‘The Famous Charisma Label’ existed from 1969 to 1983 and was formed by an ex-journalist, Tony Stratton-Smith. Maybe he thought he was a little crazy for doing so since he not only approved of the label logo featuring ‘the Mad Hatter’ from Alice in Wonderland but also signed on many unknown and previously unsigned bands to his label including, Genesis, Malcolm McLaren, The Nice, Lindisfarne and Alan Hull, Peter Gabriel, Julian Lennon, the Monty Python comedy team, Van der Graaf Generator, Hawkwind, The Alan Parsons Project, Clifford T. Ward, String Driven Thing and many many more. The label was acquired by Virgin in 1983.
Today is Friday the 13th and it’s only fair to feature a freaky record cover, so I picked this one. It’s a double compilation album of the many artists that Charisma signed on to their label.
Graphic designer Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of a British
design company called Hipgnosis created the sleeve design. This team was responsible for the most innovative and cool record covers of the 70’s and 80’s of amongst which are those they did for Pink Floyd. Let me not sell them short for their area of specialization at that time was record cover design and they were very high in demand working with other mega groups of that era. I’m harping on Pink Floyd ‘cause it’s one of my favorite groups. They later branched out into advertising, high-end photography and music videos. Here is an unofficial website where you can purchase prints of their artwork: http://hipgnosiscovers.com/
The lettering on the cover is very stylized and credited to Hollyhead NTA and has a portrait—a photograph of a person in an executioner’s mask with metal studs and zippers. Nose hole—YES, but NONE for the eyes and mouth. Is that ‘speak no evil, see no evil’? Go figure! I need to think on that one. However, It’s pretty drastic for 1973. In fact the imagery is quite modern. I guess Hipgnosis was way ahead of its time.
This Record
Charisma Disturbance (Compilation Album)
12” LP – Double with one blue and one yellow inner sleeve
The Famous Charismatic Label, 1973
Go to www.ricsrecordsrack.com for more information. All records are in super mint condition and still available.
Here are some of tracks from the record:
Today is Friday the 13th and it’s only fair to feature a freaky record cover, so I picked this one. It’s a double compilation album of the many artists that Charisma signed on to their label.
Graphic designer Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of a British
design company called Hipgnosis created the sleeve design. This team was responsible for the most innovative and cool record covers of the 70’s and 80’s of amongst which are those they did for Pink Floyd. Let me not sell them short for their area of specialization at that time was record cover design and they were very high in demand working with other mega groups of that era. I’m harping on Pink Floyd ‘cause it’s one of my favorite groups. They later branched out into advertising, high-end photography and music videos. Here is an unofficial website where you can purchase prints of their artwork: http://hipgnosiscovers.com/
The lettering on the cover is very stylized and credited to Hollyhead NTA and has a portrait—a photograph of a person in an executioner’s mask with metal studs and zippers. Nose hole—YES, but NONE for the eyes and mouth. Is that ‘speak no evil, see no evil’? Go figure! I need to think on that one. However, It’s pretty drastic for 1973. In fact the imagery is quite modern. I guess Hipgnosis was way ahead of its time.
This Record
Charisma Disturbance (Compilation Album)
12” LP – Double with one blue and one yellow inner sleeve
The Famous Charismatic Label, 1973
Go to www.ricsrecordsrack.com for more information. All records are in super mint condition and still available.
Here are some of tracks from the record:
Capability Brown – No Range - Video
Genesis – Return Of The Giant Hogweed – Audio only
Monty Python - The Spam Song – Audio only
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