I bought a record the other day. But it wasn’t for me. My Internet friend Ruggiero needed a copy of RATFAB’s single Det brinner en eld / Mörka ögon to complete his collection of Andy Warhol record covers, and I found him one.
Otherwise I haven’t bought a record for over a month — that must be some sort of record for me! Strangely, I don’t feel the urge to buy any more records. I am beginning to realise that I have an impressive collevtion of record cover art — okay, there are a couple (or three) gaps that I could try to fill, but those gaps are so exceeding rare and filling them would be extremely expensive if I ever found any of them. Actually having these rarities might give me a moment of two’s joy, but then my collections would be COMPLETE, and where’s the joy in that? So — I’m thinking of stopping the search.
However, a new though occurred to me: what happens if one of the artists whose record covers I collect produces a new one? Should I go for that? Andy Warhol isn’t going to produce any new covers (though hi art may very well appear on a new cover somewhere.) I’m somewhat doubtful as to whether Sir Peter Blake will produce any either. I have heard that Damien Hirst has at least one cover in the pipeline, as has Richar Prince (another artist I like). Klaus Voormann is still active despite soon being 85 years-old and could well come up with another cover or two. David Shrigley is very much active and still interested in music and, in particular, records. Viz. one of his latest posters Awful Music.
Record covers that parody famous covers always interest me. I have some Sgt. Pepper parodies and a number of Velvet Underground “Banana” cover parodies. one by the aforementioned D. Shrig: his cover for Castle Face Record’s The Velvet Underground & Nico and another of his for Stephen Malkmus & Friends’ rerecording of Can’s Ege Bamyasi.
David Shrigley’s parody of the Velvet Underground & Nico cover.
I have always liked Kraftwerk — I’ve seen them live three times — and even have a pullover with the Die Mensche Maschine cover image. I painted a version of that cover not too long ago.
And I recently discovered that the Ebony Steel Band’s cover had recorded a cover version of the album:
Well, I very nearly pressed the Buy it Now button for this one but I realised that I didn’s actually own Kraftwerk’s original, so there was little point in buying this reverential recreation of that famous cover.
So, I don’t think I’ll be buying any new records for the foreseeable future. Unless…
My collection of record sleeves with art by the artist klnown as Banksy needs no instroduction here.
There are two covers that Banksy handsprayed. The first was for John Stapleton’s Blowpop Records in 1999. Banksy sprayed 100 coovers for a promotional 12″ single by the Capoeira Twins.
And the second was for Röyksopp’s debut album Melody A.M. in 2002.
The Capoeira Twins 12″ costs around GBP 5,000 – 6,000 while the Melody A.M. double LP goes for araound GBP 8,000 – 10,000. Both are limited editions of 100 copies (only the Melody A.M. covers are numbered.)
Robert del Naja (a k a 3D) is closely related to Banksy — and a major early influence. Del Naja started as a streeet artist in Bristol in the early eighties. He stopped after being arrested one time too many and concentrated on music, though he still produces art both as paintings and limited edition prints that command high prices. He also designs record covers for his band Massive Attack and for other groups. His limited editon record covers for Massive Attack have increased in value. I have four covers by Del Naja/3D.
The standard edition of VNA magazine No. 26.The front cover of the “War Stories” box set.The limited edition of “Splitting the Atom”. My copy is No. 576/1000.The limited edition of “Atlas Air”. My copy is No. 085/1000.
Prices of these covers have sky rocketed recently. The limited edtion 12″ Eps Splitting the Atom and Atlas Air can cost upwards of GBP 300.
I have tried not to wander off and collect other street artists covers, but somehow some manage to creep into my collection. The latest is by the anonymous Swedish street artist Hellström, who handsprayed a cover for Håkan Hellström’s 2018 Illusioner album.
Hellströms limited edition prints cost around SEK 40,000 – 60,000 (aprox €4,000 – 6,000) and are highly collectible. He made the cover to the Illusioner LP in an edition of 40 (mine is No. 36), considerably fewer than one of his print editions.
One of the most expensive street art record covers is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s cover for Rammelzee vs. K-Rob Beat Bop 12″ single originally released in 1983 (500 copies) and reissued several times. An original copy might sell for around USD 10,000. Even some reissues can be quite expensive. However, even the price of an original is far less than a Basquiat limited edition print.
Mr Brainwash designed the cover for Madonna’s 2009 Celebration four LP compilation and copies now can cost USD 1,000!
Shepard Fairey has designed several record covers, both as art works that do not contain records and as bona fide record sleeves. He knows his history of record cover design and produced a limited edition series of covers that I felt I had to reproduce for my collection.
This cover design harks back to Alex Steinweiss’ first picture cover ffor the Smash Hits by Rodgers and Hart 78 rpm album from 1940. As I have that album, I had yo make a reproduction of the Shepard Fairey cover. Once again, a Shepard Fairey record cover will cost far less that one of his limited edition prints.
These are the street artists I have in my collection. I hope that each will continue to increase in value.
It seems that record covers by estsablished “fine” artists are also considerably cheaper (or perhaps that should be “considerably less expensive”) that the artists’ limited edition prints. A current example is David Shrigley, a vinyl-lover and part-time DJ, who has produced many record sleeves in very limited editions. These are now quite expensive, but nowhere near the cost of his limited edition prints. Early covers by Andy Warhol are expensive — perhaps up to USD 2,000 – 3,000, while his limited edition prints cost one hundred times the cost of his record covers.
In Part One I mentioned that many, if not the majority, of Shrigley’s record, cassette and CD cover art has been produced as limited editions. I will present several more here.
First off, is a various artists compilation called Worried Noodles. This double CD and book is a tribute to David Shrigley’s Worried Noodles: The Empty Cover book published in 2005 and uses the same cover art. Thirty-one of the poems in the Worried Noodles book were set to music and recorded by a variety of artists ranging from the famous to the (for me) obscure: David Byrne, Franz Ferdinand, Aidan Moffat & The Best Ofs, R.Stevie Moore, Alig Fedder (who will reappear later) and Deerhoof are the artists I’ve heard of.
The Worried Noodles CD case containing two CDs and a book.
Next came what I understand to be a limited edition seven-inch single called White Night by a band called White Night, which consisted of David Shrigley and Glaswegian friends.
The White Night single. Which one is Shrigley?
There are two more releases from 2008. First, the A Brighter Beat/Point of Light seven-inch single taken from Malcolm Middleton’s album of the same name.
The other is Jason Mraz’s Album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. Released on CD, there is a limited edition three-sided double LP with etching on side four. Even the inner sleeve is doodled by Shrigley.
There was only one Shrigley cover in 2009 — for a ten-inch mini album by the Parenthetical Girls, an experimental pop band formed in Everett, Washington, and then based in Portland, Oregon. Six of the eight tracks were written by Ivor Cuttler.
Parenthetical Girls 10-inch LP The Scottish Story.
Gallerie Feiber in Berlin held an exhibition of Shrigley’s art in 2011 and releases a limited edition double seven-inch set with cover art by Shrigley and pink vinyl records. Disc one was by Forced to Speak With Others (i.e. David Shrigley) and disk two was by Thee Oh Sees. The two singles were bound together with a pink banner. The edition was limited to 200 copies initialled and numbered by Shrigley.
The limited Gallerie Feiber edition.
Shrigley also had an exhibition in 2011 at London’s Hayward Gallery and published a book called Brain Activity which included a two-track seven-inch single.
The following year (2012) Castle Face Records released a version of The Velvet Underground & Nico album with each track played by a different artist. They got David Shrigley to design the cover.
Castle Face & Friends version of The Velvet Underground & Nico. My copy signed by David Shrigley.
Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement fame) got together with friends in 2013-4 to rerecord Can’s breakthrough album Ege Bamyasi, which was released as a limited edition for Record Store Day in April 2014. The European version was pressed on red vinyl and the American on green vinyl, but both had the David Shrigley cover art.
David Shrigley’s recreation of Can’s Ege Bamyasi cover.
Only one of the seventeen records, cassettes and CDs/CDrs released beween 2013 and 2020 isn’t part of a limited edition. That is a CD of Malcolm Middleton’s and David Shrigley’s cooperation called Music + Words. However, the couple produced a limited edition LP (1000 copies) of the work with handmade cover featuring Malcolm Middleton’s hand print on one side and David Shrigley’s on the other (don’t ask me which is which.)
The cover art for the CD version of Music + Words.
The limited edition LP version of Music + Words.
David Shrigley has cooperated with Scottish guitarist and producer Iain Shaw on several releases. The first was a limited edition cassette called Awesome on which Shaw provided music to Shrigley’s lyrics. There is also a limitd edition CDr of the recording.
The limited edition Awesome cassette (left) and CDr (right)
And in 2016 the pair released another collaboration called Listening to Slayer. This was released on a limited seven-inch EP, a limited edition cassette and a limited edition CDr.
Listening to Slayer, limited edition CDr.
Iain Shaw originated in Stornoway, Scotland, and currently lives in Glasgow. He has adopted the alias Lord Stornoway and used this name in his latest collaboration with David Shrigley — an album entitled Don’t Worry that was released in conjunction with Shrigley’s exhibition at the BQ Gallery in Berlin and pressed on luscious pink vinyl. Shrigley also produced a limited edition seven-inch single for the gallery called I Am an Actor.
Lord Stornoway and David Shrigley’s LP Don’t Worry.
David Shrigley’s limited 7-inch single I Am an Actor released by the BQ Gallery in Berlin.
Finally, there is a limited edition cassette single by Daphne and Celeste called A.L.T.O. with cover art by David Shrigley.
The A.L.T.O. cassette released by Balatonic Records in 2020.
I also have a couple of promo CD-Rs of the Don’t Worry album and a couple of singles from the Listening to Slayer EP.
There is a limited edition book with an LP called Goat Music that I still haven’t been able to get, but hopefully that will turn up soon.
The cover of the Goat Music book/LP.
David Shrigley’ is very popular and his paintings, sculptures and posters are becoming highly collectible and consequently expensive. However, he is — as he has admitted — obsessed by records and these are relatively inexpensive at the moment, though many of the limited editions are already very difficult to find. Perhaps this collection of Shrigley’s record, cassette and CD art might turn out to be a sound investment.
Collecting David Shrigley’s record cover art has proved much easier than I had thought it would be. My main research engines have been Ebay and Discogs plus some targeted Internet searches. In my last post on Shrigley’s record cover art I said I had identified twenty-one records. CDs and cassettes with his art. I have been working hard since then and my tally is now up to forty-two records, tapes and CDs/CDrs plus three items that are not strictly records/record covers. These last include David Shrigley’s limited edition I Am Deep in Thought print included with David Grubbs 2003 Cosmic Structure LP, Shrigley’s 2005 book Worried Noodles: The Empty Cover and his I Collect Records Records Frisbee. The frisbee was created in 2014 after David Shrigley’s Life and Life Drawing exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia. Despite these not being true record covers I decided to include them in my Shrigley collection.
David Grubbs’ Cosmic Structure LP With David Shrigley’s “I Am Deep in Thought” print.
David Shrigley’s book “Worried Noodles: The Empty Cover” contains a record inner sleeve with an LP printed on it, but no record inside:
David Shrigley’s “I Collect records” frisbee.
Many, if not the majority, of David Shrigley’s record, CD and cassette covers are limited editions. These are often produced by museums or art galleries in conjunction with exhibitions of Shrigley’s art. However, the first three releases that I have been able to identify (from 2002-3) are two CDs by the Scottish band Ballboy — A Guide for the Daylight Hours and The Sash My Father Wore And Other Stories and the cover for Blur’s Good Song DVD (the only release from Blur’s Think Tank album that had cover art by someone other than Banksy.
Two Ballboy CDs and the Blur DVD single.
In 2005 Shrigley allowed the group The Singing Adams to use his Untitled (Wild Animal) print design on the cover of their 2004 CD Problems.
The Singing Adams “Problems” CD.
Shrigley’s next release was a limited edition LP (500 copies) entitled Forced to Speak With Others which was also released on CD.
Forced to Speak With Others LP cover.
And this was followed by a very limited seven-inch single called Ding Dong released in connection with David Shrigley’s exhibition at the Dundee Contemporary Art museum in 2006. Side one has the “ding” sound of a doorbell and side two the “dong” sound.
The front cover of Shrigley’s Ding Dong single.
Two other seven-inch singles appeared in 2006; A split single with Belle & Sebastian’s Casaco Marron (Latenitetales) coupled with David Shrigley’s When I was a Little Girl, and a picture disc The Perfect Me by the American band Deerhoof. Designer and record cover artist Jan Lankisch who was working at Tomlab records introduced David to Deerhoof and he designed this single and agreed to make the cover for Deerhoof’s forthcoming Friend Opportunity album as well as a further picture disc single Matchbook Seeks Maniac (Dedication Mix) / MaKko Shobu.
The Friend Opportunity album contained twelve alternative cover designs produced by David Shrigley.
The twelve alternative covers included in the “Friend Opportunity” LP.
There would be three more releases in 2007. Malcolm Middleton, a member of Arab Strap (among other constellations) recorded his A Brighter Beat album released on both LP and CD. The CD came in a standard issue and a limited edition. All three had cover art by Shrigley.
Cover art for A Brighter Beat: Left the LP and standard CD cover, at right the limited edition CD.
The final release of 2007 was by R. Stevie Moore a prolific American musician/guitarist who put music to poems from Shrigley’s Worried Noodles book and released a cassette and CDr of these tracks called Shrigley Field. The CD was released in a limited edition of 20 numbered copies signed by David Shrigley.
I suspect that this cover is R. Stevie Moore’s rendition of David Shrigley’s portrait of Moore that appeared in BOMB magazine (No 101, July 13, 2010).
I shall continue the story of David Shrigley’s record cover art in the next post.
We had been planning a revamp of our wardrobes almost from the moment we moved into out current abode seven years ago. Finally, last spring, we finally decided that we should get on with it. This involved moving a wall to enlarge our closet so that we could fit wardobes and cupboards on both sides. I planned for three metres of shelf space to house my record and CD collection. Unfortunately, there was no way to fit the three metres horizontally, so I had to arrange them vertically. And in mid-October everything was complete and I could fetch a crate of records from our storeroom in the cellar and arrange them om the new shelves.
My collection of Andy Warhol record covers was returned from the exhibition at Moderna Museet in Malmö at the same time and I could unpack the records and shelve them somewhat haphazardly until I had time to sort them properly. Almost simultaneously my collection of Banksy record and CD covers was dispatched to Genoa for the “Il Secondo Principio di un artista chiamatio Banksy” exhibition there.
Over the past weeks I have sorted the records and CDs according to designers–a shelf for Peter Blake’s record covers, two for Andy Warhol covers, spaces for Damien Hirst’s and Klaus Voormann’s covers and separate shelves for CDs (where all artists’ covers are collected together for the first time).
The three missing Warhol covers.
But as I began sorting the covers returned from the Warhol 1968 exhibition in Malmö I couldn’t find three covers that I knew had been returned but just didn’t seem to be among all the others. Two were irreplaceable–Paul Anka’s The Painter album signed by both Anka and Andy Warhol and Ultra Violet by Superstar Ultra Violet. The third album was the US promo of John Cale’s The Academy in Peril, which isn’t too hard to find. I was desperate. I could buy a new copy of the John Cale album but I wouldn’t be able to afford new copies of the Ultra Violet and Paul Anka covers, even if they were available.
I spent three days going through every cover looking for these three. I took all the covers out looking for them, even opening gatefold sleeves to see if they had slipped inside but to no avail. I really thought the covers were lost. Had I really got them back from Malmö? I was about to contact Moderna Museet when I remembered that I had checked the returned covers by clipping the album title out from the delivery list accompanying the delivery and slipped each clipping into each respective record’s plastic protective sleeve (you can see the little strips in each cover in the photo). So, obviously I had received the records–so where were they? I spent the third night worrying and slept badly. On the fourth day I decided I’d go through the shelves for a final time.I started at the top and removed box sets and opened them to see if I had unconsciously put the records in them. They weren’t there, of course, but I did find some singles/EPs that I thought I had lost when I sold the major part of my record collection nearly six years ago–among them three German-pressed Count Basie EPs with Andy Warhol’s Basie portrait on the covers and two rare promotional CDs for the Hours’ Ali in the Jungle in a silver-covered booklet.
The three Count Basie EPs I had considered lost.
The front and rear covers of The Hours’ promo booklet for Ali in the Jungle.
Miguel Bosé’s singles with Warhol cover art.
And, in addition, I found some other singles with Warhol cover art–The Silver Apples (Fractal Flow / Lovefingers), Jeanne Moreau & Günther Kaufmann (Each Man Kills the Things He Loves) and the seven inch EP box of Hugo Winterhalter’s recording of Rhapsody in Blue / Grand Canyon Suite. I am very pleased to be able to reintroduce these “lost” items into my collection.
I went through all seven shelves of records starting at the top, took out all the CDs sifted through a pile of singles and when I finally reached the bottom shelf, I found the three missing Warhol albums together right at the start of the covers lined up there. It was as if someone had removed them knowing I would be sorting the collection and then taken pity on me seeing my misery and carefully replaced them! Had they been there previously I would have found them. I mean I took every record out several times. Poltergeist? Someone or something from “the other side”? Any other explanaiton?
Anyway, having found the missing LPs–and a load more stuff I thought I’d lost–I can at last store my records where I can find them and have everything in order.
Have you sold your prized collection? Books? Records? China elephants? Anything?
Six years ago I sold my record collection. I used to say it was a life’s work, a library of great music, mainly mainstream rock but with loads of indie, classical, some jazz and some weird stuff that just seemed to appeal. Packed into sixty boxes standing in the middle of the room I wondered if I had been sick to have accumulated all this “stuff”. My wife and I moved from our house where I had a music room to house my music collection of 5000 plus records and CDs (probably more than 4000 vinyl records.) When we moved the records and memorabilia (posters, displays, and other music-related things) went into storage for a time. I would have a fifteen minute walk from home to the storage rooms in a converted garage under a block of flats. I would make the trek perhaps once a month to root around in the boxes. Almost every record I pulled out held an association. But who could I tell the stories to when I was alone in that sterile environment, unable to play the record or sit and contemplate the cover art. In addition the storage was expensive and the cost was not offset by any pleasure so I decided to sell the majority of the records.
I had lots of valuable records–a fully autographed copy of “Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You” on the red Parlophone label that I always said would be my old age pension, and both stereo AND mono copies of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me” LP with the original black and gold Parlophone labels. I also had hundreds of autographed albums by artists such as Björk, Oasis, The Ramones, The White Stripes, and quite a few rare promotional records. I offered friends a chance to buy some of these before I sold the remainder of the collection.
Then one May day in 2013 I sold the lot: records, posters and memorabilia. All collected and driven away from the storage units I had been renting. All I had to do was sweep them out and terminate my contract. I was strangely unmoved after everything had gone.
However, to be honest, it wasn’t true that EVERYTHING had gone–I kept my collections of record cover art by Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Banksy, Klaus Voormann and Damien Hirst. So there was still a collection or sorts, though dramatically downsized.
A month or so ago I read of a book that I felt I had to read. Dave Haslam, journalist, author, and ex DJ, at Manchester’s Hacienda Club and other places has written “A Life in Thirty-Five Boxes”, subtitled “How I Survived Selling My Record Collection”.* Well, having sold my own record collection, I obviously had to read it.
Dave Haslam: A Life in Thirty-Five Boxes.
The book opens with a general discussion about collecting and the (subtle) difference between collecting and hoarding. Haslam suggests that orderly storage and possibly cataloguing mark the collector, while hoarders just, well, hoard. He also suggests that there is another category of collector–a person who can’t, or doesn’t, throw things away. So someone who has shelves of books might be called a collector despite there never having been a conscious idea to collect. Haslam illustrates the idea of a record collector by describing a number of collectors. One collects José Feliciano records, others are DJs, three women DJs/collectors are mentioned an a major section of the book is devoted to a French colelctor of jazz records. Collectors can be categorised into “completists”, those searching for a particular record, music style, record label or any other aspect of recorded music. He insists that it is a love of music that underlies the collecting.
Haslam had accumulated 4,500 records in his 40-year career as a DJ. He decided to sell them in September 2015. Why did he eventually decide to sell? He asks the question towards the end of the book–answering it by saying that he’d stopped using vinyl records when DJ-ing, preferring self-recorded CDs as he’d had “incidents” affecting some records while he was DJ-ing. However, I don’t really buy this explanation. He mentions that his marriage “had hit a difficult phase and I felt isolated”. He does say, though, that he was unsure of the real reason for selling his records. He states “you can drift apart from someone and never quite work out why”. But he doesn’t say this was the reason for selling, though he used the money earned from the sale for an “extended stay in Paris”. The inference is that he went alone–divorced?
Haslam denies any post-sale depression, he rather felt unburdened. He had come to regard the records as “baggage from the past”. He says the “letting go was also exhilarating. I realised I wasn’t just surviving selling my records collection; I was surviving by selling my record collection”! He kept his books and memorabilia, so he wasn’t totally “unburdened”.
So, does “A Life in Thirty-Five Boxes” explain anything about me? It tells me that collecting is a common human endeavour and that there are many ways to collect records. I sold my collection as I didn’t have anywhere to store it and for purely financial reasons. I needed the money to help buy a flat. I didn’t feel depressed or lonely, nor was I exhilarated by ridding myself of a lifetime’s collection. Like Dave Haslam I kept a small part of the collection, which gives me joy to this day.
*Dave Haslam,. A Life in Thirty-Five Boxes: How I Survived Selling My Record Collection. Manchester, U.k., Confingo Publishing. 2019. pp53.
As anyone knows who has been following my blog, I’ve been collecting record covers by Sir Peter Blake for a long time. I’ve also been to numerous gallery shows and museum exhibition of Peter Blake’s art. I also have a number of exhibition catalogues from a various Peter Blake exhibitions. In addition I have several books on record cover art and one by graphic designer Richard Evans–who I guess is a Peter Blake fan too.
Richard Evans (born 30th March 1945 (as he states on his web page the same day as Eric Clapton) is a graphic designer, artist and photographer who has designed record covers for a great many artists including Robert Plant, Van Morrison, World Party, Pete Townsend and has been “official” designer to The Who since the mid 1970s.
Richard Evans published his book “The Art of the Record Cover” in 2010 and it is a chronological guide to record cover design and includes, at the end, a section on how to design one’s own record cover.
Richard Evans – The Art of the Record Cover–A History and How to.
One of Richard Evans’s covers for a 1985 compilation album by The Who called “Who’s Missing” features tracks not previously available on LP and the cover–to another fan of Peter Blake’s art–seems inspired by Blake’s 1960-1 painting/collage “Got a Girl” (the title comes from a 1960 single by The Four Preps (Capitol 4362)).
Peter Blake — “Got a Girl” 1960-61.
Richard Evans’s cover for The Who’s “Who’s Missing”.
This album was only released in America and I have been looking for a copy to keep beside my Peter Blake covers for several years, and I finally found one in my favourite Stockholm record emporium.
I have already posted the several versions of “The Velvet Underground & Nico” album. I have fallen for the temptation to include albums with cover art that is a pastiche of Warhol’s banana design or designs that influenced Warhol’s designs.
I found six pastiches of the banana cover, including several with removable stickers in various designs.
1. Crue-L Grand Orchestra – Family – 12″ EP – MayDay MayDay Records – 1999.
2. Various Artists – The Velvet Underground & Nico – 12″ LP – Castle Face Records – 2012.
3. Fauré Quartet – Popsongs – 2 x 12″ LP – Deutsche Grammophon – 2009.
4. Bud Benderbe – Slice Slowly & See – 12″ LP – Boo-Hooray Records – 2013.
5. Abwärts – Sonderzug zur endstation – 7″ EP – Virgin – 1990.
6. All You Can Eat / Hickey – Banana Split – Split 7″ EP – Monitor Records – 1995.
The last two of these simply had a printed banana on the covers.
The Cru-el Grand Orchestra’s 12″ single “Family” with its obviously Warhol-inspired banana ice lolly.
Castle Face & Friends play the Velvet Underground & Nico album with David Shrigley’s cover art.
Bud Benderbe’s cover album.
Abwärts “Sonderzug zur endstation” 7″ single.
Another Warhol pastiche, this time with soup cans:
1. Mindswings – Spiritual High – 12″ EP – Arista – 1990.
Mindswings “Spiritual High” 12″ EP.
And a cover obviously used by Andy as for the design of the “Progressive Piano” design:
1. Jan August – Plays Songs to Remember – 12″ LP – Mercury – 1955.
Jan August “Plays Songs to Remember” LP cover.
On the subject of pastiches, I also picked up a wonderful “Sgt Pepper” pastiche by Jun Fukamachi with cover painted by Fumio Tamabuchi:
1. Jun Fukamachi – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 12″ LP – Toshiba – 1977.
The cover of Jun Fukamachi’s “Sgt. Pepper” album painted by Fumio Tamabuchi.
A while ago I started searching for musicians among winners of the Tate Gallery’s Turner Prize and turned up an astonishing number of artists who were also musicians and had released records with their own art on the covers. In 2017 I could include record cover by two of them–Suzan Philipsz and Wolfgang Tillmans.
Susan Philipsz: Susan Philipsz – Ziggy Stardust – Limited edition Digipak CD (500 copies) Susan Philipsz – Stay With Me – Book / catalogue with CD Susan Philipsz – Lost in Space – Limited edition picture disc LP in box set (300 copies) Susan Philipsz – There Is Nothing Left Here – Limited edition LP
In February I had the good fortune to meet Susan Philipsz at the opening of her “Lost in Space” exhibition at the Bonnier Gallery in Stockholm. She kindly signed the copy of her “Ziggy Stardust” CD and the book/catalogue from her “Stay With Me” exhibition from Malmö’s Konsthall. There was a catalogue introducing the “Lost in Space” exhibition and a limited edition box set of 300 copies that includes a 12″ picture disc of the performance. However, the box set was not available until a couple of months after the opening, so I didn’t get that signed… After considerable searching, I found the catalogue and LP from Philipsz’s 2008 “There Is Nothing Left Here” exhibition at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporaneo in San Sebastian de Compostela.
Susan Philipsz’ “Ziggy Stardust” CD autographed by her.
Susan Philipsz “Stay With Me” exhibition catalogue with CD.
Susan Philipsz’ “There Is Nothing Left Here” 2008 LP.
The picture disc LP and book of Susan Philipsz’ “Lost in Space” installation.
Wolfgang Tillmans was another Turner Prize winner who’s records I found:
1. Wolfgang Tillmans – Here We Are – 12″ EP – Fragile – 2016.
2. Wolfgang Tillmans – 2016–1986 EP – 12″ EP – Fragile – 2016.
3. Wolfgang Tillmans – Device Control – 12″ EP – Fragile – 2016.
The cover of Tillmans’ latest EP “Thats Desire” EP.
Tillmans’ “Device Control” EP cover.
Wolfgang Tillmans’ “2016-19862 EP cover.
There were diverse other covers: A limited edition LP by Gilbert & George, entitled “The Thoughts of Gilbert & George” released by MoMa:
“The Thoughts of Gilbert & George” LP cover.
A Record Store Day soundtrack double LP release called “Ciao! Manhattan” with a cover drawing of Edie Sedgwick:
Soundtrack LP “Edie Sedgwick: Ciao! Manhattan” has the same image as The Cult’s single “Ciao Edie”.
Having lived in Luleå, in the north of Sweden for more years than I can remember, I am acquainted with Karin “Mamma” Andersson’s art. Mattias Alkberg, poet and rocker, used her art on a 7″ single and a limite edition 12″ EP and I discovered that Beck had used her paintings to illustrate three limited edition 12″ singles, available only through his website.
1. Beck – Gimme – 2 x 12″ EP – Fonograf records – 2013.
1. Beck – Defriended – 12″ EP – Fonograf records – 2013.
1. Beck – I Won’t Be Long – 12″ EP – Fonograf records – 2013.
Beck “Gimme”. Cover art by Karin “Mamma” Andersson.
Beck “Defriended”. Cover art by Karin “Mamma” Andersson.
Beck “I Won’t Be Long”. Cover art by Karin “Mamma” Andersson.
In my music festival days, I got to know singer Henrik Berggren, formerly front man of the now defunct Broder Daniel. Henrik released his first solo album “Wolf’s Heart” after many year’s absence from the music scene. The standard album was released on black vinyl, but six record stores each had limited editions of 300 copies on coloured vinyl. There were yellow, light blue, violet, red, clear and pink vinyl issues. Being totally obsessive I bought copies in each colour.
Henrik Berggren’s “Wolf’s Heart” album on black, violet, red and yellow vinyl.
The pink and light blue vinyl versions of Henrik Berggren’s “Wolf’s Heart” LP.
Well, that sums 2017 up. A record year and the last time I will be publishing a list like this, My collections are so near complete as I can make them. So I feel it’s time to stop. I will try to keep the collections up to date if, and when, any of the artists I collect release new cover art.
I don’t suppose I’ll ever again be able to add as many covers to my collection as I did in 2017–partly because most of my collections are complete or very nearly so.
I added a few new areas of collection during 2016 and added new covers in these in 2017. I managed to find several new covers featuring Kate Moss and some Banksy covers. It was the 50th Anniversary of many important albums. I have already written about “The Velvet Underground & Nico” reissues. 2017 was also the 50th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and there was a magnificent box set released to mark the occasion. I also found an interesting pastiche of the Blake / Haworth cover art by Jun Fukamachi. And, while on the subject of pastiches I collected several “Velvet Undergound & Nico” pastiches, too.
So, here’s a list of covers by other artists that came into my collection in 2017: BANKSY: Capoeira Twins – Four (4 x 3) / Truth Will Out” – Promotional 12″ single with hand sprayed cover. Boys in Blue – Funk Tha Police” – 12″ limited edition single. Skitz – Badmeaningood, Vol 1 – Digipak CD. Roots Manuva – Badmeaningood, Vol 2 – Digipak CD. Peanut Butter Wolf – Badmeaningood, Vol 3 – Digipak CD. Scratch Perverts – Badmeaningood, Vol 4 – Digipak CD. Monk & Canatella – Do Community Service – CD.
PETER BLAKE The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 50th anniversary box set. The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (outtakes) – Bootleg gatefold LP The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Japanese origami stage set.
Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Pastiche Jun Fukamachi – The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 12″ LP.
Gilbert & George. Gilbert & George – The Thoughts of Gilbert & George – Limited edition 12″ LP.
Karin “Mamma” Andersson: Beck – I Won’t Be Long – 12″ single. Beck – Defriended – 12″ single. Beck – Gimme” – Double 12″ single.
Kate Moss: 6majik9 – Kate Moss – Hand painted CD cover. Babyshambles – Shotter’s Nation – 2×12″ LP. Bryan Ferry – Alphaville / Me Oh My – Limited edition 12″ single. Bryan Ferry – You Can Dance – Limited edition 12″ single. Bryan Ferry – Alphaville (Remixes) – Limited edition 12″ single. Bryan Ferry – Olympia – Limited edition, autographed, 2 CD + DVD and book. Bryan Ferry – Olympia Remixes – Digital file. Bryan Ferry – Heartache by Numbers – Promotional CD single. Primal Scream & Kate Moss – Some Velvet Morning – 12″ maxi single. Primal Scream & Kate Moss – Some Velvet Morning (Luke Fair Remix) – 12″ single. Vomit – Kate Moss – 7″ EP.
BANKSY:
I had an almost complete collection of covers on both vinyl and CD with Banksy art and was just missing the elusive Capoeira Twins’ “Four (4 x 3) / Truth Will Out” promotional single with the hand sprayed cover. None (apart from a couple sold by art galleries) seemed to have been sold for several years but suddenly there appeared a spate of them on Ebay in the latter half of 2017. I managed to get one of them, though unfortunately not the cheapest. And just as I was congratulating myself on completing my collection, a new Banksy cover appeared by a band I have never heard of called Boys in Blue. This was said to be a limited edition of 100 copies featuring Banksy’s “Rude Copper” on the cover. I snapped up a couple of copies!
“Four (4 x 3)” by the Capoiera Twins (BLOWP008).
The cover of the Boys in Blue’s 12″ single “Funk tha Police”.
I also added some CDs–the four “Badmeaningood” series in Digipak covers and a second copy of Monk & Canatella’s “Do Community Service” that came in a batch of 23 CDs that I bought for £3 plus £7 shipping!
PETER BLAKE:
2017 was not a good year for Peter Blake’s record cover art as no new covers appeared. It was partially saved by the 50th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and Apple released a generous 4CD box set with a hardcover book and posters to celebrate. The box had a lenticuar reproduction of the original Blake / Haworth cover art. Though initially I thought I didn’t need this in my collection, I finally succumbed and bought a copy only to be pleased to find that each CD had a different version of the original cover art photo session.
The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” 50th anniversary box set.
The Japanese version of the 50th anniversary box set included an insert which the handier collectors could cut out and assemble into a montage of the Pepper band in a stage-like frame. I found one of these cut outs at a record fair and could buy it to add to my UK box set.
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – Pastiche:
The Japanese composer Jun Fukamachi released an album called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1977. The cover was painted by Fumio Tamabuchi showed the Pepper scene with backs turned to the viewer.
The cover of Jun Fukamachi’s “Sgt. Pepper” album painted by Fumio Tamabuchi.
Additions to my collection of covers featuring Kate Moss:
As I already had covers by Damien Hirst and Banksy that featured Kate Moss I thought it would be fun to collect all the covers I could find that she appeared on. I turned up ten more in 2017:
The most interesting were the limited edition 12″ Bryan Ferry singles released by The Vinyl Factory in 2010-2011 with tracks taken from Ferry’s 2010 “Olympia” album. There were seven singles released from “Olympia” but only six made it onto Vinyl Factory 12″-ers. “Heartache By Numbers” was the exception and apparently only released as a promotional CD single in The Netherlands.
There was a hand painted CD entlitled “Kate Moss” by the band 6majik9 that was only made in an edition of 100 copies that I was luck to find on Discogs:
2007 6majik9 “Kate Moss” CD-r with handmade cover. Music Your Mind Will Love You.
And a 7″ EP by the American grunge/punk band Vomit also called “Kate Moss” that had a fold-out sleeve with about thirteen Kate Mosses all told.
The gatefold cover of Vomit’s 7″ single Kate Moss with at least thirteen portraits of Kate.
Kate Moss was for a while involved with Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty and she appeared on a few of the band’s tracks. Sje appears in person on the cover of the Band’s “Shotter’s Nation” album:
Kate was also in a duet with Primal Scream on the classic Lee Hazlewood song “Some Velvet Morning” and this was released as a 12″ single and a Luke Fair remix was also released in a black dye-cut sleeve. Some copies, however, had photos of Kate taken by Kate Garner in 1992.
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.
So, quite a number of interesting additions thus far.
2017 was one of my best for I don’t know how long–probably since the mid 2000s when I really started to seriously collect Andy Warhol’s record cover art and it saw the 50th Anniversary of the release of many albums that helped form my musical tastes, including “The Velvet Underground & Nico”–an album I still listen to as often as I do to The Who’s “Who’s Next” or Led Zepellin “II” or “Electric Ladyland”.
There were 16 separate titles added to my Warhol cover collection in 2017: Miguel Bosé – Made in Spain promotional folder – LP, 12″ and 7″ singles + booklet Latin Rhythms by The Boston Pops – 7″ single. Aretha Franklin – Aretha – Original CD from 1986. I’m Talking – Lead the Way – 7″ and 12″ singles. Moondog – The Story of Moon Dog – Original Prestige LP. Sergei Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky – Two copies: Original 1949 turquoise cover and re-issue green cover. Rolling Stones – Live in Laxington – Bootleg LP. Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers (outtakes) with David Mongomery’s photo. Diana Ross – So Close – 7″ single in calendar cover. Diana Ross – Who – 7″ single. Skyline – Skyline – 12″ bootleg EP – Original on Four Stars Records label. Skyline – Skyline – 12″ bootleg EP – 2016 Reissue on Paint Noise Productions label. Velvet Underground & Nico – 12″ LP with artist’s name and record title on cover. Velvet Underground & Nico – 50th Anniversary black vinyl LP (2 copies) Velvet Underground & Nico – 50th Anniversary pink vinyl LP John Wallowitch – This Is the Other Side of John Wallowitch – 12″ LP
Perhaps the most important additions to my Warhol cover collection were the Moondog and John Wallowitch albums, particularly as most copies of the former that I have seen come up for sale have been badly yellowed or in otherwise poor condition. My copy is superbly near mint! John Wallowitch’s second album on the Serenus Records label is considerably rarer than his first and I was lucky to find a good copy.
The Story of Moondog with calligraphy by Julia Warhola.
The cover of “This Is the Other Side of John Wallowitch”.
The find that probably excited me most, however, was the Spanish promotional package for Miguel Bosé’s 1983 “Made in Spain” album, which came in a maroon folder and should have included the full album the 12″ and 7″ white label versions of the “Fuego” single as well as a booklet with a fold out poster of Warhol’s cover portrait of Bosé. Mt copy of the package, though, didn’t include the two singles, but they were relatively easy to findon Discogs, so I could completee the package.
The “Made In Spain” promotional folder.
The complete set, including the booklet, which contains a fold-out poster of Warhol’s Bosé portraits.
The “Made In Spain” promotional folder showing the “Made In Spain” LP, the white label 12″ and 7″ Fuego singles.”
Two “new” Warhol covers were discovered in 2017 . Warhol collector Kevin Kinney found the “Lead the Way” single by Australian group I’m Talking, which used a detail from Warhol’s “Marilyn’s Lips” print as its cover art. The single was released as a 7″ single and as a limited edition 12″.
I’m Talking’s “Lead the Way” 7″ single cover.
I found the second “new” Warhol cover in the catalogue of the “Adman – Warhol Before Pop” exhibition held in Melbourne in 2016. The catalogue had a picture of a print that I immediately recognised as a slick for a box set of 7″ EPs similar to the “Night Beat” set. I immediately set about making a replica box similar to the one I made for the “Night Beat” set.
The “Night BEat” and “Voices and Events” box sets.
The “Night Beat” and “Voices and Events” box sets.
Another cover I had had trouble finding was the “Skyline” album with the portrait of Suzanne de Maria taken from one of Warhol’s screen tests. Early in the year I saw a copy on Ebay which I managed to win only to find that it wasn’t the 1978 original but a 180g reissue, supposedly limited to fifty copies that included a photo of Suzanne de Maria numbered 49/50. The record was released on the Paint Noise Productions label, not the Four Stars label and the rear cover stated that the cover photo was by “A. Warhol”, the original 1978 album did not have this credit. Later I got hold of a copy of the original 1978 version and a comparison showed the cover photos to be very different. The original version had a clear picture of de Maria, while the reissue was fuzzy.
The cover of the original 1978 version of “Skyline”.
The cover of the 2016 reissue version.
The covers are almost two separate versions of the image.
And as if the Skyline albums weren’t nerdy enough, there were a couple of even nerdier additions to my collection: The original cover for “Latin Rhythms by The Boston Pops” EP as well as a second copy of Warhol’s design–one that without the A Hi-Fidelity Recording” text under the RCA logo on the front cover.
The original cover design which came in various colour variations.
I have reserved the final section to the 50th Anniversary reissues of “The Velvet Underground & Nico” album. I already had the 45th Anniversary LP and 6 CD sets and wondered when they came out why Universal Music had released them with the 50th anniversary so near. Obviously, to sell more copies–so I wasn’t too surprised to read that they would also release 50th Anniversary versions, too. I heard that there eas a very limited pink vinyl version as well as the standard the black vinyl version. I found two copies of the latter at HMV on Oxford Street but they had never heard of the pink vinyl version. It took a while to find a copy but that was added to my collection.
I had also decided to collect other cover designs for the album and bought an eighties reissue with the artist and title on the front cover to add to my collection as well as a bootleg of the Norman Dolph Scepter Studios acetate
The latest bootleg version of The Velvet Underground & Nico’s Norman Dolph acetate superimposed the classic banana image over a photo from the 1966 film of the Velvets in concert.
I hope 2018 will allow me to find copies of the only two LPs with Warhol covers that I still need to complete my collection:
Keith Richards’s – Unknown Dreams – LP with Warhol’s Mercedes drawing,
Prokofiev’s – Alexander Nevsky – LP wit the pink variation of the cover.
In following posts I will list additions to my other collections: Banksy covers, Kate Moss covers, and newer collections including Karin “Mamma” Anderson, Suzan Philipsz, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Koons, Klaus Voormann and Peter Blake as well as pastiches of “The VelvetUnderground & Nico” and “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” covers.
Wishing you a very Happy and successful 2018. See you next time!
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