Go2 Kontroversy

Yesterday in Southwold, I happened upon a CD Fair. That was pretty much the rest of the afternoon written off!



Trawling through the 1960s section, I found some Kinks. Owning only Something Else and Village Green Preservation Society on CD, and a greatest hits compilation, I snapped up The Kink Kontroversy. And what a great record it is.

However, music aside, the back sleeve was intriguing. At first glance it is standard fair for a 60s release. Title, track listing and blurb about the band.



But on closer inspection the copy involves a lot of humour which mocks the band—such as bemoaning poor Pete for singing on Till The End Of The Day—which I thought was quite brave for 1965.



Then, as I read the Michael Aldred penned piece about the band, I got the feeling that it seemed somewhat familiar.



After a few minutes I worked out what it reminded me of; XTC's sleeve for Go2 (below), by Hipgnosis. I have always considered this sleeve to be an ironic postmodern masterpiece, in terms of sleeve design, and further to this, I had also previously thought of it as being completely original. Now I'm wondering whether I'm right in that assumption. Not that this new knowledge changes my view of the brilliance of Go2, everyone has to get their inspiration from somewhere, and Hipgnosis developed the concept much further and took it to its logical conclusion.

Compare the two pieces and make up your own mind about whether the 1978 post-punk classic below is indebted to the 1965 mod original above. (Click on images for larger view).

R.I.P Poly Styrene

Like Ari-Up's untimely passing last year, it is sad to hear today of Poly Styrene's death. Although I was never a big fan of X-ray Spex, more a casual admirer, the singles Oh Bondage Up Yours, World Turned DayGlo, and the ever brilliant Germ Free Adolescents were striking, the latter always sending shivers down my spine. I didn't need to by their album, as I heard it on near constant replay for an entire summer as it blasted out of the room of someone I lived in a house share with many years ago, (thanks Helen). Poly, like Ari, challenged the male dominated punk movement.

Excepting Pauline Murrey of Penetration and Siouxsie Sioux of the Banshees, there weren't enough women in punk, and Poly would have helped the confidence of strong female fronted groups that were to follow in her wake. Bands such as The Rezillos, The Selecter, (the sometimes female fronted) Crass and Poison Girls spring to mind, and I'm well aware I'm probably missing out plenty of others. Then there were the countless female fronted or all female indie bands of the mid-eighties that formed well after New Wave, Post-punk, Anarcho-punk and 2 Tone had died out. And because of this, like Ari-Up, Poly Styrene's importance can not be underestimated.

And reading Poly Styrene's obituary on The Guardian website just now, I also found that I share my birthday with her. I'll toast you this year Poly, truly, rest in peace.

Link:
The Guardian obituary.

How long must we tolerate error descriptions

Entourage email application wouldn't work on my work Mac first thing this morning. On reading the error message, I found out it was due to those post-punk, avant garde, free jazz, funk, political slogan happy, dub industrialists The Pop Group. Could not synchronize record indeed.

I wanted to go to Chelsea

I spent the day in London today visiting 'must see' exhibitions with UCS graphic design students. I ended up at Tate Britain checking out the Muybridge show which I found much more engaging than I thought I would, but the main attraction was Process: The Working Practices of Barney Bubbles.

For those that don't know, Barney Bubbles created many of the sleeves for punk and post-punk pop favourites such as The Damned, Generation X, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Nick Lowe, and was Stiff Records' designer in residence. Before this he had a history of designing record sleeves for Glastonbury Festival and Hawkwind, as well as creating light shows for Pink Floyd, which is where his name was coined, as he mixed oil, water and ink and projected this to form psychedelic 'bubble' back drops for live shows.



It is only in the last few years that he has been getting much deserved recognition as he preferred anonymity to fame during his working lifetime, with much of his work going unsigned. 27 years after his death, with Paul Gorman's excellent 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' biography (2008), and this show, Barney Bubbles is finally being seen as a hugely important figure in the history of graphic design.



Paul Gorman was on site this morning and together with Donald Smith, Director of Exhibitions at Chelsea Space, kindly gave an introduction to Barney's working life and practices to students. The show was put together on the basis that most of the finished outcomes, (the products) were displayed along the entrance ramp, with the focus being squarely placed on Bubbles working methods. Sketches, Letraset and Rotring artwork, overlays of tracing paper with notes to printers and PMTs were all given pride of place. Students were amazed, enthralled and daunted in equal measures by the fact all the artwork was produced by hand - Barney committed suicide 2 weeks before the introduction of the Apple Mac in 1983.



The show unfortunately finishes this coming Saturday (23 Oct) but find below more images and links to Paul Gorman's blog, the Chelsea Space website, and unusually for Dublog, a link to Amazon for Reasons To Be Cheerful book; go buy it.

I look forward to the coming weeks where this exhibition will form much debate and discussion among students about process on display, ideas informing application, application informing ideas, and old school design methods.















Links:
Barney Bubbles blog
Chelsea Space
Chelsea Space 'Process' images
Reasons To Be Cheerful biography