Posted May 1, 2024 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com
Happy First of May greetings to you all. Hope that you’re all enjoying the start of the Spring season in your area and that the emerging flowers and greenery are brightening your moods considerably. As we tend to do every Spring, my wife and I flew over to one of our favorite vacation spots – this year, The Netherlands – and toured the gardens and museums there and, as a result, I only have had 2 days to prep this month’s newsletter. As a result, you’ll find the entire thing a bit truncated (with less of my rambling than is usual) but you’ll get all of the basics, so you won’t be without the most important info.
As a reward, I’ll share a couple of pix of what is certainly one of the world’s most-beautiful gardens, that being Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, The Netherlands. Tulip fans cannot find a more satisfying and awe-inspiring place to spend a day (and the throngs of people who descended on the place the day we were there will attest to that fact).
If you make it through to the end of the newsletter, you’ll find that I also included a couple of pictures from a display at the garden that illustrates just how embedded album cover art is in the minds of creative professionals of all types…
I did get a long list of alerts for articles on album artist/art-related topics while I was away and so, with that all being said, let’s begin this month’s summary of all that’s good and interesting in our little niche of the art and music world, along with my ongoing Lastly But Not Leastly item, where I’ll share a brief paragraph on a related topic that I found quite interesting and, as always, was eager to share with you all.
Exhibitions and Gallery Show Info (new and upcoming soon)
a) Originally posted April 5, 2024 as a ACHOF Breaking News Update – CLOSES MAY 2!
There’s a new exhibition and sale of the works of the late artist and trend-setting graphic designer Jamie Reid, who died last August at the age of 76. The show is currently on display at the Enter Gallery in Brighton, U.K., and was launched at a private viewing event at the Gallery on Thursday the 25th of April, with gallerist and curator John Marchant of the John Marchant Gallery – who is also Director of The Arcova Trust – partnering with the gallery to curate the show and also speak to opening night attendees about Reid’s amazing and impactful life and career.
The exhibition, which runs for one week through the 2nd of May, is called Jamie Reid, A Lifetime of Radical Gestures and will be built around a collection of work from the artist’s “Rogue Materials” series, which he made between 1972 and 2021. Enhancing the viewing will be the display of fifty photographs that chronicle the life of the late design iconoclast, who is perhaps best-known for his work for one of the U.K. music scene’s most influential music/style acts, that being the Sex Pistols. In fact, Reid’s final artwork – an homage to his single cover for the band’s “Anarchy in the U.K.” that features a torn Union Jack flag (held together with safety pins) – the silkscreen print was approved by Reid and his foundation – the Arcova Trust – before his death in 2023 and is being released in two new limited editions – one of 200 26.4” x 39.4” prints and a larger-sized edition of 76 39.4 x 59” prints, with the number 76 of course a reference to the year (1976) that the Pistols unleashed their single. This print release is done in cooperation with Sex Pistols Residuals and Bravado.
The show also offers prints of some of Reid’s classic punk designs, including Fuck Forever, God Save The Queen, Bloody Empire and others. According to the press release I received, “The week-long exhibition draws from the artist’s Rogue Materials series, a significant body of work spanning from 1972 to 2021. Jamie Reid’s Rogue materials can be found in early posters and flyers from the Sex Pistols, protest movements such as the Anti Poll Tax Alliance in the 1980’s, to 2012’s Occupy London Movement. Iconic and rare Jamie Reid limited edition prints will be available to purchase, dating from the 90s to present day alongside never before seen imagery chronicling Reid’s life and career.”
The release continued with a quote from Helen Hiett, Enter Gallery’s Head of Buying, in which she comments “Enter Gallery had the pleasure of working closely with Jamie Reid over several decades. He was a true visionary, always fighting for equality and justice via exciting, rebellious, and risqué works that provoked a reaction. In this retrospective, we honour his fascinating life and creativity, and can’t wait to bring his iconic work to the people of Brighton and beyond.” Reid’s friend and gallerist John Marchant added “I am very happy that we are partnering with Enter Gallery to launch this exclusive editioned print of Jamie Reid’s infamous ‘Anarchy In The UK’ flag, as we have a great history of working together to offer Jamie’s world-renowned art and messages to collectors. Jamie and I started work on this edition last summer and although Jamie is no longer with us, I am pleased that this classic work is finally available as a tribute to his incredible legacy.”
Reid was Inducted into the Album Cover Hall of Fame in 2013 in the “Illustrator/Typographer” category, with a portfolio of notable album package images that includes Never Mind the Bollocks…Here’s The Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the U.K. and The Great Rock and Roll Swindle for the Sex Pistols; Afro Celt Sound System’s Volume 1: Sound Magic, Volume 2: Release and Release Remixes, Volume 1, along with Thatcher’s Children for Billy Childish. Born in London in January 1947, both of Reid’s parents – his father, the City Editor on London’s Daily Sketch, and his mother, (who, according to Reid, was “a firm believer in fairies”), were steeped in spiritual socialism. Their philosophical legacy inspired Jamie to dive into the protest movement at the first opportunity, which just happened to be the student movement of ’68, organizing an occupation of Croydon Art College together with a chap by the name of Malcolm McLaren.
The pair teamed-up later that year to make a film about the ‘History Of Oxford Street’, before going their separate ways – McLaren into the fashion business and Reid “into the rebellion business”, where he co-founded Suburban Press magazine in 1970. It was here that Jamie developed his unique style that was later used in Punk. Punk, inspired by Reid’s accessible, easy to copy graphics, started a do-it-yourself revolution which is still very much kicking, and ripping-up the rules the world over. His covers and promo graphics for the Sex Pistols in the mid-1970s – particularly, the image of Queen Elizabeth II (based on the “classic” Cecil Beaton photo) with a safety pin pushed through her lips – was called by one reporter for The Guardian “the single most iconic image of the punk era”. No stranger to scandal, Reid was known for subverting portraiture of political figureheads, from punking the Queen with a safety pin through her lip, to Nazifying Donald Trump (see below).
More recently, Reid had continued to produce artwork that brings his anti-establishment sensibilities to highlight the absurdities in today’s world of political and corporate chicanery. He’d also produced artwork for a project called Eight-fold Year, during which he released a new work of art every day based on the Druid concept of the year being divided into eight “essential” parts (solstices, equinoxes and four other critical seasonal dates.
A while back, I had the pleasure of being able to source and sell some of Reid’s works in my old art gallery, working with his then U.K. partner The Aquarium and also with his U.S. publisher, NYC’s Artificial Gallery, run by a nice man by the name of Bob Tulipan, who’d at one time managed John Lydon’s post-Pistols musical act Public Image Ltd. and was himself a successful promoter/industry guru with the heart of a renegade. Bob and I stayed in touch over the years and, after Reid’s passing last year, I asked him for his take on Mr. Reid, to which he replied “he was an interesting character, and I believe a Druid Priest. Personally, I only spent some time with him in Dublin when we did a wonderful exhibition, and I can say with a smile he was a typical artist. Likable, an anarchist and maybe a little bit of a rascal and rabble-rouser…He was part of a movement and I personally believe his work was influenced by others and, in the best of ways, his work has and will influence many others. He’s achieved much and is so influential in many ways, possibly inspiring Banksy and definitely the scores of young anarchistic gorilla graffiti artists and muralists who’ve made Wynwood in Miami a hot bed of extraordinary outdoor art, now getting critical recognition and moving indoor to galleries.”
As a fan and collector, I was always grabbed by Reid’s work and what it represented because I knew that, although his works were brightly-colored (mostly) and hand-made, they were the products of someone who seemed to be deadly serious about expressing what was on his mind, no matter what others might think, and that bravery meant something to me. It’s maybe why I have more examples of his art in my personal collection than any other, and I’m always proud and happy to share them with my visitors and friends (and you guys, too).
To read more about this show as detailed in a recent article on the Artnet.com site, click on over to https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jamie-reid-final-artwork-2463636
To learn more about the Enter Gallery and see some of the Jamie Reid works available from them, please visit – https://entergallery.com/collections/jamie-reid and if you’d like to see more about the exhibition and RSVP to attend it, please go to https://entergallery.com/blogs/news/friday-26th-april-jamie-reid-retrospective
I’m working to gain some additional info from Mr. Marchant about the show and the gallery soon, and I’ll send out an update once I have that info in hand.
b) There’s a new Jerry Schatzberg solo show at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in Los Angeles – per the gallery’s release – “Morrison Hotel Gallery rolls out the red carpet for the bi-coastal premiere of Motion Pictures, a solo exhibition which heralds the arrival of legendary photographer and filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg. Spanning the gamut from sprawling landscapes of Schatzberg’s beloved New York City stomping grounds to seminal portrait sessions with comparably skyscraping icons like Bob Dylan, Faye Dunaway, Jimi Hendrix and Edie Sedgwick, this blockbuster presentation makes available, for the very first time through MHG, a star-studded catalogue of rare and renowned fine art works” – https://morrisonhotelgallery.com/collections/jerry-schatzberg?
Some of his more notable album cover work includes – Sonny & Cher’s The Wonderful World of Sonny & Cher; The Rascals – Young Rascals; Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde and Aretha Arrives and 3 For 1 Box Set for the late great Aretha Franklin. His fashion and portrait photography has been published in magazines such as Vogue, McCall’s, Esquire, Glamour, Town and Country, and Life. He’s been nominated for 4 Golden Palm Awards at the Cannes Film Festival (winning one for Scarecrow in 1973 and serving on the jury in 2004) and continues to work on projects – writing books and screenplays – to this day. In 2006, Genesis Publications released a limited-edition collection of Schatzberg’s photos of Dylan entitled Thin Wild Mercury. In addition, several new books based on some of his earlier works have been released – one in 2010 by Rizzoli titled Women Then which features images from the period of 1954 to 1969, one of his most-prolific periods as both a photographer and film director, with another released in 2018 based on his 50+-years shooting album covers, studio portraits and concert photos from many of Bob Dylan’s shows (beginning in 1965 with shots taken at the era-changing Newport Folk Festival). Dylan By Schatzberg is available on ACC Art Books, NYC.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Schatzberg a number of years ago about the photo he shot for one of my favorite albums, that being Frank Zappa & The Mothers’ We’re Only In It For The Money, a finely-composed parody of the Sgt. Pepper’s collage for The Beatles – https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2007/10/cover-story-fra.html
c) There’s a show that recently opened up in Miami, FL (running now through the end of June, 2024) that features the skills and imaginations of many of the visual artists who’ve contributed to the ever-growing popularity of hip-hop imagery and looks like a must-see by any fan of the genre/style. The Art of Hip-Hop is on display at the Wynwood event space (“conveniently located within steps of the Wynwood Walls, Museum of Graffiti, Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club, and Lebron James’ UNKNWN”) and offers up a nice collection of elements and artwork created by the many photographers, album cover artists, logo and fashion designers and graffiti artists who’ve contributed their talent to clients working in the area, so if you’d like to learn more and reserve tickets to the show, please visit – https://www.artofhiphop.com/ Please take note of one of the items in this month’s Artist News and Interviews section in which one of the photographers featured in the show – Mike Miller – discusses the photos he shot that were featured on the covers of seminal albums by Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Eazy-E and many others…
Brief Bits:
d) A new exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opening May 4th (and running through the 18th of August) called Art of Noise explores a collection “of visual and technological artifacts, plucked from music’s low orbit. “Art of Noise” comprises more than 800 pieces — among them early listening devices, cutting-edge speakers and iconic album covers — loosely grouped under the heading of design.” I want to know more about this show and will do some follow-up work in the coming month to be able to share with you but, in the meantime, The New York Times’ Chris Colin provides us with an introduction – https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/arts/design/san-francisco-museum-sound.html? – while the museum’s site gives us a bit more about the show and the related events they’ve scheduled during the run of this exhibition – https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/art-of-noise/
The site also includes two interviews with two highly-influential artists whose work stood out from the noise during the earlier days of the rise of rock and roll records – Lee Conklin (perhaps best-known for the astounding pen and ink “Lion” found on the cover of Santana’s debut album) – https://www.sfmoma.org/read/an-interview-with-poster-artist-lee-conklin/ – and David Singer, whose posters for Bay Area concerts in the 1960s and 1970s are some of the most-collectible works from that era – https://www.sfmoma.org/read/an-interview-with-poster-artist-david-singer/
e) Artist Cey Adams and master printmaker Gary Lichtenstein have collaborated for years to produce art prints of Adams’ artwork, and now fans can take a tour through the wide range of compelling images they’ve produced at a new show that opens May 2nd (and runs through June 14th) at The Gary Lichtenstein Editions gallery space in North Adams, MA – https://www.gleditions.com/events Album art fans will know Mr. Adams’ work from his time as Creative Director of Def Jam Recordings, “where he founded the Drawing Board, the label’s in-house visual design firm that created visual identities, album covers, logos and advertising campaigns for Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., Maroon 5 and Jay-Z, among others.” Two of my own go-to books about hip-hop design were designed/co-authored by Adams – DEFinition: The Art and Design of Hip-Hop (published by Harper Collins) and “Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label”, published by Rizzoli. Cey Adams was inducted into the Album Cover Hall of Fame in the Art Director category in 2019.
f) There’s a Hip-hop jewelry show called “Ice Cold” that’s set to open this May 9th in NYC that will include items seen on famous record covers and in photos by some of the better-known photographers covering the scene – https://news.artnet.com/art-world/american-museum-of-natural-history-hip-hop-jewelry-ice-cold-2449396
More info is now available on the American Museum of Natural History’s website at https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/ice-cold-hip-hop-jewelry, with details of just who’ll be participating and what the show’s highlights are available at https://www.amnh.org/about/press-center/amnh-announces-ice-cold-an-exhibition-of-hip-hop-jewelry
Ongoing Exhibitions (listed in order of their end dates)
g) NEW FOR MAY BUT ONGOING – Joel Meyerowitz photos at the Tate Modern – Part of their ongoing “ARTIST AND SOCIETY” display (in the Natalie Bell Building Level 2 West) , which consists of 12 rooms featuring the works of some of the many artists in their collection and, according to the show’s description, “is concerned with the ways in which artists engage with social ideals and historical realities. Though some artists associated modernism with a utopian vision, art has also provided a mirror to contemporary society, sometimes raising awareness about urgent issues or arguing for change. Whether through traditional media or moving images, abstraction or figuration, militancy or detached observation, all the artworks in this wing highlight aspects of the social reality in which they were made and try to generate a reaction and convey a more or less explicit message to their publics.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/artist-and-society/joel-meyerowitz
You’ll find an interview with Mr. Meyerowitz detailed in the “Artist News” section later on in this missive.
CONTINUING Through May 26, 2024 (Hurry, Hurry!) – an exhibition that includes selections from friend of ACHOF Richard Forrest’s collection of Andy Warhol-related album art (and books and posters) has been staged at the Passagen Linköpings Konsthall in Linköping, Sweden, running there through the 26th of May. Per my recent correspondence with this dedicated collector/researcher/writer/artist, ”the About Who — Andy Warhol” exhibition “is a mix of Warhol associated things curated by Petter Österlund, who has approached people in Sweden who have met Warhol including photographers like Bruno Ehrs and museum people including Bo Nilsson, the art director for the Artipelag gallery, who put on his own Warhol exhibition at Artipelag some years back…I got involved as I had lent some of my Warhol covers to an exhibition in Sundsvall in 2010 that Österlund curated and he remembered me. He’s taken over eighty record covers – most of my Warhol library – Time Magazine covers and a copy of the infamous Prince promo magazine that features a colorized version of photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s 1981 photo portrait of “the Purple One” that Warhol had appropriated for this use. Also included are six portraits of Warhol that I painted in 2020.”
While I haven’t been able to learn much from the exhibition’s web page (as it is Swedish), I’d invite you to take a look – https://www.linkoping.se/uppleva-och-gora/kultur/konst/passagen/utstallningar/ – and, if you’re in the area before the end of May, I’d suggest you stop by to take a look as it seems that there will be much to see and enjoy.
CONTINUING Through July, 2024 – Noted photographer Gered Mankowitz recently launched a new exhibition at the recenty-opened London outpost of The Gibson Gallery (The Gibson Garage London, 61 – 62 Eastcastle Street, London, UK W1W 8NQ – https://www.gibson.com/en-US/garage-london) that’s presented in cooperation with the Red House Originals gallery there. Per the show’s press release, visitors in attendance during the show’s run (through July, 2024) will find “a collection of classic and unseen portraits” by Mr. Mankowitz. “For over 50 years, Mankowitz has helped shape the iconic images of the music industry’s key players. The Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull, Jimi Hendrix, PP Arnold, Kate Bush, Elton John, The Jam, Eurythmics, Oasis, and many more have all looked down the lens of his camera.”
The show is available for viewing daily Monday-Saturday 10:00-7:00pm and on Sunday from 12:00-6:00pm – https://www.redhouseoriginals.com/exhibitions/gered-mankowitz-at-the-gibson-gallery. Look also in our Items For Sale section for news about a new book of Mankowitz’s photos of the Rolling Stones.
As I noted last month, the newest retail outpost for Gibson Guitar held a pre-opening event in February that was attended by some of the best-known guitarists in the world, including Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, Queen’s Sir Brian May and rising UK-based guitar stars James Bay and Rosie Frater-Taylor. In addition to these appearances, fans lucky enough to gain entry enjoyed listening to an interview with Mr. Page, followed by live performances from the Gibson Garage London’s in-store performance stage. Learn more about this new store/venue at https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Garage-London
CONTINUING Through September, 2024 – A comprehensive overview of hip-hop music and culture is the basis for an exhibit that recently opened at The Grammy Museum in LA and Variety.com’s Steven J. Horowitz takes us on a tour of the multi-floor extravaganza in this article – https://variety.com/2023/music/news/grammy-museum-hip-hop-america-the-mixtape-exhibit-preview-1235747771/amp/? The show – titled Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit – will be up until next September and includes a number of unique artifacts and interactive displays.
Brief Bits:
a) I received an update of a show we’ve covered previously – that being The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve (currently on display at the Huddersfield Literary Festival) letting us know that Simon and Steve are now getting ready for a display of the sleeves at the Bearded Theory music and art festival at Catton Hall, Derbyshire, UK from the 23rd through the 26th of May, 2024, with more info available at https://beardedtheory.co.uk/
Artist News and Interviews
a) An organization that produces events aimed at entrepreneurs and other business types sent out notice of an upcoming event that features an appearance and discussion with a gentleman that has deep experience as both an entrepreneur and a well-known album cover artist and photographer, that being none other than Andrew “Drew” Ellis, formerly of the Hipgnosis design studio and more-recently as principal in his own studio (Icon/Icon America), where he’d produce memorable imagery for clients such as Paul McCartney, Genesis, Duran Duran and many others, earning a Grammy Award nomination at the 29th Grammy Awards show in 1986 in the “Best Package Design” category for his work on the Alan Parsons Project’s Stereotomy. The event on May 9th will find Ellis sharing his experiences and insights at the Hotel du Vin in Exeter, U.K., with tickets available online at https://www.sme.software/10989/we-are-like-minds/events/423.html and more info proffered at https://wearelikeminds.com/may-9th-an-audience-with-drew-ellis/?
b) Two recent shows (one closed, one ongoing) – As well as the ongoing Tate Modern exhibition detailed earlier in this newsletter, photographer Joel Meyerowitz earlier this year staged another exhibition in London, at the Huxley-Parlour gallery, which ran from January thru early March, 2024. Titled ‘Dialogues’, it also presented his work in pairs, but this time there’s a different relationship between the images. ‘Sometimes you see two pictures near each other, and they have a kind of conversation,’ says Joel. There’s something that makes you want to put them together in a book or hang them together on the wall.
Adding some additional background to the staging of these shows and the man behind them, Amateur Photographer shared an interview article – https://amateurphotographer.com/technique/interviews/joel-meyerowitz-the-act-of-looking/ where we learn that Joel lived in New York for the majority of his adult life before moving to Siena, Italy for a decade before moving to London last year. Siena proved a fruitful ground for his photography and led to books of landscape and still-life subjects, but he and his partner Maggie moved to London partly because Maggie was involved in a serious accident over a year ago and the city offers high-quality medical care and also to participate in the city’s broad social and cultural activities.
c) As noted in the “Exhibitions” section above, there’s a hip-hop show currently running in Miami that includes a number of examples of the work of photographer Mike Miller, and in this recent interview I found on the Miami New Times site – https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/nwa-photographer-mike-miller-coming-to-miamis-art-of-hip-hop-museum-19648200 – Miller shares some details about his career, his focus on hip-hop-related imagery and the relationships he’s built with some of the genre’s biggest stars.
d) As part of his promotional effort for his new photo book (Pictures Of Time), photographer David Alexander – the talented shooter who is responsible for an impressive series of album covers including Hotel California for the Eagles; James Taylor’s JT; Rod Stewart’s Footloose & Fancy Free; Briefcase Full of Blues for The Blues Brothers and others for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Doobie Brothers, Donna Summer, Foreigner and many others – recently appeared in a TV interview on the Fox 23 (Tulsa, OK) morning show – https://www.fox23.com/news/iconic-album-cover-and-movie-poster-photographer-david-alexander-joins-fox23-to-discuss-his-new/video_3cda3c4c-8a6d-51cd-beb7-48bab1acbb27.html to give viewers a bit of info on his background and what’s included in his book.
Using what he learned via his education as both an artist and lawyer, David has worked for years as a commercial photographer and owner of a renowned photography and digital services laboratory and rights management firm based in the Los Angeles area, where his work can be seen via his site at https://xdam.com/david/#:~:text=David%20Alexander,Founder%2C%20Chairman&text=David’s%20career%20in%20commercial%20photography,album%20cover%20and%20movie%20poster.
Brief Bits:
e) Southern California-based design icon John Van Hamersveld recently contributed his considerable talents to designs and murals for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, which is hosting the 2024 U.S. Travel Association’s IPW – the leading international inbound travel trade show. You’ll find his work on large-scale murals at LAX Airport and on the LATCB’s booth there as well. JVH is offering fans a way to grab a memento of this work via a poster now available via his studio. Visit https://www.post-future.com/ to see more of his work and for contact info.
f) On a recent episode of The Jam podcast hosted by Jonathan Shank, Jonathan interviews famed photographer/gallerist Henry Diltz, “the man who brought us photos from Woodstock, Monterey Pop, and many other festivals, and shots for over 200 album covers. Henry and Jonathan talk about his life in Laurel Canyon and his work with The Doors and many other artists.” https://celebrityaccess.com/2024/04/23/the-jam-with-jonathan-shank-photographer-henry-diltz/
g) COMING IN JUNE – There’s a one-night event scheduled for June the 7th in Los Angeles where ten major composers have been commissioned to produce an original a new movement that will be played – where each piece was inspired by a painting by the legendary artist Bob Peak (1927-1992). Leonard Slatkin conducts the Los Angeles Film Orchestra, who’ll put on this concert – titled Pictures at an Exhibition: The Paintings of Bob Peak – at the Walt Disney Concert Hall that evening. Peak was a commercial illustrator of impressive talent, with his work found on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Time and TV Guide magazines, on posters promoting major films and plays including West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Star Trek, Rollerball, Superman, Apocalypse Now (and many others) and, of course, on music recordings including those for Joan Baez, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Tony Bennet and scores of soundtrack albums. For the 1984 Olympics, the United States Postal Service commissioned Peak to design thirty stamps, and he was the recipient of over 150 major art/design awards during his career.
Tix on sale now at https://www.musiccenter.org/tickets-free-events/lease-events/pictures-at-an-exhibition-the-paintings-of-bob-peak/
Items for Sale and/or at Auction
a) Yes, he’s a curator and a musician and a fine artist, and so it is with much admiration that I’d like to share some info on Martin Atkins’ limited edition vinyl re-release of The Damage Manual’s 2005 self-titled CD release. Featuring a 160g red vinyl disc, what makes the item so special is that this edition is built using materials (such as a textured plastic sheet) that he had stored away for nearly 20 years. According to Martin (via email) – “A couple of random things collide to make this new release possible …… a visit to the Museum from the Smashed Plastic Pressing Plant team made me want to showcase all of our cool releases, so I went hunting for some of the CDs and found some of the original 2’ x 2’ sheets from which the CDs were cut. Later that day during the visit to the museum we decided we had to put this on vinyl with 11” x 11” artwork on the sleeve.
It. Looks. Amazing.
The songs have been re-mastered by Tom Whittaker and, with Chris & Steve’s blessing, we are already in the production process. This truly is a LIMITED EDITION – I think we can make 200-225 possibly, just a few more or less, depending on how the process goes and how many we screw up in assembly. So I’m putting up a pre- order of 200.
There’s a couple of stripped down cool remixes and a remix track from members of Can, too, from the album that will be in your inbox in the next couple of weeks. The package includes a signed by me original CD insert/poster with a terrific pic from Michelle Walters – Seibold from the original CD release, and a reproduction ‘I Heart Damage’ pass.”
Truly limited and special! Pre-order now at https://martinatkins.bigcartel.com/product/the-damage-manual-limited-edition-vinyl
b) A booth at the NYC Antiquarian Book Fair in early April showed a rare, album-cover-related item – The Fool design collective’s original (un-used) design for The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s LP cover – https://news.artnet.com/art-world/new-york-antiquarian-book-fair-2024-highlights-2463046 – but I’ve yet to find out whether it sold. I checked out the vendor’s website – Voewood Rare Books – https://voewoodrarebooks.com/blogs/welcome-to-voewood-rare-books/catalogue-six and find that the bookseller has priced it at $110,000. I’ll let you know if/when I find out more.
c) The next two items in the Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull album art print series being made available via The Flood Gallery are now available for order – Jethro Tull in collaboration with The Flood Gallery is proud to present an exclusive limited edition of giclée fine art prints featuring artwork from the original album cover for Heavy Horses, originally released in 1978.
Available in three editions – a 24″ x 24″ Giclée Print Art Print, in a numbered edition of 300, with official JT embossing (signed by Ian Anderson) and priced at £120; a 28″ x 28″ Giclée Print Art Print, in a numbered edition of 125, with official JT embossing (also signed by Ian Anderson) for £175 and a 24″ x 24″ Giclée Print Art Print, numbered edition of 500, with official JT embossing but unsigned, for £50 – https://jethrotullart.com/collections/heavy-horses?
Late in the month, the gallery also announced that they’re taking orders (set to ship in June) for their series of prints based on the album artwork for Stormwatch – https://jethrotullart.com/collections/stormwatch? – the 1979 album that was the last in a trio of folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, following 1977’s Songs from the Wood and the previously mentioned Heavy Horses. The prints are being offered in the same size/price editions as noted above.
d) More from The Flood Gallery – There’s a new art print available from The Flood Gallery that celebrates the design of a much-heralded Gary Numan box set – “The edition is an A2 poster created alongside Beggars Arkive’s Gary Numan box set titled (45×15) and was designed by Beggars’ in-house designer, Michael Speed. Printed as a 4 color, CMYK giclée print, the poster was printed on gallery quality, matte, art paper stock. The first 150 copies will be signed by Gary Numan and are authenticated by Beggars Arkive. As they describe the design, “The poster design celebrates the 45X15 singles collection and Gary Numan’s pioneering spirit, using the refreshed visual identity first appearing on the box set. From a combination of technical and modern typefaces, and an RGB inspired colourway, to dot matrix patterned arrays and early computer graphic devices, the poster is inspired by unused visual concepts from the box set’s booklet, re-appropriating these elements as the final design.” Very reasonably priced at only £50.00 GBP – https://www.thefloodgallery.com/products/gary-numan-signed-screen-print?
Brief Bits:
e) As previously reported here, the U.K.’s Wiltshire Museum acquired the original photograph of a 19th century thatcher that was used in the creation of the famous artwork for Led Zeppelin IV and have been featuring it in an exhibition there that’s running through November 3, 2024. The museum has also launched line of merchandise featuring the rediscovered photograph that includes a t-shirt, several poster prints, mugs, a tote bag, and more – https://www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk/product-category/current-exhibition/ Read more about the item’s discovery and the new line of merch on the BraveWorlds.com site at https://bravewords.com/news/led-zeppelin-wiltshire-museum-launches-wiltshire-thatcher-merch-collection-featuring-original-photo-from-led-zeppelin-iv-album-cover
f) Photographer Gered Mankowitz’s latest book – The Rolling Stones: Rare and Unseen, derived from his wonderful archive of images of the Rolling Stones – is now available for order at the Iconic Images Gallery site and there’s an autographed version available that should appeal to all collectors of rock music-related art and photography – https://iconicimagesgallery.com/en-us/products/gered-mankowitz-the-rolling-stones-rare-and-unseen-signed-hardcover
g) The U.K.’s Hypergallery recently announced the availability of a limited-edition print of artist Ioannis’ 1998 cover art for hard rockers Deep Purple’s album Abandon – https://hypergallery.com/en-us/products/abandon The site has some info provided by the artist about how this fine-looking image came to life.
Auction Results Updates:
UPDATED WITH RESULTS – An April 24th fundraising auction included a nice looking Gerald Scarfe Pink Floyd print – Pink Floyd, The Wall: Mother, Wife, Teacher and Pink – that had a pre-show estimate of £6,000 – £8,000, along with a mixed-media work by a rather well-known musician – Pete Doherty, former frontman of The Libertines – titled Oui D’Accord Bien Sur (which was created by Doherty in 2011) and carried an estimate of £1,000-£2,000 and, as happens sometimes in the auction arena, only the Doherty work as sold, with a hammer price of £1,000.
These lots were sold to raise funds for The Margate School in Kent, a not-for-profit postgraduate arts school, whose aim is to make arts education possible for all. Each of these works had been generously donated by the artist to support this important art institution and its creative community. An article about the Scarfe print gave us some preliminary details –https://www.atvtoday.co.uk/236136-art/#google_vignette and you can learn more about all of the items offered in the auction via the link here – https://www.forumauctions.co.uk/Spring-Selection-Modern-Contemporary-Art-and-Editions/24-04-2024?gridtype=gridview
Miscellaneous Items and other Brief Bits:
As always, I’m going to have to keep these short-and-sweet (well, most of them, anyway):
Obits: wow – another month without having to report the demise of an album art-maker. Eat well, exercise and stay away from social media and we all might survive another month!
More news items:
NEW FROM MUSE BY CLIO – Here’s a brief overview of the latest entries in the ongoing series of album art-related features on the Muse By Clio site. This recap finds the editorial team behind the “Art of the Album” series asking several artists/production execs/musicians and album art fans to share some of their favorite covers and why it is that they stand out amongst all others. This month’s list
10 Great Album Covers, Selected by Tom Kenney of PPK: Yazoo, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths and more
https://musebycl.io/art-album/10-great-album-covers-chosen-tom-kenney-ppk
Tom Kenney is founder and CEO of PPK and, quite obviously, a big fan of 1980s-era album cover art. He founded his FL-based creative/production agency in January, 2004 and in 2023 walked away from the Muse Creative & Design Awards with 5 Golds and 7 Silvers for their work with Florida Lottery, Bare Naked Kitchen, Rose Dynasty Foundation and more.
Two members of the Boston-based rock band Buffalo Tom contributed an article this past month titled 14 Great Album Covers, Chosen by Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis of Buffalo Tom: Echo & The Bunnymen, Devo, Maria Callas and more – https://musebycl.io/art-album/14-great-album-covers-chosen-chris-colbourn-and-tom-maginnis-buffalo-tom – that includes covers from all over the music arena, from a 1954 German jazz record and Bob Dylan’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan record through 2008’s debut record by Santogold and their own 2024 record Jump Rope. Proving that all young men, regardless of age and era, love images of women covered in whip cream, they also included the tantalizing cover for 1965’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass.
NEW FROM FAR OUT – Far Out Magazine returns to the Summary again this month with several nice new pieces, this month’s grouping including several with a “find me the people” focus, plus others:
Aimee Ferrier gives us the story behind the cover for The Doors’ Morrison Hotel LP – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/story-behind-the-doors-morrison-hotel-album-cover/
As a fan of Surrealist covers, I’ve always wondered a bit about this one – Guy Howie gives us some of the details behind Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 album In the Aeroplane over the Sea – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/neutral-milk-hotel-album-cover/
c) American tourist Paul Cole was involved in what is perhaps the best example of “photo-bombing” (before there was such a term), appearing in the background on The Beatles’ Abbey Road cover photo – Matt Growcutt on the PetaPixel site – https://petapixel.com/2024/04/29/this-man-accidentally-pulled-off-the-worlds-greatest-photobomb-beatles-abbey-road-album-cover/
d) Also on the PetaPixel site, you’ll find this story about a photographer who has sued Napster for re-use of his image on their site without permission/royalties – https://petapixel.com/2024/04/03/photographer-sues-napster-over-album-artwork-in-case-that-may-upset-music-industry/
e) UPDATE OF AN APRIL STORY – So, it turns out that the description of the settlement as given in that ArtNet.com article about the Warhol Foundation and photographer Lynn Goldsmith having finally settled their grievances – https://news.artnet.com/art-world/andy-warhol-foundation-settles-with-artist-lynn-goldsmith-after-landmark-ruling-2454120 was not all that accurate, as you’ll read in Ms. Goldsmith’s commentary –
There’s a GoFundMe campaign set up to try and raise some cash to help Lynn offset some of the enormous amount spent on her legal fees in these suits – https://gofund.me/a5d98b92 or https://www.gofundme.com/f/Fight-for-A-Copyright-Law-that-Protects-Your-Work – and to illustrate that she’s not alone in the effort to challenge copyright infringements, she suggests that we all read an article on the PetaPixel site – https://petapixel.com/2024/03/12/photographer-wins-copyright-lawsuit-after-website-used-his-creative-commons-image/ – about another photographer who’s won in court after proving that his clearly-spelled-out Creative Commons license was violated.
Brief Bits:
f) The morning show team at Minnesota-based radio station 103.7 THE LOON asked its listeners which were their favorite cover images of all time and, based on their replies, came up with this list – https://1037theloon.com/question-of-the-century-minnesotans-favorite-album-art/ Now we know.
g) Comedian, TV show co-host (That Metal Show alongside Eddie Trunk and Jim Florentine), NFL football fan and metal music maven Don Jamieson recently published a list on the Loudwire.com site of the “funniest” metal album covers – https://loudwire.com/funny-rock-metal-album-covers-don-jamieson/. His own record covers have included parodies of well-known metal music albums, and his selections include record images that are either straight-out hilarious (Alice Cooper’s Raise Your Fist And Yell), strangely funny-ish (Ministry’s Dark Side of the Spoon) and gross-out adolescently funny (Type O Negative’s Origin of the Feces).
h) Doctor Who fans will be treated to a “crossover” episode in Season 14 during which the good Doctor returns in time to when the Fab Four were recording their debut album – https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-beatles-crossover-ncuti-gatwa-image/ – and there’s a parody-style image out now that riffs on the cover of With The Beatles (the album that was released at the same time as the long-running British TV series premiered in in 1963).
i) Artist Hugh Syme picks his eleven favorite RUSH covers (he was only asked for 10, but when you’ve done so much great work, there’s no reason that he can’t indulge us with one more) – https://www.loudersound.com/features/best-rush-album-covers-hugh-syme
j) Writer Justin Beckner shares the stories of four of punk music’s better-known album covers in this article on the Ultimate Guitar.com site – https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/stories_behind_4_iconic_punk_album_cover_photos-164691
k) C’mon, AI, you can do better than this (right?) – when an aging acting icon – William Shatner, who has released a number of record albums over the years – decides to trust the team that chose an AI image-creation tool to generate the cover image for his latest release (a children’s album titled Where Will the Animals Sleep? Songs for Kids & Other Living Things), I would have to think that he or his management team would have some final approval of that artwork. As you’ll see in this article on the JoBlo.com site – https://www.joblo.com/william-shatner-ai/ – approval was given to artwork that I’m certain caused lasting psychological damage to nearly every child that has seen it.
l) A couple of married Taylor Swift fans – Charlie Byrd and his husband Ryan Clifford – were so motivated by Ms. Swift’s announcement of the pending release of her newest album (The Tortured Poets Department) that they undertook the effort to recreate the album covers of all of the hugely-popular singer’s records, with one or both of the duo stepping in as the main characters depicted in the cover art. This was a big story for several days in early April, with CBS News devoting a segment to it that you can see/read about here – https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-swift-swiftie-album-covers-charlie-bird/
m) Here’s a presentation of 20 of the “best” album covers created by the Hipgnosis design studio – https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/best-hipgnosis-album-covers-by-storm-thorgerson-and-aubrey-powell/ Presented by Luke Edwards on the This Is Dig site.
n) Best of 2024, already? Jumping the gun a bit, I think – https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/best-album-covers-of-2024/
o) “Guess the Death Metal album cover” quiz – https://loudwire.com/guess-death-metal-album-cover/
p) Lana del Rey album cover overview – https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/exploring-the-album-covers-of-lana-del-rey/
q) That old photo found that was used on the Led Zep IV is cover now in a show – BBC coverage of the display is available at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw0z7057re7o
r) Would you like to scroll through an article featuring 72 album cover “tribute” and/or parody pairings (original, plus parody)? You would? Well, here you go – https://ultimateclassicrock.com/album-cover-tributes-and-parodies/
s) Learned some new terminology – NSFW – “pushing the limits of risqué”…here’s a list of some of those records that do just that – https://www.xxlmag.com/nsfw-hip-hop-album-covers
Lastly but not Leastly…
Having amassed a huge number of LPs and CDs during my lifetime (vinyl mostly until the mid-90s, and then CDs/DVDs, with my collection filling many heavy boxes that we carted around as our careers (i.e., the opportunities my wife and I pursued in Chicago, then California, then NYC, then Portland and finally back to Chicago). While in Portland, I was able to find a new home for a couple thousand CDs that I’d taken the time to rip to FLAC files stored on hard discs and, since then, did most of my listening via network storage (thanks, Sonos!). From time to time, I’d find an LP that I wanted and, realizing that my old turntable wasn’t fully up to the task, I recently decided to invest in a new record player.
While it’d been a while since I’d purchased any real hi-fi equipment, I did some research and waited until my local mega-store (Abt Electronics) staged its annual sale before I finally brought one home. The turntable includes a rather uniquely-designed dust cover that also doubles as an easel for the album cover (strange, but true) and, after unpacking the thing and setting it up, I went to my record storage to select an album to break in the new unit. My eyes went to my copy of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits and, after beginning to play the record, I looked over the sleeve which features, as you’ll recall, a cover photo of one of Mark Knopfler’s steel guitars (a 1937 National) shot by Deborah Feingold and then another image of the same guitar on the back cover. Looking more closely, it was then I realized that the back cover was actually a photo-realistic painting done by an artist by the name of Thomas Steyer, and that discovery triggered the researcher in me to want to find out more about that artist and how that painting came about. I found Thomas at home in Germany and will be sharing that story with you very soon but, suffice it to say, it was then that I realized how much I missed having the time to look over all of the art and info included in retail music packages. I have to wonder now what other tidbits like this I’ve missed and would love to hear similar examples from any/all of you that you’d be willing to share.
Additional trivia bit – the 1985 album was the first record to sell over a million copies on CD, fueled by MTV’s never-ending slotting of the mega-hit song “Money For Nothing”.
R.I.P. – Mike Pinder, founding member of the Moody Blues and Mellotron wiz. Isn’t life strange? A turn of the page….
BONUS PHOTOS (AS PROMISED) – So, as my wife and I were touring one of the indoor displays at the renowned Keukenhof Gardens in The Netherlands (celebrating its 75th year), we were drawn to a large-scale arrangement that used an old VW MicroBus (‘63 or ‘64 – not really sure) as a planter. Sitting next to the classic minivan were two towers that used album covers and more flowers to help illustrate the era in a rather artistic way, I think.
That’s all for now – be on the lookout for the next newsletter update, which is on my calendar to be delivered on the first day of June, just weeks after we’ve all given thanks to our Mothers and I’ve finally had the chance to fill up the tires on my bicycle and spent some time outside and away from the glow of my monitor screen. Of course, if anything comes across my desk anytime sooner, I will surely publish a special article/news alert, so to make sure you don’t miss out, I’d suggest that, if you haven’t done so already, you sign up on the ACHOF home page to get an automatic email every time there’s something new on the ACHOF site.
Also, if you have any suggestions for me – ideas for articles, notices about events or adding/editing sections of the newsletter or web site, please feel free to share those with me. I read every email I get (and reply to them all) and really appreciate the feedback as it’s my hope to make this site/news source as good as it can be.
Until we meet again next month,
Peace and Love to you all,
Mike G
Unless otherwise noted, all text and images included in this article are Copyright 2024 Mike Goldstein and AlbumCoverHallofFame.com – All Rights Reserved. All the trade names mentioned in these summaries are the properties of their respective owners and are used for reference only.
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