Alex Chilton - Big Star

Alex Chilton of the influential Seventies band Big Star passed away on Wednesday 17th March 2010. He was responsible for writing and recording some of the most soulful and sad songs in the history of popular music. 'Thirteen' is my favourite track that he wrote (along with the late Chris Bell) as well as for many other people, it's so simple yet so affecting and has a timeless quality about it...Rest In Peace Alex and thank you for sharing your talent with us.

Big Star - Thirteen taken from the debut 1972 album '#1Record'

Bat For Lashes - Kanga Roo - Cover Version - written by Alex Chilton for 'Third' album

http://www.myspace.com/bigstarband

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Star

http://blog.allmusic.com/2010/3/18/a-tribute-to-alex-chilton/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/mar/18/alex-chilton-obituary

Rolling Stone Magazine Tribute

The World Of Your Hundred Best Tunes

Here’s my homage to an often overlooked piece of vinyl history, let’s put a spotlight on a series of records that are a staple part of many a charity shop record pile. ‘The World of Your Hundred Best Tunes’ was a spin off from the long running BBC radio programme of the same name. . ‘Your Hundred Best Tunes’ was originally commissioned for a 13-week run with the intention of finding the "best 100 tunes in the world" and it ran for forty seven years, between 1959 and 2007. The show was devised and presented by Alan Keith and it (and he) became a great British institution. He went on to become the longest serving and oldest presenter on British radio. After Keith’s death in 2003, the responsibility of taking up the presenting helm fell to Richard Baker, however he couldn’t arrest the falling listening figures and eventually the programme was axed.

Alan Keith was the professional stage name of Alexander Kossoff. His brother was David Kossoff who as an actor and television presenter of some note, older readers may remember him as the hen-pecked husband Alf Larkins in the domestic sitcom The Larkins. He also appeared in numerous film roles, one of which A Kid For Two Farthings, directed by Carol Reed in 1955 is well worth tracking down. Kossoff plays an East End tailor called Kandinsky who is befriended by a boy called Joe, who has bought what he believes to be a unicorn, which he hopes will bring good luck to his friends in the austere rationed post war neighbourhood. It is actually a sickly little goat; with just one twisted horn in the middle of its forehead, but the community play along with this make believe. It’s a fascinating and unusual film, mixing magic realism with kitchen sink drama and highly recommended.

If that family name seems familiar it’s because David’s son was Paul Kossoff, lead guitarist of heavy blues rockers band Free. Sadly, he died at just 25 from a heart attack following years of drug addiction but during his time in Free he was responsible for some of the finest guitar solos of that period and made an immense contribution to classic tracks All Right Now, My Brother Jake and Wishing Well, all contenders in my list of hundred best tunes.

Volume 2

pressed in 1971, has Alan Keith gazing longingly at the cover of what I presume is a copy of Volume 1 “The Top Ten” featuring a semi comatose listener, zonked out in an armchair, with the radio set to Alan’s Sunday evening broadcast. It’s a lukewarm start to the series in terms of vinyl cover goodness.

Volume 3

is a particular favourite of mine, all the family are sitting around the monstrous fireplace with a proper fire roaring away, the radio on and there isn’t a television in sight. The daughter is dutifully spending time with the ‘olds’ and the family pooch completes the scene. I suspect though, that her minds on other things, perhaps how to get out of there and into her own groovy pad where she can hold swinging parties and is able to listen to some contemporary tunes instead of this fuddy duddy music.

Volume 4

Has a bit of a dull cover on it, truth be told. A boringly normal couple snuggle up on the sofa, next to the now ubiquitous radio, each with a glass of water perched on the rather tasteful coffee table! Only the oversized lamp hints of the interior design madness of the era. Surely, it’s a cover up! you can’t fool me, I’ve watched ‘Abigail’s Party’, we know what went on behind closed doors at these soirees: Demis Roussos on the 8track, papyrus grass knowingly grown outside on the front lawn, sets of keys in the ashtray, copious lines of Columbian Marching Powder glistening on the polished glass table. You can’t tell me that this cover actually shows how people really entertained themselves back in the early Seventies.

Volume 5

Goes all rustic and manages to come up with a classic cover. A young buck has taken his date for a punt down the river and has stopped by the riverside to listen to our favourite light entertainment show on his portable radio with the fragrant damsel in tow, she’s sporting a rather fetching gaudy floral dress and oversized floppy sun hat. Our suitor, posing in a classic catalogue man pose, begs many questions. Will he act like a gentleman? What are his real intentions? Will she put out? Why did he take her outside on such a cold and dank day? But most all we are asking... what the heck is the old nag doing in the photo? Hey Dobbin! You’re cramping his style, don’t you know, three’s a crowd!

Volume 6

Ssees us restored to the cosy warmth of residing beside the hearth, with a rather impressive inglenook on display and proper fire blazing away within it; this is a residence with a touch of quality. The owner of this nest is ‘dear ole grandma’ who’s got the radio on a bit too loudly because she’s a bit ‘mutt an jeff’ in her advanced years. I suspect the two young’ uns are her grandchildren, come to visit their Nana and build up some brownie points by humouring her for a few hours. After all, a bit of effort currying favour in this stage could lead to a big payoff down the line in her will. Let’s face it, she’s not long for this world and she’s sitting on a sizable asset, it’s got oak beams an all. The sense of competition between the two siblings is palatable as they play off versus each other. The floppy haired chap with the green suede jacket has always been the apple of Nana’s eye, even though his behaviour of late has been slightly concerning, dropping out of university and that unfortunate incident with the funny cigarette: Well, let’s best not go there. The granddaughter’s blossomed into a bonny lass and such a sensible head on her shoulders too, if only she would find a nice young man to settle down with a have some babies. All this talk of having a career though, tut! What’s the world coming to? The dogs not fooled though, he can sniff the fettered odour of ingratiation in the air as he makes his opinion known in the only way he can, with a long low threatening growl.

Volume 7

We go all stately and grandiose with a shot of a dapper young couple resting on the patio next to some serious pot plant ornament and statue action. The sun is out and our lass is looking very ‘Vogue 1973 cover star’ with the faux country servant girl chic apparel. However, something is wrong as the sexual chemistry between them is nowhere to be seen. The guy is grinning like a gormless loon, but isn’t sure what to say next, so he’s switched on the radio to fill the silence. The friend who set these two up, made a serious misjudgement, on this blind date. He thinks he’s lucked out and is on a roll thanks to his lucky checked shirt with the extra wide lapels, but she’s having none of it and is plotting how best to ditch the dopey lunk without causing too much of a scene. That guy who arrived earlier in the Triumph Stag has caught her eye and seemed to be available, even more importantly, he was free and easy with buying the G & T’s.

Volume 8

After the disaster of the previous volume Alan’s decided to come back, rest assured we’re in safe hands now, as the old pro shows us how to present a classic cover, a dignified stance in a gentlemen’s club style, loafing about in the armchair, more quality leather antique furniture dotted about the room, a modest fireplace, class never boasts you know and the wall to wall shelves are full of dusty old tomes in the background (risqué men’s periodicals nestled discreetly between the classic fiction and complete run of Shakespeare) A well hung painting one of the St Ives school, a pleasant harbour scene picked up for a song is worth a tidy sum now. The whole scene is set off with some strategically placed foliage, including a splendid spider plant. The horizontal stored pile of vinyl is the only small fly in this interior ointment, preventing this from being a perfectly executed music listening scene with just the right ambience.

Volume 9

The most striking cover of the series has to be this one featuring a lady sitting in the now ubiquitous armchair, (obviously, 100 Best Tunes was meant to be listened to at leisure with due consideration, rather than as background noise whilst ironing, cooking etc) next to her is a girl, who looks spellbound, it’s as if she’s completely been hypnotised by the wonderful music emanating from the nearby record player. Not only that! We have an appearance of a proper good old fashioned deck, there’s a good selection of platters scattered around the room, from the ‘Hundred Best Tunes’ series. Whether the lady is her mother is unclear, but she’s smiling benevolently at the girl. In fact, it’s more than a maternal gaze; there’s an ever so slightly sinister vibe in the woman’s body language, a controlling nuance with an undercurrent of a silent but implicit threat. This ‘Miss Havisham’ won’t countenance any new fangled Beatles type pop music being played under her roof from ‘Estella’ and woe betide the little madam if she’s tries to go against her express wishes. However, our supplicant is already an empty vessel, with the type of vacant stare, more often associated with newly indoctrinated religious cult members. Next stop for her retraining schedule, is the specially constructed ‘Hundred Best Tunes compound’ fully kitted out with ultra loud floral curtains and mock log fire electric heaters, cocooned from the pernicious influences of teenage rebellion, cut off from all this devil’s music and the immoral behaviour that it inspires.

Volume 10

The series culminates with an image to appeal to the youth market; a groovy couple chill out at home, accompanied by the now (over)familiar props: fake log fireplace, check! Grandpa’s favourite armchair check! Chunky oak effect radio check! Antique furniture check! Pot plants check! Garish curtains check! However, our hip cats are posing in a distinctly relaxed style, in fact, they look remarkably similar to Peter Bowles and Penelope Keith in the classic ITV Eighties sitcom ‘To The Manor Born’ The scene is completed with a cheeky glass of wine on the table! It might seem to be just one civilised glass of chardonnay for now, but mark my words it’ll lead to necking copious quantities of booze at home, slumped in front of the radio and inevitably leading to dereliction and degradation down the line. Passed out in the armchair on a Sunday night, a bottle of supermarket own brand vodka nestled in the lap, not even the white noise from the radio can wake them from their slumbers. Alan Keith’s soothing voice has long since departed from the airwaves on that evening’s edition of ‘Your Hundred Best Tunes’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Hundred_Best_Tunesnes

http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/radio2/your_100_best_tunes_page.htm_tunes_page.htm

http://k9life.blogspot.com/2007/07/your-100-best-100-best-programmes.htmlbest-programmes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Keith

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kossoff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kossoff

Teach-In sing Ding-a-dong

It's that time of year again, when the U.K representative for the Eurovision Song Contest gets publicly humiliated with a long line of nul points from our continental cousins, except for a few sympathy points thrown our way by Ireland and the decent handful from plucky Malta (they've long memories on that island) this is an event much like Marmite, you either love it or hate it and I'm firmly in the former camp, hmm...now there's another word you often associate with this spectacle.

For the benefit of our American readers who must be wondering what on earth Scratchy is blathering on about.. a quick explanation of this event can be sought here. The gist of Eurovision is that since 1956 lots of European countries have each year entered a song, with the hope of becoming the most popular tune in the annual contest. Each member awards a number of points, up to a maximum of twelve points and it's all meant to be done in the spirit of unity and harmony.

It was taken quite seriously in the early years with many established pop stars, such as Lulu and Cliff Richard, entering quality pop songs and it was also the springboard for the careers of some internationally renowned acts, most notably Abba in 1974. However, there has always been a strong whiff of cheese to the event, with more than it's fair share of nonsensical lyrics, silly songs and ludicrous costumes. It's creditability has been a bit suspect for many a year in the U.K with the Great British Public not taking it as seriously as the organisers would like. It's nadir for the British arrived in 2003 when Jemini finished in last place with the dreaded 'nul points' This was widely seen as a backlash and an anti war protest about Tony Blair's involvement and the U.K's participation in the American led invasion of Iraq.

The integrity of the show has recently been cast into further doubt with old alliances, block voting, and traditional enmities overtly influencing the voting. This reached the depths last year as to rankle Terry Wogan so much (the much loved BBC presenter who had been the face of Eurovision for the BBC for donkeys years) that his wry commentary of the proceedings turned into ire as he all but announced his resignation from the job on air as the winner entry from Russia was being crowned, amidst bitter recriminations of undue favouritism coming from their allies in the former Soviet republics, who had strangely, nearly all given maximum marks to their powerful neighbour.

Fear not, my American friends, if Eurovision was a dastardly plan by 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' to turn us all into one big commie loving "United States of Europe" then it's failing miserably and the bickering is louder than ever..that's why we love it! This year I'm hoping for one of the representatives of the former members of the Soviet Bloc, to just lay their cards on the table and have an act performing a song called "Please Don't Turn Off Your Gas in January" before awarding the obligatory douze points.. It'll be a lot more straight forward for everyone involved..

I have dug out my one cheesy record featuring a Eurovision winner, bought mainly for the hideous cover and fashion nightmares being worn by the band. I was particularly taken with the look of the guy top right who is the spitting image of the Les McQueen character from the cult television comedy The League Of Gentlemen The sketches highlight the tragic life of the ex rhythm guitarist from fictional band Crème Brulee, played to perfection, by Mark Gatiss. The story is of a Seventies soft rock band, who entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981, and were nearly signed to Pickwick in 1976. Their big hit was "Voodoo Lady" and Les desperately hankers for a return to the limelight and recapture his youth.

Teach-In had a rather more successful career than Crème Brulee. Now, usually thought of as Abba clones, they were actually a successful band in their home country Holland, with three chart hit hits already under their belt by 1974 and were no spring chickens to the pop scene, having formed way back in 1969. The line up in the halcyon years had Getty Kaspers on lead vocals, John Gaasbeek (piano) Ard Weeink (trumpet, bass) Chris de Wolde (guitar) plus founder members Koos Versteeg (piano, accordion) and Ruud Nijhuis (drums)

The Dutch entry's night of glory, at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, with Ding-a-dong propelled them to have a hit with the winning song in most European countries, reaching number thirteen in the U.K. In fact, trivia fans, they were the the first winners under the now-familiar Eurovision voting system, whereby each country awards scores of 1 to 8, then 10 and 12, it's worth storing that little titbit of knowledge for future reference at a pop pub quiz! Their career fizzled out in 1978 after six albums but since then, the occasional reformation, with new members enlisted to fill the gaps, has kept the spirit of 75 ding-a-donging along.

As a postscript to the event, my personal favourite song from the 2009 contest, the Portuguese entry Flor-de-Lis, headed straight for mid table mediocrity on the night and my predictions of disaster for the U.K entry Jade weren't borne out as she was placed in a respectable fifth place, where as my friends' two year old daughter showed a keen ear for a winning pop tune, by dancing most animatedly on the sofa to the Norwegian entry Alexander Rybak, which blitzed the field with a record breaking 387 points. So much for my pop punditry prowess, the lesson learnt here is, next time ask a toddler if you want to predict a chart topper.

Teach-in performing their winning song Ding-a-dong at the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm,Sweden.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding-A-Dong

http://www.eurovision.tv/

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/teach_in

Jack Davis and Sailcat

One of the great losses of modern popular culture is the lack of opportunity for an artist, designer typographer or musician to make their mark and express their creative vision on the 12"x 12" canvas that is a record cover. No amount of creative packaging within CD covers can replace the record sleeve as an ideal forum to create a visual impact, as for mp3's, no matter how convenient they are, the accompanying visuals are a non starter.

As a nipper, I used to seek out Mad magazine paperbacks, featuring many of artists that influenced and informed my early scribblings, Duck Edwing, Don Martin 'Mad's Maddest Artist' and Sergio Aragones were particular favourites of mine. The cartoon work of Jack Davis also caught my eye, with his accomplished pseudo realistic brushwork, usually illustrating wacky parodies of popular t.v and movie culture. He was an intregal part of the Mad team, indeed his work had featured right from the first issue and continued to feature in another 241 issues.

Jack's draughtmanship was also put to good use in other fields of illustration like movie posters, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World being a particularly appropriate example. Jack's instantly recognisable style also adorns dozens of album cover sleeves as well.

Jack's appealing style was particularly suited to the medium of the album sleeve, as he could convey an impression of the music/sounds that lay within, using his wild, surreal imagination to paint an eye catching scene. Let's face it, his artwork not only enhanced the record, but was sometimes the best thing about the product. London Record's legendary Phase 4 label, particularly favoured his style, often using his services on some of their more esoteric pressings.

What is the finest Jack Davis album cover? I hear you ask.. in the faux sincere style of a reality show presenter, I can truly say that it's been hard to narrow down a particular favourite as they're all winners, but if I had to pick a champion, it has to be Ray Martin's 'The Sound Of Sight' album. The sheer chaos and frenzy of the cover art is a delight to behold and captures the very essence of the varied styles of music that are recorded within. The artwork explodes off the page, as do the sounds from the stereo, making this a very successful realisation of what must have been initially, a tricky brief.

I leave it to endlessgroove.com to sum up exactly why this is the pinnacle of Jack's cover art career. This next bit is sourced from www.endlessgroove.com/issue4/lp4s2.htm

"The Sound of Sight may very well be the summit of the London Phase 4 concept. Like Battle Stereo, the album sounds as if one is listening to a movie soundtrack without the picture. In fact, with the subtitle Music For an Experiment in Imagination, that's exactly what Phase 4 had in mind. One of the best uses of sound effects I've heard on any album of this type."



Another Davis cover that I hold dear to my heart, is the debut album from Sailcat. They were formed by Johnny Wyker and Court Pickett in 1972, both of whom previously were in The Rubber Band. They brought in many established players from the Southern Rock music scene and legendary Muscle Shoals guitarist Pete Carr produced the album. 'Motorcycle Mama' was released on the Electra label and they had a radio hit with the title track which reached number twelve on the Billboard chart.

This was the soundtrack to a period when every self respecting dude was cruising the freeways of America on a chopper straight out of Easy Rider. As you can deduce, there was enough room for his ole lady and the kids riding pillion, all of whom are sticking it to the man, flicking the system a metaphorical bird, by clearly breaching health and safety guidance/rules, as they're not wearing any helmets on the album's front cover.

This slab of Southern country rock is a pleasant enough listen, but the star of the show and the main reason for owning this, is the fantastic artwork by Jack Davis. It's a concept album of sorts, based on a self destructing drifter, who dreams of settling down and starting a family, he then meets a woman who turns out to be more than a match for him.

An entertaining account of how the album got made, written by Richie Unterberger, can be found here. Johnny Wyker briefly resurrected the Sailcat name in 2002, with an album called 'Wild Water-Ski Weekend' on the Mighty Field of Vision label and is currently involved in this project.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Davis_(cartoonist)

http://lambiek.net/artists/d/davis.htm

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/09/jack-davis-goes-on-record.html

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-jack-davis-on-record.html

http://lpcoverlover.com/category/jack-davis/

http://www.endlessgroove.com/issue5/jdintro.htm

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/darb321/album_covers_by_jack_davis

http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/2007/01/11/jack-davis-album-covers/

Scorpions - Lonesome Crow - Fly To The Rainbow

The veteran Teutonic rockers are rolling out for a short tour of the U.K this month and have enlisted former members Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker to join them. This gives me an opportunity to highlight two classics of their early back catalogue, which might have fallen off the critical radar for those of you, who only associate the band with the Berlin Wall toppling, lighter waving, corny whistling, cod rock Winds Of Change song.

The Scorpions go way back to 1965 when Rudolf Schenker started up the band in Hanover, Germany, influenced by Elvis Presley, The Beatles and the many British beat groups like The Yardbirds, Pretty Things and Spooky Tooth that followed in their wake; they served their apprenticeship delivering standard beat sounds.

By 1970, the group's line up had settled down with the addition, from the band Copernicus, of vocalist Klaus Meine and Rudolf's younger brother Michael, who had already estabilished his reputation, as a child prodigy on the guitar, with Cry (1968-1970) . The five piece were completed by Wolfgang Dziony (Drums) and Lothar Heimberg (Bass) together they made a debut album, which was issued only in Germany in 1972.

Lonesome Crow is regarded as a footnote in the Scorpions discography, as it's sound is far removed from the straight forward hard rock tunes, like Rock Me Like A Hurricane and Lovedrive, that gave the band such commercial and critical success in the later Seventies and Eighties. However, aficionado's of early Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and progressive psychedelic Krautrock bands, like Can and Neu, should be making a beeline for this fine example of the genre. The experimental fluidity of the tracks culminating in the thirteen minute epic title track gives room for Klaus Meine's operatic vocals to be stretched and complemented by the remarkable guitar workout from junior Schenker, who was sixteen when he recorded this, and bar some obvious Hendrix influences, delivers an incredible performance.

The album cover featured is the U.K Heavy Metal Worldwide re-release from 1982, which is preferable to the original cover, as it features Rodney Matthew's glorious artwork.

Lead Track Promo for I'm Going Mad 1972



In 1973 Michael left to join UFO, whom Scorpions had supported and led to the temporary break up of band, this must have created an interesting Sunday lunch atmosphere round at the Schenker family table for a while. Rudolph, however, didn’t let the grass grow beneath his feet and soon enlisted Uli Jon Roth, who had previously completed lead guitar duties on the UFO tour, so the Scorpions were back with a refreshed line up and went into the studio to record the second album.

Fly to the Rainbow, released in 1974, had a harder edge, with fewer excursions into the Krautrock experimentalism and wistful psychedelia of it’s predecessor. Uli’s soaring guitar antics were overtly following in the footsteps of Hendrix, yet his mastery of the lead guitar proved to be an exciting addition to the formula. Some tracks still retained a dreamy quality to them, notably on This Is My Song and the title track. In some ways, this is a more fully realised album than 'Lonesome Crow' with tighter, more disciplined song structures delivering more oomph to the mix.

If 'Fly to the Rainbow' straddled between the stoner and rocker Scorpions, the next album In Trance, defiantly set it’s stall out as a hard rock album and signalled the end of the musically more far out Scorpions and the beginning of the commercially successful outfit that went onto sell twenty million plus albums.

This Is My Song 1974



European Tour
October, 12th Newcastle Carling Academy U.K
October, 13th Glasgow Carling Academy U.K
October, 15th Manchester U.K Apollo
October, 16th Southampton Guildhall U.K
October, 18th London Hammersmith Apollo U.K
October, 19th Wolverhampton Civic Hall U.K
October, 25th Strasbourg Zenith France
November, 2ndTallinn Estonia
November, 4th Riga Latvia
November, 6th Vilnius Lithuania
November, 10th Yaroslavl Russia
November, 19th Estoril Portugal

http://www.the-scorpions.com/english/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpions_(band)

http://www.rodneymatthews.com/

http://www.joegeesin.com/rodney-matthews.htm

Blood, Sweat and Tears - No Sweat

Now, here we have a prime example of why buying vinyl albums can be such an enriching activity, adding to core experience of listening to music product. Blood, Sweat and Tears were a pioneering prog jazz rock band who pushed the envelope of this genre, back in the late sixties, early seventies. No Sweat was released in 1973 and is one of the finest examples of gatefold fold packaging of this period. The band must have been smoking some heavy gear to have agreed to this particular concept that the cover designers pitched to the record company.

I can only imagine that the meeting went something like this:

Designer: O.K guys, now the title is gonna be 'No Sweat' so we have chucked the concept around with our brightest sparks and after some serious deliberation, thinking waaaay out of the box, the boys have come up with a sauna theme!

B S & T: uh huh, we're cool with that.. Are there gonna be like, nakkid chicks, all lubed up huh?

Designer: Err, not quite, we were thinking more on the the lines of you all dressed up in tux'n'tails.

B, S &T: Classy! we like it... but then we get to strip off next to some broads, yeah?

Designer: Your batting in roughly the right ballpark, but we were imagining a steamy room packed with some guys! fab eh!!

B, S & T: oh guys...

Designer: Yeah old guys..

B,S & T: ole geezers!?

Designer: For sure..all of 'em just wearing towelling.

B, S &T: flabby nakkid ole guys.. !!

Designer: fab ain't it, but you've yet to hear the best part; on the picture on the inner covers, you take your clothes off as well, looking like your taking orders from a guy whose a dead ringer for Uncle Junior off The Sopranos (artistic licence here, stick me me folks)

B, S & T: I'm not feelin' it maaan, sounds like we're going to look pretty daft...

Designer: Guys, guys, it's high concept stuff here, the message is the MAN is having to accept you rebellious longhairs. It's a statement, your fans will love it, yer speaking their language..total street cred, in fact, by the third picture, the ole boys are not just accepting the new world order, but they actually look like they are lovin' been surrounded by you longhairs, you've totally turned em maaaan, they've tuned on, turned on and dropped out! WOW!

B, S & T: I hope the soap ain't being dropped at this point!

Designer: By the final image on the back, you've swept away the old order, leaving just the band members hanging out together soaking up the atmosphere, all just through the power of your presence and some strategically placed towels.

B, S & T: We err.. look manly here, um right? not like we're enjoying each others company, too much?

Designer: Of course..Greek gods

B,S & T: The chicks will still dig us right? we won't look slightly daft, or be portrayed in any manner at all that gives the impression that we're a little bit, well you know, camp?

Designer: Of course not, this'll be the the making of the band, that cover will be the iconic cover of the Seventies like 'Sgt Peppers' you boys will be stellar once everyone sees this, you can trust me on this, after all I am a designer!

B,S & T: Well in that case O.K. let's roll with it, no sweat!

http://www.bloodsweatandtears.com

wikipedia.org/Blood,_Sweat_&_Tears