Chosen by Matthew Cooper, designer for Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip and many more
I love the DIY aesthetic of the first edition of Elvis Presley’s first album, later homaged by Ray Lowry for the Clash’s London Calling sleeve. The wonky type looks like it has been cut out and stuck on by hand. There’s another musician awkwardly cropped in the photo of Elvis. Nowadays, the record company would ask you to Photoshop him out. The immediacy of the image and graphics make a statement of intent: “Here I am.” Many years and genres after that was released, the same aesthetic inspired me when I came across this EP of Scritti Politti’s second John Peel session in Chick-A-Boom Records in Sutton Market, some years after it came out in 1979 on Rough Trade Records. The sleeve was just a plastic bag with two bits of photocopied paper in it. One of them listed the entire costs of making the record, including £65 for 5,000 plastic covers. The other photocopy was of a bag of crisps, a badge and some sugar. It demystified the entire process and I realised that I could do something similar at the local library. So I took loads of stuff down and started photocopying it.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/22/the-greatest-record-sleeves-as-chosen-by-the-designers
“Chick-A-Boom Records in Sutton Market, some years after it came out in 1979 on Rough Trade Records”
... and a photo of Sutton Market, the location of Chick-a-Boom Records, at this link:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/446349013065599718/
... and this reference to Chick-A-Boom Records at this link:
http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/music/a-visit-to-the-seaside-again-with-cardiacs/
“I was once a Little Man aged 11 looking out of my Little House through my parents’ Whole World Window. It was a beautiful, innocent time hanging out in the burbs of Surrey, riding my BMX after homework through wet leaves and spiky conkers, not giving a hoot about anything. The stereo in my bedroom played 7″ records from Adam Ant, The Jam, The Specials and Madness – slabs of vinyl bought on a Saturday afternoon in the little independent record shop in our hometown of Sutton called Chick-a-Boom, that was owned by an overweight biker who sat behind the counter with a huge beard spinning discs. Aside from his overwhelming presence I loved the smell of the vinyl there, as opposed to the big store on the high street they called Woolworths, where my Mum preferred visiting. Collecting music weekly became something special but as you know, the Whole World Window is a very special and endless space – where discovery, is everything.”