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A Couple of Banksy-style Covers Not by Banksy.

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There are now over one hundred record and CD covers with artwork by Banksy or with works modified from original Banksy designs, most of which are unauthorised. With the escalation in value of Banksy prints in recent years, even record cover prices have soared and it seems impossible that normal people will be able to collect all of the known ones. It seems previously unknown covers with Banksy art appear almost weekly. Some less than scrupulous people are selling records or CDs with street art as possible Banksy covers. Auction site (such as Ebay) buyers can also be lured to buy records with grafitti art covers that happen to include a song with Banksy in the title — and there are a number of these.

Two have arrived in my collection. The first was U. K. Subs’ Ziezo album released in 2016. Track 4 on side B is called Banksy and the cover image could, at a stretch, be a stencilled work. I bought this as an interesting special edition record — pressed on tri-colour vinyl and the cover signed by the band.

The cover of the U. K. Subs’ Ziezo LP.

The second is a more recent purchase. It is a rare promotional compilation double CD called Music for Birthdays on the Rebtuz label. Generally only available as a download, this album also contains a song entitled Banksy Fashion (track 8 on CD 2.) However, I bought it for the cover image Burger King by the Norwegian street artist Dolk (Dolk Ludgren). Some people have suggested that Dolk may be a pseudonym for Banksy, who as far as we know has never done any murals in Norway. Dolk, though is the genuine article. Originating in Bergen, where his career started, he became famous for his portrait of the Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon wearing a Burger King crown. In 2006 he remade the image this time portraying Prince Charles wearing the Burger King crown instead of Haakon. A print edition of 250 was made.

The Music for Birthdays double CD uses an authorised version of Dolk’s Burger King on the booklet cover.

The booklet cover for the promotional CD Music for Birthdays.
Madonna's "Celebration", Mr. Brainwash, Street art

Cover art for Madonna by Mr. Brainwash.

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Street art has become mainstream. Street artists are increasingly in demand as commercial artists and recording artists are turning to these readily identifiable painters for cover art for their recordings. In America, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and  designed record covers in the eighties, and Shepard Fairey, Robert del Naja (aka 3D) and Banksy (the latter two in the UK) produced covers mainly from the nineties onwards.

Covers by Basquiat and Fairey‘s art covers are very collectible and many are currently very expensive as they were produced in limited editions. Vinyl covers with Banksy designs are also rare and command high prices. I was lucky enough to start collecting Banksy’s record cover art relatively early and have managed to collect what I consider to be a complete collection of his record cover art. Thierry Guetta–better known as Mr. Brainwash–is a more recent street artist to design record sleeves. So far I have only been able to identify three such covers; all for Madonna. He designed the cover for her 2009 compilation “Celebration” which was released on vinyl as a 4 LP set in a gatefold cover.

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“Celebration” 4LP cover.

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Rear cover of “Celebration” 4 LP set.

Record Label Side 1.
Record Label Side 2.
Record Label Side 3.
Record Label Side 4.
Record Label Side 5.
Record Label Side 6.
Record Label Side 7.
Record Label Side 8.

There is also a 12″ EP of “Celebration” remixes.

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The cover of the 12″ EP with remixes.

Then there are a variety of CD releases. The standard double CD uses the same Mr. Brainwash image as the LP set, but there is a slightly different (more anemic) variation also.

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Alternative CD cover art.

And the 12″ picture disc and CD singles hare the same artwork:

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12″ picture disc with Celebration remixes.

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The CD single of “Celebration”

A couple of other records turned up when I searched http://www.discogs.com for other cover art by Mr. Brainwash and I fell for one that I thought probably was by him–Travis Barker‘s “Give the Drummer Some“:

Travis Barker’s “Give the Drummer Some” LP cover front.
Travis Barker’s “Give the Drummer Some” LP cover rear.

Unfortunately, this cover is NOT by Mr. Brainwash but is by Pushead (aka Brian Schroeder, who, according to Wikipedia, is a graphic designer and record label owner.) More of his designs may be seen here. Skulls seem to be his speciality!

3D, Art books, Record cover art, Robert del Naja

“3D and the Art of Massive Attack”–A New Book on Rock Art.

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Robert del Naja, a.k.a 3D, is a musician, artist and composer probably best known as being a founder member of the trip hop group Massive Attack. He has also other musical projects. del Naja was born in Bristol in 1965 and has been credited as the the city’s first graffiti artist and Banksy has named him as a major influence–it can be noted that suggestions have been made that del Naja IS Banksy! A real fact about him is that he is colour blind. Something that caused him problems in his early works–painting a self-portrait with green hair and brown Christmas trees.

I really liked the deceptively simple cover art for Massive Attack’s “Mezzanine” album, with its stag beetle image. Otherwise I had not paid particular attention to the group’s cover art. I was completely unaware that del Naja had a separate career as a record cover artist. He admits to have been designing covers for Mo’ Wax records for eight years–I once owned the 1994 Mo Wax vinyl samplers “Headz 1” and “Headz 2” with cover paintings by del Naja, though I then had no idea who he was.

Mo Wax 1996 compilation Headz 2A, with cover art by Robert del Naja.
Mo Wax 1996 compilation Headz 2, with cover art by Robert del Naja.

Just recently, The Vinyl Factory published “3D & the Art of Massive Attack” by Robert del Naja and Sean Bidder–a 400 page book of Robert del Naja’s art. There are two versions, a popular edition selling for £50 or a limited edition of 350 signed copies selling for £350. I have the popular edition, which came sealed in cellophane with the Vinyl Factory sticker with bar cove on the outside. The book only contains pictures of del Naja’s artworks with no text apart from a three page interview in a separate 12-page booklet included in the package. Reviews of the book state that Banksy has written the book’s introduction, but I couldn’t find it in my copy–perhaps that’s only included in the limited edition…

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The cover of Robert del Naja’s new book.

I was fascinated to find out that Robert del Naja has cooperated with photographer Nick Knight to produce record cover art. The “Mezzanine” cover is one example.

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The “Mezzanine” front cover. Photo by Nick Knight.

Del Naja again approached Nick Knight for the cover photo for Massive Attack’s “best of” compilation “Collected”.

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Nick Knight’s photograph on the cover of “Collected”.

Nick Knight’s most famous cover photographs are probably David Bowie’s “Aladdin Sane” cover, Björk’s  1997 “Homogenic” or Nick Cave & The Bad Seed’s “The Boatman’s Call” covers, but he has also photographed Miguel Bosé (see a previous recordart post for another Miguel Bosé album) for the cover of his 1987 album “XXX” among many others.

I was disappointed with the book at first, but it lead me to start looking for more examples of Robert del Naja’s record covers and that has proved to be an interesting journey. I will have to try to contain my interest and NOT start collecting his covers.