I can remember the times when a cover-up was presented as the 'genuine' article with a straight face by the majority of DJ's it now appears that DJ's actually list records as cover ups in their play lists. Keb didn't say the Cairos was the Precisions cover-up he just said it was the Precisions sending us all off on a fruitless wild goose chase Well hardly fruitless actually as I'm sure some of use bought some good precisions tracks on that back of that one

When did this open cover-up start and why do DJ's do it?

Is there some kudos in having a record covered up?

Do they think the record stands a better chance of taking off if people know its a cover up?

If you want to reduced the chances of people finding copies surely you should maintain the illussion that it is a record by the fictitious artist under the fictitious title.

Or am I missing something?

Could be that the information potential offered by this inter-web thingy at the touch of a button makes it harder to sustain the illusion. But I think your closer with the kudos notion, as in stating that this record is perhaps only known to you.

  ged parker said:

If you want to reduced the chances of people finding copies surely you should maintain the illussion that it is a record by the fictitious artist under the fictitious title.

Or am I missing something?

At a guess, 'tis because the illusion can only last until someone goes up to the decks and sees a taped-on handwritten white label spinning round....

Edited May 29, 200915 yr by soulAdequate

Cover-ups were done originally, back in the mists of time, to try and foil the bootleggers and maintain the life of the top sounds (they were dropped very quickly back then). This led to the situation of records being pressed with the cover-up names - Moses Smith, Patience Valentine, Eddie Parker and the Sunlovers and, indeed, Eddie Foster are ones readily that spring to mind (the real artists were Epitome of Sound, Edie Walker, the Sunlovers and, of course, the £25000 tune).

I would agree that today it is merely to maintain exclusivity.

It can be a great way to draw attention to a new spin, even if everybody and his dog come up afterwards and tell you they know what it is, at least it's got folk talking about it, which isn't always that easy in a nite of super rare and obscure music.

And in these days of more 'so called dj's' copying other dj's spins rather than using their own intuition, it virtually guarantees these guys and gals tracking down a copy and playing it in their very next set, effectively spreading the faith on that tune rather than keeping it hidden under a label.

And yes in years gone by I admit I've sat for hours with a photocopy of a wdj label & the lettraset sheets, to create a masterpiece, or at least a decent looking cover up label. My fave wdj to use was a Golden World one, you can imagine the faces when folk came up to deck clock, usually a double take with neck whip at around 150 mph

Cover up's are a huge part of our scene's history, it would be such a shame to lose them, or the practice of doing them. On the subject of artistic impersonation, Did anyone else ever buy a hand drawn labelled copy of some indemand 45 in the dark of an early years Niter? I bought two at least on different occasions. One I remember was a UK "Please Operator" made to look like a US, not so much a rip off, more a lesson on pre photocopy art - wish I'd kept them now, bet somebody would want to give me mucho dollars for the nostalgic artwork !