Design & artwork for print in Norfolk
Ooh, one of latest 10″ EPs I worked on now arrived back from the pressing plant. The Caravans were always a fave band of mine back in the day, how cool is this to be working on their records! The tracks I’ve heard from this session which appeared on a recent Western Star compilation are right up there with their stuff from the 1980s. Can’t wait to hear this.
Been a great day in the studio for music today as three CD album designs I worked on arrived in the post this morning. Two of these are compilations, one rockabilly the other psychobilly and it makes you realise the quality of bands and the amount of bands in the Western Star ‘stable’. I guess this is what happens when a record label only release recording from their own studio just like Sam Philips and Sun Studios, everybody associated with the studio becomes a family and guesting on other artists tracks. It’s awesome.
The other CD is the fantastic and long overdue second album from Stage Frite sounding considerably more ‘metal’ than the debut CD somewhere between the Long Tall Texans and the Krewmen I thought. Proper job
I’ve been involved with the production of CD, vinyl and DVD packaging for well over 20 years now, on around 400 separate releases, and in that time had the privilege of working on packaging for many of my favourite bands from growing up as part of the rockabilly scene (Restless, Sharks, Meteors, Caravans, Polecats, Frenzy, Stray Cats, Crazy Cavan, Matchbox, Wild Angels, Shakin’ Stevens, Shakin’ Pyramids, Screaming Lord Sutch) but this one is a real treat for me. The Long Tall Texans have been a fave band of mine since forever and we got to support them a few times with our own band over the years in Norwich, Leicester and Stoke-on-Trent, but I never worked on any of their releases. Their releases regularly featured absolutely awesome illustration work by the fantastic Geo Parkin (“Aces & Eights”, “Saturnalia”, “Singing to the moon”, “In without knockin'”, “Gotta Go”, “Texas Beat”, “Five Beans in the Wheel”) and this is another great. With such great illustration work, my part has been purely doing the boring stuff like typesetting, layout and pre-press but none-the-less, I’m really chuffed to have contributed.
Done a bit of drawing today…
Western Star’s catalogue for 2016 now complete and off to the printers. 36 pages with over a 100 CDs + vinyl singles and EPS listed complete with cover designs and complete track listings from the last 12+ years.
