ANYONE.
A RARE ALBUM CAN ONLY BE AS IT IS TODAY, THE RECORD HAD NEVER BEEN REMOVED FROM THE COVER SINCE MARCH, 1994, UNTIL I BOUGHT FROM THE ONE ORIGINAL OWNER.
THE COVER IS IN EXCELLENT / NEAR MINT CONDITION.
THE LABELS ARE LITERALLY BRAND NEW WITHOUT ANY SPINDLE ALIGNMENT TRACES, SO IS THE ULTRA GLOSSY VINYL.
A REALLY BEAUTIFUL LOOKING RECORD WITHOUT ANY MARKS, SCRATCHES OR SCUFFS, I COULD NOT FIND ANY FACTORY HANDLING, BUT IT WAS AT THE PRESSING PLANT, ANY TRACES ARE NEAR INVISIBLE TO INVISIBLE.
THE RECORD IS IN UNPLAYED, MINT CONDITION.
Side 1 Cluster One Dave Gilmour / Richard Wright What Do You Want From Me Dave Gilmour / Richard Wright / Polly Samson Poles Apart Dave Gilmour / Richard Wright / Nick Laird-Clowes Marooned Dave Gilmour / Richard Wright A Great Day For Freedom Dave Gilmour / Polly Samson SIDE 2 Wearing The Inside Out Take It Back Dave Gilmour / Polly Samson, / Nick Laird-Clowes / Bob Ezrin Coming Back To Life Dave Gilmour Keep Talking Dave Gilmour / Richard Wright / Polly Samson Lost For Words Dave Gilmour / Polly Samson High Hopes Dave Gilmour / Polly Samson PINK FLOYD: David Gilmour - lead vocals, electric acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards programming Nick Mason - drums, percussion programming Richard Wright - keyboards, piano vocals Tim Renwick - guitars Dick Parry - tenor sax Gary Wallis -percussion Bob Ezrin - keyboards percussion Jon Carin - programming additional keyboards Guy Pratt - bass Sam Brown - backing vocals Durga McBroom - backing vocals Carol Kenyon - backing vocals Jackie Sheridan - backing vocals Rebecca Leigh-White - backing vocals Michael Kamen - orchestral arrangements Edward Shearmur - orchestrations Recorded 1993 - 1994 At Various Studios.
Mastered By Doug Sax James Guthrie At The Mastering Lab , Los Angeles.
Produced By Bob Ezrin David Gilmour Destined to become the very last studio Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell was issued in that 1994 period when all was doom and gloom for newly issued albums being pressed on vinyl.
CD s threatened to rule the world and even the much loved cassette was now on borrowed time.
Music and records had been a hands on experience since the days of wind up gramophones playing the crackling shellac 78 RPM s, with needles so big you could have knitted a cardigan with.
At this stage the fascination of placing CD s into self closing drawers and letting a laser do the rest, was apparently the present and future, a remote control kept you rooted to your chair and you could re-programe the tracks to your own personal preference.
An enjoyable experience I still love, but those accompanying booklets and inlays were much too small and every removal and replacement added another crease, for the minority, CD s were something to add to the love of vinyl and cassettes.
All three formats were compatible and had their unique qualities, however, record companies liked the economics of CD s, they only cost 50p to produce and they retailed for between 15 - 19.
Vinyl was being pressed in absolutely minimal numbers with a view to closing down the plants and lure music buyers onto CD s, but that minority were perfectly happy with alternate ways to hear music from, meanwhile huge vinyl collections were replaced with CD s.
The 1990 s saw record fairs flourishing with huge queues forming around the buildings, visitors from every corner of the globe gathered together to continue collecting the wonderful and magical records.
We were not alone, because with the advent of the internet and ebay, the demand for records was there on a daily basis, not just the weekends and a worldwide aspect reflected the same scenario we experienced at record fairs.
Back in 94, new releases were rapidly becoming CD only and it looked like new titles would soon be CD s....
or CD s Well, it never happened and it never will now, downloading was next, still the hands on and human scale musical formats proved able to hold their own against Ipods, mobile phones etc.
In the 90 s record companies soon realised records were not only loved by those who listened to music before the mid-1980 s, but every successive generation has since developed the same love affair with vinyl.
Both formats can and do co-exist, now the second decade of the 21st century and newly recorded albums and singles are readily available on vinyl again.
In 1994, vinyl pressings in the UK were reduced to just token gestures and usually the artists themselves had to insist on vinyl editions, but token gestures were made in minimal numbers of a one pressing batch only, never re-pressed as part of current charting titles.
However big artists were, that pattern continued, Pink Floyd were among the biggest selling bands, but by 1994 even their records became more like limited editions....
unless you bought a copy within the first few days of issue, they were sold out and no longer unavailable.
When we were trading at record fairs, twenty two years ago in 1994, I clearly remember the constant requests for the elusive and extremely rare UK pressed vinyl version of The Division Bell , even though it had only just been issued.
Pink Floyd collector s were seriously questioning whether EMI had pressed any of the records, the USA Columbia pressings were the only copies on sale.
How many UK pressing were made is unknown, as hard as I tried locating UK vinyl copies, in spite of experience of finding records professionally and personally, I kept hitting a brick wall.
Pink Floyd fans who bought the few vinyl versions had no intention of ever selling them again, I found it easier to locate the USA limited pressings on blue vinyl, I always worried about the sound quality of coloured vinyl, but still preferable to CD s Sometimes it does take hindsight to evaluate an album, Pink Floyd had been making such staggering masterpieces of records for four decades, it seemed they would carry on forever.
We lived in hope of a re-union but the fantastic, G8 one off performance with Roger was the only time it would happen, The Division Bell has to be seen as the final link in the chain that began back in the heady, psychedelic era of 1967.
From first buying Arnold Layne in March 1967, collecting Pink Floyd records has been spread over a lifetime for me, and in March 1994 The Division Bell was an inspired album to end it all with.
Floyd - A Floyd - B The very first record made once the Master Tapes are mixed and finalised is a Test Pressing , usually three copies only and at that earliest stage, the labels and the covers are not printed yet.
After a record producer or the artists hear a test pressing, the album s tracks could be changed for a re-arranged track configuration or changing tracks for alternate songs.
Sound is an issue but labels cannot be printed yet, so plain white labels are used, sometimes with hand written basic details, but before even that had to include a way to tell which was Side A and Side B.
I have test pressings in my collection and sold more than my share over the years, I know EMI s Test Pressings really well, they had the maitrix machine stamped like vinyl in full production, and often the sound engineer who mastered a given title added his identification to the sides, and even funny messages to the artists.
The Pecko notations in run-out grooves are the best known, for the Test Pressing of The Division Bell the two sides were hand scribed as Floyd - A and Floyd - B.
The very first pressings that went into production often contained the sound engineer s hand scribed alterations to maitrix as well.
Jimi Hendrix Led Zeppelin s debut LP s are classic examples of that, but there are endless other albums with that and more.
Having Floyd - A and Floyd - B still left on all the UK first pressings clearly demonstrates how few copies were actually made, if an album sells poorly then that is common but The Division Bell was a No.1 UK album and remained in the charts continuously for a whole year, well, 51 weeks to be accurate.
Yet no other vinyl pressing was made after the few this record was pressed with, so that Test Pressing indexing was carried onto the really small batch, contains a precise historic occurrence in 1994.
A huge selling album was almost exclusively sold as CD s, no doubt way into the future there will be disbelief about how Pink Floyd s final album was made, but should anyone care to look in the run-out grooves they can see how the future nearly turned out.
I will not be playing this virgin record but I will say how superbly pressed those few copies made were, to their credit EMI used heavyweight top grade vinyl, utilising all their decades of experience to produce a pressing fit to belong in the incredible line of Pink Floyd records, that began with A Piper At The Gates Of Dawn .
The labels are literally like brand new without any playing or spindle use traces, please see my pictures.
for that.
This was bought to keep as an unplayed record, a CD version supplied the music.
That meant the cover was stored carefully and was never handled after being placed inside a plastic outer sleeve...
in March 94.
Why I said an unused cover s condition today can only be how it is, the gatefold cover has a deluxe glossy coating on the outside and inside, looking superb over the full size artwork on both sides, my twelve pictures say it all and they do not require any further accompanying descriptive text, any ultimate unplayed first UK pressing record is above and beyond storage traits, in the antique world, authenticity demands the same expected effect of the passage of time.
Roy R M RECORDS.
My lifetime s love of music and records began at a very young age, the arrival of the Beatles and the 1960 s decade in general had a very profound effect.
It was only natural to bring all my first hand experience of collecting vinyl into becoming a professional record seller.
Nearly thirty years ago we entered into the wonderful atmosphere of record fairs with the highest possible standards set.
When the Internet became the world s new market place for vinyl, in 2001 it was time to join ebay.
Those standards were rigidly adhered to as they will always continue to be, the basics of honesty and integrity were very much part of the era the music I love originated in, so here is our friendly and very efficient service we are proud to provide EVERY RECORD IS FULLY PLAYED AND COMES WITH A NO ARGUMENT MONEY BACK GUARANTEE.
I USE GOOD OLD COMMON SENSE AS WELL AS A GLOBALLY ACCEPTED GRADING TERMINOLOGY FROM THE U.K.
RECORD COLLECTOR PRICE GUIDE BOOK.
THERE IT CLEARLY STATES Sound Quality AFFECTS EVERY GRADING LEVEL AND THAT IS THE ONE AND ONLY POSSIBLE WAY TO ACCURATELY GRADE RECORDS.
i.e.
COMBINING A STRICT VISUAL INSPECTION WITH VERY CLOSELY LISTENING TO EVERY SECOND, UNLESS PERHAPS IN THE CASE OF GENUINELY UNPLAYED VINYL.
EVEN THEN WE STILL TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR A RECORD WHEN A CUSTOMER RECEIVES EITHER A SEALED OR AN UNPLAYED RECORD.
We take 100 responsibility after an item has been posted and offer our fullest support in the event of any problems.
There Are No Problems, Only Solutions John Lennon MY DESCRIPTIONS WILL ALWAYS BE 100 HONEST AND TOTALLY ACCURATE ON ALL GRADINGS FROM V.G.
VERY GOOD , TO THE ULTIMATE MINT CONDITION.
ANY QUESTIONS ON OUR ITEMS ARE WELCOMED AND WILL BE PROMPTLY REPLIED TO.
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WE WELCOME BIDDERS FROM ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
ALL RECORDS ARE REMOVED FROM THEIR SLEEVES AND PLACED INTO NEW PROTECTIVE CARD SLEEVES AND THEN PLACED INTO NEW, HEAVYWEIGHT PLASTIC OUTER SLEEVES.
THE GREATEST ATTENTION IS PAID TO MAKING THE PACKAGING EXTREMELY STRONG SECURE.
EVERY POSSIBLE EFFORT IS MADE TO ENSURE A SAFE DELIVERY AND WE ONLY USE THE VERY BEST QUALITY PACKAGING MATERIALS, THE COST OF THE ITEM IS IMMATERIAL, EVERY RECORD IS TREATED EXACTLY THE SAME.
WE DO NOT TREAT POSTAGE AS A MONEY MAKING PROJECT, POSTAGE IS LESS THAN COST, USING ONLY PROFESSIONALLY PACKED BOXES WITH SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTIVE PACKAGING THAT DOES WEIGH A LITTLE EXTRA.
UNDER PAYPAL EBAY S GUIDELINES, ALL RECORDS WILL BE SENT VIA A FULLY INSURED TRACKABLE SERVICE.
We have kept all our charges at the same level for years now, but due to the Post Office s new price increases, regretfully we will have to increase the cost of LP s, however, singles will remain unchanged.
Ebay were aware of that happening and have increased their minimum postal cost for LP s to 7.00, that figure has been enforced by the UK Post Office and it will become our UK First Class, Recorded Delivery cost for albums up to the value of 46.
A temporary reduction this week means we can now post LP s for 5, but who knows how long before the Post Office return to 7? For LP s valued above 46, the cost will be 9, we are unhappy about either increase but our high standard of packaging has meant in 13 years of ebay trading, there has not been one record damaged, we are determined to maintain that in the present and future.
IN THE UK RECORDS UP TO THE VALUE OF 46 WILL BE SENT RECORDED DELIVERY, OVER 46 WILL BE SENT SPECIAL DELIVERY.
FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD ALL RECORDS WILL BE SENT VIA INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR.
POSTAGE COST FOR LP s UK: UP TO VALUE OF 46, FIRST CLASS RECORDED DELIVERY 5.00 UK: OVER VALUE OF 46, FULLY INSURED SPECIAL DELIVERY 9.00 EUROPE: FULLY INSURED VIA INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR 15.00 USA,JAPAN REST OF THE WORLD FULLY INSURED VIA INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR 20.00 POSTAGE COST FOR EP s 7 UK: UP TO THE VALUE OF 46 FIRST CLASS RECORDED DELIVERY 3.00 UK: OVER THE VALUE OF 46 FULLY INSURED SPECIAL DELIVERY 6.00 EUROPE: AIR MAIL VIA INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR 10.00 USA, JAPAN ETC.
AIRMAIL VIA INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR 12.00 PAYMENT DETAILS.
WE WILL SEND ALL WINNING BIDDERS AN INVOICE WITH THE FULL PAYMENT AND POSTAL DETAILS, AS NEAR TO THE AUCTION ENDING AS POSSIBLE.
OUR AIM IS TO MAKE YOUR PURCHASE SMOOTH AND TROUBLE FREE.
FOR UK BUYERS WE ACCEPT: PAYPAL, CHEQUES, POSTAL ORDERS BANK WIRES.
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