Thank you Jo Slee, Caryn Gough, & Morrissey for elevating sleeves/cover art to ART. While the debates over the music, especially post Vauxhall, rage on, I don't believe that anyone can deny that the artwork Ms. Slee co-created during the reign of The Smiths and Early Moz constituted the greatest sleeves, ever. I particularly like "Shoplifters" featuring a very young Elvis, "Sheila" featuring Candy Darling, and the cover art for Viva Hate, and Everyday is Like Sunday which captures the very essence of Morrissey. Hand covering his face. Beautiful, aloof, pensive, reflective, sad, and mostly mysterious...like he is saying you will never really know me so don't look too hard, because I will only show you what I want to reveal.

Thank You, Ms. Slee.

Your work has given me a greater appreciation for photography, layout, design, fonts, and increased my love for visual art in general. Morrissey was lucky to have you as a collaborator...and we all benefited greatly from your vision.

Debbie too.

Strawberry

Was interesting, not thrilling. Really Jo spoke only of about The Smiths sleeves and had not very much to say about anything else. Why are sleeves not so interesting these days? She says it all comes down to how much involvement bands have in the process. She said Morrissey had a particular talent and had hundreds (thousands?) of images. She sounded a bit exasperated when she spoke of how Morrissey would expect her to use some small scrap and turn it into a sleeve. Jo described how Morrissey never wanted to be on the Smiths' sleeves and certainly would never consider the whole band {er or did I pick that up from some other source)? When asked about CDs being the demise of the sleeve, she kind of agreed but said that there are some interesting packages around, says she still loves the 12" and that it can't be beaten. John Squire was not interviewed - his exhibition was simply the premis for the interview.