With a record label founded in the very early 1950s, when a book on the world’s first spoken-word label Caedmon Records was first mooted we were very pleased to find both the label founders still active, interested and fully au fait with modern technology, and they have both been generous with sharing their recollections and answering questions. We were impressed to discover that one of the label’s founders, Marianne Mantell, was answering her emails from on board a ship and would be in the UK briefly as part of a cruise voyage this month. She suggested we come over when the boat docked in Liverpool and talk face to face to share her memories of this exciting label.

The archive photograph here shows the label founders and two of their recordings stars in 1972. L-R Barbara Holdridge, Julie Harris, Marianne Mantell and Claire Bloom.

We will report back on the interview shortly. You can read about the title under the In The Pipeline section

Easy On The Eye are also working on a book devoted to Walking Pictures; impromptu street images of people taken in towns and holiday resorts during the first and second half of the twentieth century. The photographer handed the subject a ticket, and the postcard sized print could be purchased later in the day. Although this book is still being assembled from a number of collections,

The book is already attracting a lot of interest. It featured in the May 2010 edition of Practical Family History magazine and the June 2011 edition of Family Tree magazine. Such has been the interest that a special site on the pictures and their history is now active, visit Go Home On A Postcard. There is also a special Walking Pictures Flikr collection online, set up by Easy On The Eye, where you can see some more images of this sort.

If anyone out there has any walking pictures in their family albums – they were still being taken as recently as the early sixties – we would love to hear from you with a view to perhaps including them in the book.

UPDATE – Colin Harding who works at Bradford Media Museum (and is author of a recent book called Classic Cameras) has been in touch, and we had a meeting recently about the Walking Pictures title. Colin curated an exhibition about seaside photography at Bradford a few years ago, and we are hoping to use some material he collected for that in the upcoming book.

Below are two examples to show what these images look like… and there is more information and the cover of the book on the ‘in the pipeline’ section here.

Carole and Brian in Skegness. This is Carole and Brian on holiday in Skegness (or Skeggy to many trippers) in 1961. Carole says they got used to the street photographer, and bought a few of the postcards as a souvenir. She also adds that while they look as if they're on their way somewhere very posh, they were actually off to watch the early evening wrestling match!

Off for a read... We do not know who this family are, but the photograph was taken at Mablethorpe on a walkway known locally as 'The Pullover', which took visitors up from the town, over the dunes and onto the seafront. Dad has a daily paper, mum is carrying handbag and a camera in one hand and clutching a serious fashion magazine under her other arm. Daughter has a handful of new comics and Uncle has a book, so it looks like a serious reading session in deckchairs is on the cards.

An introduction to the Top Of The Pops cover albums is to feature in a forthcoming edition of the UK based Record Collector magazine. The article has been put together by author Tom Joseph and publisher Simon Robinson, and briefly covers the history, as well as having a great full page display of all the albums and of course information on the book itself. As soon as we have a confirmed publication date we will post it here.

Easy On The Eye were featured on BBC Radio 2 recently.

The occasion was the broadcast at the end of 2009 of a special programme about the Top Of The Pops albums. The producers interviewed Tim Joseph, author of When Cover Girls Ruled The World, at length about the recordings, as well as Easy On The Eye publisher Simon Robinson, who they credited as a “pop historian”! The show was fronted by Slade singer Noddy Holder, and also featured contributions from a number of session players as well as former models, producers and engineers. The show may still be featured as a download on the BBC website, but if you’d like to hear it let us know.

Interestingly, the interviews with Tim and Simon were done at Fairview studios, just outside Hull (Tim Joseph’s home town). Fairview is a famous provincial studio, started in 1966 by Keith Herd, who still works there today. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip for Tim Joseph who recorded there with his band in the late 1970s.