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I was sifting through some old vinyl the other day and came across this gem. A collection of early David Bowie songs recorded in the mid to late Sixties. The release date on the cover is 1973 so it looks like Deram were trying to cash in on Mr Bowie's rise to fame during his Ziggy Stardust period. There are quite a few decent songs on here but embarrassingly, the one howler is 'The Laughing Gnome' which Deram decided to re-release right at the peak of Ziggy fever and just after 'Life on Mars' had hit the No. 3 slot in the charts.

I've seen these songs repackaged many times but this is my favourite vinyl sleeve with illustrations credited to 'Neon Park'. Featured are several caricatures of Ziggy and what appears to be Ringo Starr riding his bike as 'Uncle Arthur'. You wouldn't get artwork like this on CD sleeves these days. From a long-gone era when one would spend ages pondering artwork and sleeve notes whilst listening to the music. Great stuff.