Wholesale Punk 45: The Singles Cover Art of Punk 1976–80

This 350+ page flexibound book is a revelatory guide to hundreds and hundreds of original seven-inch record cover sleeve designs—visual artifacts found at the heart of the most radical and anarchistic musical movement of the 20th century. The revolutionary do-it-yourself ethic of punk was applied to the aesthetic of design as much as it was to music, and record sleeves acted as lo-fi signifiers of anarchy, style, fashion, politics and more with an urban and suburban invective courtesy of the thousands of new bands—punk, post-punk, pre-punk, nearly punk and more—that emerged at the end of the 1970s. This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music—everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities. Punk 45! is introduced and coedited by Jon Savage, author of the acclaimed definitive history of punk, England’s Dreaming, and features a new introduction by Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. Contributors include Peter Saville, Richard Hell, Richard H Kirk, Seymour Stein, Geoff Travis, Martin Moscrop, Glenn Branca, Jamie Reid, Dave Robinson, Roger Armstrong, Martin Mills, Gee Vaucher, Savage Pencil, Dennis Morris and more.