This is the sleeve designed by Barney Bubbles – would have been 71 today – for Screwed Up, the 1977 EP by the rabble-rousing writer and performer Mick Farren, who died at the weekend after collapsing onstage during a performance with his band The Deviants of their poem/song Cocaine & Gunpowder.
I sourced one of the paintings which is in More Than Fair, the exhibition of Ian Dury’s artworks which opens at his alma mater, London’s Royal College of Art, next month.
Dury gave the ultra-Pop Dany Bubbles to his friend and designer Barney Bubbles in the late 70s during their spell of collaboration which resulted in a series of triumphs: single sleeves such as Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, What A Waste and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, the 28 wallpaper covers of the album Do It Yourself, the Blockhead logo…
In an age clogged up with boil-in-the-bag popular music documentaries, I’m looking forward to Fred Burns’ Basically, Johnny Moped, about the unpredictable outsider who emerged via associations with The Damned and Chrissie Hynde during the post-punk period to strut and fret his hour upon the stage.
Moped and his band – Dave and Fred Berk and Slimy Toad – were out and about a lot in 1977 and 1978; I caught them a couple of times, once as part of a bigger bill at Camden Town’s Music Machine (now Koko) and another time in the West End (possibly The Marquee).
Their single Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby was (and remains 35 years later) a stand-out song of the period and Barney Bubbles’ artwork for that and other Moped releases and promotional material sealed the deal.
As an addendum to my recent post about the staging of the very special late night London concert given by Ian Dury’s art-rock ensemble Kilburn & The High Roads in 1974, here’s the badge commissioned by manager the late Tommy Roberts to flag up the concurrent release of the group’s single Rough Kids.
Then a neglected pop promotional medium – badges were considered kids’ stuff; the sole prominent champion was Barney Bubbles, who produced a range to go with his branding of space rockers Hawkwind and pub-rock outfit Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers – the pre-punk barbed wire logo button was conceived and executed by Simon Haynes, designer of the ambitious stage set for the Kilburns’ gig at the King’s Road Theatre.
Continue reading Rough Kids badge for Kilburn And The High Road (sic)
Read the story behind this obscure record sleeve design – for a single which failed to dent the Top 75 on release 30 years ago – over on the Barney Bubbles Blog.
A little-known design by Barney Bubbles – the graphics genius and subject of my book Reasons To be Cheerful – has emerged.
Continue reading Feast your eyes on this Barney Bubbles rarity
I interviewed the restaurateur and fine food champion Justin de Blank – who died last month aged 85 – for Reasons To Be Cheerful; de Blank recognised Barney Bubbles’ design talents when the pair met at the Conran Group’s design studio in the 60s.
Witty companion, workaholic, optimist, stoic, computer-phobe, special occasion facilitator, raconteur, moralist, compulsive green thumb, avid theatre and concertgoer, roof gardener, summer pudding-maker, painter, rememberer of birthdays, punster, voracious reader, film maker, museumolic, snappy dresser, sequiner, harpsichord player, party giver, flower arranger, supplier of bon mots, delightful travel companion, regular sender of postcards (sometimes 6 at a time) for 43 expatriate years…and much, much more.
Richard “Dickie” Lowe – who died earlier this year aged 67 – was a smashing bloke, as the words above from Alexandra and Leigh Copeland’s Melbourne Age obituary attest.
I encountered Lowe on but a handful of occasions; he never failed to charm and delight.
Although he had lived in the UK since the late 60s, Lowe’s Larrikin spirit was undimmed to the last. His singularity was made manifest in the magnificent decor of his central London apartment, which communicated an interest in and knowledge of Egyptian art, miniature Australian landscapes, postcards, bric-a-brac and curios of all varieties, and has now been documented by photographer Peter Waldman.
Continue reading Interiors: The amazing abode of Dickie Lowe
Plus ca change…
Tucked away in the June 1983 edition of The Face was this news story about a brave broadcasting venture, the scabrous and short-lived Breakfast Pirate Radio.
The cover story of the new issue of France’s graphics magazine Étapes is based around writer Renaud Faroux’s 10-page feature about my Barney Bubbles book and recent exhibition The Past, The Present & The Possible.