Spinnings Discs record shop in the city (below) is added to our list of places to visit at last! Our modest list also updates Jumbo Records in Leeds which has moved back into the Merrion Centre just across the road. Not had chance to visit yet, unless you count going there in 1978 before they first moved out!
I picked this Beatles record carry case up at a junk shop a couple of decades ago for a few shillings. These sort of carriers were very popular in the late Fifties and into the Sixties, with plastic pockets inside to hold sixteen 7″ singles, and retractable handles, so you could carry your singles to a friend’s house or party. Most of them had jazzy designs printed onto the plastic outsides, but here they had a printed photo of the group sealed into the plastic. A nice bit of memorabilia, I was fascinated to spot an advert for it in an old music magazine I was going through recently.
This is from March 1964, so dates the case really closely. The case was licensed by PYX but it was being sold by Mod Fashions in London, some time before Mod became a social / fashion trend. It wasn’t cheap either, 12/6d in 1964 (a loaf of bread was around 1/- or 5p) – but you did have a money back guarantee, plus it was “dainty, light, yet hardwearing”! The group had already produced four or five of their biggest UK hits by this time and everyone was wanting to cash in with merchandise, reportedly with the band losing out on some very poor deals. It is one of my few items of Beatles memorabilia and does remind me of when I first heard those singles on the radio as a school kid and traded the bubble gums cards in the playground!
Back in 1968 when this advert appeared in Melody Maker, stereo was still a pricey upgrade for most pop music fans, and many were playing records on older mono record players even though the stereo format had been around for a decade by this time. And this worked OK given the tiny speakers. But BSR here were trying to educate people into upgrading to a stereo cartridge, as this would read stereo discs better and improve the sound. The advert is typical of the era, especially the illustration of the dolly girl with the elaborate hair do. But as the cartridge was going to cost the best part of two quid I doubt many could afford it. I know I played my early stereo album purchases on a mono player, the Fidelity HF43, and doubt it would have made much difference. Instead, I used to sneak in and use my Dad’s modest Sony stereo deck when he was out!
The Fidelity was a smashing looking machine though, probably launched in the late 60s (I got mine around 1970), and identical to this photo (above) I found online. To stop arguments my brother also got one, in the alternative grey colour scheme. The case was thick solid plastic, as was the lid, so they were very robust.
To my regret we both got rid of them later when we upgraded, but found replacements in junk shops since. As one has just been auctioned for over £100 I will look after it better!
Thanks to Tonny Steenhagen for the advert scan.
Three nice illustrated sleeves which I have stumbled across in recent months, all for classical music and issued in the 1950s and 1960s.
The first cover design is a real work of art, produced for Columbia’s classical label in 1963 by Henrietta Condak, who did sleeve designs for them well into the Eighties. The later covers tend to feature mostly photographs of the performers, probably dictated by the label and the market, but many of the earlier designs when budgets were less constrained are typographical or illustration based.
Here the two bird illustrations turn out to incorporate smaller images of other birds when you start to look more closely, all taken from old Victorian engravings. This is then set amongst some beautiful calligraphy credited to Irene Trivas. She was also an illustrator, but appears to have worked less often on record covers, and mainly in the Fifties, although her output is always really striking.
The Scheherazade cover is yet another interpretation of the ballet based on the narrator of the Arabian Nights. There are dozens of recordings of this work out there, all presenting different visions of the story, and it’s fascinating to see how designers tackled the challenge. This is one of the earliest LP versions on RCA Victor, dating from 1951. I was quite surprised at the excellent condition, the multi-coloured printing with solid black, pink, turquoise and blue inks has survived without the usual ring wear associated with paper sleeves from North America (it’s actually a Canadian pressing). Even better it was a garage clearance (all LPs £2) find at a local market. Frustratingly the cover artist is not credited anywhere, but it is a real gem.
The last of the illustrated sleeves is an abstract design by Italian born George Guisti, for the Command Classic series. I picked up the Pye UK issue from 1966 but the album was first issued in this cover in 1961 in America. Guisti did around 50 sleeves for the label across the Sixties, most are excellent. Guisti emigrated to America in the late Thirties as he was offered so much work there whilst visiting. As well as the sleeves, his work graced books, magazines, corporate material and advertising, as well as sculpture and even architecture (I’ve just been drooling over one of his 1964 houses which is up for sale!). The image is very abstract, seeming to depict a pine tree on a hill, but I’ve no idea if there is anything in the music which inspired it. All his sleeves feature the recognisable signature.
The Palace Theatre in Manchester was one of the many rock venues available to me as a student there, but tended not to have as many groups as The Free Trade Hall. However if a band needed a deeper bigger stage, then it was the best option. I saw Genesis there doing Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. So when Yes were touring their elaborate Relayer show in 1975 it was about the only venue in the city which could take their set, with large fibreglass installations designed by Roger Dean. I was lucky enough to see the show, which was the first with new keyboard player Patrick Moraz. I also managed to get my 135mm lens in to take some shots from the stalls, including this one of Howe and Moraz. Yes are not everyone’s cup of tea being too proggy for some but I really enjoy their work up to this era. The photo and a few more will appear in a new book of dedicated interviews by journalist and broadcaster Jon Kirkman, The Yes Interviews, published early in 2019 (by Easy On The Eye books). Having been sat in my archive for so long it’s nice to see them in print!
I absolutely played the debut album from Talking Heads to death back in 1977, having taken a risk on the single after rave reviews in the NME. The LP sleeve is good too (it can be seen on the site) but the band had wanted to use proper silk screen quality inks to give the jarring optical clash between the day glo green and orange / red (inspired by supermarket packaging I seem to remember). It seems a shame none of the recent vinyl reissues have not gone that extra mile. However you get a better idea of how it might have looked from this original Sire Records promotional in-store poster issued in the UK, which is done in the industrial inks. I blagged it from Virgin Records back at the time.
I cannot trace James Russell & Co. This charming Christmas sleeve printed for their record department looks to be from the 1930s judging by the stylistic outline drawings of the man and woman who are carrying the letters which make up the word Greetings. On the other side they are carrying parcels. I thought at first that they might simply be metal blocks from the typesetters (most of whom stocked a wide range of seasonal images in their catalogue) but looking closely it is clear the figures are individually painted as there are differences between them. So, it looks like Russell’s designers did this specially, which suggests a department store; I doubt a record shop alone would go to those lengths. Either way, it’s a lovely image and the only 78 rpm Christmas sleeve I’ve found to date. There was a Russell & Russell shop in Sheffield around 1910, but whether there is a connection I don’t know.
This vintage paper bag turned up a few weeks ago at an antique shop, and for £3 I couldn’t resist. Lovingly crafted from brown paper with string handles, and complete with the HMV and Columbia record logos, it must be pre-War, so just who kept it mint for all those years must remain a mystery. All this crap about plastic bags destroying the planet could have been avoided if they had stuck to this sort of carry-home!
I can’t find out much about the record shop. The web doesn’t help; the shop is listed on the Birmingham Music Archive website (which doesn’t seem to have updated for over a year), and a record sleeve from the shop is shown (see below). This gives an alternate city centre address, but the Erdington one is the same. All I know about Erdington is that it was the home of the famous Mothers Club live venue in the 1960s.
As with other shops selling records at the time, Beresford’s seem to have been a general electrical dealer. It’s a sign of the time that the Erdington branch is now a Polish food outlet.
I kind of assumed Binn’s department stores must have sold gramophone players and records at some time, but this is the first 78 rpm bag featuring their name I have found. In fact the shop had three slightly different ones in, I got two (someone nabbed the other while I was walking round the charity shop!). The shop logo is lovely, very 1920s, and matches their shop design. This one is letterpress printed in orange ink, the other is actually gold foil, but hard to photograph. I would think this sleeve is from one of the firm’s many stores in the North East (the firm began in 1804, and by the early 1900s was Sunderland’s biggest department store.). I remember the shop in Leeds where my Grandparents used to shop. The chain was taken over by House of Fraser, and in recent times the majority of the former shops have closed or been renamed.
Palmer, W. G. & Son, on the North End Road in Kensington apparently not only sold gramophone players, wireless sets, and of course 78 rpm records, but also acted as a ticket agency for all the London Theatres and even rail and bus travel. What’s more, they gave over the flip side of their sleeve to (I assume paid for) adverts for local tradesmen, grocers, stationery, car hire and off licenses! This is the only time I’ve seen this done on a 78.
 | Vinyl Connection on Carrying The Beatles |
 | simon robinson on 77 |
| simon robinson on At The Palace |
 | Postcard Cafe on At The Palace |
| Postcard Cafe on 77 |
