"Live at the Palladium" jacket design

Someday

Well-Known Member
After all these years, I've never really thought about this until today! Looking again at the "Live at the Palladium" LP, I'm struck by the fact that, as well as an 'invented' billboard type design, Richard & Karen seem to be represented by a half-photo, half-illustration picture.

Can't say I've ever seen a genuine photo on which this is based ... Karen is certainly wearing the same dress and hairstyle from the first TV Special, and Richard has a similar look, albeit with his clothing 'painted over'.

I wonder if anyone can uncover a 'real' source for the image ...
 
After I bought ‘Live at the Palladium’ in early 1977, I spent hours looking at that illustration, trying to work it out. Was it a touched-up photo? Was it part photo and part illustration? Was it a complete illustration? I don’t know if I ever worked it out. I was a bit disappointed in it, though, as I would have preferred a complete photo, at the time.

Interesting that all the non-compilation releases between ‘A Kind of Hush’ and ‘Voice of the Heart’ had only illustrations on the front covers - ‘Live at the Palladium’, ‘Passage’, ‘Christmas Portrait’ and ‘Made in America’. This may have had something to do with Karen’s health and appearance in these years.

Having said that, in some countries, ‘Live at the Palladium’ included a beautiful, colour, 12” by 12” booklet, full of great photos.

But back to your question, ‘Someday’. I have never seen a photo similar to the cover illustration. I agree that it seems Karen is wearing the dress from the 1976 ‘Very First Special’, and, from memory, the hairstyle, too. I was wondering whether the illustration might have been copied from a video still - although it would have been difficult to get a good freeze frame from the equipment of the day. Does Karen strike a similar pose in that skit song, ‘These are the Jokes?’
 
To answer my own question, yes, Karen strikes a SIMILAR pose in the video to ‘These are the Jokes’, in the same clothes, to what she does on the cover of ‘Live at the Palladium’, with arms outstretched, although not exactly the same. She also has the same hairstyle.

Richard also has the same suit and hair, but it has been coloured differently.

A great artist wouldn’t have difficulty using a still as inspiration and just changing things slightly. Otherwise, perhaps there were photos from the special that were never released that were used for the cover of ‘Live at the Palladium’, or there might have been an alternative take of ‘These are the Jokes’, from which a still was used.
 
Last night I posted a cropped photo of this cover, with the duo up close. I thought the same thing, it looks kind of half photo - half painting. Kind of like the portrait photos inside the Now & Then cover which were paintings of real pictures. Derek Green (I think), head of A&M in the UK spoke about this cover on a documentary that he had to take this design to Richard backstage one night to approve it and that he found it a difficult conversation because of Richard's health issues at the time.

I have always thought it looks just like the "These Are The Jokes Folks" segment from the first TV special and guess it was probably a painting based off of that.
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This is the segment I thought about as I read through this thread (artist changing the colour of Richard's tie).

The difference between this screenshot and the album cover is Richard is facing the front on the album cover. I think the cover is based on an alternate photo out there taken the day of the recording of that segment, with the colours and Richard’s tie touched up. It’s too realistic to be just a painting as on the Christmas album covers.
 
After I bought ‘Live at the Palladium’ in early 1977, I spent hours looking at that illustration, trying to work it out. Was it a touched-up photo? Was it part photo and part illustration? Was it a complete illustration? I don’t know if I ever worked it out. I was a bit disappointed in it, though, as I would have preferred a complete photo, at the time.

Interesting that all the non-compilation releases between ‘A Kind of Hush’ and ‘Voice of the Heart’ had only illustrations on the front covers - ‘Live at the Palladium’, ‘Passage’, ‘Christmas Portrait’ and ‘Made in America’. This may have had something to do with Karen’s health and appearance in these years.

Having said that, in some countries, ‘Live at the Palladium’ included a beautiful, colour, 12” by 12” booklet, full of great photos.

But back to your question, ‘Someday’. I have never seen a photo similar to the cover illustration. I agree that it seems Karen is wearing the dress from the 1976 ‘Very First Special’, and, from memory, the hairstyle, too. I was wondering whether the illustration might have been copied from a video still - although it would have been difficult to get a good freeze frame from the equipment of the day. Does Karen strike a similar pose in that skit song, ‘These are the Jokes?’
Yes, she does! Exactly the same look from that shot. Plus the mimed version of ‘Top Of The World’ from the same special. Good catch.
 
The difference between this screenshot and the album cover is Richard is facing the front on the album cover. I think the cover is based on an alternate photo out there taken the day of the recording of that segment, with the colours and Richard’s tie touched up. It’s too realistic to be just a painting as on the Christmas album covers.
Exactly, its almost as if someone has taken a photo slightly to the right of the camera filming the scene from the screen shot (note on the palladium cover they are not quite looking at you)
 
The green tie always looked painted and photoshopped to me. If we knew nothing about the Top of the World video then this photo would seem like it was taken at this concert but it still looks like a watercolor/painting effect.
 
Can you post that booklet? I have never seen it.
I’m away from home on holiday atm but will see how I go with posting some photos after I get home.

I deleted my app for supporting photos some time ago - which app do members recommend? I forget which one I used to use.
 
It's all a bit of a mystery. I know Argyll Street is a busy one, but, it being Britain's most famous theatre, you'd think there'd be some promotional shots of R&K outside the Palladium itself.
 
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