RPM Records is ending in 2020 after thirty years. My own involvement in the label ended a good few years ago, but the closure inevitably brings back a lot of great memories of running a label and also being in charge of production and artwork. This CD came out in 1991 on RPM. It was then a new label, was founded by three people involved in the CD reissue business; myself (Simon Robinson), Mark Stratford (then working for the Connoisseur label) and Roger Dopson (a freelance music consultant who worked for various labels). Our idea was to try and do a better job than some of the labels we each worked for. With hindsight we were very naive and hopelessly underfunded (each putting an equal amount in) and the label plan was of necessity simple; each of us would suggest a project we particularly wanted to see out on CD, and this would form a trio of releases for our launch. I say CD, we did actually all want to do vinyl as well and I remember preparing mock ups of the first three titles at LP size but there just was not the funding. At the time vinyl was very much dropping out of favour (today it would be a different story). Anyhow, Sandie Shaw was my contribution and got the prestigious RPM 101 catalogue number!
One of my personal annoyances with CD reissues was (and remains) that LP artwork mostly looks rubbish at CD size. The CD is a different format and needed different disciplines. So for RPM I wanted to come up with new covers BUT include original sleeves if they existed as part of the inlay so people could switch it around and show that on the front once they’d got it home. Our other massive USP was the invention of the fold out twelve panel inlay so we could cram on loads of pictures, memorabilia and sleeve notes. I say invention; I had actually spotted this done on a recent Deborah Harry CD in America, and realised it would be ideal for what we wanted to do.
This Sandie Shaw album was always my favourite of hers musically, including as it did some brave choices of tracks to cover. Sandie was also the Sixties female singer as far as I was concerned, she just always looked so cool. So it was a real chore (not) to set out and find a suitable cover shot for the reissue. I went for this awesome early photograph of her taken on top of a TV station roof, and wanted a very clean look for it. The typewriter font was not available digitally back then so I generated this on an actual typewriter and then spent ages with a photocopier enlarging it to get the look. I should explain that while I had just got a Macintosh computer by this time (my first real PC), it was still early days for doing artwork (certainly being based outside London). I generated the typography on the Mac screen, but it was then played out at a phototypesetters from a floppy disc. It took this home in galley proof, then set about laying it out on art board (sticking it down with Spray Mount) to prepare camera artwork. The photographs were attached as transparencies, and an overlay on the artwork showed how these were to be proportioned, and the work was done by a specialised reprographic house, who delivered print ready separated filmwork.
The back cover was designed so the text would not spoil the photo, and I can recall that the typesetter did not have the P and C logos, so I had to drop these in as artwork! Most of the logos etc. were prepared using a reprographic camera, which I’d got installed at the house, and stuck onto the art board.
Once the film was prepared, I had this printed up at a local colour printers. Mostly I used Colourworks in Chesterfield (long gone). We used PDO in Burnley for manufacture, but to keep costs down we decided to print locally and then ship the finished print up to PDO with the tape masters. It was a real struggle to get the back CD inlays perforated correctly by the local guys who had never done anything like this before. Mostly it worked OK, though with hindsight it would have been much easier to let PDO do everything!
I do recall there were arguments about which way the titles should read on the spines, but we settled on doing it our way and all the spines matched up to look good on a shelf (we were arrogant enough to think people would collect the label!). I used my name and the name artwork at the time, and as none of us knew if the label would take off, featured this on the back cover (with phone number!) touting for more work…
Anyway, just to get Sandie herself involved was a treat.
Most of our RPM titles were only licensed for a few years, and later EMI got the rights to the Sandie Shaw catalogue and reissued it “straight” as it were.
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