Before a trip to Australia with fellow British artist Ben Eine in early 2003, Banksy was approached to create the artwork covers for Blur’s upcoming release of their seventh album, ‘Think Tank’. This included creating the art for the band’s singles released from April that year.

Banksy, was no stranger to creating album art. He had been doing this for many years with the record label ‘Wall of Sound’ in their Portobello Road studios in West London. But, he had never worked on a commercial release.

“I’ve done a few things to pay the bills, and I did the Blur album. It was a good record and [the commission was] quite a lot of money. If it’s something you actually believe in, doing something commercial doesn’t turn it to shit just because it’s commercial. Otherwise, you’ve got to be a socialist rejecting capitalism altogether, because the idea that you can marry a quality product with a quality visual and be a part of that even though it’s capitalistic is sometimes a contradiction you can’t live with. But sometimes it’s pretty symbiotic, like the Blur situation.”

The term ‘Petrolhead’ refers to someone who loves motor vehicles. Here, Banksy’s image uses the nozzle of a fuel dispenser as a gun, as the figure aims it towards its own head. This suggests that the continuing use of fossil fuels, and in turn decline of the environment, is the same as a person holding a gun to its own head.

Hand-stamped by Banksy with his Petrolhead image, which was later featured in his ‘Santa’s Ghetto’ pop-up in Oxford Street late 2003, this very rare limited DJ promotional vinyl record was released in extremely low numbers. It features four tracks and is hand-stamped with the track names on the label’s reverse. This LP came with promo stickers, which not all did.

Blur – The Observer Exclusive 5 Track Sampler

2003