Twas the night before Record Shop Day 15 and nothing was stirring not even a mouse… apart from the beep signalling a work email arriving. At midnight on a Friday? How rude…
Let’s just open it and… Sweet baby Jesus what demonic horror is this? Am I still on magic mushrooms in St Helens in 1987? Why did I open that monkey’s paw I bought from a market in Marrakech?
Ah no, it’s just our friend Natalie Sharp – better known as awesome musician Lone Taxidermist – who has celebrated RSD15 by painting her face to look like 11 different album sleeves.
Along with the fantastic (and occasionally disturbing) re-interpretations of classic album art, she sent us this message:
"Jesus fucking mother of cunning god, I really really need to go to bed. Ive now been up for 24 or maybe more hours doing this stupid bloody record sleeve bollocks.
"I know I originally said I was going to do 40 sleeves but if I ever suggest anything as stupid again, please give me a slap.
"I Melted, smudged, gurned, contorted and painted a willy and nearly my own foo foo on my face to celebrate record store day.
"I knew I had to do something even better than last year so I used a fancy camera with a shutter release cable and spent up to eight hours a day for weeks on end painting my face."
She adds: "I foolishly told John that I was going to do all 40 suggestions I received on Facebook, John told everyone and I set myself up for disappointment. BUT I didn’t bleed or cry this year.
"I started off thinking I would only play the album on repeat for each face I was painting and each time I would have a glass of bubbly. This didn’t work out too well, as by the end of it I was hammered and getting topless in front of a bewildered looking cat.
"I loved doing King crimson and Peter Gabriel as they are real painterly artworks, intact I barely used my brushes, I would saliva my fingers and smudge the paint to make it all blurry and melty.
I did not love Tubular Bells or Grace jones, As I have a Cleopatra nose it doesnt bode well with straight lines.
"Enjoy and don’t ever offer me RSD suggestions again!"
Here are the great pictures that Natalie sent us. Happy Record Shop Day!
Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel [aka Melt]
Talk Talk – The Party’s Over
Annette Peacock – I’m The One
Nirvana – Nevermind
Bjork – Volta
Velvet Underground And Nico – Velvet Underground And Nico
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Grace Jones – Island Life
Human League – Dare
King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King
