If you’r ever in New York (Brooklyn to be precise) and in the mood to display your albums in a way contrary to the famous brand that caused a panic recently, check out Wax Rax. These are gorgeous record carts made by avid collector and metal fabricator. Pricey, true, but built to last, each is made to order. And (so far the ones in the slide show ) these guys have wheels. Wheels are a nice thing to have when moving the precious collection about. Take that, Swedish cabinet fellows!
Jen Kilzer
The ‘Bialystocking’ Alan Arkush mentions is a form of investment and tax dodging that’s performed by the character Max Bialystock in the film (and, later Broadway musical) The Producers. More money is put into a project than ever expected to be gained back. The producers can (if they don’t get caught) take the extra revenue collected to do with what they please. In these cases, many investors have contracts that guarantee payment only if a film collects a certain amount at the box office.
Apparently, the producers of Get Crazy expected a film that did poorly would not to be investigated for tax purposes. They released the film, about a New Year’s celebration, in the August of 1983 (see the poster in the clip below). It’s like a Christmas movie in July. One has to agree, that the director has reason to suspect the producers wanted limited success.
With luck, Get Crazy, the film and soundtrack, will get restored and the TLC they deserve. Meanwhile, we do find promo copies of the 1983 LP, quite often. In 2010, Joe Wallace had his personal copy of the soundtrack signed by Reggie Wanker himself, Malcolm McDowell. We’ll give you a heads up in the blog, if we find any copies to sell.
Jen Kilzer
Today, I decided to show off some artwork that I didn’t know was by the same person. That person was a fantastic artist who went by the name (most of the time) of Barney Bubbles. We’ll keep our eyes out for his artwork from now on. In record hunting, sometimes the music is not the only reason to love the vinyl. Sometimes, it’s a visual pursuit, too.
This album, Armed Forces by Elvis Costello and The Attractions,is my earliest memory of Barney’s work. Thankfully, my relatives brought this great album home in early 1979. Little did I know, more artwork from this fellow would later turn up in my record collection as I looked for all the top British New Punk and some New Wave bands of the early ’80s.
He was the artist behind much of the album art for Stiff Records. For a time, he lived in the Stiff Records offices, designing all types of promotional material for the company, album sleeves, record logos and promotional posters.
There’s a lot of discovering left on my part. Unfortunately,though he was prolific, he tended not to identify all of his works with signatures. He was also a victim of mental illness which brought his life to an early end. Some say other artists had begun to steal his style, while others mentioned money problems and recent album cover rejections were the cause of the mood swing that led to his suicide.
Many of his famous album covers and posters are featured in the book Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles for sale here. Also, you can hear more of the people who knew the man, including relatives in this BBC Radio 4 Documentary, In Search of Barney Bubbles.
Bubbles designed the poster above for the band Hawkwind. He built a strong relationship with the band during the ’70s as well as with Ian Dury and The Blockheads (Reasons to Be Cheerful is an Ian Dury and The Blockheads song). Bubbles designed their black and white ‘profile’ logo below.
He also was a director in the early ’80s video scene. One of his best known videos is Ghost Town by the Specials. I decided to include this nice one he directed for Squeeze.
I’m a big fan of Dimitri Tiomkin. I’ve been one since hearing David Bowie’s version of Wild is the Wind on Station To Station. One of most romantic songs of the budding New Wave movement was actually written the 1950s.
Turntabling will keep an eye out for this composer’s soundtracks and keep you posted if any end up for sale.
Jen Kilzer