It’s funny how life can play little games with you.
The other night I watched Squaring The Circle, the 2022 documentary about the famous design company Hipgnosis. They were the collective who designed some of the most famous album covers of all time — among them, Atom Heart Mother, Dark Side Of The Moon, Animals and Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, Band On The Run and Venus & Mars by Wings, Houses Of The Holy, Presence and In Through The Out Door by Led Zeppelin. The film features interviews with musicians from all these bands, including Jimmy Page. There is a lot of discussion about how it used to be incredibly important for album artwork to actually be a compelling work of art rather than just eye candy. Page weighs in about it also being a hefty investment, and in the case of In Through The Out Door, jokes that the artwork was better than the music.
But I’m guessing Jimmy hasn’t seen the artwork for two rare Canadian-pressed Yardbirds compilations he appears on. Prior to the fall of 2023, I hadn’t either. That’s when I spotted one of the oddball records at Ottawa’s Compact Music. I even wrote about it HERE.
The 1981 record, called Who Came First? The Yardbirds Came First, has just nine tracks, among them favourites including Shapes of Things (1966), For Your Love (1965) and I’m Not Talking (1965). It was on Nardem Records as part of its so-called Nardem Tapes series. Nardem was short for North American Record Distributors & E.M. — and started in 1981 by Records On Wheels. This is the old Canadian record chain that started with a man selling vinyl out of a bus in downtown Toronto, before franchising to a second bus in Northern Ontario. When vinyl gave way to CDs and then streaming, Records On Wheels didn’t die on the vine, but instead went into video distribution. I learned all this later, but the reason I bought the Who Came First? compilation is the artwork. It features a series of long-haired, instrument-toting birds representing each Yardbirds member who was also part of another famous act like Led Zeppelin, Cream, Beck Bogert & Appice, The Rolling Stones, Bluesbreakers, etc. The only credit about the illustration is the name Rob Eastwood in fine print along the bottom of the front cover.
I found someone with that name on Facebook who lists “Records On Wheels, Toronto” among their previous employers. Back in 2023 when I wrote about the record, I messaged him. I didn’t hear back — until now. He didn’t see my query for two years. Turns out, it’s the right dude. He’s friendly, engaging and has a story to tell. “My kids have always gotten a big kick out of ‘my albums’ — but after I sent my son your article, he was super-excited,” Rob says.
It turns out my guess was spot-on, vis-a-vis the Records On Wheels connection. Rob says he worked at the ROW warehouse on Telson Road in Markham from 1980 to around 1982 and then again from around 1986 to 1989. He was just 20 years old when he got the opportunity to illustrate not just one, but two Yardbirds albums.
“Our crew used to take breaks in a lunch room overlooking the warehouse floor,” Rob says. “I recall Vito Ierullo coming up to the lunch room. (He) saw some goofy drawings I was doing while on my lunch. He asked me if I could do some drawings for the Yardbirds albums they were going to be releasing.”
Ierullo, by the way, was the big boss. He and his brother Don Ierullo founded Records On Wheels in 1974. Vito offered to pay Rob $50 to do the artwork. “$50!! Sweet! So I agreed and he walked me through the ideas he had for the Who Came First LP,” Rob says.
Rob went and got supplies — a new set of markers, pencil crayons and package of Letraset (sheets of rub-on letters in different typefaces). He completed the illustrations on the cover and presented them to Vito, who walked him through the tags beside each bird which list the famous bands the musicians would later be associated with.
Happy with the result, Vito gave Rob a second Yardbirds cover to do. This one I haven’t seen, but managed to find it on Discogs. It’s called Heart Full Of Soul. While Discogs includes Rob’s artwork credit on the entry for Who Came First?, it didn’t have him as part of Heart Full of Soul — so I fixed that myself.
Heart Full Of Soul features a big blue jay in a collar and tie, with an Elvis-like ponpadour. The jay is the frontbird of a group of four other musician birds — a blond drummer bird similar to Queen’s Roger Taylor, a guitar-playing bird akin to The Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman, a blond guitarist bird who resembles Spinal Tap’s David St. Hubbins, and a second frontline guitar bird who I’ll say resembles Jeff Beck… maybe Jeff Beak? Anyway, they’re all wearing ties. “I don’t remember anything about that album, except doing the drawing,” Rob says. “Which I think was done largely with pencil crayons. Vito thought they were great and off he went with them.”
Some time later, the actual albums with Rob’s artwork finally arrived at the very warehouse where he worked. “One day, a skid of the finished albums was delivered to the warehouse and I saw the finished product. I seem to recall the store owners being less than enthralled with the incredibly amateurish covers — but I had no idea what I was doing,” he says. “Looking back, I can’t believe they actually put out albums like that. It’s pretty damn funny.”
In addition to the $50, Rob got a free copy of each record. Sadly, he says both are now in “pretty rough shape” after being damaged in a flood several years ago. He found a replacement copy of Who Came First? at Sonic Boom in Toronto a few years ago and happily forked out $18 for it. I checked, and that’s actually about what it costs on Discogs in VG+. Heart Full Of Soul is about twice that price.
I hope he’s framed them, because it’s a brilliant story.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
