Comments on: XTC: Go 2

By: Dan Abbott

Dan Abbott — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:45:51 +0000

Great article!
It's true, this cover's been ripped off a ton of times.
I'd like to add that the concept was originally designed for Pink Floyd, who rejected it. XTC saw it lying around on the Hipgnosis studio floor, and delighted in having a Floyd reject – “if Pink Floyd don't like it, then we love it!”.
I love these stories.

By: Dan Abbott

Dan Abbott — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:45:51 +0000

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:45:18 +0000

Hipgnosis came up with this cover after an awful lot of their other designs were flatly rejected. So it was probably born out of desperation. They never did an XTC sleeve again.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:28:45 +0000

To Miko’

I think you’re missing the whole point of the XTC cover. It’s SUPPOSED to be plain and visually unappealing. The text design had never been done before and that is what pulls you in and if you find the text dull than you are truly lacking a sense of humor. I’m old enough to have seen it when it was first released and while I had never heard of XTC, I bought the album strictly because of the cover!

By: reidmix

reidmix — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:56:25 +0000

P.I.L. also had a “Cassette” version.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:39:26 +0000

I got as far as “SELL the record”. It’s such an aggressively ugly font and layout that I felt kind of put off by the look, I guess.

To be frank I think the Flipper record doesn’t quite come across. Without knowing what it’s supposed to be, it just makes me go “huh?”. The XTC is just too ugly and dull to approve of, too.

I love the PiL cover, though.

By: DJMurphy

DJMurphy — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:59:08 +0000

Silly me, I thought the PiL cover was a tribute of sorts to Repo Man, where all of the products in that movie are generic (like the can of food that Emilio Esteves eats from is labeled “Food” and that’s it).

By: Jens Alfke

Jens Alfke — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 18:38:40 +0000

The original Virgin UK release of Go 2 had one corner of the back-cover text missing, and an inner sleeve that had the missing text on one corner. You could lay the inner sleeve over the back cover and put everything together. An incredibly clever piece of work.

I don’t see the Flipper cover as being related at all. Theirs was a parody of generic food labels, as generics were new and really popular in grocery stores in 1982. The PiL cover was a definite ripoff of the Flipper cover, though (although better designed.) But one could also accuse Flipper of sounding much like PiL (circa “Metal Box”) so perhaps this was Lydon’s way of getting payback :)

By: Sandie

Sandie — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:05:58 +0000

Have just seen this and has anyone seen the Obey posters? http://obeygiant.com/archives/?page=235&nggpage=4

Look at the black and white “This is a poster graphic” which is half way down. It’s almost word for word in some areas.

By: alex

alex — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:22:23 +0000

The promo CDs from that Hard-Fi album all say “RARE PROMO SINGLE” on them. You get the feeling that they’re very pleased with themselves for coming up with that. It’s not a patch on XTCs.

By: XTC: Ten Feet Tall » Sleevage » Album Cover Blog. Music, Art, Design.

XTC: Ten Feet Tall » Sleevage » Album Cover Blog. Music, Art, Design. — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:14:52 +0000

[...] Covers XTC: Go 2DJ Shadow: Endtroducing…Crosby, Stills & Nash: Crosby, Stills & [...]

By: Matt McInerney

Matt McInerney — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:21:30 +0000

It’s almost impossible not to read this whole album cover