Adam writes… A couple of entries for my occasional Great London Record Sleeves series – Parklife (1994) and Modern Life is Rubbish (1993), both by Blur.
As I post this – April 2024 – it’s the 30th anniversary of Parklife. More than any other record, it’s the album that comes to mind whenever I reminisce about the mid-1990s in London. What we now refer to as the Britpop period.
The inner booklet (above) and back cover pics for Blur’s 1994 Parklife album have the famous Walthamstow Stadium for a backdrop.
Elsewhere in the world of pop, East 17 filmed at the stadium for their House of Love video. This grand old greyhound racing venue closed in 2008. Only the Grade II-Listed stadium facade remains, with nearly 300 new houses now occupying the location.
The traditional working class imagery of the album sleeve underpins Blur’s artistic volte-face of the time. Parklife takes us away from Blur’s arty-indie roots to explore Britishness in rock music. The shadow of the 1960s “British Invasion” bands – especially the Kinks – falls long upon this record. There are little bits of Syd Barrett in there, too. It is widely regarded as a landmark in Britpop and 1990s pop culture.
The inspiration for the album cover came when when singer and lyricist Damon Albarn saw sports pictures in the window of a William Hill betting shop on the King’s Road. The front cover is a library picture by photographer Bob Thomas. Sleeve design is by design team Stylorouge.
The Parklife sleeve was featured in the Royal Mail’s series of classic album cover stamps in 2004.
Intimidated By The Dirty Pigeons
The video for the album’s title track was shot on the Greenwich Peninsula.
Starring the band and Phil Daniels, you can find the location here…
Modern Life Is Rubbish
As with Parklife, 1993’s Modern Life is Rubbish has a library picture on the sleeve – the famous steam train The Mallard. Once again the image sourced by design team Stylorouge. The CD booklet features an oil painting of the band on a District Line tube train, the work of artist Paul Stephen.
The name of the album is inspired once again by something spotted in a London street. Singer and lyricist Damon Albarn noted a piece of anarchist graffiti on the Bayswater Road worded “Modern Life Is Rubbish”. In conversation with NME scribe John Harris, Albarn proclaimed the phrase to be “the most significant comment on popular culture since ‘Anarchy in the UK’”.
John Harris’s book The Last Party is the seminal account of the Britpop period. Here’s my review in from the My Back Pages series…
Catch up with the rest of My Back Pages (Series 1) at the London Music Tours YouTube Channel HERE
Follow in the footsteps of Blur on The Rock’n’Roll Camden walking tour.
