This week the artwork for the Prunes’s final studio album and another radical change from the original. What’s Guggi doing on this sleeve then, eh? You’ll find out later…
25 thoughts on “Artwork: The Moon Looked Down and Laughed”
Comments are closed.
the prunes will last forever.great cover looks like were going to hear guggi;s voice/part on this classic.HEAVEN
GREAT!!!
the moon looked over the rainbow 😉
very curious to hear this version!
Maybe Guggi is the moon….
EXCEPT FOR A SO-SO VARIANT OF ‘IF I DIE I DIE’ COVER , I AM NOT SURE WHY IN THE WORLD DID YOU CHANGE ORIGINAL ARTWORK FOR THIS PHOTOSHOP FILTERED CRAP WHICH BTW CHRONOLOGICALLY MAKES NOTHING MORE THAN CONFUSION. CHOOSING A ‘PAGAN LOVESONG’ GUGGI FOR ‘A NEW FORM OF BEAUTY’ RE-RELEASE MAKES NO JUSTICE TO HIM IN PARTICULAR AS HIS ARTWORK FROM THE VYNIL SET EXPRESSES SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST BEING ‘COVER ART’. ‘HERESIE’ IS ALSO MORE TO EXPOSE WHO DIRECTED TE REMASTERING PROCESS AS GAVIN FRIDAY OBVIOUSLY OWNS MOST OF THE GROUP’S CATALOGUE COPYRIGHTS WHILE ‘THE MOON LOOKED DOWN AND LAUGHED’ DESERVES NO COMMENT WHATSOEVER. WHAT IS ‘OVER THE RAINBOW’ GONNA BE LIKE AFTER THIS? I THINK (AND HOPE MANY WILL AGREE) THAT VIRGIN PRUNES HAD GREAT ORIGINAL COVERS FROM STEVE AVERILL AND THE CREATIVE DEPT – THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT WORTH IT. HOW SICK CAN SOMEONE BE IN CHANGING HISTORY FACTS?!??! I AM DEFINITELY NOT BUYING THESE -ALTHOUGH I AM A GREAT FAN OF THE PRUNES’ WORK (AND WOULD LIKE TO HAVE PROPERLY REMASTERED COPIES OF IT ALL), DESIGNS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADAPTED FROM ORIGINALS AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE – THESE ALBUMS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME, BUT SOMEONE OBVIOUSLY COULDN’T RESIST THE TEST OF PHOTOSHOP FILTERS.
We appreciate your comments, but there’s no need to shout and be rude. All caps make your post illegible.
Dear Caroline, I apologise for any offensive or otherwise unfriendly comments but I am truly disappointed that fans will accept anything to fill in their collection gaps. This is what happens when music and cover art suffers compromise for commercial appeal. There should definitely be a debate about these covers’ sacrilege. I will probably be one of the few to groan because everyone hardly waited for Virgin Prunes proper remasters, but it is cruel and I see no value in a CD which is, both audibly and visually, a mishmash of rare photos and whatever features and additives. As the group’s music was very ahead of the time and in its own way still is, it’s just perverse to reconstruct it all so drastically…
“I am truly disappointed that fans will accept anything to fill in their collection gaps.”
Well, that’s generalising a bit. Do you know what all the fans are thinking and whether or not they will buy the re-releases or not? It’s a bit early to be disappointed in other fans when the CDs aren’t even out yet.
I also find it interesting – to say the least – that you are calling Gavin ‘sick’, ‘perverse’ and that his choices are ‘sacrilege’.
Mary Whitehouse used to say the same thing about the Prunes. Heh.
So Excellent !!!
=> to ivan
1
“1
never judge a book/cd by its cover!!!!!!just be thankful that new fans can listen and learn.roll on september
This is my last post in here and its intention is not to continue any fights regarding the sleeves – BUT that is my personal opinion, I might be generalising, still when good music becomes anthology, re-releases with different visual adaptations usually don’t reflect the exact time they were generated in. I never questioned the sound quality of the CDs, I am SURE they’ll do justice to any die-hard fan out there longing to collect these albums but there’s a sort of paradox in visual choices of them… Some people here dared to notice the same thing one way or another… And I never mentioned anything about Gavin being sick, perverse or otherwise – regarding his decision that is a different pair of shoes but to change the sleeves, that’s his absolute right to do although speaking of taste I must say the group were previously designed in much more classical way and by such means it was more stylish and intriguing – these seem far more aggressive and predictible in terms of many colourful sleeves of today (especially when/if issued in a boring plastic jewel case). By such means the artwork is poor and Virgin Prunes were not just about music, all those records in total were brilliant pieces of pure conceptual art – simple booklets are too plain for such a strong concept and trivialise this transformation from vynil obscurity to CD. And no additional and rare archive image library will ever replace the charm of it. You’re right, never judge a book by its cover but sometimes the two are sadly divided. And that is not a complete satisfaction effect, at least not for me. Cheers 🙂
Let’s try to forget the old covers for a moment, Ivan. Does it still look bad???
I will always prefer the original ones… Not only because of the cover… a Virgin Prunes CD could never give me the feeling to be back in the 80ies again… Times have changed… I’ve changed… Gavin and Guggi have changed…
Give it a chance 🙂
For me it’s more an additional artwork – a bonus – than a new one.
LOL… Sometimes I’m really slow… Guggi??? Does that mean??? Great!!!
This is the first time I’ve ever posted here but my love of the Prunes and Mr. Friday is undying. As I am a young fan born into the CD age rather than that of vinyl, I have to say I’m extremely excited about these reissues. Whilst I have had the good fortune of tracking down most of the back catalogue on either CD or vinyl, reissues with better sound quality (let’s face it the New Rose reissues were more or less crap)are what’s gonna get my hard earned cash. Who’s to say it isn’t Mr. Friday’s intent to present the Prunes catalogue in a new manner. Correct me if I’m wrong but ANFOB was never a real album, so in that light is it that differnet than, say, the differnence between PiL’s Metal Box package and the subsequent Second Edition album? Hersie’s already had two differnet covers; the original package and the double ten inch reissue, why not a cover specially designed for the cd? As for TMLDAL isn’t this going to be pretty much a differnet album with Guggi’s vocals being restored? Wouldn’t that warrant a differnet cover (one with Guggi?) I think Mr. Friday’s carrying the Prunes legacy of original and individual, specailized packaging over into the cd age. I trust him, he’s yet to lead me astray…
By the way Caroline this is a lovely site. Good job.
When VP.com exposed the first in a row of new artworks for much of the VP’s catalogue to be re-issued, I guess my mind was veering towards similar thinking as that of Ivan’s. I am not that fond of the new covers but I am happy that these won’t remain forgotten in a dusty corner of some New Rose distribution centre… If I understood you right, Guggi on the cover of the Moon CD makes a particular symbolic meaning as his voice is ‘restored’ (i guess that also includes the original album in total) when first recorded sessions sometime in 1983… By such means, choosing Over-the-Rainbow-esque art is welcome but I must admit that now as i still own a copy of the ‘original’ (read: official) album version without Guggi, I also feel a bit tricked in that… It is certainly a much better proposition but officially, and to my listenership ethic chronologically – it is weird a bit… Why now and not before? I can understand there were many reasons but I am as well a bit tired of re-releases that claim being ‘originals’ – CDs always made strange incusions of contents from the master tape or the first vynil pressing… What is ‘original’ anymore?! Thank you Virgin Prunes…
Let’s try to bring about a joyful atmosphere and celebration for these long, long, and oh, so patiently awaited re-releases that a label like Mute is willing to offer us. I’m sure once everyone has the new copies on their stereo, all the bickering will be laid to waste, upon hearing their glorious re-mastered recordings of an era, that may never be repeated by ANY
other group in our lifetime!!
I firmly believe that Mute will be very surprised of the response and publicity and press coverage, they will receive when the releases hit the stores!!!
I wish to thank the members of the Virgin Prunes for their time and effort and their assistance with getting the re-packaging done in a timely manner!!!
peace, e.v.p.
Click, click, the camera in my eyeyeyeye…..
Isn’t it best to leave all decisions about the sleeves to the one/ones who really know best what they are doing… like Gavin and Guggi themselves? I am sure they know what they are doing. I was confused by this sleeve as well as it looks like the original “Over the Rainbow” but who am I to wonder?? Let’s all be glad the re-issues are finally coming our way after all it’s the music that counts!!
and I thought I was buying the cd’s for the music! Mmmmh… you don’t like the covers, trash them, keep what’s important and please get over it
seeing as everyone else has had their say, i thought i should say something, heh..
i really like the new covers so far, and, like someone said above, we should think of them more as a bonus rather than replacing the old.. i think it’s great that these re-releases are being done.. it must be quite difficult for them to come up with ‘new’ covers, as obviously they will use photo’s/pictures from around the time they were first released.. of the covers i’ve seen so far, i think they have managed to keep the virgin prune.. *thinks*.. atmosphere is probably the best word to describe what i mean.. and, being a graphic artist, it’s not so easy to just mess around with filters and such in photoshop.. some of the simplest designs can take the most work.. believe me, i know, lol.. so, basically i’m happy with everything Gavin and Guggi are doing.. *raises a glass to them both*.. well done! 🙂
HEEEEYYY, tis mike, guggi, if ur reading, u know who i am. Moes friend. REFORM!!!!
Being new to computers,Ive just discovered this site,courtesy of backtracking after discovering mute were doing these reissues.If you lot are anything like me, you will have lost yer record collections many times-so even if the covers arent the originals,at least they are bloody available!who knows,maybe the original artwork will be included w/the rest of the packaging?Hell,I’ve been trying to replace “Heresie”since about ’88 as I missed the black rose issue due to an inebriated lifestyle..they can come in a paper bag @I’ll still be happy.
i think the sleeve is beautiful, eternal spirits overgown [but not hidden] by graveyard ivy…apart from the typography its a classic sleeve………