Album Covers - 21 May (Sunday ride)
Ride leader Charlie says:
Those of us with large music collections may mourn the demise of vinyl records as a medium in the mid-1990s. One of the reasons for that will be the challenge of poring over the cover art, looking for hidden meanings, or simply enjoying the pictures themselves. When CD as a medium grew, the cover art shrunk from a square foot in size to less than a quarter of that, and its impact lessened.
Now that vinyl has seen a resurgence in the past few years – in the UK, music on vinyl has outsold CDs every year for the last three – the cover has resumed its rightful place as an artform in its own right. From the arty offerings of the Pet Shop Boys to the more sexually inclined Top Of The Pops and Hot Hits compilations of the 1970s, via more prosaic band pictures, all have their place.
How many of us have mused on the location of some of these and the reasons for the choice of that location, though? This ride will explore some examples photographed in London. Those of us of a certain age will know and expect the more obvious locations to be included, but tucked away en route are some other, less familiar examples. There are back stories to many of these, and hopefully I can bring some of these to light. Sadly or thankfully, dependent on your point of view, we will avoid the sandpit in Barnet, where Motörhead posed in Wild West attire for the terrific Ace Of Spades album in 1980.
As usual, this ride will be around 20 miles in length, at a leisurely pace, starting at Hyde Park Corner at 09:30, finishing in Russell Square for a late lunch, with a comfort break stop at around the halfway point. Hopefully the 20 pence facilities at the bottom of Hyde Park will be open before the start.