The Carpenters

Our latest online article looks at the story behind this interesting and very elaborate album cover for The Carpenter’s Now & Then, over which there were arguments from start to finish.

Record Store Day 1972

To mark this year’s record store day, a look back at another of Sheffield lost indie chains, Bradleys.

Record Shop Archive

Happily the apathy from local arts organisations about popular culture exhibitions in Sheffield isn’t reflected everywhere (you’ll have to excuse my grump – two years running now I’ve been up for doing a sleeve art display for the Sensoria music event here, and two years running they’ve been all up for it – and then ignored all subsequent emails until it was physically too late to do anything!).
So it was good to learn that Rough Trade Records in London is putting on a display of old record store bags to mark Record Store Day throughout April. The display has been organised by Leon who runs a site devoted to collecting information on record stores, and has a website up and running. The exhibition even got a mention in the current issue of Uncut magazine.
Anyhow, you can have a potter round the site by following the link to British Record Shop Archive. And it’s somehow comforting to know that I’m not the only one who has peeled off a record shop price label to keep and thrown the album away.
I’ve chosen a great old British Home Stores bag from his collection to show here. I think the chain still have a branch open in town but not sure I can ever recall them selling records…

More Top Poppers!

We’ve finally managed to get another batch of the famous Hallmark Top Of The Pops sleeves up on the site. Chunky jumpers, red satin swimsuits and bobble caps abound! Check out Volumes 51 – 60 and 61 – 70 now (and of course if you missed them the earlier sleeves are still available – and now linked, so you can start at 1-10 and move through the series to date). And as always thanks to Tim Joseph for the data and Easy On The Eye Books for the images from the (still) forthcoming book….

Last Shop Standing – update

The Last Shop Standing documentary team staged a fundraising concert in Sheffield on April 15. And before anyone grumbles  that I didn’t post about it, the event was sold out in just a couple of days! So fast that even though I did know about it, they’d sold out before I grabbed tickets (Graham kindly reserved a couple for me to pay for at the door). It took place at The Greystones pub, which has rapidly become the small venue of choice for a lot of bands now that the Borderline in town has closed (though what the venue gains in ambience and style it loses in capacity, hence the rapid sell out). Anyhow, a lot of largely folk based local artists gave their services free, and Richard Hawley stepped in at the last moment to add a bit of star billing when one of the advertised singers fell ill. The evening was introduced with a good trailer for the documentary which whetted everyone’s appetite; it really does capture a lot of atmosphere surrounding indie shops and also some of the poignancy of their decline. This was added to when after seeing a nice clip of Hudson’s in Chesterfield, producer Graham Jones made a short speech about the project but added that Hudsons would be closing at the end of this week after 105 years in business; the UK’s longest running indie record shop. He’d invited owner Keith and family along for the evening and they got a cheer. One of the singers admitted before her turn that Hudson’s had been the first shop she’d been to as a young kid, buying Pulp and Meatloaf CDs on her first visit! Coincidentally I did photograph the shop only four weeks ago to add to our blog… It was fun too to try and spot the various shops in the trailer, and we certainly recognised Borderline down in Brighton, Rough Trade and many others. The owner of Borderline turned out to be sat next to us… Anyhow, you can see three pre-production trailers on YouTube now (complete with Billy Bragg, Johnny Marr and Rich Hawley) – links at bottom of the page – and the producers told everyone there was still time to donate to the production and get your name on screen. Some lucky people will also be asked to pose outside their favourite shop for an on-screen still (though as Graham admitted this might result in an awful lot of people outside Record Collector!). As well as the links below you can read our earlier piece on the film here with further details of the project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6my_Z12q5Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDC6Csqxl4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWNrYhnBlKo

Destroying vinyl 2

You know how a lot of record shops have stopped bothering to sell vinyl any more? That’s because they’ve found something else to do with records instead. Making cake stands out of them. I can forgive your scepticism, so I deliberately did not post this on or near April 1st. See photo for evidence. These were on sale in a charity shop in sunny Dewsbury a few weeks ago for no less than a tenner. It’s not clear whether some bright spark at head office came up with the idea, or if its a failed marketing concept from those berks who brought us the vinyl bookends, but either way it’s wrong on at least two counts; 1) it ruins albums and 2) these flimsy 80s pressings simply won’t support the weight of a decent piece of cake.

Doubtless they’ll be saving up the abandoned sleeves for something equally bonkers.

More destroying vinyl. Vinyl bookends.

edible records?

A sort of Easter themed collection! Chocolate, liquorice, and bubble gum pressings

early sleeves

A quartet of early sleeve designs for classical albums is discussed on this new page. Designed mostly in the UK, pressed here, but with covers printed over there!

A record of the past – Community

A record of the past – Community – The Star.

The local paper picked up on the collection of old Sheffield record shop bags and ran a full page story last week; here’s the edited web version!

 

Sheffield covers covered

Waste not want not! I prepared this story for the local paper but they changed their minds. Three covers with Sheffield connections which have borrowed or been borrowed.