© Fotos & Words by Steve Drury

a

Row The Boat Ashore c/w Poison

The Spider c/w Flies

As for the actual labels on the vinyl; firstly the information side. All credit to Martin for the logo. I gave him no time at all to produce something and this was his first shot at it. It might be a little like ‘The Cure’ (the pornography period), but it worked and has its own simplicity to it. The lettering supplied by Letraset, a godsend for all graphic designers before the days of computers.

The letter balance was all in the eye. It had been decided sometime ago that for credits, it would be a joint name and not be individually named. After all, each song was a joint effort.

Secondly, the photo label; this was one of mine, a Steve Drury photo, which tied in neatly with the etched phrase on the record ‘Ale to be had’, cut by the very famous Porky Prime Cut.

‘Porky Prime Cut’ was the disc cutter George Peckham, who always signed his moniker on the disc in the out-going groove.

So the famous cloth sleeve bag! Well, first of all it came in various colours, which depended upon the amount of suitable material that was available from the local shop at the time. The most produced colour was the orange and deep red. So here’s a copy of the blue cover! I believe the rarest colour was GREEN. Anyone out there?

Here is the artwork for the first two singles.

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Artwork - Singles

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After the extravagance of the packaging for the first single, Martin put forward his desire for a plastic sleeve with wrap around artwork. So after sourcing materials and costings, that’s exactly what ‘the Spider’ got. The main artwork was done by a friend of the band, who I was subsequently told went on to work with Marvel Comics (anyone confirm this?).

It was another ‘Porky Prime Cut’ for the cutting of the single. And for the inside, letraset came to our rescue. By now we felt the main logo could be used on the A side label with the details on the B side. There had been much debate about A and B’s or a double A single, but this was resolved and ‘Flies’ became the B side.

The Spider c/w Flies

So how many of you were caught out with the mixed rpm’s. There can’t be many 7” records in existence that had 45 rpm on one side and 33 rpm on the other?

. . .  It’s a Party Day original.

"Sleep all night, work all day"

This was a limited collection within a selected limited single release (and they’re getting rarer by the minute).

The covers were vibrant and noticeable to reflect the choice of songs. And the stenciling and stitch work were all done by the band themselves, now that truly is the ‘personal touch’.

Here is a copy of the poster that was produced for the record shops.

Below: is the actual insert sheet for the single. It was a one sided piece of artwork to compliment the cotton sleeve. This was conceived, designed, drawn and written by Martin.

Is it anything more than just a scribble? Outsider Art? A statement on civilisation? That’s for the individual to decide.

Is that a kop out? Do I care? When you see Martin, you can always ask him..

So the packaging for the first single was quite original - “a cloth bag for . . . cloth people” as Martin said in a radio interview!

A jovial guy, now retired, he had asked Martin what he wanted written, and quick as a flash it was to be ‘Ale to be Had’.

‘Porky Prime Cut’ has been associated with everyone in music since his early days at Beatles’ Apple studios . . . including all the big names in rock, punk and alternative recordings.

The photo was taken at the Futurama 3 Festival (1982) on the Sunday morning. The name of the glass collector remains elusive.