Steve Goldman has spent years rescuing the most bizarre, ill‑judged and unintentionally comic LP sleeves from the dustiest corners of vinyl history. His cult exhibition, The Worst Record Covers in the World, has delighted audiences everywhere from galleries to comedy festivals — and in 2026 it arrives at the Edinburgh Fringe. Ahead of the show’s run at Assembly George Square Studios, we caught up with Steve to talk design disasters, accidental folk art, and why these gloriously terrible sleeves still make us laugh. Full details and booking are available via the official Fringe listing.
- The Origin Story — You’ve said the whole thing began with Roadstar Peter Rabbit bought for 10p. Be honest: was that the moment you realised humanity had no aesthetic brakes, or the moment you realised you’d found your life’s work?
When it all began, 40 years ago I was just a whipper snapper and had no idea this would become my life’s work! I bought Peter Rabbit for 10p because it was such an extraordinarily bad cover. Subsequently I lost it. Then the internet came along, I thought “I’ll find it now”, but every time I typed in Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter links came up- and I thought I’d never see it again. Then about 10 years ago someone told me to look in discogs.com- so I did, and it came up straight away. It was a bit more expensive this time- £5, plus a fiver to have it shipped from Germany. When it arrived was one of the happiest moments of my life. And that evening I said to my family “do you know what, I think I’ll start collecting crap record covers”…. That’s the moment I realised I’d found a calling
- The Stewart Lee Effect — Stewart Lee claims your collection made him “despair of humanity itself.” Do you take that as a compliment, a warning, or the highest possible endorsement?
When we created The Art of the Bizarre Vinyl Sleeve- the book of the exhibition- Stewart was kind enough to agree to write the foreword. (We actually asked three people- Stewart, Dolly Parton and the German singer King Sized Dick, and Stewart was the only one who bothered to reply) In Stewart’s foreword he does indeed say that the collection made him despair of humanity itself. He goes on to say that he “began to hate mankind for it’s ineffable and inexcusable shitness, its natural tendency towards ugliness and stupidity…”. And also that he began to hate me for my role in originating the project, and Simon Robinson, the author of the book. But he comes round, and by the end of the foreword he congratulates me and Simon on “Defining an as yet uncategorised new substrata of folk art”..which is the highest possible endorsement!
- The Line Between Bad and Brilliant — You insist the covers must be unintentionally funny.What’sthe secret ingredient that turns a merely ugly sleeve into a transcendent act of artistic self‑sabotage?
There’s no one secret ingredient: there’s so many forms of bad. I attach 22 sleeves, each one I think is funny for a different reason…..
- Curatorial Ethics — You avoid anything gory, sexist, racist or hateful. In a world where shock sells, is it harder to find “clean” badness than it is to find offensive badness?
Yes that’s certainly true. There is a lot of offensive badness about. But just take a look at the exhibition and the book and you’ll see there are many rich seams of ‘clean’ badness.
- The Psychology of Failure — When you look at these sleeves, do you see incompetence, innocence, delusion, or something more tender — the human urge to create, even when weprobably shouldn’t?
I see all of those things, but look at the attached sleeves- there’s so much more to love!
- The Fringe Audience —You’veshown this collection everywhere from Halifax to Leicester. What is it about Fringe audiences that makes them howl the loudest?
Ah, Fringe audiences are very lucky actually- they’re surrounded by a smorgasbord of people trying to make them happy. When we first exhibited in Huddersfield in 2021, we were just beginning to emerge from the Covid pandemic and people really needed a treat. The joy and release people experienced coming together in a room, howling with laughter at the music industry’s incompetence was a real tonic. It’s an absolute buzz to come to the fringe- this is our second year, and first year on George Square- but I’m also very tickled when the exhibition lights up places that are well and truly off the beaten track like Warrington, Birkenhead and Mansfield, where the full exhibition is this summer.
- The Collector’s High — After 700 sleeves, what still gives you that electric jolt — the “oh God, what is this?” moment that tells you a new horror has earned its place?
There’s one rule- if it makes me laugh, then it’s in.
- Design Crimes — Which design sin offends you the most: the floating disembodied head, the badlycut‑outfigure, the tragic attempt at sex appeal, or the “we’ll fix it in post” optimism that clearly never happened?
Actually they don’t offend me, they delight me! Yes, you’ve identified 4 themes there, but there’s so much more….. including ones where the design is just inexplicable.,
- The Stroke, the Charity, the Mission —You’veturned a personal health crisis into a fundraising mission for Different Strokes. How does it feel to watch people laugh themselves silly while supporting something so serious?
Actually supporting Different Strokes was an afterthought suggested by my wife! But it’s raised over £3000 so far, and it’s made people realise that strokes aren’t exclusively suffered by the elderly. One in four strokes happen to people of working age, like me. Our needs, and the challenges we face are very different from people who have strokes later in life. We’ve launched Worst Record Covers in the World calendars for 2027 – I’m hoping if those sell well we can do a bit more to help Different Strokes.
- The Philosophy of Bad Taste — At what point does bad taste stop being a joke and become a cultural archive — a record of who we were, what we thought looked good, and how magnificently wrong we often were?
At the moment when I thought of exhibiting The Worst Record Covers in the World!
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