Peter Saville, graphic designer
I haven’t seen the actual doctored CD myself but someone I know has, and they said they thought it looks a bit too clever to be a genuine anarchic intervention. They wondered whether Banksy had been paid to do it. Now that’s very tricky territory to get into, but what I thought was interesting is that we just don’t know any more what to believe in. Is it anarchic or is it a below-the-line marketing ploy? Not to cast aspersions on Banksy or to assume the truth of the matter, but isn’t it a shame that we just don’t know what to believe any more? I’d probably do it to someone who’d done a cover version of something and replace it with the original. A boy band, an artificial band, puppets. But to be honest, I’m surprised Banksy’s wasted energy on it. A spurious celebrity album perfectly fits the times; it’s almost more real than Madonna, for example, who works very hard to stay relevant. Paris Hilton just stumbles in there and can’t help it.
Miranda Sawyer, columnist
I think Paris Hilton’s very lucky to get Banksy — and Dangermouse — doing something to her album. They’re both very talented, far more so than Miss Hilton. She’s the kind of celebrity that you can’t get away from even if you’re not interested in her.
Banksy’s work is precious and rare and therefore exciting and valuable. When you see it, you think: “Hurray, I’ve spotted it.” That he has done something on someone who is completely ubiquitous and therefore of no value at all is really interesting. And obviously, one of those doctored ones is going to be worth far more than one of Paris Hilton’s albums.
I’d like to do over people who are slightly po-faced, and these days that tends to be R&B and rap artists. They’re terribly serious about how they look. So Mariah Carey and Beyoncé, for example, I think I’d just like to make them a bit fat. They’re perfectly talented anyway, who cares if they’re a bit fat? Or I’d also like to do an older one that’s iconic. Maybe A Hard Day’s Night because it’s got good pictures of all of the Beatles and you could do really good moustaches and little things like that. I don’t think they ever took themselves that seriously but now other people tend to.
Phill Jupitus, DJ
In Paris Hilton, Banksy and Dangermouse have selected the perfect foil to their anarchic double act. The troubling thing for me is that I dare say the marketing people at Hilton’s label are rubbing their hands with glee. In these days of hype and spin they’ll have no trouble getting some cachet for their artist from what was intended as a subversive act. I dare say Robbie Williams’s people are kicking themselves that his latest stuff wasn’t the target. I could never bear the sleeve of the Beatles’ White Album. Too clever by far. Mind you, plenty of space for doodling.
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Jonathan Margolis, novelist
The stunt is symptomatic of the death of the High Street music business, as well as being quite a clever idea. Banksy’s obviously taken a leaf from the Who fans who, after Keith Moon died, used to go into record shops and write little odes to Keith and insert them into LPs, though that was done in a nice way. These are really sought after now and are really valuable.
This could be the beginning of a similar thing. CD shops are going into their death throes now. Banksy is being clever in that he is creating a future market. In about five years people will think it quaint that you could buy music as a product, in a lump. People will put them into museums as apocrypha.
Mark Heap, comic
Maybe it’s an elaborate chat-up line. Maybe the result will be that they’ll go and get married and find a hut in the woods and live together. He loves her, if you ask me.
Rap music would be high on my list to deface. I’d replace it with Bach or maybe Monteverdi. Some sexy church music.
Rosie Millard, columnist
I’m sure Paris Hilton, when she gets over the shock, will realise that Banksy has huge street credibility and she doesn’t, so it’ll probably be good for her.
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This will show my age, but if I was Banksy, I would have targeted the Arctic Monkeys’ album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. They have that horrible ashtray on the disc itself and someone smoking on the front. I’d put a nice tar-stained lung on the front.
Ed Harcourt, singer
Could this be a ploy by Paris’s people to make her more interesting? I’d be honoured to be the recipient of the attention of two bona-fide artists, not one who is an “icon” through the sheer effort of being born an heiress.