I lost my original copy of Blur’s Think Tank poster in 2010 when it got lost after an exhibition of Banksy’s record covers in Stockholm. At last I’ve found a replacement — though it was considerably more expensive than the one I lost. This new acquisition made me review my collection of Think Tank albums, promos and such.

I saw Blur at Hultsfreds Festival in Sweden in 1996 and got a couple of album covers signed. So it was quite logical that I also bought Think Tank on vinyl when it first came out, and I suppose this was the first Banksy designed cover in my collection. I also bought the Observer five-track promo soon after. I soon found the large Think Tank poster to add to the collection.

My collection of Banksy covers started in 2005-6 after I missed seeing a streeet art exhibiiton at which several Banksy prints were on sale. I found most early covers at standard issue prices with only a couple costing more than that — the Laugh Now / Keep It Real twelve-inchers cost £6.99 each back then! My next buys were the Think Tank promo CD with the petrolhead stamp and the promo twelve-inch white label.

In addition to the double vinyl, I bought the ‘limited edition’ CD in the red book cover so I didn’t buy a standard Think Tank CD until the reissue box set with bonus CD and the four prints when it came out in 2012.

I had seen that a number of the Think Tank promo CDs had been found without the Petrolhead stamp and a good friend sold me a second copy of the CD with the stamp and one without. I had also read about a version with a pink baby’s hand stamped instead of the Petrolhead figure and when one came up on Ebay I nabbed it! So my collection of promo CDs has grown.

I wondered why no one had come up with one of these promos with a foot instead of the baby’s hand. So I went to Photoshop and created my own, though I haven’t printed it yet.

I ‘m a sucker and gave in to temptation and bought the reissue Think Tank double LP in 2023.

More recently, I read about the Blur stencil that appeared on adverts for the Think Tank album when it was released and found a nice mint stencil as well as a magazine ad for the album showing the stencil.

I know there are interesting versions of Think Tank available from other countries but I’m limiting my collection to U.K./Europe issues. I wonder what other additions may turn up in future.