My romance with Andy Warhol’s art began when I saw the Andy Warhol exhibition at London’s Tate Gallery (now The Tate Britain) in 1971 and I bought the exhibition poster and catalogue. I’ve seen many exhibitions of Warhol’s art since. The fascinating thing about Andy Warhol’s art is that it covers so many fields. There are exhibitions of his commercial art, book illustrations, drawings, portraits, photographs films and probably other facets of his enormous production. And then – of course – there is his record cover art!

One, not so recent, exhibition “Supernova – Stars, Deaths and Disasters 1962-1964” was held at The Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, from  8th July to 22nd October 2006. The Exhibiton was co-curated by filmmaker David Cronenberg and The Art Gallery of Ontario’s David Moos and sponsored by RBC Dexia. Cronenberg narrated commentaries to many of the works on show and the commentaries were collected on an exhibition CD entitled “Cronenberg on Warhol“, produced in a limited edition of 500 copies that was sold at the exhibition and has long been out of print. The Art Gallery of Ontario published a lavish book (A4 size) to accompany the exhibition and the sponsors produced an exhibition pack for their guests comprising the book, the CD, the exhibition programme and two complementary entry passes all enclosed in a transparent plastic case.

Last year, Kevin Kinney discovered a copy of the CD on Ebay. It has Warhol’s Double Elvis on both front and rear cover and the use of the images was authorised by The Warhol Foundation. So this has to be regarded as a bona fide Warhol cover. I needed to find one, so I contacted The Art Gallery of Ontario to try to obtain another copy, only to be told that they sold out during the exhibition. So my search began and in February I had the good luck to find someone willing to sell the sponsor’s kit, complete with the book, CD, programme, entry passes and, most importantly, the CD still sealed with its obi intact.

Because of the weight of the kit, the seller opted to ship it surface mail, so it has taken six weeks to arrive. But it is in pristine condition and a worthy addition to my collection.

Record covers are art and several Ebay sellers specialise in selling records with cover art by famous artists. Thus one may find covers by such diverse artists as Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Raymond Pettibon, Salvador Dali and Keith Haring to name just a few for sale. What is irritating, however, is sellers who do not do their research. Just today, I saw a Rolling Stones picture disc LP advertised as with an Andy Warhol photograph. I recognised the photo as being by David Bailey and informed the seller, who – to his eternal credit – immediately changed his advert. Other, less scrupulous sellers do not pay any attention to comments correcting their adverts. One who I particularly dislike is Majestic Music and Art. This seller not only sells records that they purport to be with Andy Warhol covers that are not, but ignore corrections. Further, they have inflated prices; charging $99 for really quite common covers (at the time of writing they are offering The Dandy Warhols “Welcome to the Monkey House” LP for the exorbitant price of $150!) I feel sorry for those punters who fall for their adverts. I have been a victim of this particular seller. I bought a promo copy of The Rolling Stones “Love You Live” and the East Village Other LPs. These arrived poorly packed and quite badly damaged. Majestic Music and Art refused to discuss a return or compensation.

There are many people out there who are interested in, or collect, Andy Warhol’s record cover art. So many,it seems, that I think we should formally inaugurate a Warhol Record Cover Art Club.
Thanks to this blog and my list of Andy Warhol covers on http://www.rateyourmusic.com I have come in contact with many experts and, surprisingly (at least to me), I have been credited with a degree of specialist knowledge on the subect.
My Andy Warhol record cover collection started in 1967 at One Stop Records in South Moulton Strreet, London when I saw the American import LP “Velvet Undergound & Nico” and bought it for the princely sum of £3.15s. I had been to the Warhol exhibition at the Tate Gallery the previous year and really liked Warhol’s art. Although My copy was an early pressing it did not have the famous “Torso” cover. A couple of years later, my brother gave me a bunch of American LPs including “White Light/White Heat”. So, suddenly I had two Andy Warhol covers. Everyone knows that one item is just an item, but TWO items makes a collection. Other records with Andy Warhol cover art followed sporadically. I bought The Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” and “Love You Live” albums when they came out and I remember finding French re-issues of Kenny Burrell and Johnny Griffin Blue Note LPs. I was given Diana Ross’ LP as a Fathers’ Day present in 1982 and in the early 2000s started to search for other Warhol covers via the Internet. I found Ebay to be a great source of information and – in those days – early Warhol covers could still be bought cheaply. I started buying and selling covers and improving my collection only collecting items in good condition. Once into buying Warhol covers, I met up with Guy Minnebach, another collector, who helped me find several rare covers from sources outside Ebay.
When planning the “Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol!” exhibition in the spring of 2008, it felt obvious to enlist Guy’s help in providing the covers that I still did not have. I will never forget his generosity in sending me several very rare covers so that thery could be photographed for the exhibition! We had never met, only been in contact over the Internet. He trusted me! In exchange, I tipped him off about an original “Giant Size $1.57 Each” being auctioned in Japan.
On the subject of the “Giant Size $1.57 Each”; I had a limited edition of 10 made for the “Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol!” exhibition. Frank Edwards, another inspirational and knowledgeable Warhol collector has one of these (as well as the exhibition catalogue – which is in Swedish!). Another collector and detective is Kevin Kinney, who finds covers in seemingly unlikely places and must have a huge collection of cover variations.
Ken Halperin, a collector of many cover artists has given enormous help in identifying cover artists other than Warhol. A new acquaintance is Fredrik Lindberg, who is relatively new to collecting Warhol covers. I hope he gets his RATFAB soon!
I would like to take this opportunity to thanks all the people who have contributed to my collection or provided information and guidance over the years. It’s a project still developing. More covers will almost certainly come to light.
So, join the club!

My copy of “The Velvet Underground & Nico 45th Annivesary DeLuxe 6CD Set” arrived yesterday and it is really exciting. It has a peelable banana on the cover and includes both the stereo and mono versions of the original album, as well as the 1966 Scepter Studios version previously released under the title “Unripened”. Added to this is a remastered version of Nico’s 1967 album “Chelsea Girl” and a Velvet Underground live recording from November 1966. But what I really found exciting was the 80 page book with historical photos from the band’s early days. Great! The book alone is worth the $70 or so that the set cost.
Warholcovers has previously commented on several covers purported to have illustrations by Warhol that have been for sale on Ebay. These are usually early Columbia Records LPs with Alex Steinweiss’ colour blocks and line drawings by various artists, most prolific of whom was probably Darrill Connelly who worked with Steinweiss at Columbia in the late forties, before Steinweiss moved on. Such titles as “Salome” and probably the “Elijah” three record set that are often put up for sale as being Warhol covers are by Connelly. I would also guess that the Debussy “French Song Recital” by Jennie Tourell and the Prokofiev/Respigi “Scythian Suite/Feste Romane” are also Connelly’s work – they definitely are not by Warhol.
The only genuine Columbia Warhol LP covers seem to be the Carlos Chavez “A Program of Mexican Music” and Prokofiev*s “Alexander Nevsky”. “The Nation’s Nightmare” – a classic Warhol cover – was released by Columbia Special Products, so qualifies as an early Columbia LP with Warhol art.
More covers are being suggested to be Warhol designs. Among the latest is The Darling Buds’ single “It’s All Up to You” released on both 7 and 12 inch vinyl with what looks like a variation of  Warhol’s “Flowers” design – but without the grassy background. There is an acknowledgement to Warhol’s Flowers on the rear sleeve. So I’d class this as heavily influenced by Andy Warhol, but not a true Warhol cover.

The past few days have seen several additions to my collection of Warhol covers.

I have constructed a mock-up of the “Progressive Piano” cover – the Warhol illustration that was never released, as a single 7 inch EP. However, I suspect that it was probably intended to be a double, gatefold EP, much like the Artie Shaw “Both Feet in the Groove” EP set, as there are eight titles on the cover and 7 inch EPs usually only include four tracks. I have used the standard RCA back cover. Perhaps I may get round to making a gatefold double pack one day.

Thanks to Frank “warholcovers” Edwards who tipped me off to the fact that Swedish punk band Enola Gay’s 1981 single “Döda djur / Storstad” (tranlsates to Dead animals / Big city), which uses Andy Warhol’s Bela Lugosi print on the record label and on the rear cover. So, yesterday, I went to my local purveyor, who naturally, had a mint copy in stock. Tis now is included in my collection. I was a little worried that the print was a still from a Warhol film, rather than a print. I have hitherto restricted my collection of Warhol covers to only include those that use Warhol designs, illustrations or prints and not film stills (such as those on many of The Smiths’ covers.) So the use of the Bela Lugosi print means I can include this in my collection.

Here’s a little background information on the Band Enola Gay. This Swedish punk band formed in 1978 under the name Usch. The group was heavily influenced by The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Sweden’s Ebba Grön. The released a couple of singles of which “Döda djur / Storstad” (translation: Dead Animals / Big City) which was released in 1981, under the band name Enola Gay just prior to the group disbanding.

And, today, I received my long-awaited copy of “Latin Rhythms” By Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops. One of the three early Warhol covers lacking in my collection. A nice, near mint copy. Here are the photos of all three additions.

In 1998 Nick Cave’s book “And the Ass Saw the Angel” used a photograph of a Banksy image on the cover. This was the same year that the first record cover stencilled by Banksy appeared in Bristol. My question is: ” How did Penguin Books recognise Banksy’s art so early?” – or was it Nick Cave that had the idea?

As the image appears on a book by a music icon, I will include this book in my collection of Banksy covers.

It seems to be a never ending story: the saga of record and CD covers with Andy Warhol art. Chief detective Kevin Kinney, with an eye for the unexpected, has turned up several new covers with Warhol art.
First off is the rear cover of Keely Smith’s “I Wish You Love” LP and EP from 1957. The rear cover has a typical Andy Warhol drawing.

No sooner had he found this previously unrecognised Warhol drawing that Kevin turned up the CD from the talk given by David Cronenberg at The Art Gallery of Ontario in connection with the 2006 Warhol exhibition that he curated.

This cover image was santioned by The Warhol Foundation. But this is not the first time Warhol’s “Multiple Elvises” has appeared on a record cover. In 1985 Andi Sexgang released their first album entitled “Blind!” that used multiple Elvises on the cover. But the “Cronenberg on Warhol” CD seems to me to be more a true Warhol cover.

Thanks Kevin! Keep up the good work.

No sooner had I sold the bulk of my records and posters than two new additions to the remaining collection arrived. I have previously announced in my blog that Sir Peter Blake was to appear on the cover of Madness’ special edition of their latest album “Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da”. Well the 4-CD set arrived yesterday with the picture of the band and Sir Peter all in fancy dress – Sir Peter dressed to look like Moses.

The second arrival was the CD “Music For Merce” – The EOS Ensemble conducted by Jonathan Sheffer. A recording of John Cage’s work with cover art by Andy Warhol. I have to thank Frank Edwards (Warholcovers) and Guy Minnebach for tipping me off about this CD.

I have been collecting posters as well as records – running round London in the sixties ripping posters from walls. I managed to collect posters for a Tim Buckley concert at The Middle Earth, Ravi Shankar at Blaises Club, The Rolling Stones 1971 UK tour and a host of other goodies.

One of my more recent favourites is Rob Jones from Austin, Texas. Rob is a poster and record cover designer, who won a Grammy for his design of the box set of the White Stripes’ “Under Great White Northern Lights”.

I suppose I first found out about Rob’s work via his record covers. Rob has designed posters for Jack White’s various bands: The White Stripes, The Dead Weather anbd The Raconteurs and he continues to produce covers for Jack White’s record label Third Man Records.

In about 2005, he had an exhibition at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester, UK. For the exhibition, called “Aluminium”, Rob created a series of six fantastic silkscreened posters and in addition the exhibition poster and the cover design for the album “Aluminium”, which is an album of orchestral versions by Richard Russell and Joby Talbot of ten White Stripes songs. The LP was released in an edition of 999 copies and the CD in an edition of 3333 copies. The LPs contained a 10″ square part of one or other of these posters. Rob also designed the cover art for a promo CD and a 12″ single.

I bought the set of Aluminium posters. Three with diagrammes of the Aluminium atom and three without.

I started to collect Rob Jones’ recprd cover designs. There was a number of difficult ones to find. First Jack White decided to release a single of the live performance of “The Denial Twist” from each of the ten concerts on his 2005 tour of the UK. Each single from the respective concert was given to everyone who attended that concert. Each single has a different card cover designed by Rob. I managed to get hold of all ten. Then Jack White released a set of nine double Digipak CDs from a concert series with more Rob Jones artwork. Once again, people who attended tghe concerts could order the CDs at each respective venue. People who could not attend, like me, could subscribe to receive the CDs later. I later contacted Rob to try to get a list of all the covers he had designed and he was most helpful.There were only a couple of early CDs that I couldn’t get hold of, such as the Pink Swords’ demo CD.

Then I bought a Rob Jones’ homage to Ian Curtis in the form of a triptych of silkscreened prints (edition of 80) that used Kevin Cummins famous photo of Ian Curtis as its centrepiece:

Warholcovers had the brilliant idea of contacting members of Literature to find out more about their approach to making the album cover. Warholcovers has given me permission to publish the interview here, so tah other lovers of record cover art may read it. So here is the interview:

“Curious to find out more about one of the most recent Warhol related covers, I was able to track down Literature and ask them a few questions about their “Arab Spring” record cover.

WC: How did you come up with the decision for the cover art for your debut record, “Arab Spring”?

Nathaniel (Cardaci, vocals/guitar – recordart’s note): Sometime after recording ” Arab Spring” I found myself at the Menil collection in Houston. They had a Warhol room at the time and as I walked in I saw Ten Foot Flowers on the far wall everything about it screamed POP and I knew at that point that I wanted to try to use some amalgamation of the image for the record cover.

WC: Did you have any interaction with the estates of Andy Warhol or Patricia Caulfield, the photographer of the original flower image?

Kevin (Attics, guitar/vocals – recordart’s note): We did not attempt to contact them fearing that it might result in a legal obstruction that would push back the release of the record or disallow us from using the cover.

WC: Was the image used an original Warhol image, or was it manipulated to avoid copyright issues?

Kevin: The artist Jordan Shade and I worked to create a new cover using the same techniques employed in the original series. I think that the flowers’ shapes might be cut from the original series but they were overlaid onto a new screen of grass and colored by us.

WC: Does the work of Andy Warhol have any special meaning to any of you in the band?

Kevin: Nathaniel and I have an abiding fondness for NYC Culture running from the late 60′s to the mid-80′s. That period is obviously indebted to Andy. That we are influenced by bands he showed a great enthusiasm for might be why we felt his work was a great visual complement to our music.

Thanks to Literature for taking the time to answer these questions.”

So, as we surmised the album art is not a Warhol picture at all, but a new montage of four hibiscus flowers on a new background of grass by Jordan Shade and Kevin Attics to resemble Warhol’s famous “Flowers” painting – a true homage to great art!.