Those words quoted on eBay sound and look like a professional PR sentence, don't they? You know, professional sales pitch stuff.
See my post on page 3 of this thread, and mark my words!!
Stella - debate is fine and I for one don't pick on opinions that differ from my own, but nasty self-serving criticism like Alyn's (real name?) is not the work of a fan, ever. You also might not like the cover, but who cares? To my eyes, THE COVER IS BRILLIANTLY COOL AND SEXY!!
Alyn may not be all he/she (have we had clarification?)pretends!! But why? That's the intriguing bit.

after delving a bit more in to our friend alyn smiths art/design claims i checked out the website of one of the bands he claims to have designed an album cover for. the band are called 'the moscow riley' and by the looks of it have released one album.
on their website blog i found the following.....
Posted by A Smiff on 10/03/08 02:19:
Bunch of knobs! About time you got yerself a decent artist to design yer covers... I hear Roger Dean is still available.... Good luck to you all and The Ant is still marching on, ah - remember those Whitchurch glory days, the sun always shone and Geoff was always offended. Love you all dahlings.....!
now could A Smiff and our aforementioned alyn smith be one and the same???
for someone who claims to have designed this bands album cover
the blog you posted has a slightly familiar ring to it dontcha think ? slagging off the design that you so obviously DID NOT DO, really mate do you spend all day on bands websites slagging off their album cover designs and hope someone will give you a POSITIVE reaction and actually employ you to do one for them? wrong approach methinks.try the job centre alyn,tell them how good you are,see if THAT gets you anywhere, as i said lies and liars need to be good.

raffles wrote:
To my eyes, THE COVER IS BRILLIANTLY COOL AND SEXY!![/quote]
Fan's exaggeration . No, it is not !

OH dear Alyn

Thats the good thing about the internet forums, you can live a dream

Good morning all.... I tell no lies... the album was sold on Ebay having been played once, actually dammit...that was a lie... the 'playing' was in the uploading to iTunes, then it was placed back in the box and I have since played the music the aforementioned 6 - 8 times on iTunes. Every cd I buy is uploaded to iTunes and kept pristine whether I keep or not. I was happy to sell on at a reasonable price to someone who could appreciate it more and I wouldn't rip anyone off. I did place a crudely worded review on Amazon originally and regretted it. It was there for about 3 days I guess, I don't think anyone got hurt, I re-worded it being more constructive. I stand by it. Sigh... I don't know why anyone should disbelieve it but I have designed two album covers for Moscow Riley, and also two for their previous incarnation Summer Indoors, also one live album for Galahad...all good progressive rock bands who were on the circuit at one time or another. I'm not about to get out of my pram if no one believes me but it's true. I have not made one misleading statement here, I believe I could have designed a better cover and if I met Steve Harley I would tell him that. Similarly, if I met Kate Bush I would tell her as a massive fan going back decades her last album was a huge disappointment... these artists put their creative work on the line, it's there to be admired but it's also there to be shot at. I have just about all the Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel albums that have been released and feel that his music is amongst the most powerful in my collection. I play Judy Teen and I'm back amongst the kids at school enjoying the seedier side of glam rock, I play Sebastian and I am walking alone through the tall ceilinged dark corridors of my school with shafts of sunlight coming through the windows, the feeling is eerie, I close my eyes and I'm there. I listen to The Coast Of Amalfi and I'm on one of my Italian holidays and it's very very emotional. This album doesn't do it for me.

Alyn. It's a pity that you didn't like the new album. I am sure Steve put his heart and soul into this one and I honestly haven't stopped playing it since it arrived on Thursday. I think it's the best album he's done since Timeless Flight.
Most posters here would defend Harley to the death. Many of them, myself included have bought everything he's ever released. Some follow him across Europe which shows real dedication and I admire them for that. Perhaps, for some, he is still their idol like he was in their teenage years. If he was the new voice of Thomas the Tank Engine they'd order the boxed set on pre-release .
That's not to say that any of them are wrong in their judgement of Steve's work, rather that they are passionate about the man as well as his music and sometimes their defence, even of a rather ordinary cd cover can get out of hand.
I've defended what you've said and my karma rating has plummeted from +4 to -6 literally overnight which seems rather childish but there you go.