You already know that I am inordinately proud of my collection of records and CDs with cover art by the artist known as Banksy. Many of the vinyl releases with Banksy‘s cover art, particularly the “unofficial” ones, were released as limited editions. Dirty Funker (just one of DJ Paul Glancy‘s aliases) released two remixes as 12-inch singles with cover art by Banksy: “Let’s Get Dirty“, from 2006, appropriated Banksy‘s famous Kate Moss portrait, and “Future“, released in 2008, featured Banksy‘s “Radar Rat” design (in five different limited edition covers, probably each of 1000 copies).
a. Front of first pressing of Dirty Funker’s “Let’s Get Dirty” 12-inch single.
b. Back of first pressing of Dirty Funker’s “Let’s Get Dirty” 12-inch single.
There were two editions of the “Let’s Get Dirty” 12-incher, both limited–the first edition, which showed only Banksy‘s Kate Moss portrait with no artist, title or tracklisting, or even a barcode. The front image showed Kate‘s head against a red background, while on the rear cover she had a pale green background. This edition must have been significantly more limited than the second edition which showed Kate‘s portrait with a Dymo strip over her eyes on the front cover giving the artist and record’s title. On the rear the strip was placed over Kate‘s mouth giving the tracklisting.
Second pressing with “Dymo” band
b. back of second pressing of Dirty Funker’s “Let’s Get Dirty” 12-inch single.
This week a printer’s proof of the first edition “Let’s Get Dirty” cover was advertised on Ebay. The seller had bought it in 2007 and now was sadly selling it. He thought there might have been about ten copies printed in 2006 (the print is dated 18th January 2006) and makes an interesting addition to both my Banksy and my collection of record and CD covers featuring Kate Moss.
Printer’s proof sheet for the “Let’s Get Dirty” cover.
My collections of artists who have designed record covers seem to grow and grow. There always seems to be another cover to add to them. However, eventually I find that I have got as far as it seems possible to go and my collections just need that one elusive cover that I just cannot find.
My biggest collection is of Andy Warhol’s cover art. I have a broad view of what to include in it and have collected bootlegs, CDs and a few magazine covers, so that I currently have over 200 “Warhol covers”. However, there are still gaps that I suppose I never will fill. The main one is the NBC box set “Night Beat” – a promotional set of three EPs for a 1950s radio show – only one copy of which is known to exist. There is also a Japanese EP of Mendelssohn’s “Scherzo” with Warhol’s drawing of angels on the cover. Again, only a single copy has so far come to light. There are a couple of other albums that it may, one day, be possible to find. I’ll keep you posted on those.
I thought my collection of Peter Blake’s record covers was complete until I was tipped off about a 1983 cover for a recording of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue/An American In Paris” with a beautiful Blake painting. Luckily that was easy to find. So now I’m only waiting for him to produce his next cover.
I once had a complete collection of Damien Hirst’s record and CD cover designs. However, when I sold my main collection, I wasn’t careful enough to check what went and what stayed, with the result that the promotional booklet for The Hours’ “Ali in the Jungle” with its 3″ CD disappeared along with four of the band’s limited edition 7″ singles. At least I have been able to replace these, but the promo booklet has eluded me.
Again, my collection of Banksy records and CD covers is only missing one very rare item; the promotional 12″ single by The Capoeira Twins. A couple of copies have come up for sale recently, but way over my budget!
I thought that my collection of Klaus Voormann’s record cover art was complete with about seventy-four covers. I was mistaken. Klaus designed a cover for a jazz LP in the early sixties with artwork in the same style as his covers for the Pioneers of Jazz series of EPs on the Coral label.
The Klaus Voormann’s cover for a German jazz album.
Unfortunately, no one can read the title. Could it be “Wir nie im Bett Programm gemacht”? That’s the nearest I can get to deciphering it. And I have asked Klaus, but he doesn’t remember the artist or the title. I’ve shown the picture to German dealers, but none has seen a copy.
Then I have a collection of record and CD covers featuring supermodel Kate Moss. I got started on collecting Kate Moss covers as I already owned Dirty Funker’s “Let’s Get Dirty” 12″-ers (both first and second versions) and Damien Hirst’s “Use Money, Cheat Death” single sided 12″ with his portrait of Kate with half her face dissected away. Kate has a musical background having cooperated with Primal Scream on their remake of Lee Hazlewood’s “Some Velvet Morning” and there are two 12″-ers that feature Kate on the covers. And also with Babyshambles while she and Pete Doherty were a couple.
2003 – Primal Scream & Kate Moss “Some Velvet Morning”, Columbia 12″.
“Some Velvet Morning” remix 12″ with one of Jane Garner’s 1992 portraits of Kate on front and rear covers.
Bryan Ferry used Adam Whitehead’s photos of Kate on his 2010 Olympia album and on the limited edition 12″ singles and remixes taken from the album. However, one single, “Heartache by Numbers” apparently didn’t make it onto vinyl, though I didn’t know this initially and spent some considerable time searching for a copy, obviously without success.
So collectors, it seems that completing one’s collection of a particular artist is well nigh impossible. But it is the unfinished collection that still provides a challenge. Will I ever find these missing covers?
I really felt as though I had exhausted the subject of record covers showing Kate Moss‘ portrait in my previous post. No sooner had the proverbial ink dried than two more covers appeared. The first is a 7-inch single-sided EP by American punk/hardcore/grunge band Vomit, entitled “Kate Moss” on the Give Praise record label.
Now, a search of Discogs will reveal more than ten bands that have used the name Vomit. The Vomit in question seem to only have released this one “Kate Moss” EP.
The gatefold cover of Vomit’s 7″ single-sided EP “Kate Moss” with at least thirteen portraits of Kate.
Then I was reading about the two CD and one DVD set of Bryan Ferry‘s 2010 “Olympia” album. I already have the limited edition Vinyl Factory LP version of this, that includes the cover portrait of Kate Moss but without the text–obviously intended to be framed and hung on a teenager’s wall. I hadn’t considered the box set as I felt it probably wouldn’t add anything to the LP version. Well, I was wrong. The 40-page book that houses the discs contains many more photos from Adam Whitehead‘s sessions for the album. The DVD has an interview with Bryan Ferry on the making of the “Olympia” album and the “You Can Dance” video as well as a video of behind the scenes activity in the making of the “You Can Dance” video.
The box set of Bryan Ferry’s “Olympia” album contains a 40-page book and 2 CDs and a DVD.
The pictures are stunning. Here are a selection:
The CDs and the DVD included in set come in card covers, two of which have different cover photos from the LP and deluxe box.
CD1 has the album cover photo, while CD2 and the DVD cover have different photos. You will have to examine the covers of the CDs to spot the very subtle difference (hint look at Kate’s right hand).
And just when the thrill of finding the box set sort of settled, I came across an Ebay ad by my least favourite seller Majestic Music & Art. I consider this seller to be quite ruthless in his (I presume it is a “he”) price-setting. Many years ago, I bought a couple of albums from Majestic Music & Art that were poorly packaged and arrived damaged. They would not discuss a return or a refund and I promised myself never to buy from them again. But in mid-March 2017 they posted this ad for a copy of the Luke Fair remix of Primal Scream‘s (and Kate Moss‘) “Some Velvet Morning” (the old Lee Hazlewood classic). This single normally comes in a plain black generic cover, but Majestic Music & Art advertised a copy with Kate Garner‘s famous 1992 portraits of an 18-year-old Kate Moss affixed to front and back covers.
“Some Velvet Morning” remix 12″ with one of Jane Garner’s 1992 portraits of Kate on front and rear covers.
Despite my promise to myself never to buy from Majestic Music & Art, I did buy the 12″ single to add to my collection. I knew of Kate Garner‘s Kate Moss portraits from an exhibition of Russell Young‘s recent screen prints at London’s Halcyon Gallery. Russell Young’s portraits are really wonderful–some are as big as 200 x 200 cm and covered in diamond dust, so they really sparkle!
Kate Moss‘ name crops up in music as a songwriter and artist–several tracks by other artists/bands are entitled “Kate Moss“. Examples include Arab Strap‘s 1996 album “The Week Never Starts Around Here” that contains a track entitled “Kate Moss“, but there is no picture of her on the record cover. German rocker Maximilian Hecker‘s 2003 CD “Rose” also has a song called “Kate Moss” as its first track. Again, there is no portrait of her on the cover. I don’t suppose these will be the only songs called with this iconic title.
I begin to repeat myself! I know I should never, NEVER, say that I’ve completed a collection, but this time I may actually have… I have finally got hold of all the covers on my Kate Moss Cover List. Just publishing this post, will, I’m sure, unearth more. But for now, what the heck, I’ll say I’ve got ’em all.
So here, in alphabetical order, are the new additions:
BABYSHAMBLES – “Shotter’s Nation” – Parlophone LP
BRYAN FERRY – You Can Dance Remixes – Vinyl Factory 12″
BRYAN FERRY – Alphaville Remixes – Vinyl Factory 12″
6majik9 – Kate Moss – Musicyourmindstilllove you CDr
PRIMAL SCREAM & KATE MOSS – Some Velvet Morning – Columbia 12″
2007 6majik9 “Kate Moss” CD-r with handmade cover. Music Your Mind Will Love You.
2003 – Primal Scream & Kate Moss “Some Velvet Morning”, Columbia 12″.
The “Shotter’s Nation” album was Babyshambles‘ third full length album after “HQ Sessions Second Wave” and “Down in Albion“. The album artwork is credited to Pete Doherty and Traffic and the cover painting to the French artist, painter, writer (5 novels so far) and photographer Alizé Meurisse, who has designed several covers for Babyshambles and Pete Doherty. Despite being released as recently as 2007, the vinyl album has become quite scarce. I assume the female figure on the cover with her back to the viewer is Kate Moss.
The Vinyl Factory released seven limited vinyl editions of Bryan Ferry‘s 2010 album “Olympia” and remixes of six singles taken from it. All featured portraits of Kate Moss in various poses photographed by Adam Whitehead. The first was “You Can Dance Remixes” and then came “Alphaville” remixes on two separate 12″ EPs, then “Heartache by Numbers“, which thus far I have only identified as a rare Dutch promotional CD single. The final two 12” EPs are “Shameless” and “BF Base (Ode to Olympia)“. The arrival of the “You Can Dance Remixes” and the second “Alphaville” 12-inchers completes my collection of all seven Bryan Ferry/Kate Moss covers.
6majik9 is a loose Australian collective fronted by Michael Donelly who formed Music Your Mind Still Love Records which released a number of CD-rs in limited numbers (usually less than 100 copies) with hand painted covers. The “Kate Moss” CD-r comes in a handmade card cover with a stencilled portrait of Kate in black and with a hand-painted red slash that varies from cover to cover. The rear cover has a stencilled pentagram. Mike Donnelly has told me that it was he who made the “Kate Moss” cover by stencilling the face and painting the red overlay.
The final addition is the oldest cover (from 2003) featuring Kate Moss;Primal Scream and Kate Moss “Some Velvet Morning” with cover design by INTRO and illustrated by British illustrator Julie Verhoeven, who has designed the cover of Kasabian‘s “Empire” and several for Nouvelle Vague.
Now I can show all the Kate Moss covers in a single post. Here they are in chronological order:
2003 – Primal Scream & Kate Moss “Some Velvet Morning”, Columbia 12″.2007 Babyshambles “Shotter’s Nation” Parlophone LP.
2007 – Dirty Funker “Let’s Get Dirty” Spirit Records singles
2007 – Dirty Funker “Let’s Get Dirty” Spirit records.
Left: First pressing. Right: Second pressing.
2007 6majik9 “Kate Moss” CD-r with handmade cover. Music Your Mind Will Love You.2008 The Unholy Two’s “Kutter/Porkys” single. Uses Chuck Close’e photographs of a nude Kate Moss. Columbus Discount Records.2009 Damien Hirst’s “Use Money, Cheat Death” 12″ single, with his portrait of Kate Moss.2010 Various Artists compilation. “Kate Moss for Longchamp – an Iconic Rock Selection by Kate Moss” – Promotional CD2010 Bryan Ferry “Olympia”. Limited edition LP. Vinyl Factory.
So there you have it! All eighteen covers that I have found featuring Kate Moss. Now I’ll sit back and wait for someone to point out a cover I haven’t found.
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