On 19 March 1990, Depeche Mode released what is still considered their finest album - 'Violator'. Anton Corbijn created its sleeve with assistance from graphic designer Richard Smith of Area. The two would go on to collaborate on dozens of sleeves for a wide range of artists, but to celebrate this seminal album's 35th birthday, I spoke to Richard about his creative involvement. Richard has worked with dozens of artists and bands in his career, including Depeche Mode, ABC, OMD, Tears For Fears an...
Mar 19, 2025•50 min
Graphic designer, painter and sleeve artist, Andie Airfix was born in Scotland but grew up in Warrington in the north west of England. After studying art and English literature at Chester teacher training college, he spent almost a year teaching art and English in Southampton. In 1970 he started travelling around the USA, Canada and Mexico, a trip funded by selling psychedelic paintings to poster companies in New York and San Francisco. On his return to the UK, he spent some time in Devon where ...
Mar 04, 2024•39 min
This episode of the podcast is a bit different... Instead of our usual, reverent look back at examples of the best in record sleeve creativity, we dig into its darkest and often unexplored corners of obscurity to expose some of the worst, or at best, most bizarre record sleeves ever created. This collection of more than 500 of 'the worst record sleeves' is part of a touring exhibition of the same name, which I visited a couple of times when it was on display in Birkenhead, Wirral, from November ...
Feb 09, 2024•29 min
Hello and best wishes for the festive season. My gift to you is a brand new episode of the ‘Art on your sleeve’ podcast. In this episode I speak with Paula Benson and Paul West from Form. There’s a lot that I could say about this dynamic duo and their extraordinarily diverse pop portfolio, but it’s probably easier to let them speak for themselves. So, here’s a bit of an introduction lifted directly from their website. In the early 1990’s founding partners Paul West and Paula Benson opened the Lo...
Dec 19, 2023•54 min
In this episode, I speak with Andy McCluskey, lead vocalist of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or OMD, as they are more commonly known. Andy formed OMD with co-writer and occasional co-vocalist, Paul Humphreys, at the tail-end of the 1970s. Their self-titled debut album (and its follow-up) was released in 1980 at the dawn of electronic pop, just as synthesised sounds were easing their way into the mainstream - and this is where our story begins. We begin by looking back at Andy's interests in...
Oct 27, 2023•54 min
In this episode of Art on your sleeve, I speak with painter and former graphic designer, David Storey. David's career designing record sleeves began in the 1970s when he landed a job straight out of design school working for Elton John's Rocket Records. This position provided a crucial platform for him to build a career in the industry leading to his renowned work for the 2 Tone record label. 2 Tone spawned a raft of charting artists including Madness, The Specials, Bad Manners, The Selecter, Th...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr
This episode is another slight diversion from the usual format and was put together specifically to mark International Podcast Day which falls on 30 September every year - a celebration of the power of podcasts and a great opportunity to connect with fellow podcasters, podcast listeners, podcast enthusiasts and leaders in the podcasting industry. I wanted to promote the day by sharing some love for shows that I regularly listen to. Over the years, I've discovered much talent around the world thr...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 7 min
In this episode of Art on your sleeve, I speak with graphic designer and art director, Bill Smith. Since the 1970s, Bill has been one of the busiest designers servicing the music industry and he's worked on so many record sleeves that a book has been published celebrating his amazing portfolio. In the introduction to the show I read from the back cover of the book - a succinct summary of a life's work... "Bill Smith and his studio have been designing record covers since 1976. In those five decad...
May 21, 2021•1 hr
This episode is a slight diversion from the usual format, but all is explained in the show introduction. I am joined by Eddie De Souza and Lucy Percy to dissect design for songs that have represented various countries in the Eurovision Song Contest.
May 11, 2021•43 min
Simon Halfon has been designing artwork since the 1980s, starting out at Stiff Records and then assisting Neville Brody, before setting up London and LA design studios in the 90s. Long standing clients included the late George Michael, Oasis and Paul Weller. He creates international campaigns for global acts and continues his work with iconic artists, most recently collaborating for the 3rd time with Sir Peter Blake, for The Who's latest record. In this episode I talk to Simon about all of these...
Dec 10, 2020•53 min
Being Boring, a single by Pet Shop Boys is 30 years old today (12 November 2020). It's one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite pop groups and as such I felt I needed to mark the occasion. This podcast complements a Pop Art feature I wrote for Classic Pop magazine about the photography of The Douglas Brothers published in March 2018. The Douglas Brothers photography was used on the cover designs for the single, with graphic design by regular Pet Shop Boys creative collaborator, Mark Farr...
Nov 12, 2020•17 min
In this episode I speak with Peter Coyle, formerly of The Lotus Eaters about the design work behind his music. When The Lotus Eaters made the top 20 in 1983 with their debut single, The first picture of you, they did so with sleeves that often used art to represent the band. In the podcast we talk about all of the band's singles, their classic album, No sense of sin and we lift the curtain on the thinking behind the art to find out who created the designs - something that was omitted on the slee...
Oct 23, 2020•37 min
This episode is an audio supplement to a six-page Pop Art feature I wrote for Classic Pop magazine, issue 13, published October/November 2014. In the podcast I interview artist and designer, Bob Linney about his record sleeve artwork for The Beloved and play track excerpts along the way. We also touch on other sleeves that he has worked on and discover how he ended up forging a long time creative relationship with Jon Marsh and The Beloved. The interview was recorded over Zoom during the COVID-1...
Jun 29, 2020•30 min
In this episode I'm joined by Sarah and Brian Linnen, hosts of the Permanent Record Podcast. There are few podcasts that dig as deeply into the sounds and visuals of artists that were big in the eighties/nineties as they do. I highly recommend that you subscribe to their show at the usual quality podcast outlets and explore their considerable archive at: www.permanentrecordpodcast.com During this chat you will hear us each select one album and one single sleeve that we believe deserves greater r...
May 07, 2020•1 hr
This episode is an audio supplement to Classic Pop magazine, issue 4, published May/June 2013. In this podcast I interview artist, Fraser Taylor, who was part of a design collective called The Cloth (1983-1987). Fraser was one quarter of The Cloth along with David Band, Helen Manning and Brian Bolger. The art of Fraser Taylor and David Band featured on many record sleeves in the early eighties, most notably for Spandau Ballet, Altered Images, Aztec Camera and The Bluebells. Music from these arti...
Nov 20, 2019•35 min
This episode is an audio supplement to Classic Pop magazine, issue 53, published on 31 May 2019. It features my 35th Pop Art feature, this time with graphic designer, Pete Barrett. Pete is now based in Melbourne, Australia, so we caught up online to talk about his massive portfolio of pop and discover the stories behind some of his work for artists including Dexys Midnight Runners, Bananarama, Madonna, The Jam, Simply Red, George Michael and Prefab Sprout. Find out more about Pete's current desi...
May 31, 2019•48 min
This episode is an audio supplement to the 'Synthpop' special edition of Classic Pop magazine, published on 7 February 2019. In the magazine I have written an eight page feature about the best sleeve designs of the synthpop genre from the last 40 years. In this podcast, I am joined by two pop pals to talk about three of our favourite sleeve designs, some of which are included in the magazine article. The range is quite eclectic and purely personal but myself, Andrew and David all had quite a lot...
Feb 06, 2019•1 hr 5 min
In this episode I interview the photographer, Peter Ashworth about his seminal body of work for classic pop albums by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Soft Cell, Eurythmics, Visage, Depeche Mode and many others. This interview was edited by Peter and myself from a longer conversation and was conducted inside and outside his 'Mavericks' exhibition in Liverpool, 2 June - 8 July 2018. To find out more about Peter's work, visit his website at: www.ashworth.photos To find our more about The Gallery in Live...
Aug 10, 2018•42 min
In this episode I speak with North West artist, John Petch about his artistic collaboration with OMD for the sleeve of their album entitled 'The Punishment of Luxury'. John also worked on the sleeve art for the singles that were released from the album. To find out more about John's work, visit his website at: www.johnpetch.com
Jun 13, 2018•21 min
In this episode I speak with Brian and Sarah Linnen from The Permanent Record Podcast about Erasure's 1988 album entitled 'The Innocents'. This 75 minute episode is edited from three x 90 minute podcasts which are also available to download from iTunes. Find out more about The Permanent Record Podcast at: www.permanentrecordpodcast.com and follow them on Facebook and Twitter. This episode of Art on your sleeve isn't specifically about record sleeve design but I did interview Paul Khera, one of t...
Apr 24, 2018•1 hr 15 min
In this episode, I speak with Rob O'Connor whose design work will be familiar to fans of Blur, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Howard Jones, Prefab Sprout, Squeeze, Voice of the Beehive and hundreds more pop bands stretching back to the late 1970s. I spent an afternoon with Rob at Stylorouge looking back over his career and getting the stories behind many iconic records sleeves. The interview coincides with the POP ART feature in Classic Pop magazine - Issue 32.
Sep 02, 2017•44 min
In this episode, I speak with Huw Feather whose design work will be familiar to fans of Soft Cell and Marc Almond. I spent a couple hours chatting with Huw, face-to-face at a slightly noisy cocktail bar in his hometown of Southport. The interview coincides with the POP ART feature in Classic Pop magazine - Issue 17.
May 16, 2017•42 min
In this episode, I speak with Laurence Stevens whose design work will be familiar to fans of Eurythmics and Annie Lennox, as well as many other pop acts. I spent a few hours chatting with Laurence, face-to-face at his studio and via FaceTime and the interview coincides with the POP ART feature in Classic Pop magazine - Issue 26.
Dec 13, 2016•48 min
Art on your sleeve - Episode 1 - Introduction by Andrew Dineley
Sep 28, 2016•7 min
