They are so truly awful you can’t help but stand and stare open-mouthed.
What on earth went through these musicians’ minds when they agreed to this awful artwork that’s often so bad it’s absolutely brilliant?
Steve Goldman from Golcar has amassed a gruesome collection of musical artwork which he’ll be displaying as part of Huddersfield Literature Festival.
When he first aired his crackpot collection two years ago he had 200 to show and they made the national news, including a spot on satirical TV show Have I Got News For You.
Well, the good/bad news is that Steve’s collection has more than doubled in size and he now has 440! He’ll even be doubling the fun by playing music from the albums. And, yes, some of the music is even worse than the artwork.
The collection will be on show for 11 days at Huddersfield Literature Festival’s hub on the Piazza in the town centre from Thursday, March 23 to Sunday, April 2. It will be open every day from 10am to 4pm apart from the final day when the doors shut at 2pm.
Over the last couple of years the exhibition has been on tour, visiting the Spode Museum in Stoke-on-Trent and Shambala contemporary performing arts festival in Northamptonshire where it was a smash hit with thousands of summer festival goers.
The exhibition has also built an ever-growing fan base, flying the flag for Huddersfield among vinyl enthusiasts all over the world through its Instagram page.
Steve said: “We’ve had a great time since the exhibition’s debut. Wherever we’ve gone it’s been an absolute pleasure to sit in a room, or in a marquee in Shambala’s case, watching people just loving the collection. They make people sometimes cry with laughter.
“We’ll have voting slips for people to pick their three favourite covers and visitors will be welcome to create album cover recreation selfies to cherish forever. And, of course, we’ll be playing one track from each album so people can enjoy the music that lurks behind these grisly delights.”
Scroll through a gallery of images below:
A book of the exhibition is in the pipeline, published by Easy on the Eye Books, a publisher Steve chose because of their previous loving attention to the topic of album covers.
You can follow progress on the book on a dedicated page on their website https://easyontheeyebooks.wordpress.com/forthcoming/the-art-of-the-bizarre-album-sleeve/
Steve’s exhibition raises money for Different Strokes, the charity for stroke survivors of working age who supported Steve after he had a stroke in 2019, aged just 52. Donations can be made at the exhibition or through Steve’s JustGiving page https://www.justgiving.com/page/steve-goldman-1676730868849
Huddersfield Literature Festival director Michelle Hodgson said: “Our theme this year is music to tie-in with the Kirklees Year of Music 2023 initiative and we have a range of music-related events and activities taking place during the festival.”
To find out more about the festival go to https://www.huddlitfest.org.uk/
You can see the Have I Got News For You moment with Victoria Coren-Mitchell below.
- Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content and copywriting.
