Records With History And Future

Spirit 84 was a band from the Netherlands that played Youth Crew inspired music, in vein of Turning Point. They were rather the exception than the rule over here in Belgium, where Metalcore was flourishing. Especially in the year 1998, when they released this 7 inch. “BTCOF” stands for Beyond The Call Off Friendship.

When I started collecting this record (because it’s part of the Good Life Recordings catalog), I hadn’t got an idea of what was in existence or how the covers looked like. I do recall to have read somewhere that there were 4 limited sleeves of this 7 inch in existence. I think it was Nico from Do Not Consider Yourself Free, if my memory doesn’t fail me. That was a while ago. So now that I have collected 4 different limited sleeves, the question remains if that completed the quest or not? I do think there is a regular sleeve with black vinyl also

This record has some cool and creative covers I think, two of them are hand drawn. The other two are cut and paste style. I wonder what software they used back then, if not handmade also? All of the three covers tell us more about the influences they had.

Appetite for destruction inspired cover

This is a Guns ‘N Roses rip off cover, the cool detail is that they let the long hair like it was on the faces. “Appetite For Destruction” is the cover they took it from. It’s limited to 50 copies and numbered. Cut and pasted photo portraits of the five band members.

Up Front spirit inspired cover

This rip off is inspired by Up Front’s “Spirit” LP on Smorgasbord Records, they replaced the Up Front band members by photo’s of themselves. Is limited to 84 copies and also hand numbered. Two subversions exist, one with black vinyl and one with the purple vinyl.

Tour cover

Like I said the other two are hand drawn, the one above left is a European tour edition, numbered out of 45 copies.

Hand drawn cover

And finally the one underneath that one is referring to bands like Minor Threat, Trial and Chain Of Strength. Was made by Henk De Vries, the guitarist in 1999.

Regular cover

And last but not least the coloured vinyl version with a regular sleeve.