Hot Hits ♥ site. Missing You Already .....

[glampunk]

Sad news for aficionados of Pickwick/ Hallmark and *ahem* "Music For Pleasure" album covers. Jeff Vagg's mighty Hot Hits site - the one that opened with a burst from from Stephanie de Sykes Born With A Smile On My Face - has disappeared into the ether. This was an excellent resource for all those gorgeous leggy dolly bird album covers of the 'seventies as celebrated half to death on Vault Mk. 1's epic thread, The Total Horror of Pickwicks Albums. The great thing about Jeff's site was, he'd also photograph the back covers which were often at least as bizarre as the shots MFI & Co. saw fit to plonk on the front.

'Musical' merits? Not enough experience of them to offer a viewpoint, but 'negligible' is strong possibility. From ye olde boarde, yet again:

These were dead terrible: In-house session men grinding out soulless covers of the pap that happened to be in the charts at a given time. But - and it's a big but as we realise this is what it's all about - the record sleeves were awesome.

My experience of the musical delights on offer is restricted to one listen of a Top Of The Pops interpretation of Pretty Vacant (I still wake up screaming), but this is unquestionably the stuff! Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep not unbearable enough for you by the original artists? Imagine an interpretation by geezers who probably wished they were in Emerson, Lake and Palmer?

Sadly, I've not heard the feted interpretation of PIL's Public Image, but some kindly soul has uploaded this jaunty TOTP 1976 version of Abba's Mama Mia if you're curious for a taster.