Adults of a certain age (ie. over 50) might remember this little promotional flyer for the Matchbox Adventure 2000 line of die-cast toys from the 70s. I found this flyer in Gosh Comics a few years back but remember seeing it in some comics possibly way back and wanting to get this poster so badly. I think I may have even sent off for one to have my name printed on but never received anything back (but that could be the mind playing tricks). I know that I definitely copied the robot in the poster in my sketchbook and wanted there to be a film so badly. I still have a (Land) Raider Command vehicle in its box and my brother and I had the other two vehicles pictured as well, they were well and truly played with until they broke. Did anyone actually get a poster with their name on it?
Artifacts
Objects I’ve picked up along the way, curiosities worth showing for one reason or another before they disappear into the archive or obscurity.
Just found these today, sent off for from Negativland around 2000 – their Zapped! (Zappa tribute) Over The Edge 5 hr radio show, personally dubbed, written & stickered on 3 TDK cassettes – not on any discography, I think they’d dub any show for you for a fee back then via their website. Luckily, through the power of the internet, you can listen to this and many more shows from their huge run (1981-2015 I believe) via the Internet Archive.
Seriously, there are so many show up there you many never need to listen to anything else ever again.
My first flight cased record box – long retired. This has seen some places, miles and times. I used this throughout the 90’s on the early Ninja Tune DJ package tours around the world. I would pack a Line 6 FX pedal, needles, leads, slipmats and headphones inside as well. It was heavy as you like when full and this was before trolleys or record bags with wheels. The stickers tell the times it was used in, see how many you recognise. Made a nice seat too! These days it’s packed with archive materials, sketchbooks, artwork, all protected until needed. See the last pic for a flat pack, make-your-own version.
I finally got time to pop into Orbital Comics and see their small but packed exhibition of 2000AD offshoots, tie-ins, cash-ins, memorabilia, music, magazines, toys and so much more. Not having an opening party because it would clash with the comic’s own 40th celebration a couple of weekends ago they’ve decided to have a closing party on Friday March 10th where there will be a podcast recording and music by yours truly among others.
I also just guested on the Big Mouth podcast pre-record, talking about the comic’s legacy which will be available online this coming Sunday. More details as I have it.
A rip of a limited edition cassette of DJ Krush‘s performance at The Custard Factory, Birmingham, UK on the Mo Wax Headz Tour 9th July 1994. No playlist available, feel free to make one and post it in the comments. There is a similar companion cassette of a DJ Shadow set at The Cockpit, Leeds from the same tour out there too.
Here’s an oddity I picked up in a South London charity recently, a one-sided 7″ invite to a club called Vinyl‘s first birthday party. I don’t remember the club personally but it appears to have had a home at The Dogstar in Brixton. Unlike several invites to parties I’ve found on vinyl over the years (old random 7″s with new labels pasted on) this one actually has music pressed on one side and the track isn’t bad. A vocodered voice gives details of the date, DJs and aural delights to be expected with an opening line cribbed from an Orb song title.
Oddly the date has been pasted over on the label, underneath it says the 14th and on the front of the sleeve was a post-it note exclaiming, “Check with Joan if any phogs(?) we know are going”. Maybe ‘phogs’ is short for photographers and this was sent to a music magazine who may have wanted to cover it?
UPDATE: – Turns out it was an old college friend, Jem Panufnik with Martin Moveya...
Jem: “Yes indeed! Can’t remember what order it all happened but of course this became our first Soul of Man track and first Finger Lickin‘ release a few months later, I guess we’d just finished it and used it for this party invite celebrating a year of Bar Vinyl with Vinyl Addiction record shop downstairs (where of course Mr Moveya was selector extraordinaire). I guess we got the date wrong on the artwork! Martin – was this party in a very sweaty low ceiling basement in Kentish Town? The Dogstar connection was our Finger Lickin ‘ nights we did every Thursday a year or so later. Don’t know who’s notes about phogs are, I know it went to a lot of music mags. Think we did 250 so not many around…”
Back in early 1989 – aged 18 – I was going out with a girl who loved Guns n’ Roses‘ debut album with a passion. Wanting to make something personal for her as a present before her birthday I decided to paint a version of Robert Williams’ cover image from the original album cover (it was later replaced when the group blew up commercially). What I was thinking I don’t know what with the very dodgy subject matter it contained but that’s the fog of love for you.
I’d discovered Williams’ work a few years before via Zap Comix and loved this painting, despite the sexually assaulted woman (lord knows what she’d have thought of it, had it been finished). I set about copying it as accurately as possible in acrylics on a large piece of thick card, primed and gridded out to get the proportions correct. Below are a couple of in-progress shots I found from ’89 and you can see that I was enjoying painting the orange monster to start with. The chrome elements were incredibly difficult (and boring) to paint given the small reproduction I was working from (an LP cover borrowed from a friend, that I still have, sorry whoever has a sleeveless copy from back then).
I’d covered up the lower part of the image, partly to stop it getting dirty as I was generally leaning on the bottom half but mostly because I was still living with my parents and I was embarrassed about the subject matter of the assaulted woman. I wasn’t looking forward to painting that part at all if truth be told but it was integral to the original. As it turned out I never got to because she dumped me about a month before her birthday, any impetus to finish it vanished instantly and it was filed away in an old portfolio.
Over the years I’ve spotted it whilst rifling through the folder, pulled it out a few times and admired the level of dedication I must have had to go to such lengths. I recently shot details of some of the more finished bits to share here, you can see the layers of acrylic paint in parts and I was working with totally inadequate brushes, some with only a few hairs for tiny details.
One day I’ll have to finish it, just so all that work doesn’t go to waste but I’ve no desire to include the stricken woman so maybe I’ll paint something else in her place. As much as I admire Williams’ work – and copying this gave me a next level appreciation of the techniques he used – his depiction of the woman in this piece is the only thing I’m not a fan of.
Seen this morning in Spitalfields Market, East London: part of Terry Lee Miall‘s bass drum from his time playing with Adam & the Ants.
The seller was apparently a neighbour of Terry’s and did a house clearance for him when he moved. I did a quick search online and it appears to be the same as the one in this picture.
I was wavering as to whether to buy it but it was absolutely knackered and quite large so I didn’t pursue a price. It was still there when I left…
DJ Shadow has started a tumblr to showcase pieces from his collection called D.N.A.P., short for ‘Does Not Affect Play’ – a term record buyers will recognise as a description on some used discs when marks are visible on the wax. It’s a collector’s wet dream with not only records but also promo photos, badges, 8-Track tapes, flyers, customised covers and even James Brown cookies. Check it out here.
We’ve all done it – made cassette tape ‘covers’ for our taped compilations of yesteryear. I first got a tape recorder around the 1980 mark and here are some of my designs from the following decade. Note the attention to detail with the backwards ‘D’ on the ‘Adam’
This Frankie compilation was supposed to reflect the different singles left to right: Relax, Two Tribes, Power of Love, Welcome to the Pleasuredome.
You can see how much I was into the design work of XL back then and, subsequently Accident (the same team under a different name) for 808 State later.
I loved Sigue Sigue Sputnik‘s info-overload graphics, the Hockney-esque polaroids and the futuristic sense of it all, something The Designers Republic took to another level later.