Product Description

This hilarious book immortalizes the craze that began while DJ Carl Morris was having a bit of fun in a Wales bar. Here is how Sleevefacing works: You find an old-school vinyl record sleeve with a nice head-shot of your musical icon (Elvis or David Bowie or Debbie Harry will do nicely), put the sleeve in front of your face, and strike a pose.Now get someone to snap your photo.This growing Web phenomenon has its own Web site (sleeveface.com), Facebook presence, YouTube video and thousands of inventive practitioners around the globe. "Sleeveface" compiles the cleverest of these images: the faux Morrisseys, wannabe Bob Dylans, and look-a-like Madonnas whose posture and clothing is in perfect sync with their idols' most classic record covers. With essays that celebrate the merits of vinyl in an age when music has gone digital, it will appeal to record collectors, music lovers across the generations, and anybody-which is to say everybody-who ever fancied him or herself a rock god.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125248 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Be the vinyl you want to see in the world.
Sleeveface has been one of the musical crazes of 2008 for some reason. Invented by DJ Carol Morris, who is widely known around south Wales for how much he likes a bit of fun in bars, and Jon Rostrum, who together extracted numerous laughs from their friends in only the way that holding something in front of your face can achieve. If the legend is correct, then the first record that sparked the craze off was by Paul McCartney - and it's certainly fair to say that Morris plays an admirable McCartney to Rostrum's Ringo.

The idea behind sleeveface is so simple that any idiot could understand it without any explanation whatsoever. So if you're thinking of buying it, what you have to do is take a record sleeve with someone's face on it (a Tom Waits, Cerys Matthews or Nick Cave record should do nicely), then hold the sleeve in front of your face and hold still - after several minutes when any onlookers would've recovered from their fits of laughter, try and get them to photograph the moment for posterity.

Sleeveface has gone stratospheric in recent months - they now have a website, a facebook group and a video on YouTube -none of these things are easy to achieve at the best of times, but certainly not in the current climate. Morris and Rostrum should be applauded for all their hard work and dedication to bring this phenomenon to the public - they currently have a MySpace page in production, which will hopefully be unveiled in April 2009. Personally, I can't wait to see what they'll bring out in time for Christmas next year, but I can honestly say that I have no idea how they can improve what they've already done. I certainly hope the rumours of the Steveface spin-off are true!

Five stars.

Brilliantly Funny
I've just spent a whole morning chuckling with this book. I've just ordered six more for my music loving friends. I'm about to spend the afternoon trawling charity shops so I can have a go myself. Hopefully I can be in the next one!

Cover-up

This is a really clever idea that I'm surprised took so long to arrive in book form. LPs were displaced by the CDs years ago yet a whole bunch of folk have found the appropriate face shot sleeve to photograph. Actually they do vary quite a lot I though. The most successful photos are the ones where someone has taken the trouble to get the same clothing to match the sleeve and then framed the image so the background works as well.

Some work really well: Marissa Robles managed to find a harp to go with The world of the harp, Decca 1974; a Jo Anne Castle Pickwick covers someone's head and shoulders perfectly; Bonnie Tyler's 1983 CBS sleeve just has added fingers to succeed.

Carl Morris and John Rostron, the two Welsh authors, just sort of drifted into the idea while Djing one night and predictable the concept ended up as a website for everyone to join in.

A fun paperback of two hundred photos than will definitely give you a smile and probably an idea for that old LP cover laying around somewhere in the house.