You will have all seen these icon album covers before. You may have grown up listening to one of these bands and I’m sure some of these albums are more like the soundtrack of your youth. I found these bands later on in life but I can assure you I love them as much as you. This is the rundown of my top 5 favourite album images of all time and a few cheeky facts thrown in as well.

No. 5- The Clash – London Calling

One of the most iconic images in rock n roll history

The image depicts lead singer Joe Strummer smashing up a bass guitar at New York’s Palladium in 1979

The picture taken by Pennie Smith who tried to convince Joe it was too blurry to be an album cover, but she was overruled!

No. 4- The Beatles- Abbey Road

Famously over analysed as Paul McCartney’s funeral procession

Taken outside the world famous Abbey Road Studios in London on the 8^th of August 1969

Photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo whilst he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up the traffic

No. 3- Nirvana- Nevermind

The album cover shows a baby boy, alone underwater with a US dollar bill on a fishhook just out of his reach. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births with Dave Grohl

The naked baby on the cover of the album is Spencer Elden who has been offered large sum of money to re-create the famous image

David Geffen was worried that the baby’s genitalia would offend people, but Kurt Cobain made it clear his only compromise would be to place a sticker over the baby’s genitalia saying "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet paedophile"

No. 2- Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon

Designed by British design company Hipgnosis, who had worked on the previous 2 Floyd albums

The light band on the album cover has six colours, missing indigo compared to the traditional division of the spectrum into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet

Some stoner, teenage fans are convinced that the rainbow is a hint that the album is synced to the Wizard of Oz

No. 1- The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Grammy Award-winning album packaging was famously designed by Peter Blake

The collage depicted around 60 famous people, including writers, musicians, film stars, and a number of Indian gurus as requested by George Harrison

Adolf Hitler and Jesus were also requested by John Lennon, but ruled out on common sense grounds and the fact Lennon once said that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus

Those were my top 5 favourite albums with a few weird and wonderful facts about each one. These pieces of artwork look great when transferred on to t-shirts. At GF we’ve been printing custom garments for years, from local bands to famous album covers. We do it all! You can place an order on our eshop, ring 029020 755 733 or send an email to info@goldenfinishes.co.uk

Well well well, I can’t believe it’s almost here again! A year passes by so quickly! I don’t want you to panic but it’s only 38 days til Christmas. Don’t worry you’ve still got plenty of time to get organised and buy all those presents for your loved ones. So chill out, maybe treat yourself to an early mince pie and a glass of mulled wine. I think this is acceptable as the run up for Christmas seems to start earlier every year.

The lights were switched on in Cardiff last night and the winter fair is already open. As everyone knows the biggest indication that the Christmas period has begun is seeing the Coca Cola advert;  the famous Coke truck with Santa Claus dressed in red and white; much like that of a Coke Can. I saw that ad earlier in the week so I’m getting all festive nice and early. The Christmas period for me is all about spending time with family and friends whether it is in a nice warm house or in front of an open fire in a cosy local pub.

Both of these places although nice, present a problem for us avid Christmas jumper wearers. Although some would say I look both incredibly handsome and festive, I always tend to overheat. But I have learnt from my mistakes! It hit me one day in one glorious realisation moment. The only reason you associate people ‘wrapping up warm’ is because of the weather; the weather which is outside! This meant I could wear my standard printed t-shirts indoors.

But this felt wrong without some sort of Christmasy design. So I got a load of Christmas designs off the internet and had some printed t-shirts made; genius I know. I even started designing my own; giving them away as presents to family and friends. At GF Europe, we pride ourselves on turning your logos or designs into high quality printed t-shirts.

For a top class print transfer process contact GF Europe; we have over 30 years’ experience in the print and garment industry. Please call GF Europe today on 029 2075 5733 or email your print transfer or garment transfer questions to: info@goldenfinishes.com

The nights are drawing in and winter is just around the corner. As a motorist getting about isn’t too much of a hassle for me apart from the scandalous price of petrol and car maintenance! I can just put the heating on and adjust my lights accordingly. Cyclists however do not have these luxuries.

Recently I have noticed more and more cyclists on the road. I’m unsure of the reason behind this but I imagine it is a combination of the ever increasing prices of running a car and people wanting to lead a healthier lifestyle. I tip my cap to you cyclists; I could never use a bike instead of a car. This is due to two reasons; sheer laziness and pure cowardice. All those cars whizzing past my ears at 60 miles an hour plus, no!

However for you hard-core cyclist lot there still is a real danger on the roads particularly in the dark. This is why I propose you speak to your employers about getting a high visibility jacket or vest. This way they will ensure that their valuable staff will make it to work every morning. Also by using our state of the art techniques we can print the jackets with your company name and logo.This way you can advertise your company after hours and more importantly you will be a lot safer and far more visible when you are out cycling on these cold, dark winter evenings.

Alternatively you can attempt to overcome the fragility that cyclists feel once they are on the road by branding your own jacket. There have been some interesting and highly innovative solutions. The best one I’ve seen is the “POLITE” jacket as seen above. As you can tell the intention is clear, to make drivers think, at least at first glance that you are a police offer on a bike. People that wear these types of high visibility jackets say they feel like they have a force field around them.

Whichever option you choose; order you custom printed high visibility jackets and vests now from GF Europe. We have over 30 years’ experience in the print and embroidery industry and would like all cyclists to have as safer journey as possible. You can place your order now or make an enquiry today on 029 2075 5733 or email info@goldenfinishes.com

Here at GF Europe we specialise in providing high quality printed sashes for a wide range of uses. You may most commonly associate a printed sash with a group of rowdy women wearing them on a hen night emblazoned with some sort of flirty and often vulgar statement. But the traditional message behind the sash is as far from ‘Naughty Nikki’s Hen Do’ as possible. Sashes are traditionally worn as part of formal military attire and are part of most European royal families regalia.

Sashes are also part of many traditions such as military orders like the French Legion of Honour; they award a sash as part of their most senior grades. Sashes are also used in Latin America and parts of Africa where the President will wear a special presidential sash to indicate their authority. It is also commonplace for many public authorities and local officials in France and Italy to wear sashes featuring the national flag tricolours.

Admittedly it is not very often we have European royalty placing an order with us, but sashes are still worn ceremonially in many less traditional and more modern activities. There are many weird and wonderful modern uses for a sash.  They are used in many schools of Chinese martial arts to denote rank as opposed to the Japanese system of using belts. They are also used to indicate achievement in the United States with sashes being worn at higher education commencement ceremonies. You may also be more familiar with their use in beauty pageants and in the boy and girl scouts.

These are just some uses for sashes that have a more ceremonial and less practical use. But sashes are a very versatile item of clothing and we can produce them for any and every occasion. They can be used to set you apart from others, convey a message and give you a sense of camaraderie when showing support for a charity or local project.  Or indicate to customers that there is a sale or promote a new product in the retail environment.

These are just some ideas of uses but we would love to hear more from you. If you are in need of sashes whether printed or blank then contact GF Europe today for high quality and competitively priced sashes. With 20 years’ experience selling and personalising sashes, we are expertly placed to fulfil an order of any size. Please call us on 02920 755 733 or send us an email at info@goldenfinishes.com .

At Golden Finishes we love it when products like our custom armbands and our expert services get used to promote and help with community initiatives, especially when they support brilliant causes like Haringey’s Clean Sweep programme.

Haringey Council got us to help them put together high visibility custom armbands to promote teamwork and help keep their volunteers safe! The programme involved lots of manual labour so our custom armbands’ high quality printing and comfortable elasticated fit came in really useful around all those bulging community biceps!

The Clean Sweep programme was designed to clean up the Haringey area and all members of the community were encouraged to pitch in to help give Haringey a bit of an Autumn clean! According to Counsellor Nilgun Canver: "This was real community action in practice. It's amazing what can be achieved when a community gets together with the council to improve their neighbourhood. Thank you everyone."

The custom armbands we created for Haringey’s Clean Sweep capitalized on our expert printing service to promote the cause in clear, modern text, while our high-visibility colour option kept everyone safe when the Autumn light started fading!

The initiative included the provision of free skips and gutter cleaning. On top of this, volunteers were encouraged to tackle fly-tippers, litterbugs and those who failed to clean up after their dogs. Our custom armbands helped lend a little authority to the volunteers so they felt confident enough to approach and challenge their less considerate fellow-residents.

If you are interested in using our elasticated, comfortable and perfectly printed custom armbands to promote your cause or bring together your group, just take a look around the Golden Finishes website!