Sonic Boom

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VINTAGE ROCK magazine have done Brian and his archive proud with a five page feature in their current October 2024 cover dated issue (71). I can normally buy this in a couple of outlets here in Sheffield but they have both sold out this time (who knew The Stray Cats – the cover stars – were so popular?!), so in the end we ordered it off the magazine’s own online shop. The focus here is very much on the photographs and Brian’s own story, and it’s nice to see him getting this recognition. We anticipate physical copies of his amazing blues photo book Boom Boom Boom Boom will be available during November.

For posterity

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The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve is now lodged in the archives of the British Library, so future mad album art researchers can peruse it at their leisure! These days publishers have to send the library six copies of each new title, the rest are then shipped on to the national libraries in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, with two more going to Cambridge University (my Mum would be proud, that’s where she went!) and the Bodleian in Oxford. It’s a clever scheme though it often takes a prompt from their legal deposit department for us to remember to do it! Sadly donating books like this does not give us any sort of a discount if we wish to use the British Library resources in turn; it’s still £31 (pre-covid prices) for them to send me one snap of an album sleeve from their collection…

So, for one of our upcoming titles we’re hoping to get over to the storage library at Boston Spa (above) and take some photos ourselves, now the dreaded cyber attack closures appear to be under control. And I am more than excited about plans to open extra facilities in Leeds at the utterly marvellous Temple Works, abandoned for decades by the thickies at the council. Let’s hope this doesn’t go under Rachel Reeves mad austerity mk 2 agenda.

Blues Views again

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As we are nearing publication we have revoiced our first promotion video about Brian Smith’s Blues Photo Book “Boom Boom Boom Boom on the Easy On The Eye Books YouTube channel. I say “we” but in fact the new voice-over was done by Nate Goodwyn, who adds an authentic feel to the piece. The video should show here on most browser but if not you can check this out using the link below. Do feel free to pass the word or share the video!

https://www.youtube.com/@EasyOnTheEyeBooks

In The Press again

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A couple more welcome mentions of The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve which we have added to the growing archive on the site. From opposite ends of the media spectrum too, one being the distinctly niche and high-brow in house magazine Photographica World, the other a much less wordy page from The Sun “news” paper. Considering the circulation of the latter you might have expected a few sales off the back of it. You would be wrong. Draw your own conclusions! Both feature in full under The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve menu above or via the links.

Fine tuning

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As we are about to send out updated press releases, Brian Smith’s Boom Boom photo book cover has had a little more time spent on it, in particular cleaning up the edges of the cut-out images which had been done only roughly until now. If you are wondering who is who on the cover, that’s Screaming Jay Hawkins on the far right with Brian Smith himself joining in the fun, taken by one of Brian’s mates; I wanted to sneak Brian onto the cover if we could!  Little Richard in the centre is a star more people might recognise. I realised a few days ago we ought to try and get John Lee Hooker onto the front too, so tweaked things to enable this and fitted him next to Little Richard.  On the left is Buddy Guy. The main cover photograph is of Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. Several of these images were taken inside the Twisted Wheel Club, one of Brian’s regular haunts

Previewed

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We have added another page of previews of Brian Smith’s Boom Boom Boom Blues Photos book to this site. Some of these spreads have been up here before but are now replaced by updated and higher resolution versions. The images below show Chuck Berry warming his fingers up in the dressing room, and Sonny Boy Williamson relaxing back at Roger Eagle‘s Manchester flat before heading back into town for the show that night. The story behind those shots is worth the price of the book alone, trust us!

Work in progress

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Snapped at the designer’s (1960s Ercol) worktop a few weeks ago: “I often use a split screen set-up for the design and layout but here preferred to work on the laptop; on a final run through like this any changes are likely to be very minimal, most of the heavy work has – hopefully – been done..!” Each page of the Boom Boom Blues Photo Book is here being signed off via a monochrome laser print prior to preparing the PDF for the printer. The page on screen shows Buddy Guy in action at The Twisted Wheel Club, one of a series of terrific live shots Brian got on the night. Amazingly Buddy’s backing band for the first show were delayed getting there, and a local Manchester group were called in with zero rehearsal time. Buddy almost brought the house down, smashing his guitar into the Wheel club ceiling at the end! We did try a few times to get Buddy to write us a few words for the book but his useless manager rudely ignored all our emails.

Celebrity endorsement!

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Well clearly just the publishers having a bit of fun, with Willy Dixon pointing up the forthcoming book of Brian Smith’s blues photographs. This great shot was taken backstage by Brian and at the time Willy was chatting with Twisted Wheel promoter Roger Eagle. Roger had managed to get Willy to hold up a couple of copies of his ground-breaking blues magazine R’n B Scene (and the original photo is of course in the new book in the original monochrome). The publishers will be sending out a newsletter with updates on the book later this week and you can join that dedicated mailing list at any time.

Inside the tent

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looking out? Nice to sit and chat with people about The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve at the Huddersfield Literary Festival tent on the 26th, and to meet vinyl fans after. Next time I will bring a torch as it was difficult at times to see my notes inside the tent despite the sunny day! Steve is now getting ready for a display of the sleeves at the Bearded Theory festival at Catton Hall, Derbyshire, 23 – 26 May 2024 [beardedtheory.co.uk] so we’re busy updating the flyers to get them ready in time, then back to work on the next book.

Gift guide

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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.