Australian artist Martin Sharp (1942-2013) is perhaps most famous for the record covers he produced for the rock supergroup Cream - Disraeli Gears (1967) and Wheels of Fire (1968). Both sold in large numbers throughout the world and sales continue to this day, as does the acclaim of both the music contained therein and the album covers. The classic nature of the band Cream and their two albums ensures that both Martin Sharp's artwork, and his two songs with the band - Tales of Brave Ulysses and Anyone for Tennis - will remain in the public mind for many years to come. For example, the Classic Album television series in 2006 featured Disreali Gears and the subsequent Bluray / DVD disc not only included Martin Sharp's art on the cover, but two sections in which he is interviewed and describes his involvement in the production of the cover artwork and also his co-writing with Eric Clapton of the song Tales of Brave Ulysses for that album. Clapton's interview as broadcast and a fuller outtake also referred to collaboration between the two young men. Apart from the more famous Cream albums, Sharp produced album and compact disc cover art from 1967 through to 2003 for a variety of Australian and overseas artists. A list of known examples is included below, including covers directly influenced by him, or involving him in part. These artworks chart the artist's changing styles, adaptability, and ongoing fondness for popular music. An album issued in 2014 by his friend and former performer at the Yellow House, Mic Conway, also features artwork by Sharp, as does a 2017 Apple iTunes compilation of music from Tiny Tim.

1. Disraeli Gears 1967 / Cream, November 1967, single 33 1/3 12' LP. Issued by Polydor in the UK and ATCO (Atlantic) in the US. Sharp's art features on the front and rear cover, incorporating photographs taken by his friend and fellow Australian Bob Whitaker alongside various collage elements.

According to Martin Sharp when interviewed in 2006: 'The cover for Disraeli Gears is my best known work to date. Commissioned by Eric Clapton when we were sharing the studio at The Pheasantry, it is a collage coloured with flourescent paints. I was aiming to reproduce visually the warm electric sound of Cream. Included in this album is the song I wrote down for Eric, Tales of Brave Ulysses.' (Electric Banana, 48). The original cover art also featured in a box set of Cream music issued during 2006. Prior to his death in 2013 Sharp was associated with the production of lithographic copies of the original cover artwork in a series of signed and unsigned limited edition prints.

2. Wheels of Fire 1968 / Cream, August 1968, double album with gatefold cover, 2 x 33 1/3 12' LPs. Sharp's art features on the front and rear covers and within the inner gatefold section of the American release on ATCO. The cover image was printed in black ink on silver foil-coated board for the US release. It is pure psychedelia. The two albums - live and in the studio - were also issued individually outside of the US. An associated songbook, featuring music from both Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire, and with the latter album's art, appeared during the late 1960s.

Sharp noted the following in regards to the album artwork: 'The original release was a fold-out. A black line drawing printed on silver foil. The inside was two large flourescent eyes surrounded by the titles of the songs and production details. The idea of the three heads in one was inspired by my visit to Ankor Thom, a town near Angkor Wat. The original drawing was done at the same size, 12' x 24' in black ink on white paper at The Pheasantry.' (Electric Banana, 51). A number of variants appeared with the initial release, including a reverse print for the British studio album and featuring black on silver (reproduced below); black on gold covers for the Australian and Asian releases (reproduced below); and black on blue covers for the South American releases of both individual LPs and cassettes.

3. Mighty Baby 1969 / Mighty Baby, United Kingdom, single LP. The design by Sharp was based upon a famous comic drawing from 1949 of Tarzan fighting with a lion, by Bourne Hogarth. This original image has subsequently been reproduced and adapted in a number of comics. Sharp's unique interpretation of the work features a mix of psyhedelic bubbles and red ink in a rather violent explosion of colour, almost obliterating the enraged lion at the centre of the image. The album and original cover art were rereleased during 2012. Sharp reused the Hogard image in a full page illustration for The Living Daylights magazine during 1973.

4. Ginger Baker's Airforce 1970 / Polydor, United Kingdom and ATCO, United States. Double album with gatefold cover. Sharp's art features on the multi-coloured cover and within the gatefold silver and bronze.

5.Freefall through featherless flight 1973 / Jeannie Lewis, Australia, EMI, 1973, single LP. Jeannie Lewis was an Australian singer and songwriter and lifelong friend of the artist. She sang at his funeral in December 2013. The bubbling, psychedelic cover image harks back to Sharp's work in London between 1967-8.

6. Cameleon 1980 / Tiny Tim, Australia, single LP. Also available in a Special Edition.

7. Luna Park Song 1980 / Alistair Jones / Tiny Tim, Noive & Voive No.1, EMI Custom Records, Sydney, 7' single. Tracks: 1) Luna Park Song, Alistair Jones, 2.26; 2) Wind in the Willows, Tiny Tim. Recorded at Luna Park by Simon Townsend's Wonderworld, 9 May 1980.


8. The Venetian Twins 1981 / The Venetian Twins, Australia, single LP. A number of posters reproduce the image which features on the cover of the album.

10. Persecution Games 1984 / Lowell Tarling and Robert Wolfgramm, Australia, single LP. This album cover was drawn following the disastrous fire at Luna Park, Sydney in 1979 and the death of five young boys and a father. It also references the death of Azaria Chamberlain, taken by a dingo at Ayers Rock in 1981. Variants of this grim depiction of the Luna Park face were produced by the artist.

11-13. Regular Records Greatest Hits / Boxed Set / Hits that Missed 1979-1989 / Australia, CD and box set covers with variants. Sharp's art features a band comprising three Boofhead characters. Boofhead was an Australian cartoon character who featured in a number of Sharp's works from the 1960s onwards. Sharp was attracted to his larrikin, naive nature.

14. The Night I Taught Myself to Sing 1989 / The Volares, United States. Album cover in a similar style to Martin Sharp's psychedelic artwork of 1967-8, as featured on Cream's Wheels of Fire. A variant in pink and white is also known.

15. Strange Brew 1993 / Dog Trumpet, Australia. Cover for 5 track CD. Signed by Martin Sharp 'S' lower right. Featuring a cover of the Cream song Strange Brew, from the Disraeli Gears album. Dog Trumpet included musician and artist Reg Mombasa whose style in part reflects the influence of Martin Sharp. Monbasa's art is well known via the Mambo graphic art and clothing label.

16. Rock 1993 / Tiny Tim, Regular Records, Australia, CD. This album was produced by Martin Sharp, as was the cover, and included a collection of rock and rock n' roll songs by Tiny Tim.
17. I Luv Rock n Roll / Highway to Hell 1993 / Tiny Tim, iTunes. Two songs from the 1993 Rock album.

18. Tiny Tim's Christmas Album / 1995, Durtro, UK, CD. Featuring a collection of 12 Christmas-themed songs.


19. Straight Over the Moon 1996 / Francis Angelica Greening, Sydney, CD. Photographs by Greg Weight; artwork by Tim Lewis and title lettering by Martin Sharp. The album has been reissued with artwork variations and Frances Greening's name changed to Angelica Frances (now known as Angelica Tremblay).

20. Rockin' & A Boppin' - Their 20 Greatest Original Hits 1998 / The Delltones, Rino Records, Australia.

21. Ringside 2003 / Cold Chisel, Australia. 2 CD live album. The circus-theme adopted by Cold Chisel for this album and tour was something which Martin Sharp was attracted too, following on his long association with Sydney's Luna Park and the carnival aspects of his art which manifested during the 1960s. As far as is known this was the last artwork Sharp produced for a music or audio-recording cd cover.
22. Stardust 2007 / Tiny Tim, Zero Communications, Japan, n.d., CD. Best of album. The art by Martin Sharp is a variant of one of his famous Nimrod set of posters (The Invitation 1992), with this one featuring the head of Ginger Meggs replaced with a painter's paint board and brushes. Sharp saw Tiny Tim as an artist very much similar to him in taking the work of past masters and bringing them to a new audience via devices such as collage.

Acknowledgements - In the compilation of this listing I would especially like to acknowledge the assistance of Roger Foley, Lowell Tarling and the many others who have listed Martin's work over the years. Also thank you to Roz Sharp and The Street of Dreams Martin Sharp Trust Ltd. - email: martinsharptrust@gmail.com.

Artist: Cream
Title: Wheels Of Fire
Year Of Release: 1968 / 1989
Label: RSO Records / Polydor K.K. #P36W 22003/4
Genre: Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Classic Rock
Quality: EAC Rip -> FLAC (Img+Cue,Log) / MP3 CBR320
Total Time: 2CD (00:36:07 + 00:44:18)
Total Size: 535 / 240 Mb (Full Scans)
WebSite: Album Preview

If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio. Of the three, Ginger Baker comes up short, contributing the passable 'Passing the Time' and 'Those Were the Days,' which are overshadowed by how he extends his solo drum showcase 'Toad' to a numbing quarter of an hour and trips upon the Wind & the Willows whimsy of 'Pressed Rat and Warthog,' whose studied eccentricity pales next to Eric Clapton's nimble, eerily cheerful 'Anyone for Tennis.' In almost every regard, Wheels of Fire is a terrific showcase for Clapton as a guitarist, especially on the first side of the live album with 'Crossroads,' a mighty encapsulation of all of his strengths. Some of that is studio trickery, as producer Felix Pappalardi cut together the best bits of a winding improvisation to a tight four minutes, giving this track a relentless momentum that's exceptionally exciting, but there's no denying that Clapton is at a peak here, whether he's tearing off solos on a 17-minute 'Spoonful' or goosing 'White Room' toward the heights of madness. But it's the architect of 'White Room,' bassist Jack Bruce, who, along with his collaborator Peter Brown, reaches a peak as a songwriter. Aside from the monumental 'White Room,' he has the lovely, wistful 'As You Said,' the cinematic 'Deserted Cities of the Heart,' and the slow, cynical blues 'Politician,' all among Cream's very best work. And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.
~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music