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Pink Floyd

Comes from 'Italy' vinyl LP

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

PINK FLOYD The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (Rare 1971 original Italian Columbia-EMI black label Stereo LP housed inside a unique picture sleeve depicting the band in front of a huge glasshouse at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, along with the garish yellow PINK FLOYD title printed on the blue sky background. A wonderful variation exclusive to the Italian release. See 'more info' for extra details and a detailed condition report)
#Top 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time

Price Info
N/A  
Product Availability Currently Unavailable - You can request the next copy of this item
Release Year 1971 - 53 years ago
Condition Unless stated otherwise in the description above, all items are in at least excellent condition - so please read our descriptions carefully. We try to sell items as close to Mint condition as possible, and many will indeed be close to brand new and/or unplayed. Others may be 'used' - and all will meet our strict grading and are 100% guaranteed.
Shipping Cost Add item to your basket to see shipping quote
Format vinyl LP album (LP record)
Record Label Columbia EMI
Complete Stock List Go to Pink Floyd or visit our Pink Floyd collectors store
Product Catalogue No 3C062-04292
Music Genre 60s Rock, 70s Artists, 70s Rock, Psychedelic, Rock, Progressive
Country Comes from Italy Comes from 'Italy'
 
Tracklisting & More Information

Italy is notorious for creating some wonderfully different sleeves and issues to those released elsewhere in the world but, as with other European countries, condition has always been a huge problem. Finding a Mint condition Italian record from nearly 35 years ago is a very tall order indeed.

The cover on the Italian issue of 'Piper' is unique. The album was not released in Italy until April 1971 and for some reason Columbia-EMI decided not to use the well-known Vic Singh 'prism lens' photo for the front cover, choosing instead to portray the band members standing in front of one of the huge glasshouses at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

By 1971 Dave Gilmour was a well-established band member and Syd had long since departed, so the band photo depicts Dave Gilmour front and centre, with Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright all behind him. However, Dave didn't join Pink Floyd until 1968 - he didn't even play on 'Piper', which was first released in the UK in 1967. The back cover does credit the correct line-up led by Syd Barrett; correct for the music anyway, if not the actual band members in the front cover photo!

We've seen a mere handful of copies of this remarkable Italian issue, and every one of them has been totally wrecked. This copy is by no means mint, but it is the best we've yet seen. Most do fall into the 'wrecked-but-rare' category and end up as expensive collection gap-fillers but this copy is definitely well-above that level.

The sleeve was never laminated so it's prone to excessive wear. The front cover on this copy shows signs of ringwear, most noticeable on the dark sections around the bottom of the band picture, and lightest on the glasshouse detail. The seams are unsplit, and the internal flipbacks are secure. There is a crease in the bottom left corner. The mostly white back cover has faded with age, and also shows a circular ringwear impression. The blue border also shows signs of edge wear and minor scuffing.

The matt black labels are near perfect, with all credits and titles clearly printed in silver text. The Columbia and one EMI box logos are printed in white.

Visually the vinyl looks excellent. We play graded the LP at loud volume and it is surprisingly good for a 34 year old Italian pressed LP! This is no audiophile experience: there are much better pressings to play, but for the sake of completeness it has absolutely no pops, skips or jumps. Quite remarkable considering its origin and history. On quiet passages of music there is an audible background of low hiss, and some of the louder elements suffer from high-end distortion, both most likely caused by previous use of a worn stylus. However, the vinyl does appear to have been well looked-after and carefully placed on the turntable for each play as there are no apparent traces of use around the spindle hole area.

This is such a rare LP and an incredibly strange variation, with its unique sleeve artwork depicting Dave Gilmour front and centre on an album which definitely belonged to the Syd Barrett era. Not mint, but still the best copy we've ever seen...


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LP RECORD  
Recording Artist Pink Floyd
Product Title The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Product Information Pink Floyd The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Italy vinyl LP album (LP record).
Language All tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description.
Additional info Deleted - A deleted or out-of-print item is one that is no longer manufactured. However, we stock thousands of out-of-print formats and we specialise in tracking down out-of-print, deleted and hard-to-find releases.
Artists Related To Architectural Abdabs, Chimera [60S], Clare Torry, Dave Kilminster, David Gilmour, Easy Star All-Stars, Nick Mason, Perfect Children, Rick Wright, Roger Waters, Ron Geesin, Storm Thorgerson, Syd Barrett, The Australian Pink Floyd, Unicorn, Zee
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Alternatively Known As pink floid, The Pink Floyd
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