Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by The Small Faces on Immediate Record label 1968, value lilac label mono £250, stereo £150; pink label mono £120, stereo £80

THE infamous battles between the Mods and Rockers began in 1965 at Brighton and Southend, when a lot of young people identified as one or the other, writes MICHAEL BROOKS. One of the first 'Mod' bands were four Cockneys from the east end of London, small in stature but big in reputation and musical ability: they were The Small Faces. Their career lasted barely four years but spawned 12 hit singles; this album reached No1 in the album charts and remained there for six weeks with the song Lazy Sunday taken from the album peaking at No2 in the singles chart. This album celebrates their finest hour and recognised as the first rock opera, pre-dating Pete Townsend's Tommy by a year. Recording of the album took over a year to complete, unheard of in 1967. Produced by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, it was the first concept album with narrative, words and lyrics.

The album cover was based on an existing tobacco tin simply called Ogden's Nut Flake, which the band used to buy to make their own hand rolled cigarettes. The tin was round so they decided to issue the cover as round. Although its seemed like a good idea it did cause a lot of problems. Record shops found that when they tried to stack them, they sometimes warped or rolled off the shelves. Eventually the circular cover was put inside a square clear plastic sleeve that solved the problem.

An unusual album, the first side was a selection of different music genres; side two was a fairy tale narrated by the bizarre nonsense wordsmith comedian Stanley Unwin as the character Happiness Stan (Spike Milligan turned the part down). This unlikely combination proved to be a surprisingly successful combination resulting in an acclaimed album. This was the last album released by the band as shortly after Steve Marriott left and formed Humble Pie. Other members of the band would regroup as the Faces with Rod Stewart. A limited edition of this album on CD was issued in a tin and is quite collectable. The original Ogden's Nut Flake ceased production in 1983.