Forest EP

I was pleased to add the EP below to my collection. Although by no means one of the holy grails of budget records, it is nevertheless pretty rare, and forms part of a short-lived series of EPs on the Forest label.

The Forest label was introduced by Avenue in April 1972, as a way of re-launching and revitalising Avenue's 7-inch offer, which dated back to 1967. Typically the Avenue EPs would contain half of one of the label's LPs, and were accordingly issued in pairs more often than not - a formula which Forest naturally continued with.

This EP is from the Avenue album released in Summer 1972, and contains 50 percent of the LP. It is not clear why a partner EP was not also released, with the remaining six tracks on, but such are the mysteries of the Avenue discography. Below is the cover of the parent LP:

The EP is catalogue numbered FVA 2023, and is the seventh of nine Forest EPs released in 1972-73 containing soundalike cover versions. Below is the full Forest discography (cover versions only), with the approximate release dates given along with the lead track on each disc:

• 4/72     EVA 2001       Telegram Sam
• 4/72     EVA 2013       Look Wot You Dun
• 4/73     FVA 2016       Beg, Steal Or Borrow
• 4/73     FVA 2017       Desiderata
• 5/73     FVA 2020       Tumbling Dice
• 5/73     FVA 2021       Open Up
• 7/73     FVA 2023       Circles
• 9/73     FVA 2024       Pop Corn
• 9/73     FVA 2030       Love Theme From The Godfather

The Forest EPs had better quality picture sleeves than the Avenue EPs they replaced, and the cover model on this particular example is familiar to us; it's LP sleeve regular, Susy Shaw, of course. Susy would soon appear on the front of one of Avenue's LPs as well, in a similar pose:

Copycat ... er ... Covers - part 3

This is the third instalment of a series of blog posts giving examples of sleeve art from the classic cover version LPs turning up on other records (see the other two here: part 1 part 2). This time out, I'm looking at Top of the Pops, and concentrating here on the actual photo sessions.

It's sometimes the case that other photos from the same shoot were used elsewhere, either on unrelated UK albums, or even overseas, especially in France. In each case below there is a specific edition of Top of the Pops which has more than one alternative photo in circulation somewhere...

We start with Top of the Pops volume 38 (1974). The model also appears on two french LP sleeves, one of them in the long-running Hit Parade Chante covers series, the other on one of the Parades des Succes LPs:

This one is volume 65 (1978) and the cover photo was taken by French photographer Michel Laguens - who shot a couple more UK covers too - and in fact, he is openly credited on the sleeve of volume 16. The other albums are French, except for Angelo, which is an Israeli LP...

There are numerous photos known from the session which gave rise to Top of the Pops volume 67 (1978). Indeed two more turn up in the UK - the cover of Best of Top of the Pops '78 and the poster/calendar inside. Here we have yet more examples from France, and one (Disco Disco Disco) which was released in Yugoslavia!

Two more photos from the volume 80 (1980) shoot are known. Ever wondered what the model was wearing on her legs? Check out the cover of the Italian Hit Parade volume 33! The other example appeared on a UK album by Ray Conniff, released by Hallmark. Both of these were released years before volume 80, showing the photo was old by the time Top of the Pops used it.

Lastly, we look at one of the classic Top of the Pops sleeves - Best of '71. The model is of course Susy Shaw, and the images below show that this photo was from a part-nude shoot. Without wishing to be lecherous about it, the other images show her in progressively less clothing - in fact that chair is the only thing to positively link the last example to the others! That final shot, incidentally, is from a German magazine advert. One of the others is a standard UK covers LP released by Mike Morton, another is from South Africa, and another was only released as an 8-track cartridge:

Update ... and one more's turned up...