This And That
I want to present you some interesting facts I've investigated during my Banksy Record Cover research. If I'll find a "new" Cover which is not yet recognized, I'll post it here first. And at least I want to give you some hints, how you could distinguish between the legit items and their fake counterparts.
Content
New Book finding with rarely seen Banksy Contribution
First of all I want to appologize for the delay on that posting. I really wanted to present you the complete bundle of that book including it's very own CD release. Unfortunately it took a while until I received a copy of this which had it's CD attatched. But now I got it and I'm finally ready to present you the Street Art Collection Book "Boredom" from the NYC's artist collective "Faile". A collection of exclusive works from several famous Street Artists worldwide which comes in a hardcover in a limitation of 999 copies. It was published in 2003.
The Banksy contribution (displayed below) includes a small 4 page picture story, with text and a corresponding illustration. I have never seen this before, except the last page's image which shows an apparently disapointed Hermes sitting on the floor with it's bow in his hands.
This is the exclusive CD which comes together with this awesome book.
Not Banksy related Vinyls/CDs
I guess we all wonder how fast prices for Banksy Artworks on Vinyls or CDs increase at the present time. Well, I definitely do. But I don't wonder why approved Banksy records are getting more expensiv continously, cause it's really Banksy's influence or artworking on it and due to the fact that there are no Banksy prints for years, this is maybe the easiest way to own a Banksy work, even though Pest Control does not confirm record or CD covers as an artwork.
But I wonder why not approved Banksy artwork-Vinyls or CDs are partlially even more expensive than the "real" ones. Take a look at the Dirty Funkers or the Boys in Blue records for example. You can see on the picture below what I mean:
Incomprehensibly the offers for approved Artwork covers are much cheaper than the legit ones! This is a picclick screenshot of ebay offers from Dec. 2021.
At least we have this situation already for a longer time now, and I can understand why people prefer to collect covers without writing and just big sized, famous motives shown on it. And this is mostly given for the unauthorized covers.
But the actual reason why I write this article does not really concerns the unauthorized Banksy Vinyls/CDs... it's another issue which just makes me speechless sometimes. It's the fact, that some Banksy-Collectors pay hundreds of Euros for records and CDs which have nothing more than a Banksy named title or not even that, but only a relation to Labels which have released Banksy Cover Artworks in the past. The best example for this is the "We Love You... So Love Us Three" Promo:
What is the Banksy part of this??? The heart in Label-tag? This CD Promo does not have any Banksy artwork on it and it's definitely not reasonable to pay prices for this like the prices you can see on the Discogs marketplace screenshot.
Another example is this record:
"Broke Aber High" by Scraf Face. I don't know anything about this record and maybe it's just a great and thought after record, which is really worth 90€. But I assume that only the fact that title B15 is named "Banksy" and due to this the record will be found if you type "Banksy" in your Discogs search makes it worth 90€ for some people.
My last but at least favourite example for this kind of misleading is a CD of "The Artist Merlin" Venon with the title "Banksy Blues":
As you can see he put two Artworks on the cover and the rear cover of his release. The first one is the Astronaut shopping mural from Bristol and the second (on the rear cover) is called "Fake Love", the place where the photo was taken is unknown.
The title of this release suggest that he tried to find some great Banksy pieces to dress up his CD-design. The funny thing is, he failed really bad by choosing the two artworks for his Banksy Blues, cause he wasn't able to choose even one Artwork which is really made by Banksy 😂
The "Astronaut Shopping" was made by SPQR in Bristol 2010 and "Fake Love" is made by Fake Stencils from Amsterdam, it appeared (presumed) the first time 2011 in Amsterdam:
Astronaut goes Shopping, SPQR Bristol, Widewalls Screenshot
Fake Love, Fake Stencils Amsterdam, Screenshot taken from Instagram
Fake Love, Fake Stencils Amsterdam 2011, Screenshot taken from Instagram
So, we have a CD called "Banksy Bues" with at least no other Banksy relation inside, no artwork, no credits and absolutely no collaboration or authorization. What do you think, how much are people willing to pay for that? And this time I wouldn't guess that the CD is sought after because of it's outstanding quality. Well have a look by yourself:
My motivation to type this text is to please you to think about what you are going to buy. Sometimes it's not like it seems and you threw you money away for at least nothing...
The exposed Promo-Bootleg: "Armour Plated / X-Rated" (not) by One Cut!
Armour Plated / X-Rated Cover, image borrowed from Discogs
Armour Plated / X-Rated rear side of the Booklet, image borrowed from Discogs
Armour Plated / X-Rated Promo-CDr, image borrowed from Discogs
Sometimes we accept things as real even though we never proofed the facts. I'm pretty sure the CD shown above is an inherent part of the most want-lists of all serious Banksy-Record/CD-Art-Collectors. It was part of my search-list as well and part of the iconic Banksy-Cover-Art list by Rockdoc, published via "recordart.net" either. I didn't started any research on this CD, even though it was very suspicious that this alleged One Cut Promo-CDr didn't had any listings online beside it's Discogs listing and there are only two accounts who lists this in their collection. I never noticed any offer of this CDr neither on Discogs, nor on any other auction-platform, which is also a very suspicious indication that there is something wrong with this CD.
It was my friend Nick Suszynski who started a request to One Cut via Instagram to get more information about this release in September 2020. The scrennshot can be noticed below:
After Nick's request there happend...... nothing. More than a year was already gone by and this issue was nearly forgotten. But now the request was answered by One Cut and the answer was more than surprising:
After this message I kicked this CD out of my watching list and I'm very thankfull that Nick provided this information to me and allowed me to post it here for you. There are so many releases which are worth to search for, but it's also a good feeling, if you can cancel a search which might cost you hundreds or thousands of Euros. Thank you Nick for saving this money for me. I will never again look out for this CD and my advice to you is, to do the same way.
Update to Armour Plated / X-Rated Promo Copy
After someone made a Spam report on this on Discogs it's not for sale there anymore. But there was an interesting comment from the user who listed this item:
ConsultthisMusic 15. Dez. 2021
"As the original contributor to this release I thought I would just add that this was given to me to review when wrote for Breakin' Point magazine. At the time it could quite easily have been mailed out by Darling Department PR but I can't remember. At the time CDr copies were a cheaper alternative to send to press then finished copies."
So, it seem like a promotional agency has distributed some "quick" CDr copies to magazines or other institutions to preview this Album. Would be interesting to know how many copies were spread. I'm not sure how to count this. Is it a regular release? At least we have to conclude that it most likely isn't an unofficial bootleg, but more or less an very exclusive promotional copy...
"We Love You... So Love Us" - An unexpected find of a well known Record
Some of my collectors friends call me "Sherlock". It's because they know, if they have something to investigate about a record, I will do everything possible to get the needed informations. Most of time these "riddles" don't concern my own stuff but sometimes they do. And this time I didn't even had any ambition to do an investigation. I just only wanted to buy a very special record, but this time the "riddle" just came to me by itself. And here is the story about that record, the legendary 2000 Wall Of Sound "We Love You... So Love Us" Amour 1 LP:
In the year 2020 I purchased this record via Discogs from a second hand dealer based in Brooklyn NYC. When the record arrived I noticed that the innersleeve was kind of wobbly and additional to that the upper cutting edge looked quite different to comparable copies of this record, wich I found in several autions online. This made me kind of skeptical about the authenticity of this record, even though I never heard of any bootleg pressed from this record. So I put it on my turntable to check the music and it was fortunately exectly the expected content. Every single track was similar to the tracklist of the legit copy.
Next I checked the runouts and I found the following etches (and stamp):
[Mastered by Trutone (stamped)] [PA -7-00 AMOUR WLY -000 (the WLY 0000 portion was crossed out) 1- A/B (etched)]
As I didn’t had any info of the “original” runouts I tried to find out what Trutone is and I found out that Trutone Mastering Lab is a renowned Mastering Engineer Lab in
Brookly NYC. Further the runouts even lead me to the person who has matered this record, ‘cause the initials “PA” were used by a guy named Phil Austin. Phil Austin is
a legend in Mastering. He has mastered and cutted records for iconic artists like: Rod Steward, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and later on Thievery Corparation, Groove Armada and thousands more. The runouts even gave me the info when this record was cutted. Phil used to etch the dates of cutting behind his initials and this was 7-00 in my case. I even ordered another record, which was mastered and cutted by Phil, to confirm that the runouts look similar. It is "The Funky Sway EP" by The High Plains Drifters and it was cutted in Nov/2002.
So my "We Love You..." was cutted in July 2000, wich perfectly fits to the release date
of the (only) known UK Version of this record. But the difference was, that Wall Of Sound as far as I know normally comissioned UK-mastering labs to cut and press their releases.
I asked a friend of mine, who owns one of the legit UK-copies to check his runouts. It is: [AMOUR 1 LP – 1B (etched)] only on one side and nothing on the other. This was the final evidence, that my record was a different version of this edition.
I further checked the Barcode on the rear cover. While the Barcode on the UK version is: 5028589011519, the Barcode on mine was absolutely different: 6 98650 30021 4.
I found out that the Code on my record was a UPC-A(12) Barcode, wich was mainly used in the United States. There is also a Company Prefix coded in the Barcode, wich is:
698650. It turned out that this code is the explicit Company Code for “Bad Magic” Records wich was a daughter of Wall Of Sound and released some of their stuff in USA for example the Blak Twang records.
With this kowledge I contacted Trutone Mastering Labs in NY and fortunately the guy who answered me, was Carl Rowatti, founder and still chief engineer of Trutone Mastering.
He confirmed to me, that this copy was cutted by Trutone and also confirmed, that the engineer who was responible was Phil Austin. Unfortunately he told me,
that it’s not possible anymore to contact Phil himself, as he has passed away some years ago.
I’m pretty sure now, that my record undoubly is a second press of this legendary record, presumed produced for distribution in the United States. But it would be great to get the confirmation about this release from a person who was directly involved in it. Maybe this person even remembers, why this pressing took place in NYC and how many copies were pressed. The only imaginable persons who can answer this question to me I guess are Marc Lessner or Mark Jones the founders of Wall Of Sound.
I tried to find out, if there is any possibility to contact One of the responsable Mark/Marc. I noticed, that Marc Lessner is now involved in the "Modcast" Team of Eddie Piller. So I tried to contact Eddie Piller several times to ask if he might forward my message to Marc Lessner. Unfortunately I've never received any answer. So, my hope to get any info of how many copies were pressed in US will not be satisfied.
My next step is now to list this different release of this "We Love You... So Love Us" 12" in Discogs. It will be interesting, if there are other collectors, who own this copy and not the UK version. So, keep an eye on that "new" Discogs listing!
Another intereting fact of this issue is: The record cover shows the famous Banksy’s “Flower Thrower” and it was printed in the US in 2000. I haven’t found any other
commercial, athorized print edition of a Banksy Artwork outside UK in this year or earlier. So, it could be, that this was at least the very first authorized edition print
of a Banksy artwork outside UK, wich would be at least kind of spectacular.
Runouts of "We Love You... So Love Us", mastered and cutted by Phil Austin in 7/00 for Trutone Mastering Lab.
Runouts of "The Funky Sway EP",
mastered and cutted by Phil Austin in 11/02 for Trutone Mastering Lab.
The rest of the "We Love You... So Love Us" runouts.
The US UPC-A Barcode of my "We Love You... So Love Us" copy.
Important Facts To Find The Right Edition Of "And The Ass Saw The Angel" by Nick Cave
In recent times, when Banksy collectibles were getting more and more expensive, this book with it's very early commissioned Cover Artwork by Banksy is getting more and more sought after as well. But many collectors don't know, how to find the "right" edition or don't even know, when this Banksy Cover Art was published first.
There are online informations about this book, which suggest that this book with Banksy Cover was first printed in 1989. This would mean that this would be the earliest Cover Artwork by Banksy. At least I can tell you that this is not the truth. Even though the only imprint-information about the publication also suggest that it was published in 1989. The reason for this missing "real" publication date this cover by Penguin Books is caused by the fact, that it still contains the same type as when it was first published. And this first publication with similar type was actually released in 1989, but with an alternate Cover! I have attatched pictures of the first published versions by HarperCollins 1989 and Penguin Books 1990.
First "And The Ass Saw The Angel" Publication by Black Spring Press 1989. Picture taken from goodreads.com
First "And The Ass Saw The Angel" Publication by Penguin Books 1990. Picture taken from goodreads.com
Maybe you'll ask now, why I can be sure about this. Well, to prove this information it's necessary to get into the history of Penguin Book. The reason why artists like Banksy were commissioned to create book covers for Penguin was a single person. Penguin's art director John Hamilton. He was the one who thought it's necessary to book young artists for the cover designs to give Penguin a more "modern" touch. And that's why he finally booked artists like Banksy, Oliver Hibert and others.
But in 1990 when the first Penguin Edition of "And The Ass Saw The Angel" was published, John Hamilton wasn't the art drector of Penguin yet. He started his work in 1997. Corresponding to this it's not possible, that John Hamilton commissioned this cover design to Banksy in 1990. You can read all facts about this in an article including a John Hamilton interviev published by Design Week, written by Aimée Mclaughlin in 2018 (Link to this article) Meanwhile John Hamilton has passed away in 2019. This is what he said about this cover :
[...DesignWeek: Do you have any favourite covers?
John Hamilton: I find it so difficult to pick a favourite because it’s been a love affair for 20 years, but my favourite will always be Banksy’s design for And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. Partly because I commissioned Banksy 15 years ago when hardly anybody had heard of him, and he doesn’t do commercial work as such. On that cover the Penguin logo is actually breathing fire, which is real bastardisation here. I didn’t tell anybody and got them all to sign it off. I’ve still got the original letter from Banksy saying “John, how about trying this for a laugh?” and to this day the design still stands. It was quite nice because I felt like we were being challenging, and probably a bit childish, but we were trying to push things and do them differently...] Source: DesignWeek, Aimée Mclaughlin
As there was no other publication of this book in the years between 1997-2001, we have to conclude, that the earliest possible date for Banksy to design the cover for this book was 2001, when it was published again with alternate (Banksy) cover by Penguin.
Now we know, that this early Banksy cover artwork was published in 2001 the first time. But even after this conclusion it's not easy to decide which edition you own or you should search for if you want to receive the "First Banksy Cover Edition" of this. I will tell you, how you can distinguish the different prints of this book here:
Learn to distinguish the "And The Ass Saw The Angel" Editions
For a collector it's always the most satisfying situation to find the "First Press" of books for his collection. But sometimes it's not easy to find out, which edition you have to search for, to get the "First Press". I have already mentioned which edition of "And The Ass Saw The Angel" the first one with Banksy Cover Artwork was. It is the Penguin 2001 press. But maybe you have already noticed, that there are even different editions of this 2001 press around. The most obvious fact to realize this is if you'll have a look to the rear cover of this book. There you'll find the price recommondation right below the barcode. If you have several books to compare you'll see, that some of these were sold for £ 5.99 and others for
£ 6.99 or £ 7.99. I have taken a photo of these three different price tags:
Obviously these three different rear covers are not part of the same Print Run. And that's at least the important fact: Even if all three book are the same "First Banky Cover" Edition, this does not mean that all these are the same Print Run! The "real" FIRST PRESS is ONLY the FIRST PRINT RUN of the FIRST EDITION!!
But even if you own one of the earliest prints with £ 5.99 price tag it's not automatically said, that this is the first print run. To be sure which print run you hold you have to take a look for the imprint of the book. There you'll find the specification which print run your copy was. Naturally the first print run is specified with a small "1" below the publication date. I have attatched pictures of two different print runs below (1st and 3rd):
So, if you want to get hold of the "real" first print run of the first Banksy Cover edition your book needs a price tag with £ 5.99 on the rear cover and the small "1" written in the imprint of the book. All other prints are re-presses of this first run and at least not the first press most collectors are searching for. Maybe this gives you an idea, why many of this books vary a lot in it's actuall price. For the books I offer in my Shop I will always give the information which print run it is!
Surprising details in STEETART001 record's "Tank with Speaker"-stencil
Several month ago I discovered this very nice UK-Drum 'n Bass release with it's iconic "Tank with Speaker" Artwork by Banksy. First I was just happy to have found another collector's item, but after I received a copy of this I wondered about some details I noticed in the "Tank with Speaker" stencil shown on the record's label. Details which I have never seen before, neither on the "Cut Commander" cover nor on the pictures of the stencils Banksy has sprayed in Bristol in 1998. In this Version there are parts of the tank's lights visible and also some details of the speaker. I marked the details in the last picture below to make it comprehensible. I asked some of my contacts who are designated Banksy experts, but non of them could find an answer how this could be. The only possible explanation for me is, that the creator of this label received either the original stencil of this motive or at least a picture which was made with this original stencil, even though it never appeared again since it's use in 1998. The big question now is: who handed out this stencil/picture to the creater of this label artwork?? I don't have the answer to this question and I don't know anybody who actually has. If you have some knowledge about this please contact me via the contact form.
Was the "Flower Trower" on Junichi Masuda's "Pokemon Soundtrack" (MOONSHAKE Records) stencilled by Banksy himself?
This is a question I was asked more than one time and even famous Banksy collectors and gallery owners suggest that it might be an original Banksy made Artwork. Well, the answer to this question is quite simple: No, it's definitely not handmade by Banksy himself!!! And it's not even necessary to philosophize that maybe the stencil's quality is not good enough to be Banksy's work or other considerations. The riddle's solution is, that the real creator of this Artwork is a well known person. It's Sean Patrick Daigle the founder of Moonshake records, who designed all Moonshake record covers himself. And it's at least easy to confirm, that he was the real artist who made this cover. Just visit his Instgram profile (@unfortunateface), scroll the feed down to the 25th of August 2015 and you'll get your answer! By the way, the official release of this record was December 2015!! Another fact about this cover is, that Mr. Daigle even created a "better quality" version of the same cover in 2018. As he didn't had any records of the "Pokemon Soundtrack" left, he just released it without records (Insta-feed: 3rd of September 2018) in a limited edition of 150 (the initial Testpress was limited to 100 with 70 "Rage the Flower Thrower" covers). For the non believers or people without Instagram-Account I have posted some Instagram-screenshots below.
NOTICE!! There are only the two editions I mentioned above. And the second Edition WITHOUT Record was limited to 150. If someone offers you a "third" Edition WITH Record, limited to 150, he wants to cheat you. Some offer this Cover with a usual white Label or with a legit Testpress without it's original Cover (which was maybe lost or damaged...) or even with one of the coloured Versions from the regular release (with Sgt. Pepper Cover). All these "couples" are at least only a try to increase the Price, as the Price is obviously higher with a record included.
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