Category Archives: The art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve

on show in Northampton

Posted on by

Well sadly, Luis won’t be there, but hundreds of equally strange and awful record covers will be as Steve Goldman’s archive of the Worst Record Sleeves has gone on show at Northampton art gallery and museum until June 22nd. It is open every day except Monday and not far off the M1 below Birmingham and Leicester. The tie-in book The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve will be on sale via the gift shop for the duration as well, and it’s great to see a few of our galleries taking on more popular culture themed shows (Northampton did a big Star Wars toy display a few years ago too).

As for El Bigote, Luis’ heavy Latin Funk LP, this came out in 1975. I did go looking for the cover online and the first page I went to said simply “something went wrong”. Well yes, the cover! We can only assume Luis was riffing on the stereotype of all Cuban’s growing Dali like moustaches (el bigote is Spanish for moustache), so at least he had a sense of humour. Dusty Grooves adds “Plenty of moustaches on the cover — and some pretty hairy grooves within.”

Gift guide

Posted on by

We see quite a few nice comments on social media but this one tickled us today. Somebody bought The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve for relatives in Australia, and got this nice message back! The only problem now is what can Mum find to top this next year?

And April 1st saw The Sun devote most a page to a selection of sleeves from the book, which given the date must really have confused readers who probably thought they were all spoofs! However we did have a smile at their headline, which went “Hex and Rugs and Rock and Roll” alongside appropriate covers. Happily we got a PDF sent, so didn’t actually have to part with money for a copy.

Rabbits

Posted on by

While we are now cracking on with our next title (stay tuned!), The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve continues to create a buzz, and the results of a poll at the last exhibition as to the worst sleeves on display has now produced a top ten chart. Gathered from over 600 votes at The Williamson Gallery before Christmas, it looks set to be a benchmark for strange sleeves for some time to come!  Particularly amazing perhaps is the sleeve above; we still don’t know what prompted these Romanians to pose with nothing but a rabbit each for their comeback album back in 1995. We have made this and the rest of the ten worst covers into a special gallery at the vinyl sleeve art website run by Simon Robinson over at ST33, so – if you dare – go and take a peek!  If you’re wondering exactly what the book is all about check it out on the site.