On February the 25th 1972 Island Records released Nick Drake's third, and what was to be his final, album, Pink Moon, to a largely disinterested press and public. For four years the artist Nick Drake had appeared in the various Island Records catalogues and album samplers as much as an anomaly as an essential purchase. Fans of John Martyn, Fairport and Fotheringay may have investigated Drake's work but his own reluctance to tour or sell his work allowed Drake to slip into the same also-ran bracket as Island's Claire Hamill and Tir Na Nog, legends all. The initial 3,000 pressings sold poorly but never quite sold out, and Island kept the title on catalogue up until interest started to grow in Drake in the early 1990s.<br /><br />Such small interest exploded when Volkswagen used the title track to promote their new Cabriolet in the USA in the late 90s. Nick's poorest-selling album became a best-seller and the interest in all of his tiny canon blossomed. The 28-minute, 11-track Pink Moon transferred onto CD and the original vinyl ran its course, later being deleted. 40 years since its birth, USM re-presents the album in an exactly replicated vinyl pressing, re-mastered by the original co-producer and engineer; John Wood at Abbey Road and pressed on Audiophile virgin vinyl
