PICTURE SLEEVE OF THE MONTH

It Bites – Still Too Young To Remember 1989

In these days of digital downloads, album and record art has never been less important. It’s a shame because we used to love our 12” and 7” picture sleeves and I’m still a sucker for a nice bit of packaging and artwork.

So we'll be celebrating a great sleeve every month.

The 80's saw a major revival of the picture sleeve single in rock n roll. It had first seen a comeback in the punk era, but by 1989 you were no-one if you didn’t release your 7” single, 12” single, 5” and 3” CD (remember those cute little ones – lovely weren’t they) all tarted up in a lovely bit of artwork. This was great for obsessives who liked to collect every format, every variation in artwork even if it did frighten off girls when they saw you had 12 different versions of the same record and were actually proud of it!

Still the only band to make it big out of the gloriously bleak town of Egremont, Cumbria, It Bites were a wholly unique mixture of Yes-ish progressive rock, a dash of Weather Report type jazz and a crisp, melodious pop sensibility. This minor classic is a yearning ballad complete with passionate vocal from Francis Dunnery who also provides some delicious extended guitar noodling. It was one of their fans' faves. It Bites deserved a very wide audience but perhaps ended up falling between the cracks because they were hard to pigeonhole. Which is exactly why I still love them.

It Bites had a fancy, intricate logo as befitting a band with 70s prog at their roots and here it is in gold on blue looking, like the band, a bit flash and a bit quality as well. Naturally, it was designed by prog’s artist-in-residence Roger Dean.

This is actually a scan of my triangular cardboard sleeve for the ultra rare 3” CD single which came with the 7” version of the song as well as the album version. You also got ‘Vampire’ and the previously unreleased ‘I’ll Meet You In The Spring.’

Try getting a download into a small bit of triangular cardboard!