Subject – Black Label Society – Shot To Hell - a 2006 release on Roadrunner Records, with cover photography by Neil Zlozower

A band formed in 1999 by (at the time) former Ozzy Osbourne lead axeslinger and heavy metal guitar god Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society was, initially, a 2-man operation (including drummer Phil Ondich), with ZW playing all the other instruments. After a tour, another album and then a Second Stage slot on the Ozzfest tour in 2000, Wylde rejoined Ozzy’s band and has played in two bands ever since (sometimes, playing with both bands on the same day at Ozzfest).

Since that time, BLS has released new CDs and DVDs nearly every year that showcase Wylde’s songwriting abilities and musicianship, including the platinum-selling DVD Boozed, Broozed and Broken Boned, ultimately moving from Spitfire Records to metal powerhouse Roadrunner Records, who released 2006’s Shot To Hell, which featured a cover photograph that was either hilarious or sacrilegious, depending on your upbringing. Zakk’s long-time friend and member of the ZW inner circle Neil Zlozower was his co-conspirator responsible for the shot.

Beginning his career as a glorified fan, photographer Neil Zlozower (aka “Zloz”) spent as much time as possible in Hollywood record shops and concerts – bringing with him a Honeywell Pentax camera that he and his father bought in an East L.A. pawn shop and using phony backstage passes (“they didn’t have the big, fat bouncers then, so you could just buy cheap seats and walk to the front and sit there all night and shoot photos just for fun.”) – Zloz began his career as a photographer selling these photos at a record shop across from his high school, splitting the $1 he charged with the shop (he got 60%) and selling 60 photos his first month.

Since then, Zloz has gone on to become one of the most sought-after photographers in the business. He began working with Black Label Society lead guitarist Zakk Wylde when he first joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band in the late 1980’s and has photographed him ever since. He says that he’s honestly never met anyone in his life quite like Zakk, and so when he was approached to shoot the soon-to-be-controversial cover for BLS’s 2006 release Shot To Hell, he knew that he’d be in for quite a ride, as he details for us today in our latest “Cover Story”…

In the words of the photographer, Neil Zlozower (interviewed August 2007) –

“I first worked closely with Zakk alone when I was working on a photo shoot for Guitar World magazine in 1990 and had him over to my studio in Hollywood. Although he looks like he’s a die-hard bar-brawler dude, he is actually the nicest person in the world. Everybody loves Zakk – he’s the most honest guy there is – no lies or other B.S. (However, he does not seem to have any concept of time – he’ll just pick up the phone and call his friends whenever he feels like talking to you.)

One day, Zakk came to me with an idea for the cover of his new album Shot To Hell – something about nuns playing pool with the BLS logo-skull on the 8-ball - and we discussed it over some oysters and beer. Five or six months later, his wife Barbara called me and said that they wanted to go ahead with it. Now, since I’m the ‘executioner’ – the one that needs to take a client’s idea and make it happen – I wanted to better understand what he was looking for.

Zakk suggested that we get a bunch of really old women and dress them up in nun’s habits and have them play pool. I told him that I didn’t think that really old people would be able to handle a pool cue the right way, so we should get some 50-60-year-olds and a good make-up artist and do it that way.

The label had no say in the matter – they don’t know what looks good – and so we asked Zakk’s right-hand man ‘RA’ (Rob Arvizu), who also happens to be an artist and photographer, to be one of the judges as to whether we pulled it off or not. The next job was to find the right people for the cover shot.

We held a ‘cattle call’ for actors at my studio in Hollywood and about 20 older ladies and gentlemen showed up. We handed them a pool cue and asked them to make a bunch of different faces while I took photos of them. From this group, we selected the people we’d use and then Zakk and RA went to find the location we’d shoot at.

About a month later, we scheduled a full-day shoot at a bar off of the 14 Freeway in Santa Clarita (CA) called ‘The Rendezvous’ – this was a favorite place of Zakk/RA’s near where they both lived. We got there early to set the place up and then get the actors made up – which took a long time, from morning until about 3pm, and then we spent the rest of the day/night shooting (pictures and pool).

Besides the pool-playing final shot, we set up a lot of different scenes – nuns with shotguns, nuns drinking and carousing with guys made up as The Devil, nuns with really bad teeth smoking cigars, and drinking/smoking nuns playing cards. We took a lot of these images and used some of them in the fold-out booklet in the CD package. It was a very long day, but I think that we ended up with just the right shot for the cover.

You know, I’d been shooting Ozzy’s performances live in concert for magazines since Black Sabbath, so after Zakk joined Ozzy’s band in 1988, little did I know that eight years later, I’d have such a friend in him that I decided to name my own son Zak (only one ‘k’)!”

About the photographer, Neil Zlozower –

A fixture in the rock n’ roll photography business for more than 37 years, photographer Neil Zlozower has watched more than his fair share of rising stars from behind the camera.

Spending “quality time” with the likes of Whitesnake, Poison, Dokken, Motley Crue, Ratt, Gangstar, Extreme and Van Halen - as they made their way to the top of the charts - “Zloz” got to know the behind-the-music business of rock long before VH1. He is now one of rock’s most prolific photographers, with his work appearing in countless magazines and on the album covers of major artists including Alice Cooper, Slipknot, Nickelback, Eric Burdon, Steve Vai, Paul Stanley, and many others.

As part of Van Halen’s entourage, Zloz toured America with the band, becoming their primary photographer. He was their friend who had the intimate access to the band that no one else had. Whether on the stage of a football stadium, poolside at a Holiday Inn or at Diamond Dave’s dad’s house, Neil and his camera were there, and in everyone’s face..

Obviously, being a rock n’ roll photographer keeps him busy, but being “Zloz” is a full-time job. He shoots who he digs, so working with Zloz is not just working with a pro, it’s an official rock n’ roll endorsement. In his own way, he’s become as much of a Hollywood legend as the bands he’s worked with.

New Book Info - Internationally renowned independent publisher Chronicle Books, based in San Francisco, is pleased to announce the November 26, 2007 release of Van Halen: A Visual History.

Van Halen has sold 56 million records in the U.S. and 75 million worldwide. All eleven of their albums have broken the Billboard top 20, and four have hit number one. The band was among the top best-selling artists of all time and in 2007 Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band recently announced they were reuniting with the group’s original singer David Lee Roth for their first tour together in 20 years. To coincide with the tour, Chronicle Books is publishing the very first photo retrospective of the band, as seen through the lens of photographer Neil Zlozower.

From 1978 to 1984, rock photographer Neil Zlozower was the “fifth member of Van Halen”, touring, partying with, and capturing images of the band during the David Lee Roth era, a time when the band was at the height of its powers. His photos capture the all-out, spandexed, high-kicking, high energy, blazing glory and backstage antics of the band as they became legends, and helped solidify their image as the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll party band. This visual history collects more than 250 live, session, candid, and backstage photos from Zlozower’s behind-the-scenes perspective, along with testimony from the rock pantheon paying homage to the band, including members of Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, KISS, Mötley Crüe, Slipknot, and many more. The book also includes an exclusive peek inside the band with a foreword by legendary frontman David Lee Roth.

Van Halen: A Visual History – Available 11/26/07 - Hardcover * $35 * 232 pp * 260 color images * ISBN 0-8118-6304-9 * November

To pre-order an AUTOGRAPHED copy of the book, please visit - http://www.zloz.com/vhbook.htm

For more information about this and other Chronicle Books, visit www.chroniclebooks.com.

To see more of Zloz’s work, please visit his website at http://www.zloz.com

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

Every Friday and syndicated the following week on The Rock and Roll Report, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. - all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art - and the music they covered - played in your lives.

All images Copyright 2006 & 2007 Neil Zlozower www.zloz.com
Portions of text Copyright 2007 Neil Zlozower
All other text Copyright 2007 - Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery - All rights reserved.

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What has become of punk? Has it been watered down and co-opted into so called “pop-punk” or does the spirit of The Ramones and The Damned still course through somebodys veins out there?

Well, after listening to UK band The Duel I think you can rest easy as they have taken the ’70s DIY spirit to heart and have produced some exciting and can I say infectious punk rock. With a new full length CD produced by former Vibrator Pat Collier, The Duel for me remind me that the best punk rock always had a very special, very rebellious but very musical grounding. Have a listen to Better Bombs Better and you will know what I mean.

Great stuff that you should have a listen to even if you try to tell yourself that punk was all posing and safety pins. Listen to The Duel and they will hopefully change your mind.

http://www.myspace.com/theduel

Later.

Mark

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Well this is something that I don’t do very often but HMV is having a contest over at www.hmvunderground.ca and the prizes range from an autographed Gibson Les Paul by Slash of Velvet Revolver to XBox 360 packages to a Dead Silence corset! Best of all, I have the password to get in. Just head over to www.hmvunderground.ca and enter in the password Cat Scratch.

Go ahead and check it out. The contest ends October 1, 2007.

Later.

Mark

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I was was roaming around the web trolling for music news I came across the usual assortment of crap but two things really stuck for me today but for completely different reasons.

It appears that the longevity of Keith Richards is a bit of an anomaly according to How rock stardom can take years off your life. It seems that the rock star lifestyle (you know the ol’ buggaboo of sex, drugs and rock and roll) that comes with the territory once a rock star becomes popular causes them to die pretty quickly. Citing examples of Kurt Cobain, Buddy Holly, Sid Vicious and Pete Doherty (oops he’s not dead yet!) as rockers who keeled over once stardom struck, British scientists claim that after extensive study they have come to the conclusion that “The results suggest that the most dangerous time for a star is during their first flush of fame. Stars are over three times more likely to die than ordinary people in the first five years after chart success, and in the first 10 years they are still at more than two and a half times the risk. And right up to 25 years after launching a career in showbiz, rock and pop stars are still more likely to meet their maker than the rest of us.”

What does this say to the young wannabe rock stars of today? What kind of a message does this send to them? I can just here the local garage band huddled in their rehearsal space with their collective finger poised over the “send” button of their email program- “Boys, this could mean we may become, you know popular and then we could die!” Rock and roll is a vicious game indeed!

At the other end of the spectrum you have Rick Rubin perhaps being a bit to honest when the recently named co-chairman of Columbia Records stated in the New York Times magazine that “I have great confidence that we will have the best record company in the industry, but the reality is, in today’s world, we might have the best dinosaur. Until a new model is agreed upon and rolling, we can be the best at the existing paradigm, but until the paradigm shifts, it’s going to be a declining business. This model is done.” I’m sure that the powers that be at Columbia didn’t expect this so quick in Rubin’s tenure but really, the man was just stating the truth. The old model is dead and right now everybody is staggering in the dark trying to come up with something that works in this Web 2.0 world. Until the major record labels face the fact that they are no longer the gatekeepers to the music anymore, the sooner we can figure out what will make both them and the artists they represent money, the sooner we can start promoting new and exciting artists without fear that taking a risk means the end of life as we know it. It is pretty cool that Rubin is so upfront and at least he is a “music guy” as opposed to a bean counter so don’t rule out the majors just yet.

Later.

Mark

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I have always been a big fan of Robyn Hitchcock either solo or with the Soft Boys, Egyptians, Minus 3, etc. and he is definitely a wonderfully eclectic musician in the classic British fashion. A big Beatles fan, check out this great recording of Hitchcock performing Sgt. Peppers in its entirety recorded live at the 3 Kings Pub in London on July 1st, 2007.

Just click on this link http://www.archive.org/details/rh2007-07-01 and enjoy.

Later.

Mark

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From Sydney, Australia comes Roger Explosion and their hard hitting brand of Aussie-flavored rock and roll. This is the real shit as these four maniacs thrash and crash their way through some incredibly powerful rock and roll. They have posted 4 new songs to their MySpace page and after listening to them I immediately decided I wanted to hear what their old stuff sounded like ’cause I am really enjoying these tunes.

My Way and Better Days are the ones that did it for me. I don’t know what is in the water or food down under but I find that I am consistently blown away by Australian bands and Roger Explosion are no exception. Great stuff!

http://www.myspace.com/rogerexplosion

Later.

Mark

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So you are cleaning out the basement and going through your old albums and as you flip through your records by Ratt, Quiet Riot, Dokken, Cinderalla, etc. you start to wonder, whatever happened to those bands? Well if you really want to know if they are dead and buried or playing at your local State Fair then you should check out Sleaze Roxx, probably the best source on what those teased hair rock Gods are up to today.

Sleaze Roxx covers “hard rock, heavy metal, cock rock, hair metal, melodic rock, pop-metal, AOR, glam or sleaze” and the depth of knowledge is incredible. Is there life after W.A.S.P.? Find out on Sleaze Roxx.

Later.

Mark

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As I start preparing for the Rock and Roll Report Podcast in earnest, I thought that now was a good time to mention the various ways of submitting your music to The Rock and Roll Report.

The Rock and Roll Report covers all the flavours of rock and roll put out by all of the multitude of small, independent and DIY record labels around the world in an effort to prove to fans of rock and roll that they can get their rock fix without having to put up with the endless repetitive music played on commercial rock radio. Whether it be punk, hard rock, metal, glam, garage, power pop, psychedelia or one of the dozens of other “rock” genres that have escaped me at the moment, they all have a home on The Rock and Roll Report. From the website to Rock and Roll Report Radio to the upcoming podcast that will debut at the end of September, I want to play as much of this stuff as humanly possible because it is all so good.

If you are in a band or represent a record label you can submit music in a number of ways.

The preferred format to submit your music to The Rock and Roll Report is by Sonicbids. Sonicbids is the standard way for music industry professionals to send and receive press kits online. It is also a very effective and efficient way for you to send me your music and for me to review it. The nice thing about Sonicbids is that you are kept informed as to what is happening with your submission and it is especially nice to know that I have commited to review all Sonicbids submissions within 30 days of you sending them so you are guaranteed that your music will be heard. Click on the link to the left and get started!

Alternatively you can send me your bio and an MP3 to rockandrollreport@gmail.com and I’ll have a listen. If you have a hard copy CD or DVD you want me to check out, contact me at the same address and I’ll tell you where to send it.

Finally, you can always contact me at the Rock and Roll Report’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/rockandrollreport. I have been increasingly using MySpace to connect with bands and labels as well as fans and it is always great to hear from musicians and be able to instantly have a listen to a few of their tracks. You might even get buzzed!

So there you have it. There are multiple ways to submit music to The Rock and Roll Report and now as the lazy, hazy days of summer come to an end this is a perfect time to send me your stuff, especially as I am putting together my music database for the podcast.

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to listening to what you’ve got.

UPDATE! I changed the email address because of problems with my previous address. If you sent something to the contact emaill address please resend it to rockandrollreport@gmail.com. Sorry for the confusion!

UPDATE #2! If you want to email me some of your tracks that’s great but please TAG YOUR MUSIC! What usually happens is that I download the track to iTunes and it shows up as “Track 1″ by “Un-named Artist” and it then gets lost in the mix, literally. The best thing you can do when submitting your MP3s to websites, podcasts etc. is to make sure your MP3 files are clearly tagged with the song name, band name, album, year, etc. You can do it in iTunes or in a multitude of free MP3 ID tagger programs that you can download off the Net. If you want your music heard then PLEASE make sure that it is tagged.

Thanks!

Later.

Mark

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Subject – “Stevie Ray Vaughan – Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Volume 1” – a 2006 release on Epic Legacy Recordings, with Cover Photography by Robert M. Knight.

All images Copyright 1990 & 2007 Robert M. Knight www.nikonrocker.com

The story of Dallas, TX born and bred guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan is legendary – a story of an incredibly gifted musician’s life of inspiration, discovery, fame, addiction, recovery and redemption, and then an untimely death. Like Hendrix before him, guitarists all over the world watched in amazement as the axe-master from Texas channeled the spirits of the blues and rock’n’roll to develop a blazing style of playing that was all his own.

A 1982 performance of his band Double Trouble at the Montreaux Festival caught the eye of David Bowie, who asked Stevie Ray to play on his new album Let’s Dance. This was quickly followed by a record deal with Epic and the release of the band’s first album, the chart-busting Texas Flood. That record was followed up by a quick succession of others (Couldn’t Stand the Weather and Soul to Soul), along with the band’s embarking on a relentless tour schedule. This continued until 1987, when Vaughan’s drug and alcohol use caught up with him and he checked himself into rehab. After this much-needed break, the band continued to tour (although at a slower pace) and then released their most-successful album – the Grammy-winning In Step – in 1989. In the spring of 1990, Stevie Ray and his brother Jimmie (of Fabuous Thunderbirds fame) recorded an album (Family Style) which was scheduled for release in the fall of the year. Then on August 26, 1990, after the band played an Alpine Valley, WI show (which featured a “guitar superstar” encore jam of “Sweet Home Chicago” played with brother Jimmie, bluesman Robert Cray, and SRV’s guitar idols Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton) on a warmly-received American tour, the 35-year-old Vaughan boarded a helicopter headed for Chicago. Minutes later, the helicopter crashed and killed Vaughan and 4 other passengers.

In 2006, after a string of posthumously-released recordings, Sony’s Legacy division put out a remastered and updated 16-track retrospective of SRV music titled Real Deal: Greatest Hits - Vol. 1 and went to well-known SRV photographer and friend Robert M. Knight to find just the right image to grace the cover. Robert was the only photographer on hand that night in Wisconsin and took the last photos of SRV in performance and prior to his boarding the helicopter. Reaching back into his archives also brought back a flood of memories – some happy and life-affirming; others quite painful – when he chose an image for this package from another concert in 1990 where he’d caught SRV “in the light”. Robert recounts some of the details of his relationship with Stevie Ray, the photos he took of him that fateful night, and more in today’s edition of “Cover Stories”…

In the words of the photographer, Robert M. Knight (interviewed August 2007) –

“There was a point that night that Stevie wanted me to come back to Chicago with him to go see Buddy Guy play. I did not like the idea of flying at night in helicopters as they do not have any sort of radar, so I didn’t go.

A guest in the hotel room I was staying in had set the alarm clock to turn on a news station, and the next morning I awoke at 9AM with the news about the crash. Soon my phone started to ring with calls from magazines that wanted my photos from the night before to illustrate their stories. However, Stevie was my friend and I could not bear to have my images of him used alongside of photos of a helicopter crash. I sat on them for two years before I let them be used.

As for this particular shot, I had just come off working with Sony/Epic on the re-release of Jeff Beck’s 1969 album Beck Ola, where the label had used about 12 of my shots done in 1968 for that package. When we finished the project, Sony asked who else I might have in my archives as they were working on many re-releases of classic albums. About 80% of my album projects have been when the labels are looking for good shots that have already been done. Once they see what’s in your archive, they call back over and over for other projects.

All images Copyright 1990 & 2007 Robert M. Knight www.nikonrocker.com

I had been working with Stevie Ray since 1989, when I photographed many dates on the Stevie Ray/Jeff Beck tour. I also shot several magazine covers during pre-production at Prince’s Paisley Park in Minneapolis and got to know Stevie very well.

This image of Stevie on stage in Minneapolis was one that had been fooled with early on using a process I developed in the late 60’s using “Kodalith” film in special chemicals that prevent the silver halide from linking together - giving the illusion of blackness - but the dark areas are actually made up of the actual grain of the film.

I only got to know Stevie when he was sober. A lot of time, he would come into Los Angeles, give me a call and we’d just hang out and talk. Stevie basically died of drugs and alcohol 6 years earlier in Switzerland and after rehab he became sober and came back to life and was walking, I feel, “in the light”. Whenever I photographed him, I tended to get shots of Stevie in “The Light”.

All images Copyright 1990 & 2007 Robert M. Knight www.nikonrocker.com

Over the years, I have done many album projects with Jeff Beck, Robert Cray, John Lee Hooker and have also done many dozens of magazine covers with every one in rock and roll. Currently, we are in production of a major documentary on my life and work by producer Tim Kaiser (Will and Grace/Seinfeld) and will cover a lot of the Stevie story as part of the project. I’d seen a true ‘guitar legend’ in Stevie, so it was great to have this image of him on the cover of this ‘Greatest Hits’ record – he was my friend and ‘the real deal’.”

Editor’s note – After his death, then Texas governor Ann Richards declared his birthday - October 3rd - as “Stevie Ray Vaughan Day” in Texas and there’s been a fund-raising concert (for the SRV Memorial Scholarship Fund) each year in Central Texas to commemorate this date. http://www.srvrideandconcert.org/

The city of Austin also commissioned and unveiled a statue of SRV (which is now a popular tourist attraction that stands in Lady Bird Lake park) and Fender Guitar has issued 2 different commemorative (and hot-selling) models of his best-known guitar – his beat up ’59 Stratocaster known as “Number One”.

Later this year, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of SRV & Double Trouble’s debut at Montreaux, Epic will be releasing a newly-remastered re-issue of the 1990 DVD package titled Pride and Joy that, according to the label, “has been updated, upgraded (to new Stereo and 5.1 surround-sound mixes), and expanded to more than twice its original length. The new DVD edition of Pride and Joy reprises the original eight segments, and now adds a bonus promo video clip (“Little Wing”), three acoustic numbers from the original MTV “Unplugged” series, two television commercials, and performances with Stevie Ray’s older brother Jimmie in the Vaughan Brothers (along with the EPK created for that band). The new 17-track DVD will arrive in stores November 6th on Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.”

About the photographer, Robert M. Knight –

All images Copyright 1990 & 2007 Robert M. Knight www.nikonrocker.com

Raised in Hawaii, and now based on the West Coast, Robert is a long time advertising photographer who also specializes in the Rock’n’Roll music industry. His career spans from 1968 to the present. Constantly working in the music industry for international record companies, publications and musical equipment manufacturers, Robert is best known for his “Guitar Legend” archive, having worked with such “classic” artists as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton and such contemporary artists as John Mayer, Steve Vai, and Maroon 5. His limited-edition prints are represented by the prestigious Limelight Agency (www.limelightagency.com).

Robert is also part of Guitar Center’s “Hollywood RockWalk” team, working alongside RockWalk director Dave Weiderman. Robert and partner Maryanne Bilham have an exhibition of 10-foot-tall photos on the outside of the more than 200 Guitar Centers around America., making it one of the largest outdoor gallery shows of original photographic art.

Robert has published several books, including 50 Rock Guitarists (1995 Shinko Music) and Hollywood’s RockWalk – The First Decade (1996) and was part of the 1996 book Led Zeppelin – The Photographers. His most-recent venture is an artistic collaboration called “RockMachine” – an entity that produces fine art and design for the rock culture.

In July, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas honored Robert and guitarist Slash by dedicating a case of memorabilia on the main casino floor, which was then followed by a dinner party for 50 rock celebrities and friends at Kerry SIMONS restaurant. Billy Morrison (The Cult, Camp Freddy) jetted in as host DJ. The party continued at Body English with a audio/visual retrospective of Robert’s career as a top rock photographer.

To view Robert’s archives and purchase prints of his best-known images, please visit -www.nikonrocker.com

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

Every Friday and syndicated on The Rock and Roll Report the following week, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. - all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art - and the music they covered - played in your lives.

All images Copyright 1990 & 2007 Robert M. Knight www.nikonrocker.com
Portions of text Copyright 2004 Robert M. Knight
All other text Copyright 2007 - Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery (www.rockpopgallery.com) - All rights reserved.

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If you happen to be a drummer and you are looking for a gig with a kick ass rock and roll band you could do no better than hook up with the rauch and roll of Chop Suicide. Panic Attack and Here to Stay hooked me from the get go and I think I replayed their songs posted to MySpace about five times each before I wrote this.

I’m not going to bother comparing them to anybody else only to say that they are ferocious and sexy in equal measures with their brand of rock and roll and really, what more can you ask for? Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/chopsuicideonline. And to top it all off, they are unsigned! Unbelievable.

Later.

Mark

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I’m pretty excited to be involved with a brand new rock magazine that I think you should check out.

Roczine is a new underground rock mag covering the amazing variety of unsigned and indie bands plying their craft out there and as you can tell, that matches up perfectly with the mission of The Rock and Roll Report so I think we will be a natural fit.

Edited by the non-stop powerhouse that is Raven, Let me re-print from their page what Roczine is all about and you will see why I am so excited:

Roczine is a new underground magazine dedicated to increasing awareness of local and national signed and unsigned bands. Roczine is quartlerly, and will interview/rate from 8 to 10 bands in each issue. One band will be chosen per issue to grace the cover, our feature band. CONGRATULATIONS TO IN THIS MOMENT FOR BECOMING OUR FIRST FEATURED BAND AND WITHIN REASON FOR THE UPCOMING FALL EDITION!!

Roczine has been designed not only to help fans learn more about their favorite artists, we also have help for the new band, and aspiring artists. Which promoters you should work with, how to get recorded, how to get signed, and booked are all in the first issue.

Be sure to ask the Editor any questions you may have. They can be related to music, dating, sex, sandwiches, whatever you want. All questions will be answered in the mag.

Currently Roczine will be available in the following locations with many more to come so definitely seek it out:

Strasse House, Covington, KY

Delta House In Covington, KY

CBR’S In Columbus, OH

Billiard Hutch Dixie Highway in Florence, KY

Tattoo’s in Nashville TN

Amoeba Records in CA (all locations)

If you can’t find it on your local newsstands ask them to order it or contact the mag at roczine@yahoo.com and and subscribe.

The Rock and Roll Report will be a regular feature of Rockzine and will contribute to furthering the rock and roll cause by highlighting bands, record labels, podcasts and radio shows that believe in the power of rock and roll. It will be a lot of fun to be included in a magazine where everybody involved is passionate about rock and wants to put together the best damn music mag available today. Check it out and let me know what you think. You can get more info at their MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/roczine.

Later.

Mark

WITHIN REASON will be the Feature Band
October 2007.

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I don’t know what caught my rock and roll eye first, the name of the Heavy Drapes track Hanging Like a Suicide or the sound of the Heavy Drapes track Hanging Like a Suicide!

From Edinburgh, Scotland these guys are the real deal. They describe themselves as “Rock,Punk,Garage” and that would be pretty appropriate. When you head over to their MySpace page at myspace.com/theheavydrapes have a listen to the aforementioned Hanging Like a Suicide or the heavier than heavy proto-Crazy Horse Should I Suck or Should I Blow and enjoy.

Later.

Mark

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This is the brand new track off the Go Station’s upcoming CD Passion Before Function, set to be released September 22, 2007. A great song that I will be playing on the next Rock and Roll Report Radio.

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During the Swinging Sixties, few people swung more than Playboy magazine publisher, Hugh Hefner. In 1969, Hef offered the public a chance to vicariously experience a piece of his swinging lifestyle by launching a TV show called, “Playboy After Dark.” Set in his penthouse, or possibly a studio tricked out to look like one, “Playboy After Dark” was essentially a big cocktail party presided over by a very genial Hef.

A typical show featured a mixed crowd of fifty or sixty people milling around or lounging on couches drinking, smoking, and carrying on like they were having a great old time. The older guests wore suits or evening gowns, while the young people favored bell bottoms, paisleys, love beads, and headbands. There was always a celebrity guest or two to be interviewed, as well as some of the popular musical acts of the day, including Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, James Brown, The Grateful Dead, and Iron Butterfly.

Clips of some of the musical performances are now available on Youtube, and they provide some tasty little nuggets of pop culture history. It’s positively surreal to see a very clean-cut Hef in his tuxedo “rapping” with the musicians and self-consciously uttering the occasional “groovy” and “far out.” Interestingly, some of the artists played live while others lip-synched for some reason. Either way, though, it’s a lot of fun to watch some legendary names in rock and roll, often sporting some truly wild get-ups, back in their early days. To check them out, go to Youtube.com and search for “Playboy” and any of the band names listed above. Enjoy!

By Wayne Wayne, the world’s foremost authority on the legendary band The Modest Lads

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Subject - Queen II – a 1974 release by Queen on EMI/Elektra Records, with Art Direction, Cover Design and Photography by Mick Rock.

Mick Rock’s cover photo for Queen’s 1974 recording has the distinction of being an image that both served to establish the band’s unique “class act” image and, later on, provided the setting and inspiration for the video production that convinced record labels and music fans that “the music video” could be much more than simply “promotional”.

Queen II was the second album by the band and featured two different themes – their “white”/emotional side (side A) and their “black”/fantasy side (side B) – as well as their individual and collaborative songwriting and performing abilities. And while not a commercial success when compared to later releases (while it was their first Top 5 album in the U.K., it only reached #49 on the U.S. album charts and did not “go gold” until many years later), it showed the band maturing and a new confidence in their abilities to produce over-the-top glam/prog songs and still rock with the best of them. They certainly were not trying to be a “pop” band – only one song (“Seven Seas of Rhye”) even attempted to serve as a “pop single” – but it set the basic formula and dramatic tone for the next records, starting with Sheer Heart Attack later in 1974 and then A Night At The Opera (which featured the aforementioned music video – for the epic “Bohemian Rhapsody”).

Image Copyright 1974, 2007 Mick Rock www.mickrock.com

Photographer Mick Rock had a feeling about this young band and their approach towards their music, their image, and how the two could be artfully combined to show just how special they were. They knew that, based on Rock’s success with Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and others, they’d found someone with the creative chops to establish their “look” from that point forward. How did he do it? Let’s let him tell you in this edition of Cover Stories…

In the words of the photographer, Mick Rock (interviewed August 2007) –

“One day in the late summer of 1973, while recording ‘Pinups’ with Bowie, David’s co-producer/engineer, Ken Scott, told me that there was a new band who was very interested in working with me. They were signed to a production company, Trident Audio Productions, who also owned Trident Studios in London where Ziggy Stardust and Transformer, among many other classic albums, were recorded. Ken Scott, was also managed by Trident. They were virtually unknown at the time (I didn’t know anyone who’d heard of them). They told me that they were especially impressed with the work I had done with Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, and so I agreed to meet with them.

Later that year (in October 1973), we met in the board room at Trident Studios. Their first album Queen had been released and had garnered little interest. They wanted to grab some of the ‘glam’ allure that was the hot image at the time. It was almost certainly Freddie’s idea. And of course I had all the right credentials!! They were very articulate and confident and when they played me the Queen II acetate I understood why - it was a unique and powerful sound. ‘Like Ziggy Stardust meets Led Zeppelin,’ was my immediate response. And that was what they wanted to hear from my mouth – I’d ‘gotten it’ immediately – it was ‘the sound of success’! So the game was afoot. They needed two things from me - a publicity session to try to help their first album get some attention, and then a package for their new album. The publicity photo session took place in December of ’73, and then it was on to the cover for Queen II. As was often the case in those days, I served as both the art director and the photographer for the Queen II cover (no one got paid very muck for either job back then, so it made sense to do both if I could!). The band’s brief to me was: it had to be a gatefold cover (those were the days!!), it had to have a black and white theme and it had to feature the band. After that I was on my own.

From the power of the music and the palpable ambition of the band I knew that the image had to have a ‘grand’ quality. I really only came up with one basic idea. I had recently come across a photo of Marlene Dietrich on the set of Shanghai Express with her arms crossed, fingers spread. I showed it to Freddie and he got it immediately and corralled the rest of the band. This would be the ‘black’ image. Of course there was also the ‘white’ image, and we shot both on the same day (there was no budget to shoot a second day!).

It was just the band and me. No one else was needed. They were very strong-minded, and even though they hadn’t sold many records, they were masters of their own destiny and insisted on doing it their way from the start. I had to make sure I had clean black and white seamless paper. I had an assistant and a makeup artist and the band bought or brought their own black and white clothes. Everything else was about lighting and composition.

It did take a few Polaroids and a lot of adjusting to get the angle and the band’s heads lined up in the right way to achieve the required effect and Queen were a very lively (if inexperienced) band. This was only their second ever studio session (after the publicity shoot I had done in December so they did have some experience of working with me ); they already knew that I was a fan of their music. I took a lot of frames in both black and white and color film, though of course it was the color ones that ended up on the cover.

Image Copyright 1974, 2007 Mick Rock www.mickrock.com

The tricky part was the politics of deciding which image would go on the outside of the cover and which would go on the inside. This was left open when we actually did the session. For a while afterwards Brian, John and Roger were leaning towards the ‘white’ one. They were somewhat concerned that the obvious power of the ‘black’ one would leave them open to criticism that it was ‘pretentious’ since they were a virtually untested band. As I recall this was a word that one of the few critics who had bothered to review their first album had applied to their music and it bothered the three of them somewhat. But not Freddie. He and I were firmly and unshakably in the ‘black’ camp from the start! And as seemed to be the case for most things visual about the band in those early days, Freddie could always armtwist the others in the final analysis. ‘Pretentious’ was not a word that could scare Freddie!

The management and record company had no involvement at all in the process, and we didn’t show them anything or even describe it to anyone. There were no comps or sketches. They were going to have to use what we came up with. The band was not at all interested in their comments. They trusted me and their own instincts. It was entirely their decision to work with me. Because of my own rising star at the time I don’t think anyone had any objection, but the band wouldn’t have cared if they did!!

As Brian May says in the introduction to our beautiful photobook Killer Queen, ‘We were full of ideas and precocious enough to want to control everything. But in Mick Rock we had found our match, our foil, stocked with his own ideas and his own matching stubbornness.’”

About the photographer, Mick Rock -

Often referred to as “The Man Who Shot the Seventies”, legendary rock and roll photographer Mick Rock first met David Bowie in early 1972. Most of the memorable images of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust were shot by Mick Rock in his capacity as Bowie’s official photographer.

Rock was instrumental in creating many other key rock ‘n roll images such as album covers for Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, Lou Reed’s Transformer and Coney Island Baby, Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power, Queen’s Queen II (recreated for their classic music video ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) and Sheer Heart Attack, the Ramones’ End of the Century and Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ‘N Roll. He was the chief photographer on the films The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus. He also produced and directed the seminal music videos for Bowie to be found on Bowie’s Sound and Vision DVD collection: ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’, ‘Jean Genie’, ‘Space Oddity’, and ‘Life On Mars’.

Mick’s massive (186 prints) 2003 retrospective exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography was dubbed ‘one of the finest collections of pop art to ever reach these shores’ in the local press. Mick Rock’s enthusiasm for his art has remained undimmed and he has continues to capture the musical spirit of succeeding eras through his work with musicians of the 1980’s and 1990’s and the new millennium.

His 150 print exhibition at Manchester, England’s Urbis Cultural Centre (which ran from Sept 2005 to Jan 2006) was voted Manchester’s # 1 exhibition for 2005, and after reviewing it the London Times dubbed him ‘ the music world’s top snapper’. In the feature Mick, talking about how he shoots, is quoted - “I’ve never felt like a voyeur, although I’ve certainly done plenty of looking! I work from the inside out. Like a cook, I gather all the ingredients and keep mixing and stirring and tasting until this kind of effluvia starts to rise, then I’m off to the races. It’s an addictive kind of a feeling that I need a regular shot of otherwise I don’t feel right…”

He has had major exhibitions in London, Liverpool, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oslo, Stockholm and Rotterdam, with upcoming ones for 2008 in Milan, Paris, Adelaide and Helsinki.

His recent subjects include Michael Stipe of REM, Kate Moss, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Chemical Brothers, The Rapture, The Killers, Razorlight, The Libertines, Queens of the Stone Age, New Order, The Editors, the Magic Numbers, The Flaming Lips, Kasabian, The Scissor Sisters, Snow Patrol, The Fratellis, The Horrors, Mika, The Klaxons, Peaches, Franz Ferdinand, Fat Joe and old friends Bowie, Lou Reed and Debbie Harry.

In recent years, he has published a series of books, many based on his classic images, including: A Photographic Record 1969-1980 (Century 22 Books 1995), Glam: An Eyewitness Account with foreword by David Bowie (Omnibus Books, Spring 2006)), Psychedelic Renegades / Syd Barrett (Genesis Publications 2002), Moonage Daydream / Ziggy Stardust (with David Bowie)(Genesis Publications), Rock ‘n Roll Eye (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography 2003), Killer Queen (with Brian May and Roger Taylor) (Genesis Publications 2003), Picture This – Debbie Harry & Blondie with foreword by Debbie Harry (Omnibus Books 2004), Raw Power – Iggy & The Stooges with foreword by Iggy Pop (Omnibus Books 2005), Rocky Horror with foreword by Richard O’Brien (Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Autumn 2006) and Classic Queen (Palazzo Editions 2007)

Upcoming publication: Exposures - a 35 year retrospective (Palazzo Editions, Autumn 2008)

To see and buy the beautiful co-signed and slipcased limited-edition Killer Queen photobook featuring the photos of Mick Rock , please visit the Genesis Publications web site at www.genesis-publications.com

As mentioned above, Mick has a new book coming out in the U.S. at the end of September called Classic Queen. For more information on this item, please visit the Sterling Publications web site at www.sterlingpublishing.com

To see more Queen-related items in the RockPoP Gallery collection, please follow this link – http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/queen/list.htm?1=1

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

Every Friday and syndicated on The Rock and Roll Report the following week, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. - all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art - and the music they covered - played in your lives.

All images Copyright Mick Rock 1974, 2007 www.mickrock.com

All text Copyright 2007 - Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery - All rights reserved.

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(Via Music Connection) Little Steven Van Zandt, best known for his years with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band as well as his role in Emmy-winning The Sopranos, is busy these days with several projects, including his Wicked Cool Record Co. label, which is busy signing and putting out CDs (and vinyl) by bands that Van Zandt considers too great to be overlooked.

Check out http://www.wickedcoolrecords.com for all the details.

Later.

Mark

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(Press Release) Do you think you’ve got what it takes to be the next “Matchbox Twenty”, ‘Black-Eyed Peas” or “Daughtry”?� Now’s your chance to prove that you’ve got the best band in the country, in Virgin Megastore’s first annual Battle of the Bands. Starting August 20, Virgin Megastores will start scouring the country looking for the next big band. ��The contest is open to any high-school or college-age band. Submitting your band is easy. Just drop off a copy of original music along with the band’s bio for a chance to perform live at a Virgin Megastore. The grand prize winner will win travel and accommodations to meet with A&R representatives from Immergent Records, an evening with Virgin executives and a Virgin Megastore consignment deal.��

“Virgin has always been passionate about introducing new artists to our customers, now we’re taking it to the next level by opening up a nationwide audition to be the next big band,” explains Dee Mc Laughlin, VP of Marketing, Virgin Entertainment Group, North America. “How many opportunities do high-school and college-bands have to be seen and heard by thousands of music fans as well as A&R executives?� We think this is a great opportunity for aspiring musicians.”

Submissions will be open at all 11 Virgin Megastores, however the actual Battle of the Band live performances will be held in 7 Virgin Megastore locations including: New York City, Orlando, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Customers and fans will be asked to vote for their favorite band, and be entered for a chance to win select prizes. Submissions will be collected during a two week period starting August 20th to August 31st. Chosen bands will begin battling it out live inside the seven selected Virgin Megastores September 10 - 21st. Then starting the week of September 24th fans will be able to vote in stores and online at www.virginmegamashup.com. The grand prize winner will be announced October 1st.

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Subject – 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong: Elvis’ Gold Records - Volume 2 – a 1959 recording by Elvis Presley, released on RCA Records and featuring design and art direction by Bob Jones.

With the marking this week of the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of Elvis Presley, this week’s Cover Story will be presented in a slightly different format, with the details behind the making of this iconic record cover coming from a variety of different sources, most notably the descriptive literature produced along with a series of lithographs produced in the early 1990s by a now-defunct publisher called “Record Art”.

Released just prior to Elvis’ return from his stint in the Army, this record was the first “Greatest Hits, Volume 2” rock & roll compilation (with his first Greatest Hits album coming out in early 1958, just before he entered into his military service) and consisted of all five of his Top 5 singles released in ’58-’59 (both “A” and “B” sides). His records sold so well that even the “B” sides charted in the Top 40!

Included in the compilation were a number of songs that showed just how mature a performer he had become while still being able to rock the socks off his competition. All the more impressive was the fact that these songs were recorded while Elvis was in the Army (when the set was re-released in the late 1990’s, the re-mastered recordings improved the sound dramatically), so you’d think that he’d have been slightly distracted, but cuts such as “I Need Your Love Tonight” and “A Big Hunk of Love” proved that he’d be even more formidable once he was out of the Army and back in the studio.

According to Bob Jones, who served as art director for RCA Records for this (and many other) recordings – “To the best of my knowledge, Elvis was indifferent to his image and to the graphics on his covers…the overwhelming number of Elvis Presley’s album covers were produced according to a formula – a large color photo of his head; a bold, horsey hand-lettered ELVIS, a title and the repertoire. During my brief and infrequent visits with him, the subject of covers never came up. It was just another matter of business that The Colonel (Tom Parker) took care of.

For several years during his career, the sales of Presley product accounted for well over 20% of all of RCA Victor Records’ gross income. At the time, RCA had at least one hundred contract recording artists on the label, and my department was producing over 400 LP and 45EP covers each year. The ‘man behind the man’ was Colonel Thomas A. Parker, and he was a far more interesting and complex character than his artist. As the music and motion picture industry knew, he was an aggressively shrewd and calculating man. He sensed from the beginning that Elvis was “product”. The Colonel was a master of promotion, merchandising and exploitation.

Of the more than 70 combined LP and 45EP covers I was responsible for, the only departure from the Parker formula was the 50,000,000 Elvis Fans cover. My final stab at trying to bring a fresh look to Presley’s covers came when I took samples of some big name illustrators to the Colonel in L.A. I took portraits by Bob Fawcett, Austin Briggs, Al Parker, Victor Kalin and even young Andy Warhol. I had hardly started my pitch when it was brought to a screeching halt. ‘Damn it, I’ve told you I don’t want any of your artistic stuff!’ However, The Colonel had been unable to come up with a single gimmick to promote the album. He then gave me a picture of Elvis in a gold lame suit and told me to come up with something.

While Tom and Harry Jenkins – the RCA V.P. – started discussing merchandising schemes, I started making a few thumbnail sketches for a cover. The Colonel looked over to me and asked to look at what I had been doing. With barely a glance at the sketches, he chose the one with the full figure surrounded by the six or eight smaller ones. He said ‘That’s it, but I want at least a couple of dozen of the little pictures in there’. I later sent him a mechanical and he approved the image with less than two dozen figures (ed. note – there are 16 pictures of Elvis on the record cover).

The album sold well over $1,000,000 worth of product. The Colonel loved that gold lame suit. He kept it in one of his closets in his home for years. Elvis Presley hated the damned suit from the first time he put it on…”

The now-famous cover photo montage of multiple Elvises (or would that be Elvi?) dressed in his gold lame’ “Nudie Suit” – as well as the record’s title - has inspired many knock-offs record packages, including (in descending order) Bon Jovi’s 100 Million Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong, 1,000,000 People Can’t Be Wrong by Blues Traveler, 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong by The Fall, and Phil Och’s 50 Phil Ochs Fans Can’t Be Wrong!.

About the artist - Bob Jones -

Bob Jones – Art Director, RCA Records – won a Grammy Award in 1965 for “Best Album Cover, Photography” for Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts, an RCA recording featuring a shot by photographer Ken Whitmore. Other credits include covers for Hall & Oates (Rock ‘n Soul: Part 1 – Greatest Hits) and many other RCA artists. He is considered one of the early pioneers of LP/45 cover design, working at various points with other classic cover artists such as Jim Flora and Alex Steinweiss.

To see more of the Bob Jones lithograph that is available for sale at the RockPoP Gallery, please follow this link.

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

Every Friday, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. - all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art - and the music they covered - played in your lives.

Interview tex Copyright 1991 - Record Art

All other text Copyright 2007 - Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery - All rights reserved.

“Elvis” and “Elvis Presley” are Registered Trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

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I saw this over at Rolling Stone.Com and I am still debating whether it is cool or sad. Check out Hair Metal Fashion 101 and you decide!

Later.

Mark

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The band is on the road now supporting their new record “Guts of Steel.”
http://alivenergy.com/Brimstone.html

22 Aug - Carabar Columbus, Ohio
23 Aug - Downtown Records W. Lafayette, Indiana
24 Aug - Ronnys Chicago, Illinois
25 Aug - Turf Club St. Paul, Minnesota

Later.

Mark

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There is a group that has formed to create an alternative to the annual CMJ music event in New York City because they feel that it has become too corporate. Called the unCMJ Music Fest (formerly the fckCMJ Music Fest), the organisers are aiming to put together an all ages festival that caters to indie music fans and not the music journalists and publicity people that they feel have ruined CMJ. According to the organisers “The unCMJ Music Fest is about music, not marketing opportunities” and is scheduled to take place October 19 - 20, 2007.

You can find out more about the festival at http://www.myspace.com/fckcmjmusicfest.

UPDATE! Well it seems the fine folks at CMJ (or at least their legal eagles) are not too happy with the unCMJ Music Fest and have forced organisers to change its name to un C. em J. Music Fest. Get all the grizzly details at This Day in Rock.

Later.

Mark

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From Zagreb, Croatia I give you ABF who sound kind of like an Eastern European version of Green Day. Despite the fact that it is difficult to make out the lyrics on songs such as Garage and The Good Old Days (are they singing in English?) this trio certainly rock convincingly.

Just going to prove that rock and roll is not confined to North America and Western Europe, ABF are a pretty cool unsigned band that would definitely benefit from a touch of production talent to add a little sheen to their rough rock and roll sound, although I have to admit that to me, that is part of their charm.

Head over to their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/abf13 and have a listen and then check out this video and forget everything I just said!

Later.

Mark

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Subject – “Hotel California” – a 1976 recording by The Eagles, released on Warner/Asylum Records and featuring designs, artwork and art direction by Kosh.

The follow-up to the successful 1975/early 1976 releases – the Grammy-nominated One Of These Nights and the huge-selling Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 - Hotel California was the first album to feature guitarist Joe Walsh, whose playing and song-writing influence brought the band from their more country-leaning efforts towards a more mainstream rock audience.

During the year and a half spent in the making of the record, drummer/singer/lyricist Don Henley emerged as the “featured player”, and much of the record’s tone and subject material reflected his commentary on success (and the excesses it can breed), love lost and just how strange life in California can be.

With their arena-rock-ready musicianship now well-honed (Don Felder and Walsh on guitars and Henley and Randy Meisner providing the rhythmic fundamentals), the band was now ready for the big time and Hotel California proved that they could create music that could both sell countless millions of albums (the record went platinum in 1 week!) and make a countless millions of fans in stadiums around the world cheer loudly as they sang aloud every word of every hit song. Hotel California won the Grammy in 1977 for Record of the Year and the songs “Life in the Fast Lane”, “New Kid in Town” and the epic “Hotel California” (which you can never leave) became enduring classic Eagles tracks.

As the designer of some of the most well-known album cover images in history, Kosh has always appreciated a challenge (and a nice production budget), and so when the Eagles’ manager and record label called looking for an image to properly illustrate the release of a record by a “new” Eagles band – and a band that needed no introduction – Kosh and his team braved the California winds in a death-defying effort that produced an iconic cover image and one very exciting Cover Story…

In the words of the designer, Kosh (interviewed July, 2007) –

“I had been designing album covers and promotional material in London for The Rolling Stones, The Who (Who’s Next?) and The Beatles (Abbey Road) at Apple and working closely with John Lennon on his ‘War Is Over’ campaign. Peter Asher was head of A&R at Apple Records at the time.

After a 6-month stint in New York, the family moved to LA in 1974 and I soon fell – with great enthusiasm - into the West Coast music scene. Heady times. I began working with Peter Asher again, who was now managing James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt in LA. This led me directly to Linda’s label - Asylum - and the Eagles. Irving Azoff, their manager, called me in to meet Don Henley and Glenn Frey (they were still friends at this point so the conversation was fresh and lively). Don Felder was also there, along with the amazing falsetto, Randy Meisner. It was a jolly affair - the Eagles were huge, enjoying hit after hit, and the California rock scene was burgeoning. Their producer and engineer, Bill Szymzyk, brought in an acetate of Hotel California - destined to be the first cut on, and the title of, their next album. It was an obvious hit.

For the album cover, Don wanted me to find and portray THE Hotel California – a hotel which would best-exemplify a classic ‘California hotel’, and to portray it with a slightly sinister edge. Photographer David Alexander and I set out to scout suitable locations. We photographed three hotels (including some with a rather ‘seedily genteel’ character) that fit the brief and large prints were made for approval. By now I was dealing mostly with Henley - the rest of the band would saunter in as we progressed and mutter their approvals – and he preferred more sumptuous images. The shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel against the golden sunset was deemed the favorite.

To get the perfect picture, David and I had perched nervously atop a 60′ cherry picker dangling over Sunset Boulevard in the rush hour, shooting blindly into the sun. Both of us brought our Nikons up in the basket and we took turns shooting, ducking and reloading. We used high-speed Ektachrome film as the light began to fade. This film gave us the remarkable graininess of the final shot.

Beautiful dye-transfer prints of the chosen frame were made by the great Ted Staidel. I designed and drew out the master Hotel California logo which was to become the theme of the package and the promotional materials. The script was almost impossible to bend in real neon and so, after many experiments, Bob Hickson was commissioned to airbrush the neon effect on the logo – which he did wonderfully - and it was pasted over the Beverly Hills Hotel sign on Ted’s print. The whole piece was then re-photographed, re-printed on the same stock as the original image and retouched to match the grain and hide the surgery.

Next we organized the gatefold spread – a photo of the band surrounded by friends in the hotel lobby. This was shot inside a cleverly re-decorated flop house, called The Lido, in Hollywood by David Alexander. Our combined rock ‘n’ roll friends were all invited. Nobody knows what the sinister figure lurking in the balcony window is doing - or who he is. I assume he must have been a benign spirit as Hotel California went platinum immediately (and then some!).

A lot of great talent contributed to this LP’s packaging. Photographer Norman Seeff was commissioned to shoot portraits of the band, which were arranged as a gritty black and white fold-out poster montage that was to be inserted in the package. Throughout the package (and the related promotional items), the graphics were carefully coordinated to retain the unique color and typographic schemes. It was, for its day, and expensive effort, but a very satisfying one.

It is interesting to note that I got tangled in the same heated debate with Asylum Records over the using of the band’s name on the cover that I had years earlier with EMI in London. I thought it unnecessary to use the words, ‘The Beatles’ on Abbey Road considering the album was so eagerly anticipated and The Beatles were the biggest band in the world at the time. Such was the case with Hotel California. By 1976 the Eagles were the biggest band in the world and eventually only the title, ‘Hotel California’ appeared on the original cover of the album.

Subsequently, as the sales of Hotel California went through the roof, lawyers for the Beverly Hills Hotel threatened me with a ‘cease and desist’ action - until it was gently pointed out by my attorney that the hotel’s requests for bookings had tripled since the release of the album.”

About the designer, KOSH –

As a designer and art director, KOSH became prominent in the mid-1960s with the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera. He met up with the Beatles towards the end of the decade and, as creative director at Apple Records, was responsible for design, promotion and publicity for The Beatles. His clientele expanded to cover the cream of the British rock bands including the Rolling Stones, the Who, and many others. He handled John Lennon’s crusades including the “War Is Over” campaign in 1969 and art-directed and produced the world-renowned Abbey Road and Who’s Next? album covers, among many others.

Kosh became well known in the London avant-garde art scene, designing and producing exhibitions, posters and books. After garnering several awards with the London Design & Art Directors Club, he was elected to the British Art Directors’ Jury before moving to Los Angeles in 1974. A seven-time Grammy nominee, Kosh won three of the coveted awards for his work for Linda Ronstadt (Lush Life, Get Closer and Simple Dreams). He served as faculty member of Otis Parson’s Institute of Art and on the Board of Governors of the National Recording Academy.

Kosh’s client roster has included Capitol Records, Tri-Star, Disney Studios, Fox Television, CNN, MCA, MGM, NFL (he designed the Super Bowl XXI logo), Disney, Sony Records and Warner Bros., Records. Artist clients include The Beatles, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles (including Hotel California - voted No.6 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “100 Best Album Covers of All Time”), Humble Pie, Randy Newman, Pointer Sisters, Linda Ronstadt (Kosh has prepared all her graphics since 1974), Bob Seger, Electric Light Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Spinal Tap, Rod Stewart, James Taylor, 10,000 Maniacs, T. Rex, The Who and many others. A display of his more prominent graphics was exhibited at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum.

Susan Shearer and Kosh formed Ten Worlds Productions in 1995. Tenworlds achieved critical acclaim for their work on The Last Days of Kennedy and King for TBS and the ten hour documentary 100 Years -100 Movies for the America Film Institute and CBS. In 2006, Ten Worlds produced and directed DECLASSIFIED: The Rise and Fall of the Wall, which shed new light on the Berlin Wall for The History Channel.

Tenworlds is presently producing a 13 part series of DECLASSIFIED documentaries on subjects such as John Lennon, Fidel Castro, the Tet Offensive, Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Stalin and World War 1 for The History Channel, with Kosh directing. Aimed at younger audiences, these shows combine interviews with U.S. presidents, top echelon politicians and rarely seen archival footage, overlaid with innovative graphics and searing rock soundtracks. Ten Worlds is also in pre-production for a documentary celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Beatles’ Apple Corps.

To see more of Kosh’s work, please visit – http://www.tenworlds.com/.

To see more of Kosh’s images that are available for sale at the RockPoP Gallery, please follow this link – http://rockpopgallery.easystorecreator.com/items/john-kosh/list.htm?1=1

About “Cover Stories” - Our weekly series will give you, the music and art fan, a look at “the making of” the illustrations, photographs and designs of many of the most-recognized and influential images that have served to package and promote your all-time-favorite recordings.

Every Friday and syndicated the following week on The Rock and Roll Report, we’ll meet the artists, designers and photographers who produced these works of art and learn what motivated them, what processes they used, how they collaborated (or fought) with the musical acts, their management, their labels, etc. - all of the things that influenced the final product you saw then and still see today.

We hope that you enjoy these looks behind the scenes of the music-related art business and that you’ll share your stories with us and fellow fans about what role these works of art - and the music they covered - played in your lives.

Copyright 2007 - Mike Goldstein & RockPoP Gallery - All rights reserved.

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Have a listen to “Hit Parade” from Philadelphia’s own Beretta76 off their self-titled debut Black Beauty and wait for the glorious waves of harmony in the chorus and tell me that it doesn’t bring a smile to your face! “Hit Parade” is just one of a number of incredible, sexy and full-bore crunchy rock and roll songs that will have you replaying this CD time and time again. I only got this sucker last Friday and already I have played it about 20 times as well as featuring “Hit Parade” on Rock and Roll Report Radio.

Whether you like a bit of punk attitude, hard rock sneer or power-pop shine, Black Beauty has it all in spades and I highly recommend you check it out ASAP. Tell’em The Rock and Roll Report sent ya. A great summer CD for those days when the sun is glaring, the beer is cold and the beach is hot. Works for me!

Have a listen to some tracks at their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/beretta76 and hear for yourself.

Later.

Mark

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By Michael Goldstein

Pink Floyd’s “rock opera” The Wall (released on Columbia Records in the U.S. and on Harvest Records in the UK), is the best-selling multi-disc recording of all time, having sold well over 30 million packages since its 1979 release. The record reached #1 in the U.S. (topping at #3 in the U.K.) and included the #1 hit single “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”, along with the hits “Hey You”, “Run Like Hell”, and the epic “Comfortably Numb”. It was voted #87 of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” in the 2003 survey published by Rolling Stone Magazine.

It was after this record that founding keyboardist Richard Wright departed, to return as a paid player when the band performed The Wall on tour, finally re-uniting as a full member in 1987.

According to the legend, songwriter/lyricist Roger Waters was inspired to begin writing The Wall while on tour in 1977 promoting their Animals record. Near the end of the tour, an angry Waters spat in the face of an audience member who was trying to jump up onto the stage with the band. Whatever the motivation, the record required 8 months in the South of France to complete.

All Pink Floyd records since their 1967 release The Piper at the Gates of Dawn had featured cover designs/packaging by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis. For The Wall, the band chose U.K. cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, who then also designed the giant puppets of the ‘Mother’, ‘Wife’ and ‘Teacher’, as well as the animations that were projected around the theater and onto the Wall constructed during the public performances of the opera. The selection of Mr. Scarfe as illustrator was inspired, as he creates “drawings that are often a cry against that which I detest, and in showing my dislike I have to draw the dislikeable. To horrify people with a drawing of the waste of war I must make a horrific drawing of war, and when I come to draw people, their bodies become vehicles for their emotions – greed, lust, cruelty.” Considering The Wall’s subject material, the story behind the making of today’s Cover Story image is particularly compelling….

In the words of the illustrator, Gerald Scarfe (interviewed July 2007, with additional quotes and info provided by Julie Davies and the nice folks at geraldscarfe.com) –

“In 1973, the BBC sent me to Los Angeles to work on a twenty minute animated film about all things American – a psychedelic stream-of-consciousness work featuring Mickey Mouse, Black Power, Playboy Magazine, the Statue of Liberty, Nixon and John Wayne. We used a new animation system called the ‘De Joux’ system. In full Disney-type animation there are twelve drawings to one second of film. The ‘De Joux’ system cut that number to only six or eight by mixing photographically between every drawing and producing the illusion of extra movement. This still meant an immense amount of work, drawing every second of a twenty minute film. I worked, ate and slept that project for six weeks, drawing every cliché I knew about America straight onto 70mm film - from Coca Cola to John Wayne. I called the film Long Drawn-Out Trip.

Two members of Pink Floyd (Roger and Nick) saw this film when it was shown on the BBC and asked me to make an animated film for their next series of live concerts, based on their LP Wish You Were Here. I didn’t take up the offer for some time – it seemed like a lot of work and I feared it might stop the flow of my other work (it did!). Directing animation is a full-time job. I ended up with a studio of about forty animators whom I tried to we