HANNAH’S VERDICT: ‘EVERYWHERE YOU TURN YOU’LL DOUBT YOUR OWN EYES’
IT’S not often that a museum exhibition leaves you snorting with laughter, but I defy anyone to visit the world’s worst record covers without laughing out loud. From Queen and Beach
Boys classics to obscure German singers and classical compilations, the exhibition is a wild ride through the psyches of graphic designers, marketing teams and the artists themselves. Everywhere you turn there’s something new to see that will make you doubt your own eyes. There’s a plastic dolphin covering a bathing singer’s manhood, a man dressed as a devil holding a hot dog and a classical guitarist playing away in a shirt and socks but no trousers, looking very much like he’s on the loo. I’m chuckling about it all now thinking about it.
It’s a multi-sensory experience, as there is a soundtrack playing more than 10 hours of music from the albums in front of you while the relevant cover is projected onto the wall.
Of course, it’s also an interactive exhibition as guests are invited to vote for their favourite three bad covers. This is more difficult than you might expect because so many of them are worthy.
In the end I went for Jim Post’s I Love My Life, which shows the moustachioed Jim standing glumly under an outdoor shower looking very much like he does not love his life, the Bamperos album Tule Kanssani Kylpyyn, with the Finnish band merrily sharing a candlelit bath tub, and Alan Franklin’s Come Home Baby, which would see me run a mile rather than return home to his semi-clad body. They have to be seen to be believed, but I could have picked numerous others. I’m going to go back again with my husband and kids, and tell all my friends to come too. We can all do with a bit of silliness and absurdity in our lives, particularly after the past couple of years. If you want to be thoroughly amused and entertained – and all for free, or a voluntary donation to a worthwhile charity – it is on at Spode Museum until the end of June. It’s open from 10:30am to 4pm, Wednesday to Sunday.