Boxer - sock it to me ...
original cover |
replacement cover |
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Band: Album: Company: Catalog: Producer: Designer: Artist: Photo: Release: |
Boxer Below the Belt Virgin PZ-34049 Boxer and Richard Digby-Smith Nigel Thomas not applicable Alex Hendeson 1975
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Band: Album: Company: Catalog: Producer: Designer: Artist: Photo: Release: |
Boxer Below the Belt Virgin PZ-34049 Boxer and Richard Digby-Smith Nigel Thomas not applicable Alex Hendeson 1975
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| With the exception of the ill fated
Bar-Kays
and perhaps the long suffering Allman Brothers, it's hard to think of a
band with a higher mortality rate than England's Boxer. Following the collapse of the little known Patto, 1974 found namesake MIke Patto (RIP) and guitarist Ollie Halsall (RIP) electing to continue their musical collaboration. Recruiting former Van der Graft Generation bassist Keith Ellis and Jeff Beck drummer Tony Newman, the quartet quickly attracted the attention of Richard Branson's Virgin Records. One of the first acts signed to the label, the quartet's 1975 debut "Below the Belt" offered up a professional, if largely uninspiring collection of blues-based rockers. Perhaps aware the album wasn't any great shakes, Virgin's art department seems to have made a decision to compensate for the pedestrian product by packaging it in one of the year's most tasteless covers. While the collection's ten selections attracted little attention, the cover caused considerable commotion. Designed by Nigel Thomas, the front and rear covers featured pictures of model Stephanie Mariann. Mind you, album covers featuring attractive young women are about as rare as dandelions in a front yard. Mariann's picture certainly wouldn't have been a big deal except for the fact photographer Alex Henderson's displayed Mariannl with her legs wide apart, completely nude. The original artwork was apparently even too much for Virgin marketing executives who demanded the band show a little discretion, which translated to a revised photo wherein Mariann's lower regions were tastefully obscured by an outside arm wearing a boxing glove. In case you were wondering, she was paid 250 pounds for an eight hour session and no, the glove was not superimposed. Needless to say, the cover was greeted by a chorus of criticism, including a slew of women's rights group (some whom suggested a picture of a nude Patto with a boxing glove smashed into his family jewels would have been a more appropriate cover). The cover guaranteed that American retailers wouldn't touch the album with a ten foot pole. Profit motivations prevailing, within a matter of weeks Virgin had withdrawn the original artwork, reissuing the album with an equally daring and stunningly cover - namely a group photo that had been on the album's inner sleeve. As for Mariann, well she seems to have disappeared. I couldn't even find a reference to her on the web.
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