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.

Rabbits

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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.  

talking books

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While we were over at the Williamson Gallery giving an illustrated talk on the Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve last month, Andrew Dineley who issues the excellent Art On Your Sleeve podcast episodes, collared Steve and Simon to chat about the exhibition and the book. The podcast last around half an hour, so put it on your listening list!

The page about the episode (22) with the audio link at the bottom is here.

Or you can steam in to Soundcloud direct to get the audio here.

Last chance to see!

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If you are in the North West, Steve’s Bizarre Vinyl display at The Williamson in Birkenhead finishes on Saturday this week (27th). It then moves across to Alnwick in the North East in early February. More details on that soon. In the meantime you can now see the older Bizarre Vinyl Newsletters at our online archive site. Current newsletters are exclusive to subscribers.

And before we all collectively try and get on with the new year here’s one of the festive sleeves which didn’t make Steve’s book The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve… is uptrousering a thing? And if so should it be make illegal?

Stranger things

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Maybe Stranger Things is a running feature in the Yorkshire Post newspaper’s Saturday 16th Magazine? Not sure how else to explain the heading! It was my Mum’s favourite paper, so a shame she is no longer around to see this and it is a well written article about The Art Of The Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve book (see below) and Steve’s collection. Just a shame they showed the back of the book not the front…! As for the author photo… Anyway we have put up the full article on this site.