Cover Versions: The Album Art of Steve Hardstaff

Steve Hardstaff’s work has always been about Liverpool: from ferrying images around for Peter Blake and Jan Haworth for the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to producing the award-winning sleeve for Half Man Half Biscuit’s This Leaden Pall. Hardstaff’s artwork, often signed under his nom-de-guerre ‘Jacuzzi,’ has been used by every record label to have graced the city in the last 40 years: posters for ‘The Magical Mystery Tour’, artist in residence at the legendary Eric’s club, commissions from contemporary labels. Hardstaff established in Liverpool the first music-industry-focused design studio outside London and decades later his work continues to attract local, national and international interest.

 

This volume pulls together for the first time a unique collection of work from one of the pioneers of modern graphic design: from the world’s first triple gatefold sleeve (The Strawbs Brave New World) to work for Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and Liverpool favourites Deaf School, The Icicle Works, Half Man Half Biscuit, Dead or Alive, China Crisis and others, from work that provoked cries of ‘treason’ from the tabloid press during the Falklands war to collaborations with infamous Sex Pistols designer Jamie Reid. Complementing a striking collection of images are comments and quotes from musicians and artists who have worked with Hardstaff, - including Jimmy Carl Black (Mothers of Invention), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Suggs (Madness), Ian McNabb (Icicle Works) and others - elucidating the creative processes that have positioned him as one of the great innovators of the graphic arts and a leading figure in music industry design.