Monday 16 April 2012
Friday 13 April 2012
Best Album Packaging No.3
"The Return of the Durutti Column"
The Durutti Column - 1980
The Situationist International movement had long been an influence on The Durutti Column's manager and label boss, Tony Wilson and had even given him the name for Factory Records' legendary niteclub, The Hacienda. The Durutti Column got the idea for the packaging of their first album from the situationist art book Mémoires by Guy Debord. The book is most famous for its cover, a dust jacket made of heavy-grade sandpaper which was designed to leave its mark when taken off a bookshelf or coffee table. The sleeve notes even thanks Debord "for the marketing concept". The Durutti Column liked the idea that the very action of taking the record off the shelf and putting it back on will gradually ruin all the other records next to it. The idea did backfire however as the sand kept flaking off and doing much more damage to the record inside than to any of the others.
2000 of the original sandpaper LP sleeves were released, all of which were assembled by members of Joy Division who, like The Durutti Column, were also signed to Factory Records. The story goes that it was Ian Curtis who did most of the sleeves by himself because while the rest of the band gave up and started watching TV, he continued because he needed the money for fags!
The Durutti Column - 1980
The Situationist International movement had long been an influence on The Durutti Column's manager and label boss, Tony Wilson and had even given him the name for Factory Records' legendary niteclub, The Hacienda. The Durutti Column got the idea for the packaging of their first album from the situationist art book Mémoires by Guy Debord. The book is most famous for its cover, a dust jacket made of heavy-grade sandpaper which was designed to leave its mark when taken off a bookshelf or coffee table. The sleeve notes even thanks Debord "for the marketing concept". The Durutti Column liked the idea that the very action of taking the record off the shelf and putting it back on will gradually ruin all the other records next to it. The idea did backfire however as the sand kept flaking off and doing much more damage to the record inside than to any of the others.
2000 of the original sandpaper LP sleeves were released, all of which were assembled by members of Joy Division who, like The Durutti Column, were also signed to Factory Records. The story goes that it was Ian Curtis who did most of the sleeves by himself because while the rest of the band gave up and started watching TV, he continued because he needed the money for fags!
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