THE BAND:
Original members:
Eddie Hansen - Lead guitar (Revival, Challenge
Ricky Ball - drums (Beat Boys, Courtiers, Challenge)
Paul Woolright - Bass (Moses And The Monks, Jamestown Union
Trevor Tombleson - Percussion, vocals (Moses And The Monks, Jamestown Union)
Outstanding acid/psych rockers from the early 1970's in New Zealand - legends in fact! Influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf - you can hear all these influences in their music, trippy music which was perfect for the time - I was one of their big fans.
I lived in Christchurch at the time and THE place to be was Aubrey's Night Club where Ticket had a residency.
Their music was sooo groovy (man) and a totally Kiwi creation, originally from Auckland but they couldn't find a permanent gig up there so they ended up building their fan base down in Christchurch.
In 1972 they headed over to Australia and played at Whiskey-Go-Go (Sydney) and Chequers (Sydney) then they recorded this album down in Melbourne at the Channel Nine studios (T.C.N) between 1st and 20th May 1972, releasing the album later in 1972 on the Down Under label (owned by Barry Coburn) - this was their second and last album ever released.
Holden amps/stacks (designed & made in New Zealand) were used by Ticket when in Australia
They were headed for "the bigtime" but it all went a bit off the rails - they were to be playing support to Black Sabbath at the Ngaruawahia Music Festival but just beforehand, the band suddenly fell apart. The band members were moving in different directions and Ticket began self destructing. They did try some lineup changes but it was to no avail and in 1973 Ticket was no more...
RECORD HISTORY:
Its sad, very sad really. Once upon a time there was a storm (we have a LOT of rain down in Christchurch) and some of my beloved music collection got wet, actually it got soaked!
Lots of very rare (now) music got turfed out but I managed to save what I could of this album.
A record collector will hate this album, its not all pristine and untouched but a true music lover will think this is the mana of Kiwi psych music from the 1970's.
I am not a record collector but I love music, all music (it just depends upon the mood at the time) but now I would like this special recording to go to someone who can appreciate its historical memories from those very strange days of the 1960's - 1970's as a youth in New Zealand.
I have tried to give a full and honest description of both the cover and the vinyl itself below .... please read and heed
SPECIAL NOTE:
An astute NZ vinyl collector has pointed out that this is a mis-printed record label, unique I guess!
PLEASE READ BELOW FOR DETAILS ABOUT THE RECORD LABEL(S)
Ticket - Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Atlantic Records
Cat# SD 1010
Runout - Matrix codes
SIDE 1: (STAMPED) A MX 168881. SD1010-1
SIDE 2: (STAMPED) A MX 168882 SD1010-2
1972
Australian release (This copy is not the NZ release on Down Under label)
SPECIAL LABEL/MATRIX NOTES:
It has come to my attention that this record has been manufactured incorrectly.
Specifically the record labels are INCORRECT! The Side One label has the track listing/credits (red lower half circle) is actually the track listing for Side Two and vice versa
The label is attached to the correct side of the record, but the tracks shown are for the "other side"!
I have played this vinyl many times but to me a song is a song and I never took notice of the record label. I have double checked tonight and indeed, the Record labels have just the track listings swapped over. The side number, catalogue numbers and matrix codes all match for each side.
I cannot imagine how the Australian manufacturer got this wrong, I would have thought the labels were printed in a one step process but this cannot be true as it is ONLY the lower section of the record label (red semi circle area) that is wrong.
I can only imagine that the printing was a multi-step process, one for each colour and when it came to the black, the information became reversed but only for the lower half!
Gatefold cover is in poor condition, no "BS" here - it has suffered water damage and when the gatefold was separated, the graphics came away (as they do)
I have retained the cover for nostalgic reasons, still good monochrome photographs of the band members anyway!
I have sterilised/cleaned as much as possible to stabilise the cover and prevent the growth of mildew/smells etc - this is not a "stinker!"
New inner plastic liner sleeve
Vinyl is in good (minus) condition on both sides, visually inspected carefully under a white halogen light source and I can see a number of very light marks/scratches on both sides. NONE are of a medium/heavy level but I suspected it may be a little "noisy" (surface noise not full of clicks/pops)
I then played the ENTIRE album, every single track (multiple times - its a "those were the days" thing!)
While there are no significant issues with clicks and certainly NO MISTRACKING, there is a persistent background "pops/bubbles and squeaks" and I suspect some mould from all those years ago has grown in the grooves. I gave the vinyl a couple of decent VPI cleans, each time this improved the audio but still more cleaning is likely to be required.
I think a decent clean on a Monk might do a better cleanup job but I don't have a Monk.
Now, don't get me wrong - this album is just so cool (and psychedelic) and its great to listen to and those pops are not really bad but they are noticeable. Most outstanding track? probably I would put We Love Rock And Roll right up there - very funky cool jazzy rhythm with a running commentary about the chicks in the club, actually quite a bit of commentary about all the patrons in the club - nice groove.
In my personal opinion, Side 2 has slightly less surface noise than Side 1
New outer sleeve
TRACKS: The Bad Things In This World, Make The Nice Things Nicer, Remember To Understand, People Going Nowhere, And The Band Played, On This Planet, Gypsy Rover, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, We Love Rock And Roll!
SPECIAL NOTE:
I am NOT a record collector, that is to say I do not collect records for the sake of collecting records - I love music, all kinds of music and especially New Zealand music (my roots)
How do you price such a hard to find album? I took a stab ok?
The major reference site is discogs and the prices for this album have varied from A$100 through to A$400 - currently 2 copies available on discogs and both are in the A$700 range but they don't even tell you the real audio condition, just a very simplistic "looks nice, mate" - terrible!
As you can see and read above, the condition of this album is a bit "hows ya father" so I have tried to strike a happy medium with my asking price - any stupid offers will just be flicked into the fire, so don't bother.
I am particularly interested that this album goes back to New Zealand and as a result, I will ship this album FREE OF SHIPPING COSTS (tracked of course) using Standard Australia Post.
I am NOT so keen on providing this album to someone who will just "flip" it to make a quick buck - my motivation is music, not money!
