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MIX 56 CHESHIRE'S BEST MUSIC MIX
The Worst Record Covers in the World
The Worst Record Covers in the World Have Landed in Chester – and I Loved Every Awful One!
Phil
PHIL ROBERTS
THE MORNING SHOW
Four minutes into my chat with Steve Goldman, he started holding album covers up to the camera. I spent the rest of it laughing, wincing, and at one point asking, “Is she holding what I think she’s holding?”
Steve is the man behind The Worst Record Covers in the World, now on at the Grosvenor Museum in Chester until mid-January. Two thousand years of Roman history, and now a few rooms of music history of the not-so-pretty kind.
It All Started With a 10p Rabbit
Thirty-odd years ago Steve bought Roadstar by a band called Peter Rabbitt for 10p. Picture a top hat with five fluffy white rabbits tumbling out of it, and each rabbit has a band member’s face stuck on.
Then he lost it.
Years later he found it online, paid a fiver, and says its arrival was “one of the happiest moments of my life.” That evening he told his family, “I think I’ll start collecting bad LP covers.”
As you do.
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It has to make me laugh Phil Roberts
What Makes a Bad Cover Good?
Steve has one rule for getting in. “It has to make me laugh. But there are so many forms of laughter. There are so many forms of bad.”
Sometimes it’s just the title. He paid £110 for one album purely because the title made him laugh. “The fact that the cover is so bad is a bonus.”
Do the artists know? Mostly not.
Though Dolly Parton has owned up about Bubbling Over: Dolly in the background, and in front of her a fountain with Dolly’s face in it. Same photo. Twice. When Dolly says it’s bad, you’re allowed to agree.
It’s not all vintage, either. Visitors vote for their worst, and at the last two shows the winner came out in 2024.
The Story Behind the Collection
Then we talked about Steve, and the chat changed tone.
Six years ago he had a stroke. For three weeks the only word he could say was “yes.” His old voice went altogether, and the one you hear now is a new one.
He has to concentrate to talk, and his right side is “all but completely useless.”
But here’s how he sees it: “I could have died. So every day since my stroke is a gift.”
The exhibition is free, and Steve asks visitors to donate, if they can, to Different Strokes, the charity for working-age stroke survivors. A QR code at the exhibition takes you to his JustGiving page.
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Every Day is a GIFT Phil Roberts
The Countdown: A Few to Look Out For
Steve talked me through them from his own Worst Record Covers in the World calendar. You couldn’t see what I was seeing on air, so here’s what’s waiting for you.
The Nimble Fingers of Jean-Pierre Jouet
A man who has clearly forgotten his trousers. This is the one that started the exhibitions. An old friend laughed at it harder than Steve had ever seen her laugh, and he thought, "Maybe I should be showing this to people."
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The Ridiculous Album Cover Phil Roberts
Oil & Vinegar, Dave McKenna and the Wilbur Little Quartet
A jazz album, if you can believe it. A couple, a few strategically placed cabbage leaves, and a bit of cabbage being passed between two sets of lips. You'd never admit you bought it for the cover.
Disco do Fofão 2
Fofão was a Brazilian kids' TV character: ginger hair, dungarees and enormous puffed-out cheeks. According to Steve, the creator wanted a mashup of all sorts of things. What he got looks like a part of the male anatomy I won't name here. You'll know it when you see it.
Hier… Aujourd'hui, Carlos
A bearded, very hairy chap with, sadly, a body very like mine, grinning in a bubbling hot tub with a drink at his elbow. Steve says it's the little red porpoise floating in the water that makes it. He reckons Carlos had his tongue in his cheek. I hope so.
The Mustard Street Church
AChristmas classic. A man choosing between the baby Jesus and a packet of cigarettes, and clearly undecided. The last-minute present for your mum you'd regret by Boxing Day!
Fully Booked Until 2028
Chester is the exhibition’s 20th outing, and Steve’s booked up to January 2028. He’s still a computer programmer by day, “but this is so much better.”
His favourite part? Turning up at his own exhibition unannounced and just watching people laugh.
I told him that even though these are the worst record covers ever, I think they’re also the best, because of the stories behind them.
“So do I,” he said.
We’ll be heading down with some of the Mix 56 team for a follow-up. Come and have a laugh, and drop something in the pot for Different Strokes while you’re there.
The Worst Record Covers in the World is at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, until mid-January. Follow @worstrecordcovers on Instagram.
