If you’r’e a Beatles fan, it could be your lucky day (Picture: Scott K MacLeod/REX/Shutterstock)
We’ve all heard about innocent-looking Harry Potter books paying off mortgages – but have you ever considered the treasures that could be hiding in your record collection?
If your wedge of vinyls has been handed down and spans back to the 60s and 70s, you may just own a £10,000 cultural relic. Or perhaps there’s one sitting in your local charity shop with a £5 price tag.
If you are lucky enough to own the UK’s most valuable vinyls then call your mother – you just won £67,000.
As today is April 20 – Record Store Day, don’t you know? – why not have a flick through those old boxes and find out if you’ve got one of the following treasures.
From the likes of The Beatles to Led Zeppelin, the company A2D2 – which connects analogue music devices to smart speaker sound systems – has researched the UK’s most valuable records, and here are the results.
The UK’s most valuable vinyl records revealed
The Beatles – The White Album
The White Album is the colloquial name for the band’s ninth studio album, officially called The Beatles.
But because of its blank white exterior, the album – which simply has The Beatles written on its cover – is now known better by its pretty self-explanatory nickname.
An original of the White Album is perhaps one of the most valuable records out there (Picture: Scott K MacLeod/REX/Shutterstock)
The 1968 album contains some of The Beatles’ biggest hits including A Hard Day’s Night, Eight Days A Week, Girl, And I Love Her and All My Loving. It’s also the only double Beatles album from legends George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon.
Original copies – especially those with low serial numbers, in pristine condition and with the original Apple logo – can be worth a fortune, potentially fetching up to £10,000.
Complex – Complex
Complex’s self-titled rock album – with an iconic skeletal tree on a burnt orange background – was only pressed 99 times, and is one of the most sought-after psychedelic albums of all time.
Recorded in 1970, Complex’s album includes songs Funny Feeling, Green Eyed Lucy, Witch’s Spell, and Norwegian Butterfly.
An immaculate copy was picked up for £1 and later sold for a whopping £10,000. So it’s worth checking…
Dark – Round the Edges
With only 40 copies ever pressed, Dark’s Round The Edges – their debut album – is a real prize.
With tracks including Darkside, Maypole, The Cat, and Zero Time, this psychedelic 1972 rock album in its original form is considered to be the holy grail of record collections.
One of these rare copies could be worth up to £8,350.
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin
Of vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham’s many brilliant creations, among record collectors their self-titled debut studio album is of biggest value.
Getting your hands on a rare Led Zeppelin record could make you £7,000 richer (Picture: Laurance Ratner/WireImage)
The 1969 album – which includes Dazed and Confused, I Can’t Quit You Baby, Good Times Bad Times, and Black Mountain Side – was recorded at Olympic Studios in London shortly after the band formed.
With its turquoise typography and a unique Superhype credit, one of the first pressings of Led Zeppelin’s debut album was sold for £7,100 in 2013.
A Fleeting Glance – A Fleeting Glance
Another psychedelic rock album on the list is A Fleeting Glance – a record put together by a variety of mysterious musicians at a social club. It allegedly includes an uncredited appearance by Billy Fury.
Only five copies of this curious album are known to exist, and so if another is found it could be worth up to £6,400.
The Beatles – Please Please Me
The Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, was first released on March 22 1963 with bangers including Love Me Do, Twist and Shout, and Please Please Me, and – naturally – it’s worth a lot of money.
The early UK Parlophone pressings with the black and gold label are highly sought after, worth up to £6,000.
This ‘incredible rare’ Beatles vinyl record -found in a Cancer Research UK charity shop in Enfield – was auctioned for more than £4,200(Picture: Cancer Research UK/PA Wire)
John Lennon once revealed the band recorded their first album in one long twelve hour session.
‘The last song to be done was a song called Twist and Shout, which nearly killed me,’ he said.
Sir Paul McCartney also recalled how Lennon had to save Twist and Shout until last to preserve his throat.
‘John was sucking zoobs all day – those little throat tablets. And he finally had to do Twist and Shout knowing he had to do it last because it would just rip his throat apart to do it,’ he said.
‘It was great. You can still hear that on the record.’
Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen
The Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen boasts one of the most recognisable record covers in British history, as the band name and record title over Queen Elizabeth II’s eyes and mouth proved wildly controversial at the time.
Released in May 1997 in the midst of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee – the band denied this timing was intentional – the song went on to cause uproar.
This is perhaps one of the most recognisable covers ever (Picture: Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock)
Written in Johnny Rotten’s London squat, the record was banned by the BBC who described it as an example of ‘gross bad taste’. It was also banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which regulated Independent Local Radio.
Amid the furore, band members Paul Cook and Johnny Rotten were also physically assaulted by offended monarchists with razors and iron bars.
Nowadays, a first pressing on the A&M label, which was quickly withdrawn, can command a price of up to £6,000.
Joy Division – An Ideal For Living
An Ideal for Living is the first EP by post-punk band Joy Division, released on June 23, 1978, not long after they changed their name from Warsaw.
They released the EP under their own label, Enigma, before later signing to Tony Wilson and Martin Hannett’s Factory Records.
The EP was recorded at Pennine Sound Studios in Oldham and includes four tracks: Warsaw, No Love Lost, Leaders of Men and Failures.
The record was largely self-financed on a budget of just £400, and only 1,000 copies were pressed. Every record is said to have been individually folded by the bandmates.
Joy Division’s first EP is worth a lot if you find an original (Picture: Rob Verhorst/Redferns)
An Ideal For Living also caused controversy with its cover, showing a member of the Hitler Youth.
Later that year, the EP was re-pressed as a 12″. Only genuine original pressings have an anti-slip ring on the centre label of the 7″ – and they are all black vinyl.
If you’ve got one of these in good condition, you could be £4,700 richer.
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