The photography for the Strictly Personal album was the work of Guy Webster. The wonderfully bizarre inner gatefold photo of the band has been discussed in another post.
The other photos for the album were taken at a separate session, probably at Webster’s studio and the resulting images were colourised and mocked up as postage stamps for use on the front of the album to help it look more like a real package that had been through the mail.
Apart from these five images that were used on the album there were probably other ones taken on the day too. None of these have ever surfaced except for an alternate image of Jerry Handley which was used for a series of promotional photos of the band. On the album cover Jerry is shown in profile but in the promo shot he is facing the camera … looking somewhat startled!
The images of the other band members are the same as those used for the stamps but they are not cropped as severely as those ones.
Presumably these promo photos were sent out along with the album to DJs, and reviewers etc. These particular examples turned up in 2025 as one of the lots in an auction of the late John Peel’s collection of albums and memorabilia.
Each one includes a comment from each band member about themselves … not quite as excruciatingly embarrassing as some of these could be back in the day … but definitely not a Beefheart band sort of thing!
[click on photo for larger image]
DON VAN VLIET / Lead vocal – harmonica – guitar – piano – musette / Capricorn / Only child / Wish 2 relate, not compete / Dues paid up 4-67 / Love; peace; trust;. Captain Beefheart
ALEX ST. CLAIR / Lead guitar / Only childette / Vergoette / Complexs German / Music man / Medical defect / 6th string growth on right and left hand / Secretly, Al
GERALD W. HANDLEY / Bass guitar / Born in Rock island, Illinois / Age 21 / Moved from Rock Island at age 10 to the high desert. / Decided to get into music at age 13. Muttled my way through high school then we started the group.
JEFF COTTON Rhythm guitar / Born in Lindsay, California / Age 19 / Gemini / Music
JOHN FRENCH / Drummer / Libra / 5th born / Truth / Artist / Music / Single