Uncategorized

Peter Blake’s Album Covers:

Leave a comment

A Chronological List

  1. Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). Collage. Crowd scene.
  2. Pentangle – Sweet Child (1968). Photo. Model (pentagram).
  3. Chris Jagger – The Adventures of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist (1974). Photo and collage. Portrait of Jagger holding ventriloquist’s dummy.
  4. Roger McGough – Summer with Monika (1974). Painting. Bedroom scene.
  5. The Who – Face Dances (1981). Paintings. Series of portraits.
  6. Landscape – Manhattan Boogie Woogie (1982). Collage. Abstract cityscape after Piet Mondrian. (Unused design.)
  7. Daniel Blumenthal – Gershwin / Grofé – Rhapsody in Blue / American in Paris / Piano Concerto in F (1983). Painting. Paris scene with portrait of Montgomery Clift.
  8. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1984, 1985). Collage.
  9. David Sylvian – A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil (1986). Appropriated print. Religious iconography.
  10. Ian Dury – Apples (1989) Painting apples.
  11. Ian Dury — Apples / Byeline Brown (1989). Paintings. Apples.
  12. The Fall – I’m Frank (1990). Appropriated painting (Nadia).
  13. Eric Clapton – 24 Nights (1991) Peter Blake drawings.
  14. Eric Clapton — Wonderful Tonight (1991). Drawings.
  15. Paul Weller – Stanley Road (1995). Painting & collage. Portrait of Weller.
  16. A Stranger Shadow – Colours (1995). Collage.
  17. Various Artists – Brand New Boots and Panties (2001). Painting. Commissioned portrait.
  18. Robbie Williams – Swing While You’re Winning (2001). Painting. Portrait of Williams. (Unused cover design.)
  19. Brian Wilson – Gettin’ in Over My Head (2004). Collage. California street scene.
  20. The Who – Live at Leeds 2 (2006). Limited edition print.
  21. Various Artists – John Peel: Right Time, Wrong Speed 1977–1987 (2006). Painting. Commissioned portrait of Peel.
  22. Eric Clapton – Me and Mr. Johnson (2006). Painting. Portrait of Clapton as Johnson.
  23. Oasis – Stop the Clocks (3LP set, 2006) Blake’s blue wardrobe, dartboard and assorted items.
  24. Champagne Supernova (2006). Collage / dartboard.
  25. The Blockheads – Staring Down the Barrel (2006). Collage.
  26. Brian Wilson & Peter Blake – That Lucky Old Sun (2009). Exclusive box set.*
  27. Madness – Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da (2009). Handwriting and collage.
  28. Paul Weller – Dragonfly (2009). Collage. Maritime scene.
  29. Eric Clapton – I Still Do (2012). Painting. Portrait of Clapton.
  30. Eric Clapton – Madison Square Garden (2012). Portrait of Clapton.
  31. Eric Clapton – 70th Birthday Celebration (2012). Painting. Alternative portrait of Clapton.
  32. John Cooper Clarke – The Luckiest Guy Alive (2018). Painting. Commissioned portrait of Clarke.
  33. The Who – WHO (2021). Collage.
  34. Eric Clapton – The Definitive 24 Nights (2023). Drawings.
  35. Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes – Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) (2024). Collage — Version 1.
  36. Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes – Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) (2024). Collage — Version 2.
  37. Paul Weller – 66 (2024). Painting.
  38. Band Aid 40 – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (2024). Painting & collage. New version of Peter Blake’s 1959-60 painting “Valentine (for Pauline Boty).
  39. Hot Chip – Joy in Repetition (2025). Painting. Wind-up monkey.

Peter Blake has said he produced designs for a Steeleye Span and a Ray Davies album but these have been lost. I have included his unused designs for the Landscape and Robbie Williams albums.

* Box set containing 12 original Blake prints rather than a cover design; included as evidence of the Blake/Wilson artistic collaboration.

Uncategorized

Collage – The Medium Linking Two Souls: Peter Blake and Pauline Boty.

5 Comments

I’ve been fascinated by Peter Blake’s art since I bought his “Babe Rainbow” print in, I think, 1968. My fascination for his art continued with my collection of Blake’s record cover art and one recent (2024) release has unravelled unexpected aspects of Peter Blake’s life that impinge on his art. The cover I refer to is his design for Band Aid’s 40th anniversary recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”  released as an EP on viny and CD in November 2024.

This design struck me as familiar and I found a picture of a Blake painting from 1959-60 that was strikingly similar. The painting in question is Blake’s “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)”.

Peter Blake’s “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)”, 1959-60.

I immediately wanted to know who Pauline Boty was and why Peter Blake painted her this valentine.

A quick Internet search revealed that the painting had been sold at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £270,000. But the description told the story of Blake’s unrequited love for Pauline Boty.

Peter Blake’s art education began in 1946 when he was only 14 at Gravesend School to learn commercial art. It was there that his interest in typography started. After National Service in the R.A.F., in 1953, he was admitted to the Royal College of Art’s painting school based on a single painting that he submitted. He graduated with first class honours in 1956 and, after a year travelling in Europe, took various teaching jobs while still remaining connected to the RCA. He was a contemporary of David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, Derek Boshier and Allen Jones. In 1958 a 20-year-old Pauline Boty arrived at the RCA to study stained glass. A subject she had begun to study at Wimbledon College. Boty was a collagist and painter and while at the RCA produced stained glass works, paintings and collages.

There’s considerable similarity between making stained glass pictures and collages. Both consist of cutting out bits of either glass or paper to make a design and Boty became an accomplished collagist alongside her stained glass work.

Blake had been making collages since at least 1955. Boty met Blake, six years her senior,  at the RCA and they began a romantic involvement. Blake soon became besotted with the beautiful, vivacious and very talented Pauline. Unfortunately for him her feelings were considerably cooler, but they made a beautiful couple. Blake has said “Imagine having her on your arm at a private view. I mean she was sensational!”

So, Blake painted his “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)” early on their relationship. Boty must have been inspired by Blake’s collages, and she must have been a muse for him. Her early collages seem to presage many of Blake’s more recent ones.

This reuse of Victoriana by Boty is reminiscent of Blake’s later large collages from the “Joseph Cornell’s Holiday” series and other.

Boty was the archetypal “dolly bird”, before the term really became fashionable. She wore Mary Quant clothes and was aware of her sexuality, having several affairs while still dating Blake. The photographer Lewis Morley was one lover, who photographed her nude in September 1961 in a series of photos, the most famous being the portrait holding Blake’s “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)”!

Lewis Morley’s 1961 portrait of Boty holding Blake’s 2Valentine” painting.

Exactly when Blake’s and Boty’s relationship ended is difficult to date. Boty was in a long-term relationship with the married television director Philip Saville and had other assignations. In June 1963 she married literary agent Clive Goodwin after a whirlwind 10-day romance. Both Blake and Saville were reported to have been shocked by her marriage. And Peter Blake married Jann Haworth the following month.

Their artistic partnership was public enough that when the BBC’s Monitor produced ‘Pop Goes the Easel’ in March 1962, Blake ensured Boty was among the four featured artists. (Blake himself, Boty, Derek Boshier and Peter Phillips). The programme opened with presenter Huw Wheldon seated before a recreation of Boty’s ‘collage wall’ – an installation in her London flat that demonstrated how central collage was to her practice, integrated into her daily environment. If this wall dated from 1958-59 when she arrived at the RCA, Blake would have seen it early in their relationship, experiencing collage not just as artworks but as a way of life.

There were three brilliant women artists around in the late fifties and early sixties. These were Brigit Riley (born 1931), Jann Haworth (born 1942) and Pauline Boty (born 1938). Riley, Peter Blake and Jann Haworth were represented by Groovy Bob Fraser’s Duke Street gallery from 1962. Boty graduated from the RCA in 1961 and was forced to become a waitress to make ends meet. Why didn’t Blake introduce his great love to Robert Fraser and kickstart her artistic career? Instead, she jumped into marriage so she could continue her art.

Haworth left Blake in 1979 for the author Richard Severy and Blake met Chrissy Wilson in 1980. They married in 1987.

There is no doubt that Peter Blake influenced Pauline Boty’s art. Just compare her “Monica Vitti with Heart” painting from 1963 with Blake’s ”Valentine”.

And there’s no doubt Blake never forgot Boty as he reused the “Valentine” design sixty-four years later as the basis for the cover design for the Band Aid 40 EP. But he hasn’t credited Boty anywhere in his books. His 2021 book “Collage” is dedicated to Chrissy, his three daughters and Joseph Cornell.

Retrospective exhibitions of Boty’s work in 2013 and 2023-4 have brought her pop art paintings and collages back into general view and emphasised her central role as one of the important members of British Pop Art first flowering.

Credits: Photographs taken from Marc Kristal’s 2023 book “Pauline Boty: British Pop Art’s Sole Sister”.

band-aid-40, Paul Weller, Peter Blake, Uncategorized

Two New CDs with Peter Blake Art and Some Other Covers.

Leave a comment

I have a pretty impressive collection of record and CD covers with Pweter Blake’s art. Over the years I’ve managed to get many of them signed by Sir Peter and just before Christmas I got hold of two more CDs beautifully signed by Sir Peter. My agent popped round to Blake’s home with a few CDs and asked Chrissy if she could ask Peter to sign them. Chrissy knows that signed items can go for quite large sums but this time she took them to her husband who signed them beautifully.

Paul Weller’s 2024 album “66”.

I really like this cover. It’s traditional signwriting and I like to dabble in signwriting myself as I’ve had a longterm love of typography. Peter Blake studied tyypogrpahy at Gravesend College and many of his album covers show his expertise with various forms of type. The inspiration for Paul Weller’s cover came from the fact that Weller’s 66th birthday was the day after this album was released and Weller wanted the album called “66“. Blake delved into his collection of old signs and found a butcher’s sign advertising something for 6d (six old pence) and copied the typeface.

Blake has published several series of prints of various alphabets and even published boooks of them. Other typefaces that Blake has used include some victorian lettered tiles that he has used on several covers, the first being Paul Weller’s Stanley Road. There have been many since. Type sourced from old alphabets appeared on Madness’ 2012 album Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da. However, the typeface Blake obviously likes best is hhis own handwriting! It stands out on the Madness cover but appeared as early as on the Who’s Face Dances album. Other styles he has used include rubber stamped and stencilled letters.

Band Aid 40’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” CDEP.

The Band Aid 40 cover is one of my favourites as it is a prime example of Blake’s recycling. In 2010 he made two series of prints, one said “I Love Recycling” and the other “I Love London”. When I met Him and Chrissy at the opening of the exhibition of these prints I showed my collection of Blake’s record covers at the Galllery and he gave me a set of these prints.

The Band Aid 40 cover is a recycled Blake design from 1959-60. Originally a painting called Valentine (for Pauline Boty) that he gave to his lover Pauline Boty.

Valentine (for Pauline Boty)

These two CDs covers have what I consider the best examples of Peter Blake’s autograph. I haven’t seen better placed signatures before–and I have many examples in my collection, He usually signs LP covers with smaller signatures, sometimes almost invisible, like on this 1983 album cover.

Gershwin – Signed album cover. Blake’s signature is visible just above the “ux Montmartre”

Perhaps the rarest cover with Peter Blake’s art is the 1990 promotional EP I’m Frank by the Manchester band the Fall that was only released in America. How the Fall (or their American record label, Fontana) came to use Blake’s 1981 Nadia painting is a mystery.

Peter Blake’s 1981 painting Nadia on the cover of the Fall’s “I’m Frank” EP.

And if there is one cover in my Peter Blake that is really special, it has to be my copy of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, signed by both designers Jann Haworth and Peter Blake.

I’ll tell more stories about Peter Blakes record and CD cover art in a book that I hope will see the light of day sometime soon.

Uncategorized

Pete Townshend and his friend Peter Blake.

Leave a comment

The story that I was told was that Peter Blake met the Who at a Ready Steady, Go! television show in 1965 and that Pete Townshend and Blake became friends then. I’ve always believed it. But now, while researching my book about Peter Blake’s record cover art, I decided I’d better read Townshend’s 2012 autbiography “Who I Am”.

He delves deeply into his early years and his time at Ealing Art College and the formation of the Who. He mentions that the College was quite near to “his hero” Peter Blake’s studio but then goes on to describe his difficulty in deciding whether to continue at art school or devote himself to music and the Who. We all know which won.

Fast forward to the late summer of 1978 (probably in late August) and Pete states that he met his hero, the pop artist Peter Blake for the first time together with Ian Dury and was pleased to note that they, like him, liked a drink or two. Only days after his meeting with Peter Blake, Keith Moon dies on September 7th of an overdose of sleeping tablets.

In 1980 the Who started recording “Face Dances”, their eleventh album, having recruited Kenney Jones, ex the Faces, as their new drummer. Townshend had worked with Jones previously so he knew he was up to the job. Townshend says “I persuaded my friend Peter Blake to do the artwork for Face Dances, due for release in March 1981. It would be the first record cover he had designed since The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper”. He decided to ask twelve British artists each to produce a portrait of one member of the band. Ron Kitaj and Richard Hamilton—heroes of mine along with Peter himself—were among those who contributed. The album was released to limp reviews, though sales were good.” Pete had obviously not been following Blake’s career in album cover art!

So, rather than just casually asking “his friend” Peter Blake to design the album cover, Townshend had “to persuade” his hero to do the job. Luckily, he was extremely pleased with the result with portraits by Ron Kitaj, Richard Hamilton and Blake’s own contribution.

Well, I had to rewrite my introduction to the chapter on the design of the “Face Dances” album cover. I was surprised to note that Townshend doesn’t mention Richard Evans’ contribution in view of the fact that he would let Evans design cover for the promotional double LP for “Face Dances” called “Filling in the Gaps”. An interview with Pete Townsshend.

Otherwise, I didn’t find “Who I Am” particularly interesting. Lists of Townshend’s drug-taking and infidelities and his attempts to leave the Who became boring. But I’m grateful for the fact about his first meeting with Blake and how the “Face Dances” cover came about.

Guitars, Peter Blake's Rwecord Cover Art, Record colecting, Record cover art, Teenage Cancer Trust

Peter Blake’s Cover for Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes’ “Going Home” Single Revisited.

Leave a comment

This single was made to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust and Knopfler put together a stellar crowd of international guitarists for the re-recording of Knopfler’s “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)”. Knopfler named them Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes and features a line-up of some of the greatest guitarists and musicians in history[1]. The track was recorded was recorded in late 2023 and early 2024 at British Grove Studios in West London with additions from the various contributors recorded in their own studios. The recording, produced by Knopfler’s long-time musical partner Guy Fletcher, was condensed to the nine minute track on the record. The guitar intro, played by Jeff Beck, turned out to be his final recording before his death on 10th January 2023.

I haven’t been able to find out how Blake became involved in this project but given the charity connection and Roger Daltrey’s and Pete Townshend’s involvement I would hazard a guess that Pete suggested that Blake provide the cover art.

Roger Daltrey has been an Honorary Patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, founded by Dr Adrian Whiteson and his wife, Myrna. Daltrey has organised concerts in support of the trust and this charity single was released in aid of the trust and Teen Cancer America. I don’t know how Mark Knopfler became involved in the trust, but he decided to re-record his hit from the 1983 film “Local Hero” with a galaxy of guitar heroes, starting with Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and Albert Lee, and many others. Daltrey plays harmonica and Ringo Starr, and his son Zak play drums. I got my copy of the U.K. version as soon as it was released

I had no idea that Peter Blake had designed two cover variations. The one for the U.K. and European release shows a collage of the guitarists in front of Hanks Music Store (located in London’s Denmark Street) while the cover version released in the U.S. shows the same guitarist collage but in front of Rudy’s Music Store in SOHO, New York. Interestingly, the US version has a circular “Who cares” sticker in the left upper window that doesn’t appear on the UK version. I only found out about the U.S. version eighteen months after it had been released and it’s now quite hard to find..

Both the U.K. and U.S. singles were single-sided with an etched B-side and both versions were manufactured in the Czech Republic.

[1] The complete list of all 66 participants in the “Going Home” recording:
Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender, Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, Zucchero

The WHO - Face Dances

The Cover of the Who’s “Face Dances” Album.

4 Comments

.Richard Evans (born 1945) is a designer who began his career with the legendary design group Hipgnosis before starting his own company. He has designed record covers for many bands including Robert Plant, Van Morrison and World Party. But he is best known for his covers for the Who and Pete Townshend, including “Who’s Missing”–with it’s nod to Peter Blake’s “Got a Girl” painting and its companion “Two’s Missing”

The first Who cover he worked on was their 1981 “Faces Dances” LP. This was the first Who album after Keith Moon’s death and the band had recruited former Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones to replace him. Pete Townshend met Peter Blake on the set of the television show “Ready, Steady, Go!” in 1965 and they became friends, which is how Townshend came to ask Blake to design the cover for what would be the Band’s nineth album. Evans also designed the cover for “Filling in the Gaps” the promotional album for “Fasce Dances”, a recording of Pete Townshend discussing the album.

Blake’s four-by-four square layout with four individual portraits of the band members has become a classic cover. Blake got fifteen of his artist friends to each paint one band member.

 Gavin Cochrane took a photo of each member of the band, which the 16 artists used to paint on 6 in × 6 in (150 mm × 150 mm) canvases the portraits of each member of the band for the front cover , although it seems that Jo Tilson based his painting of Kenney on Blake’s portrait  rather than the photograph.

Gavin Cochrane’s photos of the Who members that the artists used to paiint the cover portraits.

Pete Townshend on the top row, painted by Bill Jacklin, Tom Phillips, Colin Self and Richard Hamilton.
Second row: Roger Daltrey by Michael Andrews, Allen Jones, David Inshaw and David Hockney.
Third row: John Entwistle painted by Clive Barker, R. B. Kitaj, Howard Hodgkin and Patrick Caulfield.
Bottom row: New member Kenney Jones painted by Peter Blake, Joe Tilson, Patrick Procktor, and David Tindle.

Richard Evans provided the graphic design of the back cover that featured Clive Barker’s 1967 sculpture of a gold-plated, bronze paintbox. Barker had been one of four pop artists shown in a joint exhibition at Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser’s Duke Street gallery in 1967 together with Peter Blake, Jann Haworth and Colin Self. I suppose the paintbox was on show there and Blake acquired it. Evans had Blake write the portrait credits on a card and he designed the paint tubes creating a typeface reminiscent of the one Windsor & Newton used on their paint tubes. Once again, Gavin Cochrane photographed the paintbox at his studio with Blake and Evans in attendance.

The ”Face Dances” album has become a classic Who album and has been reissued several  times. The 2021 reissue included four prints of the cover portraits.


One of the limited edition prints.

The prints included in the 2021 re-issue of Face Dances.

Uncategorized

Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser Remembered.

2 Comments

Does anyone remember art gallery owner Robert Fraser any more? Well, I do. I have been researching Peter Blake’s record cover art and discovered that Robert Fraser was more than just an advisor suggesting to Brian Epstein that a fine art cover would last longer than a Fool(ish) psychedelic cover. It transpires that “Groovy Bob” as he was known to his friends was a central figure in what Richard Hamilton called “Swingeing London”. Fraser’s Duke Street Gallery was more than just an art gallery. From 1962 to 1969, Fraser put on ground-breaking exhibitions, introducing Pop Art before anyone else. The gallery was a meeting place for artists, musicians, film makers and trendsetters. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, John Dunbar were regular visitors. Fraser helped start McCartney’s art collection, taking him to Paris in 1965 to buy a Magritte painting!

The Duke Street Gallery closed in 1969 but Fraser opened a new gallery in nearby Cork Street in 1983 and ran it until 1985. Fraser died in January 1986—one of the first celebrities in England to die of Aids.

In 1999, Harriet Vyner, who had become friends with Groovy Bob in the eighties, published her book “Groovy Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Fraser”—a book of interviews and impressions from artists and gallery regulars about Robert, his business and his feelings and what the gallery meant.

The sheer number of artists who exhibited at Fraser’s galleries  is impressive; ranging from the cream of American Pop Art, like Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Ed Ruscha, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as emerging British Pop Artists, including Richard Hamilton, Derek Boshier, Colin Self, Peter Blake, Clive Barker  and Bridget Riley.

So, tuned in as I was to Groovy Bob’s influences on both art and music I was intrigued when I discovered that there was an album called “Robert Fraser’s Groovy Art Club Band”—a limited edition double LP released on the occasion of a group exhibition at London’s Gazelli Art House from 11th January to 23rd February 2019 called just “Robert Fraser’s Groovy Art Club Band” with contributions from Clive Barker, Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Brian Clarke, Jim Dine, Jean Dubuffet, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, Jann Haworth, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha and Colin Self. The gallery even produced the album recorded by David G. A. Stephenson and Josh Stapleton and a hard cover book.

I found a copy for sale on Discogs and immediately ordered it. Cover art by Derek Boshier, it was released at the pre-opening on January 10th, 2019.

Each of the fourteen tracks is dedicated to one artist with the first track called “Groovy Bob”, so you know who that’s about. The second track, “From Sir With Love” is Peter Blake’s. “Jim Dine’s Toolbox” is next, and then “Dubuffet or Not Dubuffet”, followed by “Slip It to Me” which is a reggae paean to Richard Hamilton. “Optical Tactical” celebrates Bridget Riley. No prizes for guessing who “I Want to Hang Out with Ed Ruscha” is about. Then it’s “Clive Barker and His Midas Touch” that celebrates Barker’s burnished bronze sculptures of everyday articles (like the paintbox on the back cover of the Who’s “Face Dances” LP that he made). “Leopard Skin Nuclear Bomber” is a Clash-like rocker that references Colin Self’s 1963 “Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber” sculpture. This is followed by “ Keith Haring’s Pop Shop” and thereafter “Samo”, which was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s street art tag in the early days. After “Samo” there’s “Dangerous Visions of Brian Clarke”, followed by “An Englishman in L.A.” , a reference to Derek Boshier, who lived in the City of Angels until his death in 2024. The final track is a song about Jann Haworth and her mural S.L.C. Pepper (Salt Lake City Pepper), Haworth’s hometown, where her new version of the Pepper cover addresses the lack of representation of women and people of colour in the original Sgt. Pepper line-up.

The album is on Spotify, so you can give it a listen.
Don’t hold your breath, but there’s much more to come from my research into Peter Blake’s record cover art that this post is a tangential part of.

R.I.P. Derek Boshier 1937-2024.

Uncategorized

A Valentine Lost: Peter Blake’s Pattern of Heartbreak.

Leave a comment

When Sotheby’s offered Peter Blake’s painting “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)” for auction in 2019, they described the two artists as “inseparable.” The work sold for £287,500—a significant sum for what appeared to be a simple valentine. But this wasn’t just any love token. It was evidence of a relationship that would shape Blake’s emotional life and set a pattern of loss that would haunt him for decades.

Robert Fraser opened his famous art gallery at 69 Duke Street in London in 1962 and attracted the cream of pop art artists to the gallery’s roster: Richard Hamilton, Derek Boshier, Peter Blake, Colin Self and Jann Haworth. Fraser’s gallery attracted visitors from the world of film, music and art. He was the first to show American pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Jim Dine in London. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were gallery regulars—Robert Fraser helped Paul McCartney build his art collection.

There was one English pop artist who wasn’t represented by Groovy Bob Fraser. She was Pauline Boty (1938-1966), a polymath: pop artist, poet, radio programme host, actress and dancer. You could have seen her bopping to the music on TV’s “Ready, Steady, Go”. She studied at the Royal College of Art from 1958-61 alongside Peter Blake, David Hockney and Derek Boshier.

Wikipedia describes her as “the heartbreaker of the sixties art scene. Talented and outspoken, she was loved by countless men…” Boty and Blake became inseparable. Between 1959-60, Blake painted a valentine for her, simply titled “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)”.

Peter Blake: Valentine (for Pauline Boty), 1959-60.

There’s Lewis Morley’s famous photograph of Pauline holding the Valentine painting.

Boty and Jann Haworth were the only two women among the pop artists at the time. Haworth, like Blake, was represented by Robert Fraser and had solo shows at his gallery as well as a joint exhibition with Peter Blake, Derek Boshier and Colin Self.But Boty’s romantic life was complicated. She was having an affair with TV director Philip Saville (who was already married) while involved with Blake. Then in June 1963, after a whirlwind ten-day romance, she married literary agent Clive Goodwin. Blake—and Saville—must have been devastated.

Blake’s response was swift. Just one month later, in July 1963, he married the other female pop artist, Jann Haworth, whom he had met at a party while she was a student at the Slade School of Art. Another whirlwind romance. The newlyweds immediately left for an extended honeymoon in California, where Jann’s father, Academy Award-winning art director Ted Haworth, lent them his Stingray sports car. They drove to Malibu listening to the Beach Boys, and Ted got Blake access to a film studio storeroom filled with props from the Elizabeth Taylor film Cleopatra. They were still in California in November when President Kennedy was assassinated.

Pauline Boty’s remarkable artistic and acting career ended abruptly when, in 1965 while pregnant, she developed a malignant tumour. Boty refused abortion and treatment as it would harm the foetus. Her daughter Katy was born on 12th February 1966, and Pauline died on 1st July, aged only 28. The “Valentine” painting passed to her husband Clive Goodwin until his death in 1977. It was later acquired by art collector Muriel Wilson (1933-2018), who donated it to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester along with many other works from her collection.

Blake and Haworth remained together for sixteen years, founding the Brotherhood of Ruralists in 1975. But in 1979, history repeated itself. Haworth met author Richard Severy and left Blake. Devastated, Blake left Somerset and the Ruralists and returned to London. He was reported to have been unable to work for almost a year after this separation—a testament to how deeply the loss affected him.

When the Valentine painting came up for sale at Sotheby’s in 2019, it was featured in an article titled “Unrequited Love and Peter Blake’s Pop Art Valentine.” But the image had clearly stayed with Blake. Sixty-five years after its creation, it reappeared on the cover of Band Aid 40’s 2024 single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”—suggesting that his feelings for Boty, and that moment in time, had never entirely left him.

There’s another possible legacy of Blake’s relationship with Boty that art historians may have overlooked. Boty was herself an accomplished collage artist. While the textbooks credit Joseph Cornell and Kurt Schwitters as Blake’s influences in collage, perhaps the woman who was ‘inseparable’ from him during those formative years played a more significant role than history has acknowledged. It wouldn’t be the first time a male artist’s female partner influenced his work without receiving credit.

Blake met artist Chrissy Wilson in 1980, soon after returning to London, and they married in 1987 after his divorce from Haworth was finalized in 1981. They are still together after more than 40 years—perhaps Blake had finally found lasting love.

Haworth and Severy remained together until Severy’s death..

Uncategorized

A New Way to Picture Record Covers

Leave a comment

The art of Luzzatticovers.es

A few days ago I sumbled across a Facebook post asking after the title of a record sleeve that I sort of recognised but it looked strange.

Recognise it? It’s obvioulsy Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” but with all the detaiil removed. AN Internet seach followed and turned up the creator Luzzatti.es, who has reimagined a wide range of covers thst he sells on his website for €50 each. He produces limited editions of 50 prints each 30 X 30 cm)s (11,7 x 11,7 inches).

Eduardo Luzzzatti is a graphic designer based in Valencia, Spain, who says this project is his way of paying tribute to the designers, photographers illustrators and artists who created the covers of some of our favourite albums.

He has 430 covers on his site! Obviously I immediately serched for covers by artists I collect–Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, and Klaus Voormann. Yep1 They’re are some there.

Screenshot
Screenshot
Screenshot

Screenshot
Screenshot

I think these minimalistic cover versions are really clever. While anyone who knows their cover art will recognise these covers there will be others who just see astract immages. Some work better thsn others–the White Light/White Heat cover doesn’t really lend itself to Luzzatti’s treatment. I’m not so happy with the Sgt. Pepper cpover eother, but the Sticky Fingers, VU & N and Revolver covers work well.

Uncategorized

Ninety-three and Still Going Strong–A New Peter Blake Record Cover.

Leave a comment

I’ve spent several years researching Peter Blake’s record cover art and found three covers that I had no idea Blake had contributed. I have now a list of thirty-six covers released over 58 years. That must be some kind of record!

Here’ my list of all I’ve been able to find to date.

  1. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 1967
  2. Pentangle – Sweet Child – 1968
  3. Chris Jagger –The Adventures of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist – 1974
  4. Roger McGough – Summer with Monika –1978
  5. The Who – Face Dances – 1981
  6. Landscape – Manhattan Boogie Woogie – 1982
  7. Daniel Blumenthal – Gershwin / Grofé – Rhapsody in Blue / American in Paris / Piano Concerto in F – 1983
  8. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? – 1984
  9. David Sylvain — A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil — 1986
  10. Ian Dury – Apples and Apples / Byeline Brown – 1989
  11. The Fall – I’m Frank –1990
  12. Eric Clapton – 24 Nights and Wonderful Tonight – 1991
  13. Paul Weller – Stanley Road – 1995
  14. A Stranger Shadow – Colours – 1995
  15. Various Artists — Brand new Boots and Panties – 2001
  16. Robbie Williams – Swing While You’re Winning – 2001
  17. Brian Wilson – Getting’ in Over My Head – 2004
  18. The Who — Live at Leeds – 2006
  19. Various Artists – John Peel: Right Time, Wrong Speed 197-1987 – 2006
  20. Eric Clapton – Me and Mr. Johnson – 2006
  21. Oasis – Stop the Clocks and Champagne Supernova – 2006
  22. The Blockheads – Staring Down the Barrel – 2009
  23. Brian Wilson & Peter Blake – That Lucky Old Sun – 2009
  24. Ben Waters – Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute to Ian Stewart – 2011.
  25. Madness — Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da — 2012
  26. Paul Weller – Dragonfly — 2012
  27. Eric Clapton — I Still Do — 2012
  28. Eric Clapton Madison Square Garden — 2012
  29. Eric Clapton 70th Birthday Celebration — 2012
  30. John Cooper Clarke — The Luckiest Guy Alive — 2018
  31. The Who – WHO — 2019
  32. Eric Clapton — The Definitive 24 Nights — 2023
  33. Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes — Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) — 2024
  34. Paul Weller – 66 — 2024
  35. Band Aid 40 — Do They Know It’s Christmas? — 2025
  36. Hot Chip — Joy in Repetition

Peter Blake’s latest cover, by thr band Hot Chip, uses his watercolour painting of one of his mechanical, wind-up minkeys that repeatedly plays cymbals when started.

This double album of the band’s greatest hits was releaased on Friday 5th September 2025.

That’s quite impressive. Most, if not all, of his recent covers have been done for friends and the Hot Chip cover is no exception, being done as a favour to frontman Alexis Taylor, Blake’s friend.

Record sleeve art by artists I collect