Bruce’s shop imported American LPs well before their UK release dates and was quite a cult place to work.Īlthough I was an art school student, I was only vaguely aware of other contemporary artists working on record sleeves at that time. The shop was run by Bruce Findlay, who later became the manager of Simple Minds. In 1970, I was working at Bruce's Record Shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the words of the artist, Nic Dartnell. Armed with that information, I'm pleased to present this article to you today (I interviewed Nic in late May, 2012 at his studio in the U.K.). And, while many journalists are lulled into a false sense of security about the facts by turning to "trusted" sources such as Wikipedia, I've found - as is evidenced in today's article - that sometimes it is best to go "straight to the source" to get to the truth. Since many of the works of art I write about are from the "classic" era (1964 - 1979 or so, at least in my definition of the time), I have to hope that either/both the artists I'm interviewing have good memories and/or there's a lot of detail available online. One of the most-interesting parts of my effort to create these interview articles for you is, of course, the research. But, like so many creatives associated with the record industry have found out over the years, it takes more than just talent to thrive in an industry where questions about the use of an artist's "intellectual property" can often be quite nebulous and, sadly (for us), this uncertainty can work to stifle what might otherwise, over the years, have been a fine portfolio of album cover art. With such an auspicious beginning, you'd expect to see this as just the first step in a long career as an album cover artist. When Nic's boss, who was friendly with a partner at the label, heard that they were looking for artwork for the LP's cover, he suggested that Nic send a painting he'd done to them for their review and the rest, they say, is history. Once the line-up for the band had been finalized and their performance at the August, 1970 Isle of Wright Festival proved them to be a crowd-pleaser, Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun gave the go-ahead for their first release, on the Island Records imprint. Nic Dartnell had to consider himself a lucky man (you KNOW that I had to work that in somewhere, right?) when, at the age of 18 and serving as an assistant at an Edinburgh record store after studying painting at the Leicester Art School, his artwork was selected to be used on the cover of the debut album by recently-formed prog rock "supergroup" Emerson, Lake and Palmer. (Originally published in June, 2012 updated with additional information collected in 2016 and April, 2020)ĪCHOF writer Mike Goldstein interviews artist Nic Dartnell about his painting used on Emerson Lake & Palmer's debut album cover, released in 1970 on Island/Atlantic Records.
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