//Back Cover, Jesus Of Cool, Nick Lowe, Radar Records, 1978. Photo: Bob Bromide. Design © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Back cover, Darling Let’s Have Another Baby/Something Else/It Really Digs, Johnny Moped, Chiswick Records, 1978. Design © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Clock, Stiff Records, 1978. Design © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Front, Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy, Billy Bragg, Utility, 1983. Design © Barney Bubbles Estate//

“In graphics, in the music business at least, Barney pioneered the use of everyday objects in his work. He could see the design and the beauty in the apparently banal”
Suzanne Spiro, artist

The Barney Bubbles exhibition Optics & Semantics at London gallery Rob Tufnell closes tomorrow evening; if you have a chance, do go along and enjoy the late graphic arts maestro’s unique celebrations of the mundane and workaday.

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Tags: (I Love The Sound Of) Breaking Glass, Billy Bragg, Brian Griffin, Charisma Records, Chiswick Records, Clarice Cliff, El Lissitzky, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, F-Beat Records, Get Happy!!, Is That Love, Jake Riviera, John Arlott Talks Cricket, Johnny Moped, Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy, Moholy-Nagy, Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack, Radar Records, Rob Tufnell, Squeeze, Stiff Records, Strongbow, Suburban Voodoo, Suzanne Spiro, Teenburger, Terence Conran, They Called It Rock, Utility

//AC/DC Desk (with plug stool), Get Happy!! lightbulb poster, ‘Kill Time’ Stiff Records clock + Ian Dury Cocktail cabinet//

You wait years for a Barney Bubbles exhibition and then two come along in the space of a month.

On the heels of the mini-show of Barney Bubbles music designs at Fred Perry’s basement space in Covent Garden comes a different take on the work of the late graphics maestro.

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Tags: Billy Bragg, Blockhead logo, Brian Griffin, Conran Design, Fred Perry, Ian Dury, Jake Riviera, Left Book Club, Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack, Rob Tufnell, Squeeze, Suburban Voodoo, Suzanne Spiro

The Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry shirts are available to buy now online; click on the image above to find out more.

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Tags: "Smart" Mart Cole, Alfalpha, Do It Yourself, Elvis Costello And The Attractions, Fred Perry, Hawkwind, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Inbetweenies, Kate Moross, Nick Lowe, Olivier Mahieu, The Muleskinners

I’ve organised a small exhibition of artwork relating to designs used in the forthcoming Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry collaboration; it opens later this week at Fred Perry’s flagship London store.

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Tags: Clementine Zawadzki, Elvis Costello, Fred Perry, Hero, Nick Lowe

The countdown is on to this years’s most exciting street-style collaboration: the limited edition Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry collection.

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Tags: 4000 Weeks' Holiday, Armed Forces, Billy Bragg, Cracking Up, Depeche Mode, Do It Yourself, Elvis Costello And The Attractions, Hawkwind, Henrietta Street, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Ian McLagan, Nick Lowe, Rob Tufnell, Rolling Stones, Sir Peter Blake, Small Faces, The Faces, The Specials

//The Stiff Records clock. Concept: Jake Riviera, design: Barney Bubbles, lettering: Caramel Crunch, 1977. No reproduction without permission//

Stiff Records was on fire in 1977.

The British independent record label, with owners Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson snapping up acts and art director Barney Bubbles applying his unsurpassable skills to the visualising of their music, came straight out of the traps 40 years ago this month with the release of the first ‘punk’ LP Damned Damned Damned by – who else? – The Damned.

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Tags: Caramel Crunch, Dave Robinson, Demon Records, Elvis Costello, F-Beat, Ian Dury, Jake Riviera, Larry Wallis, Max Wall, Mick Farren, Nick Lowe, Stiff Records, The Adverts, Wreckless Eric

//A4 letterhead, Barney Bubbles, 1978. No reproduction without permission//

This company letterhead was designed by the late graphics master Barney Bubbles for music entrepreneur Jake Riviera during the latter’s tenure at 60 Parker Street in London’s Covent Garden in the late 70s.

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Tags: Clive Langer, Harpers & Queen, Jake Riviera, malcolm Garrett, Nick Lowe, Peter York, Stiff Records

//Lynam – just about visible on the right – talks through the extraordinary sleeve design and packaging for Armed Forces, the 1979 album by Elvis Costello & The Attractions//

A film of last month’s celebration of design hero Barney Bubbles by American graphic designer Ian Lynam is now available to view online.

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Tags: Armed Forces, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Hawkwind, Ian Lynam, Let It Rock, Nick Lowe, The AC/DC Desk, Vermont College Of Fine Arts

//Ian McLagan, right with guitar, in Twickenham Art School band The Cherokees, sketched by Barney Bubbles – then Colin Fulcher – in 1963//

//”Come Cossack”: Ticket designed by Bubbles for The Muleskinners’ Christmas 1964 gig on Eel Pie Island//

Rolling Stone’s obituary description of Ian McLagan as “jovial and charismatic” has nailed the character of this charming man.

It seems to me that Mac chose to accentuate the positive and keep playing his vital music, an admirable trait in one who had often been dealt an unfair hand by the fates (not least when his beloved wife Kim was killed in a car accident in 2006).

As an alum of the early 60s Twickenham beat scene, Mac was a valued contributor to Reasons To Be Cheerful, my book about his art school friend, the graphic designer Barney Bubbles.

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Tags: Austin, Eel Pie Island, Ian McLagan, Lorry Sartorio, Mac, Nick Lowe, Playmates, The Cherokees, The Muleskinners, Twickenham Art School

Here’s an old and new Christmas favourite; hope they spread holiday cheer.

Feliz Navidad’s blending of the Mexican Christmas carol as popularised by José Feliciano with PiL’s Public Image never fails to please, bringing back happy memories of the UK leg of the Merry Mex-Mas dates in 2000 I helped organise for my dear friend Robert Lopez, aka El Vez, who wowed audiences with his Elvettes and the Memphis Mariachis. This footage is from that tour.

Alan McGee’s Poptones released the accompanying album and the song on a limited edition 7in.

Meanwhile I’m adding Nick Lowe’s Christmas At The Airport to my list of hardy perennials; the video’s great and it was fabulous to see Nick at our Christmas drinks a couple of weeks back, fresh from yet another hit American tour.

It’s from his new album Quality Street which is as off-the-wall as you like.

Hope you enjoy both songs. Thanks for following my blog and Happy Holidays to you.

PG

Tags: Alan McGee, Christmas At The Airport, Elvettes, Feliz Navidad, José Feliciano, Memphis Mariachis, Nick Lowe, Poptones, Robert Lopez