Is the sleeve note dead? Not quite. It’s just getting harder to read on those miniscule CD booklets when the text is often printed in blue on a black background and in a type so small, only a powerful electron microscope can decipher the erudite words of rock wisdom (i.e. ‘George Bulstrode plays electric washboard on track 19′).
I’m impressed Fred Dellar was paid a whacking £7 for his first sleeve note. My first offering was the notes for the magnificent debut Graham Bond LP ‘The Sound Of ’65′ commissioned by the band’s manager, Mr.Robert Stigwood. I remember nervously delivering my typewritten script and Robert giving me a crumpled ten shilling note. I guess times were hard in those early days of the Stigwood Empire.
The last time I saw Robert he was sailing up the
Thames in an ocean going yacht, worth I believe many millions of guineas. Tower Bridge was opened especially for this grand occasion.
Since then I’ve written enough sleeves notes to
fill whole filing cabinets, floppy disks, Zip Drives and Memory sticks. This priceless archive will one day be offered to a grateful nation, for rather more than 10 shillings I hope.
One Response to UP MY SLEEVE
The first sleeve notes I ever wrote were for Slade’s 1972 album Slayed for which their manager, the late Chas Chandler, a man whose company I always enjoyed, paid me £35 in cash. Coincidentally the last sleeve notes I wrote were also for Slade, another Greatest Hits CD in 2005, for which Universal paid me £600.
Every time Slade do a ‘best of’ someone or other rings me up and requests sleeve notes and each time I try to write something a bit different. One time it was an interview with Jim, this last time an interview with Noddy. I’ve done it at least four times now, maybe more. Unfortunately this last time the quite generous payment was entirely wasted as the designer printed my text in something like 8pt in silver on a white background and they were barely visible.