Andy Arthurs’ single sleeve: Detected after 31 years!
A spot of detective work has resulted in confirmation from musician, producer, engineer and now academic and orchestra leader Andy Arthurs that Barney Bubbles did indeed design the sleeve for his 1978 electropop single I Can Detect You (For 100,000 Miles).
Until now this curio has not been recognised as a Barney artwork. We were put on the trail by blog fan Mark Lungo, who put 2 + 2 together correctly, having spotted the familiar tropes and stylistic tics in Detect’s design and added in the fact that Barney was at that time in-house designer at Radar Records.
Andy, these days professor and head of music at Queensland University, confirmed that the cover was Barney’s, organised by Radar mainman Andrew Lauder. We will be featuring an interview with him shortly.
Backed with the song I Am A Machine, the sleeve was also used for the single’s release on affiliate label TDS Records, for whom Barney created “blackboard” music press adverts developing the use of faux mathematical equations. The TDS logo itself bears a resemblance to that which he produced for magazine Let It Rock a couple of years earlier.
On the TDS sleeves the label’s address is 120 Parker Street W1 - in posh Mayfair. It seems there was some playfulness afoot; Radar was based at 60 Parker Street, another thoroughfare in what was then down-at-heel Camden’s borders with Bloomsbury.
Andy had been around the British music scene for a number of years by the time of the single’s release, having started at George Martin’s AIR studios in 1971 and received engineering credits on albums such as Bryan Ferry’s These Foolish Things.
During the immediate post-punk era he produced singles and albums by such new wave acts as Tot Taylor’s Advertising, Stranglers’ spin-off project Celia & the Mutations, power-pop band Tonight (also on TDS), mod revivalists The Chords and 999.
Barney had many connections to the latter band led by Nick Cash, who had been a one-time member of his friend Ian Dury’s pub-rock outfit Kilburn & The High Road.
999’s designer was George Snow, who had known Barney since his days at underground paper Friends. Snow is the man credited with pioneering acceptance of computers and digital technology in British graphics and illustration circles by another Barney fan, Andy Martin.
999 were also signed to Radar, having been at Lauder’s previous label UA, and the photographer responsible for many of their sleeve shots was Barney’s friend and collaborator Chris Gabrin.
Meanwhile Andy Arthurs produced 999’s eponymously-titled debut album for Radar as well as such releases as The Soft Boys’ (I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp, which also benefited from a Barney sleeve, and wrote tracks including Skin Tight for Noosha Fox.
Nowadays Andy is ultra-busy, complimenting his professorial duties at Queensland with his involvement in 18-piece orchestra Deep Blue.
And his release has now been added to our virtual exhibition of Barney’s single sleeves. 71 and counting! More to be added soon!
Tags: 999, Advertising, Andrew Lauder, Andy Arthurs, Andy Martin, Bryan Ferry, Celia & the Mutations, Chris Gabrin, George Martin, George Snow, Kilburn & The High Roads, Nick Cash, Parker Street, Queensland University, Radar, TDS, The Soft Boys, The Stranglers, Tonight, Tot Taylor
August 17th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Dear Paul:
Thanks for writing about the Andy Arthurs sleeve (and the recognition too!). I’m glad to see that you confirmed my hunch. I also have these comments:
1. Since I last wrote you, I’ve remembered another Radar single sleeve that look like Bubbles’ work: Iggy Pop and James Williamson’s “Kill City”/”I Got Nothin’” (ADA 4). The back cover of the sleeve has a “paint splatter” pattern that reminds me of the “Under Rage” moive poster in your book.
2. Speaking of your book: look for my (very positive) review in the next issue of “Ugly Things”, the acclaimed music magazine that focuses on garage rock, psychedelia, punk and related genres. (The official site is http://ugly-things.com .) I’ll be co-reviewing your book with “For the Love of Vinyl”, the recent Hipgnosis retrospective.
3. When you say “We will be featuring an interview with him shortly”, do you mean Arthurs or Andrew Lauder? I’d love to see you interview either of them.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Hi Mark
Glad to be of service and thanks for tipping us the wink, as they say.
Re Kill City you know that never even occurred to me to study the flip (I thought the cover was supplied artwork from, I believe, Ben Edmonds and Greg Shaw). This is one of my all-time favourite albums and one I bought the week of issue. Was only playing it the other day. Will check your notion out but is is a definite possibility isn’t it?
I love Ugly Things and am very flattered you have reviewed the book at all so thanks for that - look forward to reading it. The book is out via DAP in the US from Sept 1 now.
I did mean Andy Arthurs but AL and I missed each others everal times for the book so he is in my sights for the blog/next edition (coming next year folks).
Best
P
August 18th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Dear Paul:
Thanks for writing back! In response:
1. Let me clear up some confusion here. I wasn’t referring to the “Kill City” album (RAD 2); the British version has the same cover as the American original. Rather, I meant the single that Radar took from the album (ADA 4), which has the title track on the A side and “I Got Nothin’” on the B side. The front of the single sleeve features the famous photograph of 1920s murderer Ruth Snyder ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Snyder ) at the moment of her electrocution, while the back has a rather surreal photo of a chalk outline for a body–which has apparently been impaled on a streetlight! The artwork is grim by Bubbles’ standards, but it suits the nihilistic themes of Iggy Pop’s music very well.
2a. I’m glad to hear about the forthcoming interview with Andy Arthurs.
2b. I’m also glad to hear that you’ll be talking with Andrew Lauder; I wondered why he wasn’t interviewed in “Reasons to Be Cheerful”. Lauder is one of the few music executives that I have any respect for, and I’d love to interview him about the Radar years someday. If you do publish a second edition of “reasons”, I’ll be first in line to buy it!
August 18th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Hi Mark
Similarly, to clear up confusion: I did mean the single and corrected myself and was referring to the Snyder pic which I still had always assumed had been supplied by the Bomp crew.
It is in fact in keeping with the dark cast to BB’s mind in 78.
The back cover was also used for the UK music press ad for the single btw.
AL was moving lock stock and barrel out of the country and also otherwise occupied throughout the run-up to publication of the first edition though we talked and communicated via mail so he gave me direction, cleared up stuff and, as I understand it, is more than happy with the book.
There will be a new edition next year - we’ve all but sold out the first run which is very satisfying.
Best
P
August 26th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Hello,
I love this detection work, and after finishing your book and following this blog, I keep discovering Barney Bubbles-related connections among my records or some I know.
I was wondering. I’ve often had the chance to glance at the cover of Lene Lovich’s single New Toy. I’ve always seen it as some felt pen scribbling, but yesterday, as a friend showed me his copy, I realized this scribbling drew a face.
A face-like drawing, a Stiff single ? Could that be a BB sleeve ?
It’s not in your virtual exhibition, so is that some Stiff designer aping Bubbles, a sleeve you’ve missed, or am I just being stupid ?
Both sides of the cover can be seen here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocad123/2045132817/in/set-72157594371190778/
August 28th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Hey Pol
Charlie Gillett (who worked with Lene a lot at this time) told me that BB didn’t do any of Lene’s sleeves; Stiff effectively licensed LL from CG’s label/production house Oval so the package would have been delivered as complete: masters, artwork, label copy, etc.
Of course, like many another British sleeve design for releases from 77 onwards, LL’s sleeves contained elements which were definitely in line with Barney’s (particular the dots, arrows, signals and quasi-geometric flourishes of second album The Flex). Such was his influence over the visual language of the new wave and post-punk scenes.
I’ll find out who did do this; have a feeling that Lene and her partner Les were very much in control of that side of things. After all they had both been at various art schools including Central.
August 28th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
HI Pol
Lene has now confirmed that she was responsible for this artwork.
best
P