Not for the faint-hearted: the world's worst record covers on show at the Southgate Club!

If you're planning to view the current exhibition at the Southgate Club, be prepared for the worst!

If you go along to art galleries hoping to experience the sublime, then the exhibition that's on at the Southgate Club in Chase Side is probably not for you. But if it's the ridiculous that grabs you by your shakers and lifts you like a wing*, then you're in for a treat.

*Puzzled by this expression? See (or rather, listen to) this song by Louisiana Swamp Pop band Rufus Jagneaux

A collection of the world's most awful LP covers, curated by Steve Goldman, is currently gracing, if that's the right word, the walls in the front room at the club. Over nine years Steve has collected 700 covers. He's been exhibiting them since 2021 and has brought along to Southgate the 150 that have proved most popular.

Wall-to-wall kitschy covers: Record collector extraordinaire Steve Goldman (far right) with the committee of the Southgate Art Gallery: left-to-right: Dave Thomas, Chrissie Thomas, Ralph Hutchings, Ann Hutchings

Steve explains the method in his madness:

“To get in my collection the album covers have to be unintentionally funny. I want records where the designers have tried to do something that’s gone horribly wrong. It can’t just be a performer in bad clothes or with an ugly face - though there are a couple of those that have got in that were irresistible! And it all has to be good clean family fun - I don’t collect any album covers that are gory, violent, sexist, homophobic or racist.“

Steve with the album cover that inspired him to start his unusual collection

Steve, who had a stroke in 2020, aged 53, asks visitors to the free exhibition to make a donation to Different Strokes, a charity that supports young stroke survivors.

Should you feel inspired (or troubled) by the exhibition, Steve's collection is the subject of a book, The Art of the Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve, from publisher Easy on the Eye, which takes an academic approach to analysis of bad cover art:

Easy On The Eye decided that while these covers are strange for any number of reasons, so this book aims to tackle the subject properly, with input from Steve, some of the artists, collectors and designers, to find out what really happened. Simon Robinson, who has produced many sleeve designs himself (happily none of which feature here!) and researched the subject for many years, has written the text.

More dreadful mistakes visual delights on show at the Southgate Club

Read more about the exhibition on the Enfield Dispatch website