Author Archives: simon robinson

About simon robinson

Having worked as a designer mostly in the music industry, and mainly in the reissue sector, I now concentrate on the design and publication of books about popular culture - and even write some of them.

Caravan

Posted on June 21, 2018

  I’ve been scanning some of my old rock photographs lately, and found a few of the band Caravan at the end of one reel.  Back in those days as a student film was expensive, so sometimes you would keep … Continue reading →

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Isle Of Wight

Posted on June 15, 2018

I confess I’ve never been thrilled with the idea of outdoor music festivals, but some achieve a mythology which erases any aggro experienced by the audience at the time. These great looking concert tickets are from the 1969 Isle Of … Continue reading →

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Advertising

Posted on June 4, 2018

Vintage album adverts from May 1972 this time. Back then all this sort of artwork was assembled by hand; a black and white photo would be supplied, along with all the text typeset on paper and pasted onto board in … Continue reading →

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Leaping electric gnomes

Posted on May 25, 2018

I know it’s not a record sleeve but I was scanning some old music papers and couldn’t resist this, I do enjoy the old press and album adverts, it’s always interesting to see this material in context. Can you get … Continue reading →

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Horoscopo

Posted on May 18, 2018

Here’s another of those cheery Spanish vacation holiday album sleeves, this time from the Costa Brava. While back in Britain in 1973 we were purchasing Dark Side Of The Moon, Houses Of The Holy or Quadrophenia, over in Barcelona, Olympus … Continue reading →

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The Old Grey Mare

Posted on May 11, 2018

A nice piece of social history, referencing popular music and showing the inside of a record department back in the day. Artist Brian Fitzpatrick joined the famous firm of Bamforth’s in 1954 and worked for them for twenty years. Although … Continue reading →

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Fidelio

Posted on April 27, 2018

The Fidelio label was part of the same U.K. group who issued the Concert Classics albums. Both were dubious budget operations, and cavalier over where the recordings came from (some were later found to be lifted from East European radio … Continue reading →

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Lego Record Store Day 2018

Posted on April 20, 2018

Lego has been part of my life for over many years, thanks to a forward looking Grandmother who bought me one of the very early sets, and it is heartening to see how the brand has weathered the vagaries of … Continue reading →

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Rock writ large

Posted on April 13, 2018

Back in 1980 this compilation was issued of live recordings from the first Monsters Of Rock festival in the U.K. Originally Rainbow planned and prepared a double LP of their full set, but this was shelved when drummer Cozy Powell … Continue reading →

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for hire

Posted on April 6, 2018

Looking around the 2017 Sleeve of The Year exhibition in Barnsley (see post below) reminded me of a sleeve art exhibition I was involved in back in 1999. Somehow we persuaded Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery to host this based on … Continue reading →

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