It’s been bought to my attention that the original version of my ‘Raiding The 20th Century’ mix is now 10 years old. Originally a 40 minute guest mix on Eddy Temple-Morris‘ XFM radio show, The Remix, it was my attempt to construct a rough history of ‘cut up’ music in the midst of the mashup up/bastard pop craze. Taking in Music Concrete, avant garde tape composition, radiophonic tape experiments, megamixes, edit kings, scratching, early sampling and of course mash ups, it was one of the most densely mixed and edited things I’ve ever done. When it debuted it was put up on the Ninja Tune site at the time and quickly went a bit viral, causing the server to melt down and the site to grind to a halt by the next morning. More info here and here.
So tempted to get the ‘how-to’ build book for this version of Kaneda‘s bike from Akira made from Lego. It’s been made by The Arvo Brothers and is only available direct from them – more info over at Crunchyroll.
This has been doing the rounds and I always have time for Noel’s interviews so I gave it a look. It’s a refreshingly honest and self-deprecating look back at his old band with plenty of barbed comments that border on exasperation by the end, you’ll laugh, I promise.
I don’t know anything about Ethel Le Rossignol but just saw this on Twitter, posted by Dan Hayhurst of Sculpture. From the Horse Hospital site:
“Between 1920 and 1933 spirit medium Ethel Le Rossignol created a series of 44 paintings, 21 of which belong to The College of Psychic Studies and will be on display with accompanying texts describing what she refers to as the Sphere of Spirit.
Radiant, psychedelic and ecstatic, her vision of the spirit world is consistent, coherent and stunningly beautiful, depicting a luminous realm of kaleidoscopic colour, inhabited by elegant sylphs, bejewelled apes and astral tigers.
Ethel’s channeled paintings reveal a world of pure light, colour and energy. Incorporating aspects of Art Deco, popular playbills, Eastern mysticism, mandalas and miniatures, they radiate an ecstatic joy, and are prescient of the psychedelic art that would emerge several decades later.
As a medium Ethel took no credit for the actual work, identifying a spirit known only as J.P.F. as the real artist. J.P.F himself claimed to be channeling another group of spirits, who wanted to impart the secrets of the soul to those of us still on the physical plane.
At present very little is known about Ethel Le Rossignol’s life, though we hope that this exhibition might prompt new discoveries. There are clues in her writing that she lost a friend, perhaps relatives, in World War One, and that this encouraged her interests in afterlife communications, which boomed in the inter-war years. Certainly she had a great interest in mediumistic spiritualism, attending lectures and demonstrations on the subject in London.
Ethel died in 1970 and her paintings, and copies of her privately printed book, A Goodly Company, were donated to the College of Psychic Studies in South Kensington. The paintings have been on display in rooms at the College for many years but, as far as we know, this is both the first time that they have ever been exhibited outside the College, and the first time that they have all been seen together in one space.
Encountering the whole Goodly Company assembled in one gallery promises to be a powerful exposure to the astral light and the love that she and her spirit friends so wanted to convey.”
The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD
PRIVATE VIEW: Friday 21st February 2014 7pm. EXHIBITION: Sat 22nd Feb – Sat 22nd Mar, Mon – Sat, 12 – 6pm
I’ve featured Ian McQue‘s work before on here, his glorious colour work mostly, and now he’s produced an A4-sized book of B&W sketchbook drawings subtitled ‘Robot, Space Dudes, Flying Ships etc’.
His work is populated by flying barge-type ships, usually moored to buildings or futuristic dockyards, small insect-like craft and boxy rough-terrain vehicles. His human characters come in all shapes and sizes and his robots are of the thin, lanky variety or sometimes like spider mechs.
There are even a few deviations in the book to more fantasy countryside scenes, a page of Hellboy studies and a certain Judge costume that features here a fair bit.
The book – and several colour prints – are available from his bigcartel shop and some come with a personal sketch in the front.
Just finished reading The Shaolin Cowboy* (no.4 of 4) and all I can think is that Geof Darrow (the writer and artist) is insane. There is no book out there like this and to give the plot away would be pointless, to even tell you what vaguely happens would spoil the experience completely.
I take my hat off to him because only a madman would have drawn what he has drawn, to say it’s an achievement is an understatement but to what end I have no idea. I don’t even know if I enjoyed it as, once it gets going, it’s relentless in pace and action and leaves far more questions than answers. This is something that will divide people who read it – although it’s more about looking than reading – and it’s almost too much to read in one go.
The man is insane, but in the most creative way, few can do what he can and even less would choose to do what he’s done here.
* this is a new series of 4, just released by Dark Horse, separate from the 7 issues previously released, which are equally as impressive but, maybe, not quite as insane.
The Electric Hoax Pt.3 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
Solid Steel this week features an exclusive hour of Kid Koala live in Victoria, Canada. The second hour brings a mix from yours truly coupled with a tribute to Trish Keenan and the music of Broadcast by Markey Funk.
It’s now three years this week since Trish passed away and last year Markey put together a new soundtrack to the 1966 Jonathan Miller TV version of Alice In Wonderland made entirely from the music of Broadcast. We feature half an hour of that mix but it’s best watched with the film in full which you can see here or here.
My mix kicks things off though and takes the distorted drums and fuzzy electronics route with a detour into James Murphy‘s recent David Bowie remix in the middle.
Abbey Road Studios yesterday with Matt Johnson (right), engineer Alex Wharton (left) and the Neumann VMS 82 DMM cutting lathe (far left), the only operational one of its kind left in the country.
Oh! Gear porn! Big, clunky machines with real knobs and buttons that scream, ‘ANALOGUE!’. But what were we doing there? Cooking up something for Record Store Day but that’s all I’m allowed to say. You’re welcome to make an educated guess though…
This wonderful piece of design is Lasstranaut, part of the Popbot Universe created by Ashley Wood and his company 3A. She’s a much talked about but seldom seen character in a world that seems to live largely in Ash’s head rather than on the printed page these days. Rumour is that she created the world of Popbot but I could have that wrong, there’s some info here and yes, she’s not wearing any pants. She’s currently up for sale on Bambaland for $200 which will also net you a book, T-shirt, poster and other goodies plus access to exclusive figures and money off all 3A products for the whole of 2014.
This blurry beast below is called Mars, a 24 inch take on the Shogun Warriors of old for a new line called World’s Best Robots. It’s modeled by a friend of mine from Ash’s designs and I’m eager to see the final paint job, just take my money why don’t you?
Following on from the post the other day and just for the hell of it. 
The Electric Hoax Pt.2 by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. This strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Click image for larger version
On January 11st, 1984, Radio 1 DJ, Mike Read took Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s debut single, ‘Relax’, off the deck, mid-song whilst live on air, reportedly calling it ‘obscene’ and stating that he wasn’t going to play it anymore. Despite the BBC having played it over 100 times, the band appearing in two sessions, having played Top Of The Pops the previous week and the single then residing at no.6 in the charts, the corporation officially ‘banned’ it from their playlist two days later.
This had the effect of generating enough publicity to push it up to the No.1 spot less than two weeks later on 22nd January and the band and their record company, Zang Tuum Tumb, claimed their first hit single. With a video that was already not deemed fit for TV broadcast, promo photos of the group in S&M gear and two of the band being were openly gay, it was all the press needed to have a field day.
In a stroke of good luck, the band’s producer, Trevor Horn, had remixed the song for a 3rd 12″ that was released just before it hit the No.1 spot. Multiple mixes being a novelty at the time, this version replaced the original ‘Sex Mix’ with a more club-friendly ‘New York Night Mix’, inspiration for which was taken when Horn visited the Paradise Garage club the previous Autumn. ZTT were quick to fan the flames of the ‘ban’ (it was only banned on BBC channels but freely played by other commercial stations) and adverts and posters appeared, flaunting the band’s outlaw status. I vividly remember seeing a huge fly poster proclaiming ‘Big, Banned & Beautiful!’ pasted up in the little town of Reigate where I grew up. In fact, I tried several times, unsuccessfully, to steal it but posters being what they are I just ended up ripping it.
I was fortunate enough to track down the original photographer of the poster’s image – Steve Rumney – for my Art of ZTT blog last year and he’s promised me access to a whole raft of exclusive, unseen/unpublished images that he took back stage at the band’s Camden Palace performance the previous November.
Stephen Rumney: “I used to take photos at the Camden Palace in the mid 80s and I was there the night that Frankie did their first ever performance of ‘Relax’… I think it was the actual release party and as far as I remember I was the only photographer to have back stage and dressing room access. …the pics are pretty wild as they were all drinking champagne and very high spirited as you can imagine… I was right in the thick of it and clicking away madly… there was something in the air that night and you could really tell this was the start of something big…
The photo was not posed … I just caught them before they went on stage… or just after… I may have asked them for a group shot but it was not ‘staged’ as in ‘let’s do a photo shoot’… its why it has that edgy spontaneity… Holly already the gun as he was carrying it around for his performance.
The story is that shortly after the gig I dropped a print off with the Island press office thinking they may like to use it for press… They had commissioned me to do a couple of photo shoots when I was still at college as they had seen my portfolio featured in ‘Blitz’ magazine so I dropped the Frankie photo off with them when I delivered prints for the other photo shoot they commissioned… a week or so later I saw my photo being used all round town on the giant street posters!!!”
‘Relax’ was a pretty big deal for me personally, one of those records that connected on first listen and had to have repeat plays, much to my parents’ annoyance. A song I never tire of and that, with the follow-up, ‘Two Tribes’, probably ranks as one of my top 10 singles of all time. I didn’t hear the ban as we rarely listened to Radio 1 in our house, instead hearing it on Capital Radio who didn’t hold quite such draconian ideals as the BBC. I taped it and would have to play it at least four times in succession after school for weeks on end.
In fact, some of my first pause button tape ‘remixes’ were of the song, made from the various different mixes floating around. It was this too that was one my first exposures to ‘the Remix’ on multiple formats and, coupled with the cryptic sleeve notes and images, it made for a very exciting package to a 13 year old. It was the beginning of a love affair with both the band’s music and their label, ZTT, that has stayed with me to this day. Nothing was more exciting to me in 1984 that Frankie and the other artists on ZTT’s roster – Art of Noise and Propaganda.
‘Big, Banned & Beautiful’ poster design: XLZTT photography: © Stephen Rumney 1983 The photo was taken 24th November ’83 by Steve Romney backstage at a promo gig for the single at the Camden Palace in London. The ‘girls’ in the photo were Ange and Juicy Lucy (the latter actually a man in drag), friends of the band who featured in the original video for ‘Relax’.
You can also read my interview with Anne Yvonne Gilbert – the illustrator of the iconic image on the cover of ‘Relax’ – on ArtofZTT.com
February 14th sees the release of yet another 12″ of the single for the 30th anniversary, this time with a recently discovered remix from ’84 which was lost in the vaults. More info HERE.
Robin Barnard makes comics, he draws them, writes them, then copies, folds and staples them before distributing them amongst various people he knows. At a quick glance they look like comics that you might have seen before but closer inspection reveals…
Let’s start again; Robin Barnard REmakes comics, he REdraws them, REwrites them, then copies, folds and staples them… You HAVE seen these before, but you’ve not read them like this before. His ‘What Men’ facsimile takes sections of Moore & Gibbons‘ classic ‘Watchmen’ and rewrites it into a critique of the spin-off ‘Before Watchmen’ franchise and the people responsible – Gibbons included.
Barnard redrew each panel in Gibbons’ style and you’d be hard-pressed to spot that it wasn’t just a scanned copy of the original with new lettering. The book is structured in the most incomprehensible way too, it took me a few goes before I cottoned on that you could read it in four different directions. Starting from the back, front or center pages, various pages read in or out of the book, all in landscape format, it’s a bit hard to describe in writing.
In his own words, “What Men is (just) Chapter V of Watchmen: Fearful Symmetry, which is both completely symmetrical and full of mirrored images. I purposely took all the mirrored images and put them all opposite each other and then also put in mirrored dialogue with references to the opposite page as well. What was in my mind was to take those previously seen mirrors rearrange them into an infinite mirror maze and use them to reflect on the Before Watchmen thing.”
There are levels of meaning here and he makes probably the nearest thing to a readable comics mash up that I think I’ve seen and you can find out more on his Images Degrading Forever site. There’s plenty more food for thought concerning ‘What Men’ in the post about reflections on the same site. These are comics ABOUT COMICS or at least indirectly about the comics industry, Barnard is using the medium to comment on the medium rather than write a blog about it.
Another one of his projects takes the Marvel comics Preview Catalogue and lampoons the never ending solicitations of forthcoming series’, character cross-overs and final, FINAL, F-I-N-A-L issues with self-referencing in-jokes that fold in on themselves as ‘The Point’ of it all is sought. It doesn’t all make immediate sense if you don’t have a keen interest or knowledge of certain areas of the comics world and its internal politics, which sometimes read like a superhero cross-over series in themselves.
His newest is a comics mash-up proper: ‘Super Spidey Man’ or ‘Star Jaws’ (I’m not sure which) is a mixture of Spiderman, Star Wars, Sesame Street and Dr Doom among others (I won’t spoil where Jaws gets into the mix). This is part 1 of a 4 issue series which may or may not be available from Orbital Comics in London. I don’t know where he’s going with this one but it’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds as the mysterious packages arrive in the post. He does make some physical copies but these are very low runs (‘What Men’ was 10 copies I believe) – but all this material is available to view online at his site, Images Degrading Forever.
Very pleased to have commissioned this mix from Chop for the latest installment of Solid Steel and it’s something slightly different from him too. Here’s what he said about it;
“I’ve been listening to quite a lot of French, Japanese and electronic library music of late. This mix for me has been about discovering and re-discovering some fantastic artists/music from around the globe. Whether its the eccentric French sounds of Marc Moulin‘s – Telex, mutations from YMO genius Haruomi Hosono or the influential proto-electronica of Manuel Gottsching I think there’s something here for everyone from diggers to digesters of great music.”
His last album, ‘Illuminate’, came out in August 2013 on Now Again and is available here
You know me, I love music and I love Lego. Well, a guy called Harry Heaton has started making classic (and not so classic) LP covers out of Lego. He has a tumblr full of them and is taking requests.
They’re made using Lego Digital Designer apparently which is the Lego equivalent of CAD so they’re not actually physically real but that would take a long time, a lot of money and I don’t think Lego actually make that many shades of beige. Anyway, kudos to Harry for marrying music design and Lego.
Also kudos to Harry for making a version of Bonobo’s ‘The North Borders’ LP sleeve! 
EDIT: I think I worked out how to do it 😉
Back in 2009 I wrote a song with Natural Self that I titled, ‘The Illectrik Hoax’, the inspiration for which came from the comic strip by Pete Milligan and Brendan McCarthy – ‘The Electric Hoax’. This was one of the first (if not THE first) creative collaborations by the pair who (with Brett Ewins) went on to create some of my favourite comics of the 80’s and 90’s – Freakwave, Paradax, Rogan Gosh, Strange Days, Skin, Hewligan’s Haircut, Bad Company, Artoons, Sooner Or Later, various episodes of Judge Dredd and more.
The strip appeared in the weekly UK music paper, Sounds, in 24 parts sometime between mid ’78 and ’79. Each one a half page telling a vaguely coherent, if disjointed, story that seemed to throw up new characters with each episode. It’s a fascinating glimpse into a team’s earliest work and you can see them becoming more confident as the story progresses. McCarthy’s art improves, initially starting out with a lot of collage, and you can see him gain confidence with his figures and many different memes that would reoccur in his work surface for the first time. There are in-jokes and plugs for characters in 2000ad dotted amongst the numerous notes seen floating around in many of the episodes and personalities like Patrick McGoohan and John Lydon make appearances.
The Electric Hoax Pt.1 – click image for larger version
There’s a definite sense of post-punk Britain in the strip, both in the artwork and the tone, a crumbling state gripped by strikes and pre-1984 paranoia. Interestingly, some of the character designs already mirror that of the Mad Max films that McCarthy was later influenced by, even though this pre-dates the opening of the first film by a good 6 months. In a lot of ways his Thought Police could be described as cyber-punks before the phrase was invented, a clear mash up of the then-current punk fashion and the dystopian sci-fi setting of the strip.
Last year saw the publication of ‘The Best of Milligan & McCarthy’ hardback which reprinted selections from many of the titles listed above but not the full run of ‘The Hoax’. After years of searching for back issues of Sounds for episodes and the few instances where they crop up on the web, I lucked out when an eBayer put the complete run up for sale, all neatly clipped from the various issues they originally appeared in. I intend to share these, week by week, here on the blog but I urge you to check out the excellent Dark Horse -published ‘best of’ mentioned above which can be bought HERE.
Both creators went on to bigger things with Milligan writing for everyone from Marvel to DC, Vertigo to Dark Horse – his run on Shade The Changing Man reinventing the character. Since then he’s written just about all the greats: Batman, Hellblazer, Animal Man, Justice League, X-Men (in all sorts of varieties), Spiderman, The Punisher, Thor… you get the idea, he’s a big deal in comics writing. McCarthy went to Hollywood to design and storyboard film and TV concepts for films like Highlander, Coneheads, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lost In Space and the first cgi TV show, ReBoot. He was also asked by director George Miller to design and co-write the fourth installment of the Mad Max saga, ‘Fury Road’ which has finally made it out of development hell to be released in 2015. Now working back in comics as well with his excellent ‘visual autobiography’, ‘Swimini Purpose’, new episodes and covers for Dredd, a Spiderman / Dr Strange crossover and the psychedelic ‘The Zaucer of Zilk’ all carrying on his unique take on the medium.
NB: My different spelling of ‘electric’ was intentional and the lyrics of the track in question have nothing to do with the strip itself, it was my coded nod to two of my favourite comic creators.
2013 has been an odd year – I wouldn’t go as far as to highlight the ’13’ as one to be wary of but it was full of ups and downs for me personally. 2012 was always going to be a hard year to beat but this one has been like a yo-yo, full of more uncertainty, doubt, procrastination and frustration than ever before.
There have been plenty of highs, not least with my family, of which my children are a constant source of wonder and pride. I do feel as if something has been holding me back but haven’t been able to pin down any one reason, more a general series of events that just didn’t let me get on with the things I need to do.
The proportion of great music being released has definitely gone up this year on previous ones, I read more comics than ever before, didn’t see half the films I wanted to and had more memorable nights out than I have in a long while. Experiences playing in clubs and with promoters seriously challenged me as to whether I actually wanted to continue DJing at times though. I’ve written more than ever before this year, having several articles published and conducted several interviews under my own steam with subjects whom I wanted to quiz on specific subjects. There are things bubbling for 2014 already, some of them very exciting for me but I need to make some more music and art as that’s been pretty barren this year.
Highs of 2014 (in no particular order)
• Moments:
Editing the Coldcut meets the Orb 2 sessions and then fine-tuning them with Matt Black
Seeing Kraftwerk in Dusseldorf then making a pilgrimage to their old studio.
Taking part in the Image Duplicator show at Orbital Comics and selling my piece on the opening night.
Being featured in a Judge Dredd strip as part of a Mega City One cult called ‘Strictly Kevs’.
Meeting and interviewing photographers Tony Barratt and John Stoddart and chatting about their time photographing bands for the ZTT label.
Being photographed for the Dust & Grooves book and then conducting an interview with Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet for it.
Releasing the quadruple ‘Search Engine’ package for Record Store Day with 10 random inserts.
Being asked to remix The Amorphous Androgynous
More large-scale art pieces in my local neighborhood than ever
Remixing, rehearsing and performing with Cheeba and Moneyshot as part of the ‘3-Way Mix’ show – also signing on as part of the Elastic Artists agency with Ben Coghill.
Interviewing Gary Langan about the making of ‘Duck Rock’
• Music:
Boards of Canada ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’ (Warp)
Spacedog & Belbury Poly – ‘Study Series 10’ (Ghost Box)
Melt Yourself Down – S/T LP (Leaf)
Lone – ‘Airglow Fires’ (R&S)
Mark Pritchard ‘Lock Off’ EP (Warp)
David Bowie ‘The Next Day’ LP
Sinoia Caves ‘The Enchanter Persuaded’
Black Moth Super Rainbow – ‘Dandelion Gum’ LP
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – ‘Halloween 3’ (Death Waltz)
David Bowie ‘Love Is Lost’ (James Murphy Hello Steve Reich remix)
Boy George – ‘Coming Home’ (Psychemagik remix)
Chop – ‘Illuminate’ LP (Now Again)
Black Swan – ‘Alone Again With the Dawn Coming Up’
Tame Impala – ‘Be Above It’ (Erol Alkan remix)
rediscovering my love of Gary Numan and The Human League
• Books / Comics:
John Higgs – The KLF: Chaos, Magic & the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds
Julian Cope – Copendium
Moebius – Chaos & Chroniques Metalliques
Mike Mignola – Hellboy in Hell
The Judge Dredd Megazine
Brandon Graham – Prophet
B.P.R.D Hell On Earth
Brandon Graham – Multiple Warheads
The Best of Milligan & McCarthy
Jim Mahfood – Visual Funk
Ed Piskor – Hip Hop Family Tree
Batman Black & White no.3
The Wake
Robbie Morrison & Jim Murray – Drowntown
Brandon Graham – King City
Sledgehammer 44
• Films:
Gravity
Pacific Rim
Elysium
Despicable Me 2
Bonobo’s ‘Cirrus’ video
Trance
Melt Yourself Down’s ‘Fix My Life’ video
• Gigs:
Solid Steel 25th party at Fire, London,
19: Eighties concert at the QEH, London
playing my first gig with my kids in the audience at Big Fish Little Fish, London
DJing between Coldcut and DJ Shadow in Bristol at the In:Motion night
Kosmic Krash at the Herstmonceux Observatory
A Few Old Tunes, London
Adam Ant at the Roundhouse, London
• Firsts:
Finally reading Jodorowsky and Moebius‘ ‘The Incal’ and Milligan and McCarthy‘s ‘The Electric Hoax’ in full.
Making my first solo video mix for Solid Steel
Giving my first talk on graphic design in Madrid
Giving blood
Designing a zoetrope 12″ picture disc for Bonobo from Cyriak image sequences.
Having a piece published on The Quietus about Solid Steel and another about Kraftwerk for Clash Magazine
Launching my Art of ZTT website and having a feature on it published in Classic Pop magazine
• Artists / Designers:
Ian McQue / Augustine Kofie / Luke Insect / Giorgio Comolo / Peeta / Khomatech / Julian House / Jonathan Edwards / Andy Votel
• Mixes:
United States of Audio – How High’s The Water Mama?
Doug Shipton – All Will Be Set Right
Hexstatic – Clink Mix
DJ Moneyshot – Solid Steel & The Hour of Chaos
Coldcut meets The Orb – The Return Trip
• Exhibitions:
David Bowie (The V&A)
Mark Bodé (London West Bank Gallery)
Ralph Steadman @77 (The Cartoon Museum)
Pop Art (The Barbican)
• Labels:
Deathwaltz (undisputed label of the year), Trunk, Ghost Box, Themes For Great Cities, Civil Music
• Sleeve / Packaging design:
Dark Seed ‘Nocturnes’ 12″ (Ohmega)
Various ‘A Psyche For Sore Eyes’ 7″ comp (Sonic Cathedral)
The Simonsound – ‘The Beam’ 10″ (Pilot Pack) (Project Blue Book)
Broadcast – ‘Berberian Sound Studio’ (Warp)
Clone – ‘Hallowe’en 1976’ cassette (Finders Keepers)
Machinedrum ‘Vapor City’ LP (Ninja Tune)
Christine ‘Death On Wheels’ 12″
DJ Format & Phill Most Chill ‘The Foremost’ LP (Project Blue Book)
Various ‘Classroom Projects’ (Trunk)
Various ‘Cosmic Machine’ comp
Kid Acne ‘Council Pop’ 10th anniversary edition
The Focus Group ‘Elektrik Karousel’ (Ghost Box)
Madlib ‘Pill Jar’ LP (Rappcats)
John Carpenter – ‘Assault On Precinct 13’ (Death Waltz)
Drums of Death ‘Waves Series Remixes’ (Civil Music)
Serato ‘Thre3style’ 10″ controller series
• Lows:
Being taken for a ride over payment by the promoter who booked me to give my first talk on graphic design in Madrid
More cancelled gigs and promoters messing me about than ever before
My laptop failing the night before a gig, necessitating a repair session until 3am
More people expecting me to do something for nothing than ever before, time to make a stand against this culture of people expecting people to work for ‘promotion’ in 2014.
‘The Persistence of Vision’ – a great documentary marred by sound and vision quality so bad it was virtually unwatchable.
• RIP:
Martin Sharp, Nelson Mandela, George Duke, Storm Thorgerson, Carmine Infantino, Claude Nobs, Dome Club Mk.1, Equinox Records.
• Things to look forward to in 2014:
Ghost Box night at the ICA in Jan
3-Way mix tour in Australia in Feb
Dirk Wears White Sox at the Apollo in April
The Dust & Grooves book released in April
A Very special Record Store Day release I can’t talk about yet in April
another big graphic project that I should be involved with for Autumn 2014 that I also can’t talk about yet
This is a new poster for Transport for London, drawn by Thibaud Herem as part of the 150 years of the London Underground birthday. TFL now have an official Tumblr that they will be filling with images for the anniversary. Talking of posters on the Underground, there is a great series running currently, drawn by French illustrator, McBess. They are general safety warnings with poetry written by members of the public and are all over the place in various sizes. I think we’re in a new golden age of design for the London Underground.
