Talking Barney Bubbles x Hipgnosis at Stroud’s Pop Up festival on March 26

I’m looking forward to appearing at Pop Up, the subcultures festival being held in the Gloucestershire town of Stroud next month.

I’ll be comparing and contrasting the work of Barney Bubbles with that of his rivals Hipgnosis in the 70s and 80s with Mark Blake, author of the new book about the British music design studio and Pop Up organiser and writer Ben Wardle.

//Front Cover, Peter Gabriel, Charisma Records, 1977. Design: Hipgnosis//

Back in 2007, when I was preparing the first edition of the Barney Bubbles monograph, Storm Thorgerson, the late founder of Hipgnosis with Aubrey “Po” Powell, told me he held Bubbles, in the highest regard even though their practices differed hugely.

Similarly, I found in Bubbles’ record collection a copy of the eponymously-titled Peter Gabriel album from 1977, and was informed by someone close to the designer that it was among his favourites of the studio’s output.

To mark the event here’s a pretty random selection of lesser-known Hipgnosis sleeves from my collection:

//UFO’s 1975 album Force It. The pun is really, er, forced, but the cameo by Genesis Breyer-Porridge + Cosey Fanni Tutti makes it//

//The cover of Sammy Hagar’s 1977 record makes the cut because a) it was shot by the Pride & Clarke stretch of Stockwell Road, when the red-painted premises of the motorcycle company took up entire terraces and b) that’s Humphrey Ocean in the background//

//The only record in this selection I listen to, a budget Edgar Broughton Band best of. Think Richard Evans did the lettering – note no expense was spared on the Letraset for the highlighted ‘hits’ on the front!//

This gatefold for Fumble’s 1972 debut a) features clothes from the recently opened Let It Rock and b) was shot in the magnificent @duggiefields’ Earls Court apartment. Last week it was reported this has been cleaned out and is up for sale; it’s really sad that it couldn’t have been preserved. Duggie lived there for 50 years after all.