Another great project to work on, as I am a big Sandie Shaw fan. A friend was a BBC Sessions collector and researcher and helped the label identify all Sandie’s radio sessions for the BBC and we licensed them direct from them and a couple from her management. Sandie’s manager also dug out a big files of slides and prints from the 80s for me to go through for the package. The cover shot chose itself really, Sandie looking ultra cool but also echoing a lot of her Sixties photo shoots. It was mono, so I tinted it and also added a gentle colour wash around the image. The back cover was also a no-brainer, and gave us plenty of room for the text and tracks. Inside we did a fold out 12 page inlay to allow me to show pictures much larger, and look more like the old gatefold sleeves. As a fan I did the sleeve notes myself but had the help of Tim Joseph, and expert on the BBC recordings, to help me with some of the technical data.
By this time the label RPM was using Macs so I could experiment a bit more with things such as the label, without going too over the top. I’m fairly sure we proofed the layout and then had the four colour films for the paper parts played out locally, with a colour proof, then sent this all off to the pressing plant along with the masters.
We almost always used Nick Watson for our mastering as he had a great ear and enjoyed his work. This was at SRT Studios out in Cambridgeshire, near St. Ives (they have closed since and he now runs his own indie studio in London).
Issued in 1998 (was it really 25 years ago?) online reviews suggest it is regarded as one of her best releases by fans out there so our hard work wasn’t wasted!
The four asterisks? Designed to echo the old fridge door symbols…
There may be some copies of this on our ebay shop.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285400649022
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