Following a period when things have been quiet due to illness, we have decided to reorganise our plans and amalgamate future ST33 titles into the parent business, Easy On The Eye Books. We will keep this site here for reference and updates, but for more previews on our next ST33 title do go over to Easy On The Eye Books.
… and others! We have posted a few screen grabs of the final retouching work on the Barry Plummer Deep Purple archive photo book on the site (and one below), work which has come about after a thorough proofing of the image print outs prior to going to press. Most of the work is picking up little flaws which were missed during layout, but sometimes stuff shows up better on paper than on screen and you think “I can do something about that” and then two hours later you have!
A couple of photographs of the ST33Books office during the packaging process! We had around 1300 pieces of cardboard packing in the building at the start of the process. I think it’s called organised chaos…
ST33Books has hit the ground running in 2017 after a lot of delays which stalled projects in 2016. Yes : Dialogue is now being printed and we plan to begin shipping in late January at long last. The Deep Purple Photo Book will follow on soon after. The cover for this has been revised now that we have got to the bottom of exactly where Barry took the material. He was London based, so we assumed the photos were all from the capital, and used the word London on the cover. But chatting with Barry he says he was often sent off to early shows on a tour for the music papers, and the Deep Purple material comes from as far apart as Glasgow and Portsmouth. Then with that done, we’re back on finishing the Genesis title.
Work on the Deep Purple photo book from noted Melody Maker photographer Barry Plummer‘s archive is going well and pre-orders will be announced shortly.
We can also announce that there will be a further very limited edition of the book as well, signed by Ian Paice. Jon at ST33Books was hoping to secure an interview with Ian for his radio show, in the course of which he mentioned the book, and the idea of having him sign some copies came about. Ian was up for this and the signing was done at his house during a short break while he was getting packed for Deep Purple’s American tour the following day. At Ian’s request ST33Books are donating the fee to the Sunflower Jam charity which is run by his wife Jackie. We showed Ian some advance print-outs of a few pages and he liked the look of it, particularly the shot below. Taken at the Rainbow Theatre in 1973, it is one of those great concert images which capture the moment.
There will be just 150 of the signed edition so if you subscribe to the dedicated newsletter (use the button below, you will be get advance notice of this (and any special offers.)
Meanwhile our designer has been hard at work and more spreads from the book will appear very soon.
Noted British music photographer Barry Plummer will see a book published by us soon and you can read more on the Easy On The Eye Books site. I first got to know Barry years ago when working on the packaging for an Ian Gillan archive release (on the RPM label). For the cover we had found a great uncredited monochrome shot of the singer relaxing with an acoustic guitar, printed in a old German magazine. Unable to trace the original, I copied it on negative and then hand-coloured it directly onto the print (which shows how long ago this all was!) for a retro look. It worked really well for the project. About a year later I got a call from Barry, saying he thought the photo was his and might there be any payment due? This immediately impressed us, as so many people would have been screaming down the phone and threatening lawyers. We did a deal with Barry and have been using his photos ever since.
Earlier this year I was chatting to Barry about his long career (he started out in the late sixties covering Hendrix and people) and suggested trying a few single artist photo books to see what would happen. He didn’t think there would be much interest but was happy for us to have a go.
As someone has “borrowed” one of our ideas lately you will understand that we are a bit reluctant to charge in and announce all the titles right now, suffice it to say they will cover four major acts and music genres. But we can announce the first title as this is well into production already.
Barry photographed Deep Purple from 1971 through to 1974 on several of their British tours, working mainly for the music paper Melody Maker. This book will bring together the best of his unpublished images, fully annotated and with accompanying illustrative material, interviews and memorabilia.
Although large format, limited, and produced entirely in the UK, the books will be reasonably priced, with full details announced shortly. In the meantime the photo above comes from the band’s one and only Mk 3 UK tour in 1974, a lengthy series of dates designed to introduce the new singer and bassist, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes respectively. Barry spent part of the show up in the gods, getting this great view of the band and a very enthusiastic crowd.
Stereo33Books 