What do these famous cover stars look like now?

5 January 2021, 20:00

The Nirvana baby. The Siamese Dream girls. The Arctic Monkeys debut album guy. What are the names behind the album cover personalities?

1. Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)

   One of the most famous cover stars of all time, young Spencer Elden was captured aged three months old in a swimming pool in Pasadena. His father Rick was a friend of photographer Kirk Weddle, who was setting up the shoot for the album cover.

   

   "It's kind of cool, knowing that I've been on an album cover," Spencer told the Independent in 2008, when he recreated the pose, then aged 17. "But I feel pretty normal about it because growing up, I've always known I was the Nirvana baby. It never really struck me like, 'Oh, shit, that's me on the cover'."

   View this post on Instagram

   A post shared by spencer elden (@spencerelden) on Dec 14, 2015 at 3:23pm PST

2. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)

   Two young girls playing dress-up and eating sweeties - the ideal way to depict a guitar-thrashing grunge classic, according to Billy Corgan.

   

   When Billy reunited Smashing Pumpkins in 2018, he enlisted the help of the two girls - Ali Laenger and Lysandra Roberts - to launch the tour. And here’s how they looked 25 years later. As Corgan said: “What's amazing is their chemistry with one another still leaps through the camera to this day.”

   View this post on Instagram

   "On such a special day in SP history, I want to take a moment to thank Ali and LySandra, who you might know were the little girls that I stood by and watched have their picture taken some 23 years ago (on what was a perfect LA afternoon). Never realizing that this moment in time would forever tie us, and go on to become such an iconic image in rock history. What's amazing is their chemistry with one another still leaps through the camera to this day and yet if memory serves they'd never met before that Siamese shoot. Which tells me their coming together, and the beauty that Melodie's shot captures, of youth and innocence, was meant to be SP's own, personal lucky star. So thank you thank you thank you Ali and LySandra, we adore you, and having you be a part of today's launch brings tears to my eyes. For life goes fast, and I can still see you in my mind's eye wearing crisp white dresses in a stranger's backyard, looking like little Mother Mary's, smiling and laughing into the sun." - @williampcorgan 📷: @hellomikeamico

   A post shared by The Smashing Pumpkins (@smashingpumpkins) on Feb 16, 2018 at 2:09pm PST

3. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (1986)

   The cover of the 'Miffs' classic album features a shot of the French-Swiss actor Alain Delon, taken from the 1964 film L'Insoumis (aka The Unvanquished). Delon plays a deserter from the French Foreign Legion and was also a producer on the picture. It's taken from the final scene, where Alain's character lies dying on the floor.

   

   Monsieur Delon has also appeared in films such as The Leopard (1963), The Yellow Rolls Royce (1965), Spirits Of The Dead (1968), Girl On A Motorcycle (1968, with Marianne Faithfull) and Scorpio (1973).

   

4. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

   The man taking a drag on his ciggy is one Chris McClure, who is the brother of The Reverend Jon McClure, he of The Makers fame.

   

   McClure also appeared on the cover of Toddla T's 2009 debut album Skanky Skanky, reprising his famous role. He was a mutual friend of both Toddla T and former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson.

   Rebelling by hiding in the train bogs so I don't have to pay the fare
   Oh and "I'm not old enough to get married so don't ask me" pic.twitter.com/6qXznaHiST

   — Chris McClure (@chrismcclure86) December 8, 2018

5. Blink 182 - Enema Of The State

   The nurse with a wicked look in her eye is none other than porn star Janine Lindemulder (although the band claim that they didn't know this at the time). The rubber glove was a reference to the band's original title, Turn Your Head And Cough.

   

   Ms Lindemulder is the star of such cinematic masterpieces as Extreme Close Up (1997), Hidden Obsessions (1994) and Seven Deadly Sins (2000). She was arrested in 2003 for assaulting her husband Jesse James and in 2008 was sent to prison for six months for tax evasion.

   

6. The Smiths - The Smiths (1984)

   Joe Dallesandro was a muscle man, model, actor and a graduate of Andy Warhol's Factory school of non-talent. The debut album from The Smiths shows a cropped shot of Little Joe from Warhol's 1968 art movie Trash.

   

   

   Joe Dallesandro also claimed to be the crotch behind the controversial sleeve to the Stones' first album on their own label. As he was a mate of Andy Warhol, who did the art direction, it's a reasonable claim, but one that has not been, er, verified.

   

   The actor appeared in many of Warhol's challenging art movies, including Flesh, Trash and Heat. He's also appeared in John Waters' Cry Baby and Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, but we consider his best work to be the 1970s camp-gore classics Flesh For Frankenstein and Blood For Dracula.

   

7. U2 - Boy (1980)

   Young Peter Rowen was the younger brother of Guggi, member of Irish post-punk band The Virgin Prunes and a close friend of Bono. The US record label were worried that the band may be accused of paedophilia for some reason and changed the cover for Stateside release.

   

   Peter appeared again (slightly older) on the cover of the band's third album, War. He later became a photographer and shot U2's 360° tour in 2009.

   View this post on Instagram

   Self portrait test

   A post shared by Peter Rowen (@peterrowenphotographer) on Jul 31, 2018 at 9:50am PDT

8. Placebo - Placebo (1996)

   David Fox is the young boy pictured on the cover of the band's 1996 debut album. The picture was shot by his cousin Saul Fletcher.

   

   In June 2012, Fox told The Times he was going to sue over the album cover as it "ruined his life" because he was bullied at school. Fox was last seen in the identity parade on an episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks in October 2013.

   @emmerdale was filming day what's a brill day pic.twitter.com/9zghC9knvD

   — david fox (@davidfox2013) January 23, 2014

9. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

   The two men on the cover of the band's ninth album are stuntmen Ronnie Rondell and Danny Rogers, shot at the Warner Brothers studio in Los Angeles.

   

   Rondell - who plays the burning man - has worked on films as diverse as Batman And Robin, Waterworld, Thelma And Louise and Falling Down.