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.
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.
Screenshot
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.
I’m in a contemplative mood. I collect, I make lists, and recently people have been asking for copies. I try to help and get compliments. How unusual. I’m not really used to those.
DB wants a list of Cindy Sherman and David Shrigley covers, Felix wants a list of Damien Hirst covers and I send them with explanations. A friend casually asks “how many Banksy covers are there?” And I answer “Well, I have about two hundred.” I check my curent list, that doesn’t have them all.
DB gets back to me and wonders if I’ve missed one Shrigley cover and sends me a picture of the Velvet Undergrund & Nico album released by Castle Face Records with its Shrigley rendition of Warhol’s Banana on the cover and his portrait of Andy on the rear. I check my list and note number 37–listed as a Various Artists compilation. It’s the Castle Face album. I remember that I asked David Shrigley to sign it when he visited Spritmuseum in Stockholm a few years ago.
Then, in late November 2024, Paul emails that there is a new record being released with a cover designed by David Shrigley. Another to a. add to my collection, and b. add to my Shrigley list. Paul says it’s a limited edition and I better hurry. By the time I get his mail I’ve already ordered it. Then the following week he emails me again about what I assume is the same release, only it isn’t. It’s a second version of the record, this time pressed on red vinyl. The first version came on yellow vinyl. I rush to order a copy but find it has already sold out. Ouch! I check Ebay. There’s a copy for sale there and I manage to grab it.
So now my Shrigley list has sixty-six titles, although that includes a few doubles.
And, another little compliment–Spritmuseum, in Stockholm, where their current exhibition Money on the Wall: Andy Warhol is a critically lauded success has eighteen of my Andy Warhol designed record sleeves on display, want me to give a talk about record cover art at the end of January 2025.
I’ve called it Record Cover Art from Warhol to Banksy. Now all I need to do is put it all together. I’m making a new list of important covers.
Band Aid’s single Do They Know It’s Christmas? was concieved on November 2nd 1984 by Bob Geldorf who contacted Midge Ure and together they wrote the song on the following day. The song was recorded at SARM West End studios on Sunday, November 25th by a collection of artists enlisted specially for this recording.
Peter Blake was approached to design the cover and was give one week to come up with the design. A classic Peter Blake collage:
The record was released on 7th December 1984 both on seven-inch and twelve-inch vinyl, and went on to sell millions of copies resulting in GBP 8 million for the charity. I went out and bought several copies to give to friends as Christmas presents.
The record was re-released in November 1985 with a new B-side One Year On (Feed the World), again as a seven-inch and a twelve inch.
Do They Know It’s Christmas? was first released on CD in 1989 together with a cassettee and new seven-inch versions. The cover was a disappointing black or green cover designed by David Howells.
The next release was for the record’s twentieth anniversary in 2004. Released only as CD single, the cover was initially to be designed by Damien Hirst but his design was rejected as being too harrowing and Mat Maitland made the cover image A Disney-ish winter scene with a superimposed image of the back of a starving child.
For the thirtieth anniversary in 2014, Tracy Emin was selected for the cover design and she produced one of her neon signs.
And now it’s 2024–forty years after the original release and Bob Geldorf has once more asked Sir Peter Blake for a new design. It was released on 29th November, this time, only available as a 12″ maxi EP and a CD. Trevor Horn, the producer of the original 1984 version of Do Thy Know It’s Christmas has produced a new remix for this fortieth anniversary release.
Blake has reused his red heart on a yellow background as the main image and selected a range of collagese placed along the top. Front cover design is, however, credited to Mark Cowne with layout and design by Darren Evans. I get a bit muddled by all these designers. All I know is the images on the front cover are by Peter Blake.
This isn’t the first time Blake’s red heart motif has appeared on a record cover. It turned up on the inner spread of Mark Knopfler’s Tracker LP in 2015.
Stay tuned for my report on the fiftieth anniversary version. I hope I’m still around then.
I don’t need to work too hard to keep up to date with record releases that have cover art by Klaus Voormann. Thorsten Knublauch–expert on all things about the Beatles in Germany–is also an expert on KLaus Voormann’s art and has tipped me off about a couple of Voormann’s books as well as most of the Voormann covers I’ve collected in recent years. He tippped me off about Wolfgang Bernreuther’s 2023 Still a Fool album when it first appeared as a CD and a quick search of Discogs allerted me to a limited edition vinyl version that I finally got hold of this week.
The deluxe vinyl version includes a fourteen-track 180g LP, a bonus 12″ four-track maxi EP, a large poster of the cover art as well as a Klaus Voormann print. Apparently the deluxe album is limited to 1000 copies.
A couple of months ago Thorsten sent me a picture of a CD with Voormann art that I hadn’t seen before.
The CD was produced by the POP Akademie Baden-Würtemburg and released in 2014. It wasn’t listed on Discogs and I couldn’t find any information about it online. So, I googled the Pop Akademie and found their home page but no contact information. I asked Thorsten if he could try to contact them–my German is non-existent–so I reckoned he would have a better chance of finding a way to get in touch with them. Sure, enough, he not only contacted them but weedled a couple of CDs from them, too, and sent me one.
Now my collection of Klaus Voormann covers totals one hundred and one releases, of the largest of my cover collections–only my Andy Warhol cover collection is bigger.
One of the most common questions people ask me when talking about my record cover collection is “How many covers did so-and-so do?” When discussing Andy Warhol’s cover art, people generally know two covers–and are surprised to hear that he was responsible for almost eighty in his lifetime. Few know that Peter Blake has designed thirty seven covers–they might know Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and, perhaps, Paul Weller’s Stanley Road, but few others. And who knew that David Shrigley has been responsible for forty-one covers?
Anyway–Thank you Throrsten for keeping me up to date on Klaus Voormann’s recrd cover art! I’m truly grateful.
I lost my original copy of Blur’s Think Tank poster in 2010 when it got lost after an exhibition of Banksy’s record covers in Stockholm. At last I’ve found a replacement — though it was considerably more expensive than the one I lost. This new acquisition made me review my collection of Think Tank albums, promos and such.
I saw Blur at Hultsfreds Festival in Sweden in 1996 and got a couple of album covers signed. So it was quite logical that I also bought Think Tank on vinyl when it first came out, and I suppose this was the first Banksy designed cover in my collection. I also bought the Observer five-track promo soon after. I soon found the large Think Tank poster to add to the collection.
My collection of Banksy covers started in 2005-6 after I missed seeing a streeet art exhibiiton at which several Banksy prints were on sale. I found most early covers at standard issue prices with only a couple costing more than that — the Laugh Now / Keep It Real twelve-inchers cost £6.99 each back then! My next buys were the Think Tank promo CD with the petrolhead stamp and the promo twelve-inch white label.
Think Tank promo CD and 12-inch vinyl.
In addition to the double vinyl, I bought the ‘limited edition’ CD in the red book cover so I didn’t buy a standard Think Tank CD until the reissue box set with bonus CD and the four prints when it came out in 2012.
ThinkTank 2012 box set.
I had seen that a number of the Think Tank promo CDs had been found without the Petrolhead stamp and a good friend sold me a second copy of the CD with the stamp and one without. I had also read about a version with a pink baby’s hand stamped instead of the Petrolhead figure and when one came up on Ebay I nabbed it! So my collection of promo CDs has grown.
Three promotional CDs for Blur’s Think Tank album.
I wondered why no one had come up with one of these promos with a foot instead of the baby’s hand. So I went to Photoshop and created my own, though I haven’t printed it yet.
I ‘m a sucker and gave in to temptation and bought the reissue Think Tank double LP in 2023.
More recently, I read about the Blur stencil that appeared on adverts for the Think Tank album when it was released and found a nice mint stencil as well as a magazine ad for the album showing the stencil.
I know there are interesting versions of Think Tank available from other countries but I’m limiting my collection to U.K./Europe issues. I wonder what other additions may turn up in future.
I know nothing about the artist known as Banksy’s art training. He was involved in the street art scene in Bristol from the late nineteen eighties and has admitted that 3D and the Wild Bunch were early influences. Perhaps he had also seen Blec le Rat’s art and borrowed his signature rat images. Monkeys were another early Banksy motifs.
Although he had been active since the mid nineteen nineties, Banksy first came to fame in 2006 when he and associates succeeded in placing 500 spoof CDs satirizing Paris Hilton’s newly released Paris album on the shelves of 48 HMV stores across the United Kingdom. Banksy had reimagined the CD booklet, rendering Paris Hilton topless on the front, and DJ Danger Mouse had created a special album to replace Paris Hilton’s songs. This made frontpage news in several newspapers and started a hunt to try to unmask the artist, led primarily by the Daily Mail.
But Banksy’s career had started at least ten years earlier in his native Bristol, where he followed other street artists in decorating walls in the city. He started painting murals but soon found that stencilling was faster and meant he could better avoid discovery and possible arrest. The story goes that he was in the process of painting a mural when he was spotted and to avoid capture hid under a lorry. On the lorry’s underside was a stencilled message and Banksy realized that stencilling would allow him to work faster.
There is debate about when Banksy first designed a cover for a record. In 1993 and 1994 someone called Robin Gunningham – suggested by the Daily Mail to be Banksy’s real name – designed the covers for two cassettes by the Bristol band Mother Samosa. The first, Oh My God It’s Cheeky Clown (1993) was also released on CDr. The second, The Fairground of Fear (1994) doesn’t seem to have been released in any other format. Printer’s proofs of these cover designs have circulated and been suggested to be the earliest cover art by the artist known as Banksy. However, I have never seen the cassettes.
Printers proofs of Mother Samosa’s two cassettes.
There is no doubt that the covers for One Cut’s records on the Hombré label, and the covers produced by Wall of Sound Records and its offshoots; Ultimate Dilemma and We Love You use Banksy’s images authorised by him, later releases on other labels or on bootlegs are almost certainly unauthorised. Sometimes, as in the case of Benjamin Zephaniah’s Naked CD or Liberation by Talib Kweli and Madlib, it is not certain that the cover images were authorised by Banksy. I won’t separate authorised from unauthorised covers in this list.
I have a nasty feeling that more recent bootleg releases, such as the two Boys in Blue 12” singles and TV-Age’s 12”, seem to have been produced in limited editions, often beautifully made, exclusively to lure collectors to part with large sums. An Israeli group is even producing picture disc singles with Banksy images that are being sold at exorbitant prices. I would not advise serious collectors of Banksy’s record cover art to fall for these.
In the mid-to-late nineties Banksy was an amateur footballer, apparently goalkeeper for the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls and toured with the team to Chiapas, Mexico in 2001 where he painted a mural and provided images for a very limited cassette by a Mexican band called Revolucion X, titled Canciones electorales, that was probably pressed in the U.S.. There seem to be three colour variations of the cassette, yellow, red and white.
Revolucion X cassette (Thanks to Nick S)
Then there is the story told by Steve Gibbs, a.k.a. Steve Vibronics that an artist called Robin designed the logo for his Vibronics dub band in the latter half of the 1990s, while in Leicester and there is some evidence that Banksy visited at that time. Steve is certain that this Robin was Banksy, but we have no definite confirmation. The Vibronics logo appears on three record covers: The Outernational Dub Convention, Vol 1: Jah Free Greets The Vibronics (1998), Dub Italizer (2000) a sixteen-track double LP that shows part of the logo, and The Return of Vibronics (2015).
The cover of The Outernational Dub Convention, Vol 1: Vibronics Greet Jah Free showing the logo (at right) purportedly designed by Banksy.
The first official cover designed by Banks was for Jamie Eastman’s record label Hombré Records. He designed the cover for hip-hop group One Cut’s Cut Commander 12” EP in 1998 and their remix CD album Hombrémix.
The Cut Commander cover.
One Cut’s Hombremix CD cover art.
He went on to design five more covers for the band in 2000 including their double album Grand Theft Audio, and a 12”, four-track sampler EP, called simply Grand Theft Audio Sampler. There are two versions of the promo 12”, one with a plain white label and the other with Banksy’s Abseiling Thief image together with track titles on each label.
Grand Theft Audio LP cover.
It is said that Banksy had a studio in Bristol in the same building as John Stapleton, who started BlowPop records, and Stapleton asked Banksy to design a cover for the promotional single by his new band the Capoeira Twins. Banksy produced a Matador and Car stencil and spray painted 100 covers for the 4 x 3 / Truth Will Out 12” promotional single.
The Capoeira Twins 4 x 3 / Truth Wiill Out promotional 12″.
There is a rumour that there was also a promotional CD-r for the album entitled Armour Plated, X-rated. This was produced in very limited quantities.
The other covers were for the 12” EPs Mr X / Rhythm Geometry and Underground Terror Tactics. I have a promo version of the Mr X / Rhythm Geometry 12” in a generic black cover but with Banksy’s logo on the record label.
Mr. X / Rhythm Geometry 12″ and Underground Terror Tactics 12″.
In 1999, Wall of Sound records licensed a compilation CD to Sleazenation magazine. Steve Lazarides photographed Banksy’s image for the cover of The Next XI, a compilation CD that was attached to the September 1999 issue.
Sleazenation magazine with the The Next XI CD.
Banksy collaborated with Insect to design a poster for Monk & Canatella’s Do Community Service CD in 2000 and this was reproduced on the cover of the duo’s CD.
In 2000 Banksy was approached by the newly formed Clown Skateboards to design a logo that would be applied to a limited edition series of skateboards. Banksy came up with his Insane Clown image and Clown Skateboards produced a promotional CDEP called Skateboards, with the Insane Clown image on the cover. And the logo appeared on the label of a split 12” EP Styles by the Dozen by The Dynamic Duo (who are Niall Daily and Bryan Jones) and Nasty P (Paul Rutherford) the same year.
Clown Skateboards CD and Style by the Dozen 12″.
In 2000, Wall of Sound Records launched a subsidiary label called We Love You and released a compilation album called We Love You … So Love Us, with Banksy’s famous Rage – Flower Thrower image on the cover. There are two further We Love You compilations. We Love You … So Love Us Too was released the following year on CD and there is also a four-track 12” that comes in a red generic cover with the same image as on the CD on the record label. The third compilation, imaginatively titled We Love You … So Love Us Three, only available on CD, appeared in 2004. There are copies in jewel cases and promotional copies in card sleeves.
The three We Love You… So Love Us compilation covers.
Ultimate Dilemma, another record label associated with Wall of Sound Records released a series of compilation albums and a 12” single between 2001 and 2003 with design by Tijuana Design and incorporating various Banksy images. All were released on vinyl and Digipak CD. Roots Manuva (Rodney Hylton Smith) released a single-sided 12” version of Yellow Submarine (2001). He also remixed tracks for the compilation Badmeaningood, Volume 2 (2002). Skitz (DJ John Cole) remixed the compilation Badmeaningood. Volume 1 (2002). Peanut Butter Wolf (Chris Manak) remixed Badmeaningood, Volume 3, and Scratch Perverts (Prime Cuts and Tony Vegas) remixed Badmeaningood, Volume 4 (both 2003).
Roots Manuva’s Yellow Submarine 12″ and his Badmeaningood compiltion cover. Badmeaningood Volumes 1, 3, 4.
In 2001 the Norwegian duo Röyksopp (Torbjörn Brundtland & Svein Berge) released their first album Melody A.M. on the Wall of Sound label. A promotional double album was released to promote the album in a cover that was hand-sprayed by Banksy. One hundred hand-numbered copies were produced at Wall of Sound’s London office. The first fifty used a dark green paint while the final fifty were sprayed with a paler, olive green, paint.
The two colour variations of the Melody A.M. promo cover.
Magic Records was another label associated with Wall of Sound records and Hip-hop artist Blak Twang (Tony Alabode) recorded his Kik Off album for the label in 2002. Three 12” singles were released from the album: Kik Off, Trixstar and So Rotten (Tony Rotten being another of Alabode’s aliases) There was also a remix version of Trixstar featuring Estelle (Estelle Swaray, who wrote the song). All four releases credit design to Mitch Design with art direction by Banksy. Steve Lazarides is credited with the photography.
Sometime in 2002 Seven Magazine produced an issue with a compilation CD in a card cover attached called The Soundtrack to the Sizzler Parties that used Banksy’s Dynamite Ice Cream image on the cover. There were even small flyers with the same image but with different coloured backgrounds. I haven’t seen the magazine.
The Soundtrack to the Sizzler Parties CD.
Banksy first showed his painting I Fought the Law at his Peace is Tough show in the Glasgow Arches in 2001 and two editions of screenprints, an unsigned edition of 500 and a signed edition of 100, were released in 2004. There were several colour variations. The original photo from which Banksy made this design came from the video of John Hinckley’s 1981 failed assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Amazingly, the American hardcore band The Promise were quick off the mark and the designer J. Bannon modified the I Fought the Law image for the cover of the band’s Believer album released in November 2002. The album came in two limited editions, 100 copies on clear vinyl and 900 copies on red vinyl, and included a double-sided poster. The album was also released on CD; the U.S. version had a black and silver cover image with the album title in red, while the European CD has a black and grey cover image, with the album title in green. The European version also includes two extra tracks.
The cover of the Believer LP. There are also two CDs with slightly different covers, one with the title in red and another with the title in green.
But 2003 was when Banksy’s art first came to the attention of a broader record-buying public with the release of Blur’s seventh album Think Tank on 5th May. The album release was preceded by a promotional CD in a hand stamped card cover that featured Banksy’s Petrolhead image. As the cover was hand stamped the positioning of the Petrolhead varied from cover to cover, sometimes being stamped upside down and, on a few covers, was missing completely. There is also a very rare variation with Petrolhead being replaced by an infant’s handprint. I have seen two copies of this with the handprint in slightly different placings.
Three promotional CDs for Blur’s Think Tank album.
The release of this Blur album in May 2003 was awaited with almost Beatles-like expectation and four months later, on 21 September, the Observer newspaper produced a five-track CD in a card cover with extracts from the album to accompany their Sunday Magazine again with Banksy’s art on front and rear covers. The image of a child wearing a diver’s helmet also appeared on a page in a Royal Mail stamp booklet issued January 7th, 2010 celebrating ten classic record covers, though the actual cover of the Observer CD wasn’t shown, and the only Blur cover was the Parklife cover, not Think Tank. The Think Tank album was reissued in 2012 on heavyweight (180 g) vinyl.
Three singles with cover art by Banksy were released from the Think Tank album: Out of Time, Good Song, and Crazy Beat, were released as limited edition vinyl singles, with Good Song and Crazy Beat on red vinyl. All were designed by Tijuana Design. Out of Time had Banksy’s Out of Time image; Good Song used his Kids on Guns and Crazy Beat had Insane Clown on Balcony. There was also a collector’s edition in a red book cover with a gold Father Holding Daughter with both wearing divers’ helmets stamped between “Think” and “Tank” on the front.
Three 7-inch singles from Think Tank.
Wall of Sound Records released a compilation album called Off the Wall: 10 Years of Wall of Sound, celebrating its tenth anniversary on 13th September 2003. This was released as a triple LP set and a double CD in a gatefold card cover. The covers had some of the Wall of Sound artists posing in front of a wall and on the cover the figure spraying over the Tenant Parking Only sign on the wall is Banksy.
The cover of the Wall of Sound triple LP.
The label released a follow up to the We Love You … So Love Us Too with the imaginatively-named We Love You … So Love Us Three in 2004. Again, this was only available on CD with booklet art by Banksy. There is also a vinyl 12”, four-track sampler of the We Love You … So Love Us Too.
The February 2004 issue of the magazine The Big Issue included a compilation CD called Peace Not War to celebrate the Peace Not War festival to be held 12-15 February the cover and the CD showed Banksy’s Bomb Hugger Girl. The CD, in a card cover, was Sellotaped to the magazine’s front cover and copies of the CD usually bear marks after the tape. This is the first of several CDs that have used the Bomb Hugger Girl motif.
An album by the German band The Apoplexy Twist Orchestra released a white label, white vinyl LP in 2004 entitled Create the New. This came in a transparent cover with an obi with Banksy’s Bomb Hugger Girl and an insert had a picture of Banksy’s Nipper with Rocket Launcher.
The Create the New white vinyl LP.
Between 2004 and 2005 Bow Wow Records released four 12” singles / EPs; three of which used a modified version of Banksy’s Nipper with Rocket Launcher on the covers, subtly changed to Nipper holding a Tops. The fourth 12”, by Buckfunk 3000 had the same image on the record label.
The label of the Buckfunk 3000 12″ EP
Benjamin Zephaniah, vegan, poet, musician, activist and anarchist recorded a number of albums between 1982 and 2017. His 2005 album Naked was released in a Digibook that contained photos of many of Banksy’s images. It is unclear whether these were published with Banksy’s approval, but considering Zephaniah’s endorsement of Palestinian issues and BDS, similar to Banksy’s, it seems likely.
The same year a Mr Bird released his CD Know Your Rodents with a collage of various Banksy images on its cover and on the disc.
The CD booklet from Mr Bird’s CD Know Your Rodents.
Dirty Funker (Paul Glancy) is a DJ and remix artist who remixed Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium in 2004 and the following year remixed The Knack’s My Sharona on a limited edition 12” single on his own Spirit Records label, calling it Let’s Get Dirty. He used Banksy’s portrait of Kate Moss on front and rear covers. The very limited first pressing used the portrait without any text. While but on the cover of a larger second edition he Dymo strips across Kate’s eyes on the front and over her mouth on the rear. At least two copies of a printer’s proof of the cover art from the first pressing have appeared.
The first and second pressings of the Let’s Get Dirty 12″.
Printers proof of the Let’s Get Dirty cover.
And so to the famous Banksy / Danger Mouse remake of Paris Hilton’s 2006 Paris CD. Five hundred copies of this artwork were produced and Banksy and associates succeeded in placing them in the racks of a number of HMV stores across the United Kingdom and many unsuspecting customers mistook them for the genuine article and must have been mightily surprised when they got to play the CD. The original Banksy / Danger Mouse version was released as a CD-rom with Paris and a heart handwritten on the CD-r in marker pen (purportedly by Banksy.) It came in a jewel case with a booklet that Banksy had reimagined based on Paris Hilton’s original. This prank made national headlines in the United Kingdom and made Banksy a household name.
The original Banksy/Danger Miuse booklet. No label on cover.
Sometime later, a second edition was released in a limited edition of 1000 copies. This time with a properly pressed CD. This edition has been called a fake, but in reality it is a reproduction. It can be distinguished from the first edition by the sticker present at the top left on the outside of the jewel case is printed top right on the booklet’s front cover on the reproduction and the fact that the CD is not a CD-rom.
The reissue of the Banksy / Danger Mouse cersion of Paris Hilton with the “sticker” printed top right on the cover.
A bootleg white label 12” single I’m Not Your Friend by Hoxton Whores was released in 2006 with Banksy’s Rude Copper image on the record label.
Talib Kweli joined Corey Smith joint founder of Blacksmith Music, to form a production company. In 2006 Blacksmith released the album Liberation, a collaboration between West Coast producer Otis “Madlib” Jackson, Jr. and East Coast rapper Talib Kweli. Banksy’s painting ”Flag” was used on the cover. A coloured vinyl re-issue has been promised for early 2022.
Banksy’s The Flag on the cover of Talib Kweli & Madlib’s LP.
Me&You (T.M. Juke and Robert Luis) released a 12” single called Floating Heavy (Edits) in 2007. This remix single has Banksy’s One Day We’ll Be in Charge on one label and Grannies image on the other. They also released a double CD called Music for Birthdays with a cover image of Prince Charles wearing a paper crown inscribed Burger King that has been suggested to be by Banksy, though it was done by the Norwegian street artist Dolk.
Dolk’s cover for the Music for Borthdays CD.
In 2007 Ashley Beedle remixed Kate Bush’s Running up That Hill and released it on a 12” single that had Banksy’s Kids on Guns image on the record label.
A Canadian band from Saskatoon called One Bad Son (mainly Shane Connery Volk (vocals) and Kurt Dahl (drums)) released its second album Orange City in 2007 and used Banksy’s Bomb Hugger Girl image on the CD.
The Orange City CD has Banksy’s Bomb Hugger giorl on the CD.
DJ Danger Mouse released a double LP the same year with cover art credited to Banksy. The front cover shows a CCTV camera pointing at a wall inscribed with Danger Mouse – From Man to Mouse a modification of Banksy’s What Are You Looking At. The rear cover shows Banksy’s Child with Divers Helmet Holding a Canary; the same image as on the Observer Blur promotional CD from 2003.
A relatively recent discovery is the seven-inch EP by the Belgian band SL-27 called simply SL-27. The fold-out cover has Banksy’s Love Is in the Air: Flower Thrower on the inner spread, Banksy’s Laugh Now, But One Day We’ll Be in Charge on the record label on side A and Banksy’s Children on Weapons Heap on side B. And this also appears on the back cover.
Bristol used to host a poetry festival and one year – probably 2008 – a CD entitled Monkeys With Car Keys was privately produced of the fifteen poets reading forty-two poems. I was first alerted to the existence of this CD in 2010 when I saw an image of the cover on a thread on UrbanArtAssociation’s site. I started to search for it contacting the Bristol main library, the Bristol Museum, and several Bristolian antiquarian booksellers without success. In fact, no one I contacted had ever heard of it. Eventually I sent a picture of the cover art to an ex-Bristolian Banksy collector who recognised the cover painting as one done by Banksy in Bristol in around 1999 but that had disappeared. My friend managed to confirm that the CD did exist and, after a few weeks, also found a copy.
This seems to be last release with cover art authorised by Banksy. All covers and record labels with Banksy’s images released from 2008 are all unauthorised.
The first of these is Dirty Funker’s Future, released on Dirty Funker’s own Spirit label. The 12” single was released in a cover that used Banksy’s Radar Rat. There were five limited editions (each said to be of 1000 unnumbered copies) printed on white, grey or brown card and Radar Rat was in three colours. There was also a 12” test pressing with a black and white cover as well as a promotional CD in a paper cover with the black and white Radar Rat.
Dirty Funker’s Future 12″ single.
The next bootleg was an interview LP called The Banksy Years (2008). Again, this was a limited edition of 1000 copies pressed on orange vinyl.
Another bootleg that used Banksy’s Queen Victoria as a dominatrix was a cover of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now by a group calling themselves Queen and Cuntry [sic] (2008).
The next 12” was a split single by Hot Chile and Anarchist, again in a white cover with Banksy’s Love Is in the Air: Flower Thrower on the front cover and Hip-Hop Rat on the reverse.
Danger Mouse released a new single called Keep It Real / Laugh Now in four numbered limited editions of 1000 copies each with Banksy’s iconic Monkey design against a coloured background. There are 1000 copies each with gold, silver, brown or dark green backgrounds. Unusually, the numbers are on the record labels rather than on the covers. Apparently, he had planned a seven-inch single release as well and a series of covers with the same design but against a white background were prepared but the single was never issued.
Dirty Funker released a further 4-track 12” single called Flat Beat on his Spirit label in 2009 and appropriated Banksy’s Happy Choppers image for both front and rear covers. The choppers flew against a blue sky on the front cover and against a yellow sky on the rear. I must say that Dirty Funker had the good taste not to add any typography to spoil the artwork.
Dirty Funker’s Flat Beat 12″.
The German band Gottkaiser released a Digipak CD in 2008 called Krieg & Frieden with Banksy’s Bomb Hugger Girl on the cover and CD.
Gottkaiser’s CD Krieg & Frieden.
When the Time Comes, a limited edition five-track CD by a band calling itself The Lonely Kids Club came out in December 2011. I haven’t seen one of these yet.
A band from Hitchin, U.K., called Frog Stupid released their CDEP Love and Amnbition Won’t Get You a Payrise in 2011. This seems to be a private pressing not on any label. The cover shows Banksy’s Girl With Balloon.
Frog Stupid CD cover.
In 2012 a New Orleans brass band called The Hot 8 Brass Band released its third album, called The Life and Times of… The band had approached Banksy for permission to use some of his art on the cover but heard nothing. However, just before the CD was going to press, the band reached out again and this time Banksy agreed to allow the use of his images, though not permitting the band to use his art on the CD cover. The booklet’s inner spread has several Banksy images.
Desy Balmer, an Irish DJ and producer, and co-founder of Nice & Nasty records, released a 15-track compilation as a digital release in 2012 on his own Nasty & Nice label with a cover painting by Banksy modified from an image from the Palestine Wall.
TerranceK (Terrance Kerti) is a Detroit-based DJ who produced a digital EP in 2013 called Hot Line that used a photo of Banksy’s London Phone Box #2 on the cover.
Cover art for digital only relase by TerranceK.
Banksy’s I Fought the Law image appeared for the second time on the cover of a test pressing of Embalming Theatre’s and Tersanjung 13’s split seven-inch EP titled Mommy Died – Mummified / Hellnoise on the Rotten to the Core label in 2013. The test pressing cover was designed by Robert Janis, owner of the label.
Test pressing with I Fought the Law motif.
Warrior Soul released a CD in 2008 called Destroy the War Machines with a modified image of Banksy’s CND Soldiers. The album was reissued in 2013 in a limited edition of 333 numbered, white vinyl LPs. Design is credited on the inner sleeve to Ballsy [sic] and collage by Joachim Ljung. Band photographs by Tim Hodgson & Dajana Winkel.
The LP cover. Only 333 copies were released.
Junichi Masuda is a producer and composer for Pokèmon and produced an LP called Pokèmon in 2015. There doesn’t seem to have been an official release as all editions are listed as test pressings. There are three main cover variations, all released on the Moonscape label. Several coloured vinyl editions came in a cover that was a pastiche of Peter Blake’s and Jann Haworth’s Sgt. Pepper art with the famous Sgt. Pepper drum replaced by a Pokèmon ball. However, there was a further limited edition planned to be 100 copies with a hand-sprayed recreation of Banksy’s Love Is in the Air – Flower Thrower art. The story goes that the stencil used broke after about ninety covers had been sprayed and another stencil with a rabbit and balloon take on Banksy’s Girl with balloon was substituted for most of the remaining ten covers, although there may also be a few with another image instead of the rabbit. Both covers were designed and made by Sean Patrick Dagle. Dagle wasn’t satisfied with the initial run of covers as there was much spray paint outside the actual image and he remade the stencil and produced a further series of 150 numbered covers that he sold without records.
In 2015 a band calling themselves Boys in Blue released Funk da Police, a bootleg 12” single in a cover with Banksy’s Rude Copper design, ostensibly in a limited edition of 100 unnumbered copies. The band released a second bootleg 12” single called Strawberry Donut / Thick as Thieves as a limited edition (250 copies) in 2021.
Boys In Blue – Funk tha Police and Strawberry Donut 12″ singles.
A band calling itself Minraud released a CD in 2016 titled Vox Populi on the Hidden Stone record label. This is probably a bootleg but the cover art uses Banksy’s Radar Rat image.
American DJ Romanowski release a CD called Tracks from the Movie “Saving Banksy” in 2018 with a Banksy rat on the cover.
Another German release arrived in 2016 from a band calling itself TV-Age. This was The Player EP with a beautiful, hand-screened cover of Banksy’s Every Time I Make Love I Think of Someone Else.
TV-Age – The Player EP.
There is also a CD from Belgian band Fist2Fist entitled Hold the Gun with Banksy’s Girl with Rocket Launcher art. There is no information on when it was released.
Banksy designed a protective vest for rapper Stormzy (Michael Ebenezer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr.) and this was featured on the cover of his December 2019 album Heavy Is the Head. The album was available on CD, a limited edition double vinyl LP, with the vest pictured on one on the inner sleeves, and as a double picture disc. The cover was designed by Hales Curtis design studio. The album was later reissued as a double black vinyl LP.
In 2020, John Brandler bought Banksy’s Port Talbort mural Seasons Greetings and celebrated it with by producing a CD called Seasons Greetings by the Climate Change Sound Project. (Gwyn Griffiths and Frankie Oldfield).
The Climate Change CD cover (rear cover (left) and front cover (right)).
I am certain that more covers appropriating Banksy’s art will appear – both newly discovered records and CDs (and even music cassettes) as well as speculative new productions akin to the Boys in Blue and TV-age releases.
My vinyl bundle of this latest Ed Sheeran release arrived this week. I received the limited edition recycled vinyl LP, the standard CD, the limited edition coloured vinyl LP with CD in the deluxe book cover, and the limited edition cassette.
The front cover of the “=” [Equals] LP.
Nowhere could find a credit to the art direction or design. However, Ed Sheeran’s friendship with Damien Hirst is well documented; not least on Sheeran’s Instagram site, and the presence of butterflies is highly suggestive of Hirst’s work.
Damien Hirst redesigning Ed Sheeran’s plaster cast (from Ed Sheeran’s Instagram).
Further research into Ed Sheeran’s discography took me to the artist’s previous album release “Divide”, which has a sort of spin painting on the cover, looking suspiciously like a Damien Hirst work.
The cover of the “Divide” album.
However, it turns out that Damien Hirst allowed his mate to use his studio to play around and make this artwork himself. So the “Divide” cover is not a Damien Hirst design, but an Ed Sheeran product.
Comment from Loughran Gallery on the “Divide” cover art.
Well, that saves me the expense of having to chase a copy of this particular Ed Sheeran album.
It seems that this blog has become a reference work for information on record and CD covers with cover art by the artist known as Banksy. And I find it very flattering. My aim, way back in the 00s, was to catalogue all record and CD covers with Banksy’s art, irrespective of whether or not the release used an authorised Banksy image. To date I have catalogued about 100 releases.
Banksy’s art has been sold as paintings, stencilled prints or silkscreen prints, the latter being the most commonly available. The prints are commonly limited editions, often in editions of 100 or 250 which may be signed or unsigned. Both are becoming scarce and command very high prices; witness the recent sale of Banksy’s painting Love is in the Bin for GBP 18 million. Signed prints of his more iconic works are currently (October 2021) on offer for GBP 100,000 to 200,000.
I bought Blur’s Think Tank LP when it was released in 2003 and the promotional Parlophone and Observer CDs around the same time. However, I didn’t start seriously collecting Banksy’s record cover art until around 2005. Back then I could buy the records as they were released and they cost no more that other 12″ records, so my set of Dirty Funker’s Future 12″-ers cost GBP 6.99 each; likewise my set of Dirty Funker’s Laugh Now / Keep It Real 12″-ers (there’s a set for sale on Ebay just now for GBP 10,000). The most expensive release I bought was Dirty Funker’s Let’s Get Dirty (the first press without the Dymo strips across Kate Moss’s eyes) from a fellow collector for GBP 100. I added more and more records and CDs as time went on.
Once upon a time, the most expensive Banksy covers were the two he had purportedly stencilled himself: the Capoeira Twins’ promotional 12″ 4 x 3 / Truth Will Out and Röyksopp’s promotional Melody A.M. double LP; each produced in editions of 100 copies, comparable to Banksy’s limited edition prints. However, the records have been selling for about a tenth of what an equivalent print would cost.
So, when I started collecting, the covers were affordable and remained so until about 2015 when prices began to rise. Now, however, many collectors are competing to find Banksy’s record covers and prices have skyrocketed. I am amazed (and shocked) to see someone trying to sell copies of Dirty Funker’s Flat Beat 12″ for between EUR 815 (about GBP 700) and AUD 6,500 (about GBP 3,500), and copies of Queen & Cuntry’s Don’t Stop Me Now are for sale on Ebay for about GBP 4,000! These prices are stimulating the production of forgeries. I am not sure all the copies offered for sale nowadays are 100% genuine.
Apart from the question of forgeries, there are other ways unscrupulous producers are cashing in on the willingness of collectors to fork out large sums for limited edition covers. These seem to be on the increase. Take TV-Age’s beautiful The Player EP (an apparently hand screened cover in an unnumbered edition, said to be 100 copies) or Boys in Blue’s two 12″ singles Funk da Police (unnumbered edition, said to be 100 copies) and Strawberry Doughnut / Thick as Thieves (numbered edition of 250 copies). In my view these have been produced exclusively to lure collectors of Banksy covers to pay large sums for worthless music.
Another group that is cashing in on the widespread interest in collecting record cover art are the Israeli producers of picture discs with art by a variety of artists ranging from Banksy (like this one) to Warhol. They sell via Ebay and generally cost around USD 300 for a single-sided, generally unplayable, 12″ single. I made the mistake of buying a couple of these to test. I hope nobody else will fall for the con.
Thus I have now decided in future to concentrate only on official releases with Banksy’s art. Several CDs and cassettes have recently surfaced that are unoffical and I will not join in the bidding for these, nor will I go for the latest Boys in Blue 12″. Let’s all agree to boycott the speculative releases and just concentrate on the legitimate ones.
Once again a record cover turns up to prove that my previously “complete” collection of an artist’s record cover art isn’t complete.
I’m trying to write a discography of Sir Peter Blake’s record cover art and had produced a first draft when it occurred to me to do a search of Discogs’s database. Discogs logs credits to many (most?) of the records, CDs and cassettes catalogued there and users can easily choose to search for individual musicians, record producers or, indeed, graphic artists. My rather belated search turned up a surprise:
The Fall’s I’m Frank promotional 12″.
I had never seen this cover before but it certainly looks like a Peter Blake painting and the rear cover gives Peter Blake the credit. So I sent an email to Sir Peter’s gallery, the Waddington Custot Gallery in London, to enquire about the source of the painting. Unfortunately they had not handled a painting like this but assured me they would ask Sir Peter if and when an opportunity arose. I’m still waiting for a possible reply to that. It turns out that this is painting by Blake called Nadia, oil on hardboard (29.2 x 21.6 cm / 11.5 x 8.5 inches), painted in 1981. It was exhibited in the Peter Blake retrospective at the Tate Liverpool in 2007 and there’s a full page picture of Nadia on page 120 of the exhibition catalogue Peter Blake : a Retrospective, published by the Tate.
Peter Blake’s Nadia. From the Peter Blake: a Retrospective catalogue.
The Nadia painting is in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A., one of three paintings by Peter Blake in the museum’s collection. It was previously in the Richard Brown Baker collection of Postwar Art and was donated to the RISD in 1995 — thus after it was used on this record sleeve.
I just wonder how The Fall came to choose this as their record cover art. They do not credit the RISD Museum.
This U.S., 1990, four-track, promotional EP seems quite rare. I can’t quite understand how it managed to slip under my radar for so long, but I managed to find one on Discogs and it arrived this week (23 rd September) to “complete” my Peter Blake collection. I now eagerly await the next Peter Blake cover I have never seen. It’s bound to turn up soon.
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