Orgasm Addict - United Artists 1977 - Malcolm Garrett/Collage: Linder Sterling

by Roy Wilkinson

For such a bold image, The Buzzcocks' 'Orgasm Addict' sleeve features component parts from some furtive - sounding sources - namely the 'catalogue shop' and the peculiar publishing niche occupied by such magazines as Amateur Photographer.

"Well," says Linder Sterling, the artist who created the sleeve collage, "the iron came from an Argos catalogue and the female torso came from a photographic magazine called Photo. I never cleared the copyright but no - one noticed, so it was alright-"

Linder has produced the images for some notable sleeves - Morrissey's 'Your Arsenal', Magazine's 'Real Life' - but 'Orgasm Addict' is her most iconic cover. Blaring with punk - era brashness, it has a cerebral quality and fine - art content that safely removed it from the artistic inclinations of, say, Sham 69.

"In a fundamental way, it's exactly what you want for a record sleeve," says Buzzcocks guitarist/singer Pete Shelley. "As soon as you see it you can't get the image out of your head. It was all pretty top - shelf back in 1977."

Linder's montage was one of a series of full - colour collage artworks she'd made. It was rendered as a blue monotone by The Buzzcocks' sleeve designer Malcolm Garrett. At the time, Linder was living with one time Buzzcocks singer Howard Devoto (he left the band shortly before 'Orgasm Addict' was made).

"It was made in a Salford bedroom," Linder recalls. "I had a sheet of glass, a scalpel and piles of women's mags. At this point, men's magazines were either DIY, cars or porn. Women's magazines were fashion or domestic stuff. So, guess the common denominator - the female body. I took the female form from both sets of magazines and made these peculiar jigsaws highlighting these various cultural monstrosities that I Felt there were at the time."

The 'Orgasm Addict' collage was the only example of her art that featured on a Buzzcocks sleeve, but Linder's output also affected the band in more oblique ways.

"It's all very surreal and Dada," says Pete Shelley, "all those elements that we were exploring back then. The first Buzzcocks album title was a kind of cut - up of the title of one of Linder's other pieces of art. We called it 'Another Music In A Different Kitchen' which partially came from a Linder piece called Housewives Choosing Their Own Juices In A Different Kitchen."

In fact, another Linder montage - a salad bowl filled with eyes - was mooted for the sleeve of the band's debut album, but was thought to be too unsettling by guitarist Steve Diggle and drummer John Maher. The 'Orgasm Addict' collage, however, remains.

"I think punk did fit quite naturally with montage," says Linder. "You had three - chord songs and an art form that could be very simple, very accessible. It's a seductive image but in a strange way. It's using the tools of seduction and glamour to produce a different kind of confrontation. It's a different way of getting people to think."

Go To Work On A Menstrual Egg

The art of Linder Sterling

As the graveyard - touring co - conspirator depicted in The Smiths' 'Cemetry Gates', Linder Sterling (aka Linda Mulvey) is best known For her connections with Morrissey. But Linder has a 25 year body of provocative artwork. Fronting Manchester post-punk group Ludus,

She would appear onstage sporting a dildo and a dress made From sliced meat. Her 'menstrual egg - timer' device was given a Factory Records catalogue number and, Further exploring her fascination with menstrual myth and taboo, the sleeve for Ludus album 'The Seduction' depicted a woman wearing fishnet stockings, suspender belt and the archaic feminine - hygiene accoutrement known as the sanitary belt.

Linder continues to work in music and visual art.

Latter day projects have included the composition of her own requiem, entitled 'Clint Eastwood, Clare Offreducio And Me'. The

Linder requiem connects with a larger fascination with Eastwood something explored in her musical performance - art presentation The Working Class Goes To Paradise. "I am the bearded woman," she says.

"I'm looking at Clint Eastwood, redemption, revenge and the European tradition of bearded female saints."