BOOK with POSTER Product 45 Australian Punk / Post-Punk Record Covers

BOOK with POSTER Product 45 Australian Punk / Post-Punk Record Covers
The book PRODUCT 45 documents the DIY cool of Australian punk/post punk 7’’ record covers from 1976-1980.
Over 330+ covers from over 250+ bands.
Hard back, case bound with French Fold Poster Jacket.
330mmH x 270mmW.
412 pages
Four colour throughout.
The Saints, Radio Birdman, Boys Next Door, Birthday Party, Apartments, The Sports, Last Words, Cockroaches (now The Wiggles), Cybotron, Go-Betweens, INXS, Laughing Clowns. Lipstick Killers, Mental As Anything, Microfilm, Models, Primitive Calculators, Psycho-Surgeons, Riptides, Scientists, Slug, SPK, Sunday Painters, Sunnyboys, Thought Criminals, the Victims, X and more.
Foreword written by Stuart Coupe.
Introductions written by Toby Creswell and Bruce Milne.
Book jacket poster cover designed by Phil Brophy.

1976 was a major turning point in Australian music history, so it’s fitting we start here for the first volume. Until this time the music market was the exclusive domain of major music companies, but 1976 was the year of change. Musicians started to do it themselves - recording, packaging and delivering their music directly to their fans.

This book documents the creative way the music was packaged, from the graphic design to the printing processes and delivery of the product to the market. In every Australian city and town there were individuals with this DIY mentality.

These creative minds just wanted to get their music recorded and heard and then hand delivered it to their fan base; the punters who went to their gigs or replied to the ads in the fledgling music press.

This music was packaged in spectacular handmade low budget paper sleeves. Without the constraints of record company art departments, these releases were genuinely creative. They were produced on a shoe-string budget, often by many hands. It was creativity and collaboration to the max. Nothing was off limits; the language used, the photos taken or the variety of print processes - whether hand drawn and coloured, one-colour photocopy or screen printed onto a variety of textured papers and boards. Some covers were glued, some just folded.

The unbridled creativity in packaging was as innovative as the music inside. This book compiles how the music was packaged through stunning images and the recollections of the people who made and distributed that music.

Contributions to the stories & reviews within the book: Alan Bamford (Primitive Calculators), Anando Bharti (U-Bombs), Andy Groome (Last Words), Ash Wednesday (Models), Bill Tolson (Rampant Recs), Bob Short (Filth), Bruce Callaway (The Saints), Bruce Griffiths (Aberrant Recs), Bruce Milne (AuGoGo Recs), Chane David Chane (La Femme), Clive Hodson (publishing), Craig Barman (I-94 Bar), Daisy Bailey (Missing Link Recs), Dare Jennings (Phantom), Dave Faulkner (The Victims/ Hoodoo Gurus), David Warner (musician/author), David Darling (Flat Records), Donald Robertson (Roadrunner), Donat Tahiraj (musician), Doug Thomas (Greasy Pop Recs), Fabian Byrne (Method Recs), Gavin Quinn (News), Glenn Terry (Vicious Sloth music store), Glenno Smith (musician/artist), Gordon Renouf (Slug), Graeme Regan (Hot Recs), Harry Butler (journalist), Jeremy Fiebiger (Cybotron/Clear Light Of Jupiter), Jodi Adams (journalist), John Foy (Red Eye Recs/artist), John Needham (Citadel Recs), John Willsteed (Xero), Jude Kuepper (artist), Keith Glass (Missing Link Recs), Kim Salmon (Scientists), Malcolm Baxter (Last Words), Marek Urbanski (Rocket Recs), MARK EASTON (Suicide Squad), Mark Taylor (Psycho-Surgeons/Lipstick Killers), Michael Charles (Shy Impostors), Mitchell Jones (M Squared Recs/Scattered Order), Philip Brophy (TchTchTch), Phil Macdougal (Reactor Recs), Raymond Ahn (Hard-Ons), Reg Mombassa (Mental As Anything), Rob Griffiths (Little Murders), Robert Porritt (Manikins), Roderick McLeod (Just Urbain/Young Identities), Roger Grierson (Thought Criminals/Doublethink Recs), Ron Rude (musician), Scott Henthorn (Buttercup Recs), Stephen Cummings (The Sports), Steve Lorkin (Minutemen), Steven Stavrakis (Waterfront Recs), Virginia Muzik