Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been researching and writing a book on Peter Blake’s record cover art. In the course of that research I have been following the story of Blake’s most recent cover design — the watercolour of a toy monkey with miniature cymbals that adorns Hot Chip’s 2025 album “Joy in Repetition.”
Joy in Repetition with Peter Blake’s watercolour painting.
The album’s title comes from “Over and Over,” a song by Prince, and so does the imagery. In a recent podcast interview with Bill Pearis of Brooklyn Vegan, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor explained how the commission came about: “He was immediately up for it and happened to own a toy monkey with miniature cymbals that he had had for years. We just thought, why not try a watercolor of that little monkey? It worked out well. It was fortuitous, but one of those things where it’s worth asking.”
Pearis noted that Taylor, who is friends with Blake’s daughter, “just decided he’d ask.” But which daughter? Blake has three: Liberty (born 1968) and Daisy (born around 1970), both daughters of his first marriage to the artist Jann Haworth; and Rose (born 1987), his daughter with his second wife, the artist Chrissy Wilson.
A little detective work reveals the answer. Rose Blake is herself an established illustrator and artist, based in London, who studied at Kingston University and the Royal College of Art. She has exhibited at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery and has completed commissions for publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Her work, she says, reflects growing up in the art world — which means, of course, growing up in Peter Blake’s world.
The connection between Rose and Alexis Taylor is documented in a transcript of a sold-out event at Spiritland in London in October 2024, where Rose hosted Taylor and Jarvis Cocker in conversation. In her introduction, Rose described meeting Alexis for the first time in the Arctic Circle, at the northernmost point of Norway, adding that she had known his music long before they met: Hot Chip’s “In Our Heads” was one of the albums she and her studio mates listened to every day for years.
So the story of how “Joy in Repetition” came to carry a Peter Blake watercolour is, at its heart, a story about two creative Londoners — the daughter of Britain’s greatest pop artist and one of Britain’s finest pop musicians — who became friends, and one of whom thought it worth asking a question. It is a reminder that in Blake’s world, as throughout his career, the connection between art and popular music has always been personal.
As a footnote, it is worth noting that “Joy in Repetition” is, by my count, Sir Peter Blake’s 38th record cover design — a remarkable testament to a career in music that has now spanned almost 58 years, from Sgt. Pepper’s in 1967 to this charming watercolour monkey in 2025. He is now in his 93rd year. Long may he continue.
Daniel Blumenthal – Gershwin / Grofé – Rhapsody in Blue / American in Paris / Piano Concerto in F (1983). Painting. Paris scene with portrait of Montgomery Clift.
Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1984, 1985). Collage.
David Sylvian – A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil (1986). Appropriated print. Religious iconography.
Ian Dury – Apples (1989) Painting apples.
Ian Dury — Apples / Byeline Brown (1989). Paintings. Apples.
The Fall – I’m Frank (1990). Appropriated painting (Nadia).
Eric Clapton – 24 Nights (1991) Peter Blake drawings.
Eric Clapton — Wonderful Tonight (1991). Drawings.
Paul Weller – Stanley Road (1995). Painting & collage. Portrait of Weller.
A Stranger Shadow – Colours (1995). Collage.
Various Artists – Brand New Boots and Panties (2001). Painting. Commissioned portrait.
Robbie Williams – Swing While You’re Winning (2001). Painting. Portrait of Williams. (Unused cover design.)
Brian Wilson – Gettin’ in Over My Head (2004). Collage. California street scene.
The Who – Live at Leeds 2 (2006). Limited edition print.
Various Artists – John Peel: Right Time, Wrong Speed 1977–1987 (2006). Painting. Commissioned portrait of Peel.
Eric Clapton – Me and Mr. Johnson (2006). Painting. Portrait of Clapton as Johnson.
Oasis – Stop the Clocks (3LP set, 2006) Blake’s blue wardrobe, dartboard and assorted items.
Champagne Supernova (2006). Collage / dartboard.
The Blockheads – Staring Down the Barrel (2006). Collage.
Brian Wilson & Peter Blake – That Lucky Old Sun (2009). Exclusive box set.*
Madness – Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da (2009). Handwriting and collage.
Paul Weller – Dragonfly (2009). Collage. Maritime scene.
Eric Clapton – I Still Do (2012). Painting. Portrait of Clapton.
Eric Clapton – Madison Square Garden (2012). Portrait of Clapton.
Eric Clapton – 70th Birthday Celebration (2012). Painting. Alternative portrait of Clapton.
John Cooper Clarke – The Luckiest Guy Alive (2018). Painting. Commissioned portrait of Clarke.
The Who – WHO (2021). Collage.
Eric Clapton – The Definitive 24 Nights (2023). Drawings.
Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes – Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) (2024). Collage — Version 1.
Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes – Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) (2024). Collage — Version 2.
Paul Weller – 66 (2024). Painting.
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).
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 1967
Pentangle – Sweet Child – 1968
Chris Jagger –The Adventures of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist – 1974
Roger McGough – Summer with Monika –1978
The Who – Face Dances – 1981
Landscape – Manhattan Boogie Woogie – 1982
Daniel Blumenthal – Gershwin / Grofé – Rhapsody in Blue / American in Paris / Piano Concerto in F – 1983
Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? – 1984
David Sylvain — A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil — 1986
Ian Dury – Apples and Apples / Byeline Brown – 1989
The Fall – I’m Frank –1990
Eric Clapton – 24 Nights and Wonderful Tonight – 1991
Paul Weller – Stanley Road – 1995
A Stranger Shadow – Colours – 1995
Various Artists — Brand new Boots and Panties – 2001
Robbie Williams – Swing While You’re Winning – 2001
Brian Wilson – Getting’ in Over My Head – 2004
The Who — Live at Leeds – 2006
Various Artists – John Peel: Right Time, Wrong Speed 197-1987 – 2006
Eric Clapton – Me and Mr. Johnson – 2006
Oasis – Stop the Clocks and Champagne Supernova – 2006
The Blockheads – Staring Down the Barrel – 2009
Brian Wilson & Peter Blake – That Lucky Old Sun – 2009
Ben Waters – Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute to Ian Stewart – 2011.
Madness — Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da — 2012
Paul Weller – Dragonfly — 2012
Eric Clapton — I Still Do — 2012
Eric Clapton Madison Square Garden — 2012
Eric Clapton 70th Birthday Celebration — 2012
John Cooper Clarke — The Luckiest Guy Alive — 2018
The Who – WHO — 2019
Eric Clapton — The Definitive 24 Nights — 2023
Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes — Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) — 2024
Paul Weller – 66 — 2024
Band Aid 40 — Do They Know It’s Christmas? — 2025
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.
Brian Donnely (born 4th November 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American artist and designer iiving in Brooklyn. Took the artist name KAWS purely because of the way the letters appeared while still a teenager. He moved to New York where he began his career s a graffiti artist. He has graduated to fine art, paintings, sculptures and prints including record cover art.
I got a email recently offering me the chance to pre-order a record with a KAWS designed cover and that gave me the idea to try to find as many KAWS covers as I could. Searching the webb I have thus far found seventeen cover designs, the earliest from 1999 and the most recent to be released in July 2025.
So, here we go.
Number 1.
The Propellerheads—Take California and Party–12″ single released on the Wall of Sound label in 1999.
Number 2.
Cherie—Cherie—CD released on the Ape Sounds label. Cherie is a Japanese moodel, singer aand songwriter. This is her second CD, released in 2002. Guy Minnebach pointed out the tiny text above Cherie’s mask that says ”Peel slorly and see.” Now where have we seen that before? Of course! Beside the banana on the cover of the Velvet Underground & Nico! So KAWS is here directly referencing Andy Warhol! You can peel off the mask to reveal Cherie’s face.
Number 3.
DJ Hasebe—Tail of Old Nick EP–Limited edition six-track 12″ EP released in 2002 on the Sweep Inc / WEA Japan labels. DJ Hasebe is a Japanese DJ, hip hop artist and producer born 1971. This EP has become rare and very expensive.
Number 4.
DJ Hasebe—Old Nick 2-track promotional sampler, released 2002 with an outline version of the KAWS figure on the label.
Number 5.
DJ Hasebe—Old Nick Radio Show–CD released in May 2002 by WEA Japan.
Number 6.
Towa Tei—Sweet Robots Against the Machine:–12″ released on the Rhjythm Republic label in 2003. Towa Tei is a producer, remixer, DJ, artist and creative director, born Yokohama, Japan, in 1964.
Number 7.
Various Artists compilation–Heavy Volume 2–Single-sided LP in abook with KAWS’ reimagination of various record covers.
Number 8.
Kanye West—808s & Heartbreak–2LP + CD–Rock-A-Fella Records, 2008. Kanye West, born 1977, probably needs no introduction, having being married to Kim Kardasian between 2014 and 2022. He currently uses the name Ye.
Number 9.
Clipse–Til the Casket Drops–12″ LP–Get on Down Records–2009. Clipse are a gangsta rap duo ade up of No Malice and Pusha T formed in 1992. This was their third album.
Number 10.
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The Scotts—The Scotts--7- and 12-inch singles with coloured vinyl or as picture discs. Released on Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack label. Travis Scott and Kid Cudi formed The Scotts in 2020 for this single release.
Number 11.
J-Hope—Jack in the Box–Single-sided 12″ LP–Released by Bighit Music in 2022. J-Hope, born in 1994 is a South Korean hip hop, rap and dance pop star.
Number 12.
Kid Cudi—Man on the Moon: Trilogy–Box Set 3 x reissue 2LPs–released by Republic Records in 2022. Kid Cudi, born 1984, is Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi and also uses the moniker Kud Cudi.
Number 13.
Snoop Dogg—Doggy Style–12″ LP. This is a 2023 reissue of the album originally released in 1993, released with reimagined cover art as part of Interscope Records 30th anniversary celebration.
Mumber 14.
Kid Cudi—Insano–2LP–Released 2024 by Republic Records.
Number 15.
Clipse–Let God Sort EM Out–LP–released July 2025 on the Interscope label. Clipse return after a sixteen-year hiatus with a new album. To my mind the finest KAWS cover design so far.
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