Album Artwork: “A Circus Of Vaginas”.

Hi folks, here is my latest album cover artwork for “A Circus Of Vaginas” which is the debut of Glasgow lesbian Punk outfit, V For Vagina.

When will the album be released?
– I don’t know.

Where can you buy the album from?
– What am I, a swami? I just draw the pictures okay?

Do you know anything about anything Al?
– YES! A Woman’s heart beats faster than a Man’s and that’s a fact!

From sketching out the layout ideas to the finished piece, all in all, the album artwork took around 9 days to complete. I used a black bic biro pen (my favourite artistic implement) and some thick children’s coloured pencils on heavy duty, rough grained paper.

V For Vagina gave me one of the best illustration briefs I’ve ever received. They said:
“So long as it says: ‘Circus!‘, ‘Punk!‘ and ‘Lesbian!‘, and includes the colours red and yellow, you can do whatever you want with this album cover Al.”

So I did.

For Illustration Queries, contact:
brokenglasseye@hotmail.com

If you are interested in a copy of “A Circus Of Vaginas”, contact:
V For Vagina on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Me on Facebook by clicking HERE.

Here are some details from the cover…

You May Also Be Interested In:
* “Love Lust Tales”: Available For Pre-Order Now!
* My Comic Strip: Al Cook’s “Necropolis”.
* Album Cover Artwork: “Love Lust Tales”.

The Singles Of John Lennon.

I dug out my old battered vinyl copy of John Lennon’s single “Cold Turkey” the other night.
Now, I stole that record from a girlfriend YEARS ago who got it from her Aunt and over the years, I’ve played it to death!
I know where every scratch, pop and crackle is on the record and I wouldn’t give it up even for a brand new copy.

I’m a bit of a Lennon nut and I’ve managed tp build up a pretty impressive record collection over time but I don’t have much in the way of his singles.
I’ve found a few in second hand shops and lost a few (y’know how it is) and I thought that since everybody downloads everything these days, it might be nice to stick the sleeves of Lennon’s singles up on here so that people can see what they looked like at the time.
So that’s what I did.

Give Peace A Chance/Remember Love.
Jul 7th, 1969 (US).
Jul 4th, 1969 (UK).

Cold Turkey/Don’t Worry Kyoko.
Oct 20th, 1969 (US).
Oct 24th, 1969 (UK).

Instant Karma!/Who Has Seen the Wind?
Feb 20th, 1970 (US).
Feb 6th, 1970 (UK).

Mother/Why.
Dec 28th, 1970 (US).

Power To The People/Open Your Box.
Mar 12th, 1971 (UK).

Power To The People/Touch Me.
Mar 22nd, 1971 (US).

Imagine/It’s So Hard.
Oct 11th, 1971 (US).

Woman Is The Nigger Of The World/Sisters O’ Sisters.
Apr 24th, 1972 (US).

Happy Xmas (War Is Over)/Listen, The Snow Is Falling.
Dec 1st, 1971 (US).
Nov 24th, 1971 (UK).

Mind Games/Meat City.
Oct 29th, 1973 (US).
Nov 16th, 1973 (UK).

Whatever Gets You Thru The Night/Beef Jerky.
Sept 23rd, 1974 (US).
Oct 4th, 1974 (UK).

No.9 Dream/What You Got.
Dec 16th, 1974 (US).
Jan 31st, 1975 (UK).

Stand By Me/Move Over Ms.L.
Mar 10th, 1975 (US).
Apr 18th, 1975 (UK).

Imagine/Working Class Hero.
Oct 24th, 1975 (UK).

(Just Like) Starting Over/Kiss Kiss Kiss.
Oct 27th, 1980 (US).
Oct 24th, 1980 (UK).

Woman/Beautiful Boys.
Jan 12th, 1981 (US).
Jan 16th, 1981 (UK).

Watching The Wheels/Yes, I’m Your Angel.
Mar 13th, 1981 (US).
Mar 27th, 1981 (UK).

Love/Give Me Some Truth.
Nov 15th, 1982 (UK).

Nobody Told Me/O’ Sanity.
Jan 5th, 1984 (US).
Jan 9th, 1984 (UK).

Borrowed Time/Your Hands.
May 11th, 1984 (US).
Mar 9th, 1984 (UK).

Borrowed Time/Your Hands/Never Say Goodbye.
Mar 9th, 1984 (UK).

I’m Stepping Out/Sleepless Night.
Mar 15th, 1984 (US).
Jul 15th, 1984 (UK).

I’m Stepping Out/Sleepless Night/Loneliness.
Jul 15th, 1984 (UK).

Every Man Has A Woman WHo Loves Him/It’s Alright.
Oct 5th, 1984 (US).
Nov 16th, 1984 (UK).

Jealous Guy/Going Down On Love.
Nov 18th, 1985 (UK).

Imagine/Happy Xmas (War Is Over).
Dec 13th, 1999 (UK).

Some similar links…
* The Albums Of John Lennon.
* The Beatles Back Album Covers.

The Soundtrack To My Life. 02/09/2011.

I’m not dead!
…Although I am now almost 30 with a mortgage so, same thing really.
Heh heh.

This old blog will be back to normal in a few days but in the meantime, here are some of the albums I’ve been listening to whilst moving furniture over the past few days…

Bob Dylan’s “Theme Time Radio Hour”. Episode 3, Drinking (2006):

Gerry Rafferty’s “Can I Have My Money Back” (1972):

The latest from Lenny Kravitz, “Black And White America” (2011):

“Checkmate Savage” by The Phantom Band (2009):

Paul McCartney & Wings, “Red Rose Speedway” (1973):

“As Time Goes By …The Complete Schmilsson In The Night” by Harry Nilsson (1996):

The 2nd LP in Johnny Cash’s American Recordings Series, “American Recordings II: Unchained” (1996):

“Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (2008):

John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s two way dialogue, “Double Fantasy” (1980):

“The Josua Tree” by U2 (1987):

Probably the latest record I’ve listened to is “Black And White America” from Lenny Kravitz and y’know what? It ain’t bad at all! -It’s pretty funky infact!
I like Kravitz but I’m an album guy and Lenny’s albums usually contain about 3 or 4 great singles with the rest being filler. “Black And White America” is a typical Kravitz album but his songs are getting better!
Maybe it’s ’cause I’ve missed him but I also really like the album cover photo.

I really enjoyed hearing that Gerry Rafferty album again.
Considering how much he’s loved here in Glasgow, it’s surprisingly difficult to find a Gerry Rafferty album for sale in the shops here.
“Can I Have My Money Back” was his debut album.

You’d do well to check out the rest of those records.
You’d do really well!

The blog will be back to normal in a couple of days folks!

Balls & Noise.

I’ve found myself listening to opera recently.
No reason really.

Michael at work told me all about Puccini so I’m gonna investigate him soon because Michael says that when it comes to opera, Puccini is the very man!

I’ve also been making my way through a Stockhausen boxset and last week I got lost in every Sufjan Stevens’ record back to back but sometimes,
I just want Dirt & Rock & Roll. I’m talking about amps turned all the way up to 11.

It seems to me that fewer bands today are making any music with real balls and noise. There’s great new music out there made by millions of interesting artists but in terms of Hard, Loud, Dirty, Rock & Roll, who is there?

Here are 10 of the ballsiest records I own:

Neil Young: Live Rust. (1979).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)‘.

Iggy Pop: Lust For Life. (1977).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Sixteen‘.

Nirvana: In Utero. (1993)
Ballsiest Track: ‘Radio Friendly Unit Shifter‘.

The Beatles: The White Album. (1968).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Yer Blues‘.

Black Sabbath: Paranoid. (1970).
Ballsiest Track: ‘War Pigs‘.

Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe. (1998).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Living Dead Girl‘.

Muddy Waters: Hard Again. (1977).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Mannish Boy‘.

Little Richard: Here’s Little Richard. (1957).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Long Tall Sally‘.

Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II. (1969).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Heartbreaker‘.

The Stooges: Raw Power. (1973).
Ballsiest Track: ‘Search And Destroy‘.

I recommend getting all of those albums.
Especially “Raw Power” by The Stooges.
That record’s a monster!