Avenue EPs the rarest of the rare for sale

Doesn't time fly? It's been about four weeks via Christmas and the New Year since my last blog post! Glad to say, therefore, that the first post of 2014 is a corker.

An Ebay seller renowned for his scarce Avenue label items has just uploaded one of the most amazing ever. He's listed a copy of an Avenue EP from 1971 which no-one, including me, ever knew existed. The disc itself is a white label test pressing, and it sounds from the details like no commercial pressings were ever made.

NUE 153 would logically have followed NUE 152, but never appeared. Instead, the EP series jumped straight to NUE 154, leaving an inexplicable gap. So here we have a solution to the mystery of the missing EP. Well, partly, that is... this is what the seller has to say:

"I am not listing the six recorded titles on this disc! This will be known only to myself and the successful purchaser of this enigma in recording history...

"The six recordings on this disc were recorded in 1971 at Intersound Recording Studio of Wembley, Middlesex, England. Only one of the 6 tracks contained on NUE 153 was released on the AVENUE U.K. series of TOP HITS - thus I hope, by now I have whet your appetite."

So, he's not giving too much away! We know from the catalogue number that this dates to mid-1971, so it could contain almost anything from that era. What a mystery - and what a fantastic record, probably the only one of its kind. If you're interested in purchasing it, you can see the Ebay listing here. You will need deep pockets though - this is a bona-fide rarity.