I don’t suppose I’ll ever again be able to add as many covers to my collection as I did in 2017–partly because most of my collections are complete or very nearly so.
I added a few new areas of collection during 2016 and added new covers in these in 2017. I managed to find several new covers featuring Kate Moss and some Banksy covers. It was the 50th Anniversary of many important albums. I have already written about “The Velvet Underground & Nico” reissues. 2017 was also the 50th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and there was a magnificent box set released to mark the occasion. I also found an interesting pastiche of the Blake / Haworth cover art by Jun Fukamachi. And, while on the subject of pastiches I collected several “Velvet Undergound & Nico” pastiches, too.
So, here’s a list of covers by other artists that came into my collection in 2017:
BANKSY:
Capoeira Twins – Four (4 x 3) / Truth Will Out” – Promotional 12″ single with hand sprayed cover.
Boys in Blue – Funk Tha Police” – 12″ limited edition single.
Skitz – Badmeaningood, Vol 1 – Digipak CD.
Roots Manuva – Badmeaningood, Vol 2 – Digipak CD.
Peanut Butter Wolf – Badmeaningood, Vol 3 – Digipak CD.
Scratch Perverts – Badmeaningood, Vol 4 – Digipak CD.
Monk & Canatella – Do Community Service – CD.
PETER BLAKE
The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 50th anniversary box set.
The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (outtakes) – Bootleg gatefold LP
The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Japanese origami stage set.
Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Pastiche
Jun Fukamachi – The Beatles – Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 12″ LP.
Gilbert & George.
Gilbert & George – The Thoughts of Gilbert & George – Limited edition 12″ LP.
Karin “Mamma” Andersson:
Beck – I Won’t Be Long – 12″ single.
Beck – Defriended – 12″ single.
Beck – Gimme” – Double 12″ single.
Kate Moss:
6majik9 – Kate Moss – Hand painted CD cover.
Babyshambles – Shotter’s Nation – 2×12″ LP.
Bryan Ferry – Alphaville / Me Oh My – Limited edition 12″ single.
Bryan Ferry – You Can Dance – Limited edition 12″ single.
Bryan Ferry – Alphaville (Remixes) – Limited edition 12″ single.
Bryan Ferry – Olympia – Limited edition, autographed, 2 CD + DVD and book.
Bryan Ferry – Olympia Remixes – Digital file.
Bryan Ferry – Heartache by Numbers – Promotional CD single.
Primal Scream & Kate Moss – Some Velvet Morning – 12″ maxi single.
Primal Scream & Kate Moss – Some Velvet Morning (Luke Fair Remix) – 12″ single.
Vomit – Kate Moss – 7″ EP.
BANKSY:
I had an almost complete collection of covers on both vinyl and CD with Banksy art and was just missing the elusive Capoeira Twins’ “Four (4 x 3) / Truth Will Out” promotional single with the hand sprayed cover. None (apart from a couple sold by art galleries) seemed to have been sold for several years but suddenly there appeared a spate of them on Ebay in the latter half of 2017. I managed to get one of them, though unfortunately not the cheapest. And just as I was congratulating myself on completing my collection, a new Banksy cover appeared by a band I have never heard of called Boys in Blue. This was said to be a limited edition of 100 copies featuring Banksy’s “Rude Copper” on the cover. I snapped up a couple of copies!
I also added some CDs–the four “Badmeaningood” series in Digipak covers and a second copy of Monk & Canatella’s “Do Community Service” that came in a batch of 23 CDs that I bought for £3 plus £7 shipping!
PETER BLAKE:
2017 was not a good year for Peter Blake’s record cover art as no new covers appeared. It was partially saved by the 50th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and Apple released a generous 4CD box set with a hardcover book and posters to celebrate. The box had a lenticuar reproduction of the original Blake / Haworth cover art. Though initially I thought I didn’t need this in my collection, I finally succumbed and bought a copy only to be pleased to find that each CD had a different version of the original cover art photo session.
The Japanese version of the 50th anniversary box set included an insert which the handier collectors could cut out and assemble into a montage of the Pepper band in a stage-like frame. I found one of these cut outs at a record fair and could buy it to add to my UK box set.
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” – Pastiche:
The Japanese composer Jun Fukamachi released an album called “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1977. The cover was painted by Fumio Tamabuchi showed the Pepper scene with backs turned to the viewer.
Additions to my collection of covers featuring Kate Moss:
As I already had covers by Damien Hirst and Banksy that featured Kate Moss I thought it would be fun to collect all the covers I could find that she appeared on. I turned up ten more in 2017:
The most interesting were the limited edition 12″ Bryan Ferry singles released by The Vinyl Factory in 2010-2011 with tracks taken from Ferry’s 2010 “Olympia” album. There were seven singles released from “Olympia” but only six made it onto Vinyl Factory 12″-ers. “Heartache By Numbers” was the exception and apparently only released as a promotional CD single in The Netherlands.
There was a hand painted CD entlitled “Kate Moss” by the band 6majik9 that was only made in an edition of 100 copies that I was luck to find on Discogs:
And a 7″ EP by the American grunge/punk band Vomit also called “Kate Moss” that had a fold-out sleeve with about thirteen Kate Mosses all told.
Kate Moss was for a while involved with Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty and she appeared on a few of the band’s tracks. Sje appears in person on the cover of the Band’s “Shotter’s Nation” album:
Kate was also in a duet with Primal Scream on the classic Lee Hazlewood song “Some Velvet Morning” and this was released as a 12″ single and a Luke Fair remix was also released in a black dye-cut sleeve. Some copies, however, had photos of Kate taken by Kate Garner in 1992.
So, quite a number of interesting additions thus far.
In Part Three, I’ll list the remainder.
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