PROCESS will present many fascinating exhibits – some displayed for the first time in public – to pinpoint Barney Bubbles’ approach to the body of design work which has cemented his reputation as one of the greats in his field.
By examining Bubbles’ activities from leaving art school in the early 60s to his death in 1983, PROCESS also traces an important strand in the development of the practice of graphic design.
Situated as it is within the grounds of Chelsea College Of Art & Design in the shadow of Tate Britain, Chelsea Space’s hosting of PROCESS will provide students of design and the visual arts and other creative disciplines – as well as the visitors to the home of British art – with vital insights into pre-digital working methods across the range of media.
Delineating the stages of production, PROCESS will also investigate the ways in which Bubbles conjured brilliance by his unique conflation of references and influences.
PROCESS will be complemented by a series of events, including an opening party, talks, q&as and performances from musicians, designers, photographers and others who worked with Bubbles.
We’ll be unveiling details of that programme over the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled. Already we’ve agreed participation with quite a few people, some of whom will be speaking publicly for the first time about their association with, and appreciation for, the work of this intriguing and elusive figure.
Chelsea Space is the place where The Clash, B.A.D., Carbon Silicon and Gorillaz mainman Mick Jones launched his installation The Rock & Roll Public Library, which has evolved as it has toured other spaces.
Similarly we’re looking for PROCESS to be the first manifestation in a rolling series of Barney Bubbles shows over the coming years.
The man born Humphrey Anthony Erdeswick Butler-Bowdon had opted out of playing bass for the Kilburns a few years earlier to concentrate on his art, occasionally contributing to record covers for the likes of Wings and 10cc.
7in sleeve. Front cover, Whoops A Daisy/Davey Crockett, Stiff, 1978.
The winsome Whoops A Daisy was backed by a cracking version of the 50s film theme The Ballad of Davy Crockett and wrapped in a wonderful Barney Bubbles sleeve using Chris Gabrin’s photographs of Ocean performing the elaborate dance moves he had recently enacted on the Stiffs Live Stiffs tour.
7in sleeve. Back cover, Whoops A Daisy/Davey Crockett, Stiff, 1978.
These were exaggerated by the huge white suit Ocean had bought in Brixton Market during his time in the Kilburns.
Sleeve lettering, front cover.
Barney decorated the sleeve with detailed lettering (the H on the back from interlinked horseshoes to match the rhyming-slang name of Ocean’s backing musicians, Iron Hoof) and on release there was also a version of the black and white sleeve featuring blue spot-colour.
Sleeve lettering, back cover.
The accompanying poster was a delight. With Ocean’s name picked out in dance-step style, 35 frames from the Chris Gabrin shoot were presented in sequence with the instruction: “Cut poster out and make Humphrey Ocean’s Daisy Disco Do It My Way flickbook.”
Poster 30in x 20in, Stiff, 1978.
We’ve put them together here to accompany the tune:
And here Ocean is called to the stage to join the Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll finale of the Stiff tour and shows us how it’s done:
Tomorrow (April 30) I have the great pleasure to be DJing for Nick Lowe again.
The venue couldn’t be more different from the Albert Hall; this time Nick is playing for a couple of hundred people at St Paul’s in his stamping ground, Brentford. It’s in a good cause – the money from the sold-out gig will go to the church’s community drop-in centre.
Nick, second left, with the other members of Brinsley Schwarz from The Glastonbury Fayre, Revelation, 1972.
This is the first of a spate of live appearances by Nick this year. In a couple of months he will be in the acoustic tent at the Glastonbury Festival as the only performer to have played the very first Glastonbury Fayre in 1971.
On that occasion he was a member of Brinsley Schwarz, whose debut album benefited from the lux gatefold cover by Barney Bubbles.
The printed "Silver Surfer" sealed vinyl envelope for The Glastonbury Fayre. Courtesy: Jeff Dexter Collection.
The Brinsleys’ subsequent appearance on the fund-raising triple Glastonbury Fayre set was the next staging post in Nick’s association with Barney.
"Dome Sweet Dome" cut-out geodesic dome insert, The Glastonbury Fayre.
Barney’s Glastonbury package comprised the tri-fold 24in x 36in card sleeve housed in a sealed printed vinyl envelope with customised labels, booklets and cut-out inserts for the creation of a miniature silver pyramid and geodesic dome.
"Pyramid" cut-out album insert.
These scans of the pyramid inserts don’t do the originals justice (they’re shiny silver on black).
However, it’s been fun using the scans (and some silver paint) to create our own versions.
"Power" cut-out album insert.
Taking it’s cue from Stewart Brand’s revolutionary Whole Earth Catalogue, the “Dome Sweet Dome” is covered in messages and instructions of ever-increasing pertinence:
“We can survive on waste – energy, experience, imagination is all!”
“Scavenge and scrounge shamelessly – you are your own architect.”
“Ecology is you.”
“We might need this kind of good, cheap shelter one day.”
We also love the “Astral” visage made by glueing the ornate sci-fi insert borders together.
The Eye Of Horus which accompanies the instructions was a marker of Barney’s abiding interest in Egyptology, and one of the powerful symbols he loved to revisit, sometimes using Nick’s aquiline features.
Album insert detail.
For example, a decade later he openly referenced The All Seeing Eye, as it is also known, on the cover of Nick’s 1982 album Nick The Knife.
12in sleeves. Front covers, Nick The Knife, 1982. Left: US issue on Columbia. Right: UK issue, F-Beat.
The uncompromising crop on the front of the UK issue (on F-Beat) concentrated on Nick’s angular features to achieve the full effect; as in the case of many another Barney design, the US issue soft-pedaled this with an uncropped and thus more conventional portrait.
Cheekily, Barney responded to comments that the Nick The Knife cover was unforgiving by delivering a totally contrasting sleeve for 1983 follow-up The Abominable Showman.
12in sleeve. Front cover, The Abonimable Showman, Nick Lowe, F-Beat, 1983.
Here there isn’t sign of a single blemish: the boxed-in portrait of Nick is colourised and airbrushed to the max, though the shadows and his expression once again clearly render…The Eye Of Horus.
Really looking forward to tomorrow night’s show. Sure Nick will pull out all the stops at St Paul’s just as he did at another church, St Luke’s, for the BBC a couple of years back – have a look at him rocking with one of the founding fathers of British popular music Chris Barber in the clip above.
Yesterday’s Design 4 Music symposium was a roaring success, with all tickets selling out and a stellar cast of contributors providing insights into many different aspects of this vast subject.
The closing panel on Barney Bubbles’ legacy proved entertaining and at times revelatory even from my perspective; I lined up with three leading designers: Barney’s one-time colleague Malcolm Garrett and Barney fans Kate Moross and Gerard Saint.
Label detail with band logo, Music for Pleasure, The Damned, Stiff Records, 1977.
Gerard showed off the copy of Music For Pleasure he has owned since he was a 12-year-old punk in Devon (and spotted that Barney extended the design detail to the label). This chimed with Kate since Music For Pleasure was the key which unlocked her appreciation of Barney’s ouevre.
24" x 36" card. Outer foldout sleeve, The Glastonbury Fayre, Revelation, 1972.
And Malcolm displayed some choice designs including Glastonbury Fayre, In Search Of Space and Your Generation, as well as an intriguing art questionnaire filled in by Barney in 1981; he – along with other artists including Peter Blake – had been mailed it by a student friend of Malcolm’s. It’s been promised for the next edition of Reasons To Be Cheerful, which is fab.
Meanwhile an encounter with Andrew Heeps – whose framing company Art Vinyl staged a mini-exhibition – provided yet another example of how Barney connections are every which way.
12in laminated card. Front cover, Walls Have Ears, Blanket Of Secrecy, FBeat, 1982.
Andrew only recently discovered that his grandfather founded construction company Heeps Willard. Wreckless Eric (exclusive interview here) mentioned just the other week that it was an HW sign in Barney’s Islington neighbourhood in the early 80s which provided him with his final – and possibly most charming – nom-de-design, appearing as a credit on releases by Billy Bragg and Blanket Of Secrecy.
Credits, Walls Have Ears, 1982.
“I was knocked out when my dad told me about his father’s company,” said Andrew. “He gave Barney the name and here I am immersed in vinyl and one of Heeps Willard’s biggest fans!”
7" card with foil imprint. Into The Galaxy, Midnight Juggernauts, Isomorph, 2009.
“The legacy of Barney Bubbles” is the title of the finale of Design 4 Music: Music + Design, the forthcoming conference considering this “complex, passionate, sometimes obsessive relationship”.
Organised by Eye editor/co-owner John L. Walters and Central Saint Martin’s Catherine Dixon, Design 4 Music takes place on January 29 at London’s design and printed reference hub St Bride’s, with contributions from such important practitioners and commentators as:
• Spin’s Tony Brook (on Ronald Clyne’s designs for the Smithsonian Folkways label)
• and Lemon Jelly’s Fred Deakin, who founded creative agency Airside in 1998.
On our recommendation Kate Moross will talk about “The vinyl solution to making music look good”.
Moross, Saint and Reasons To Be Cheerful contributor Malcolm Garrett will also join me and Walters in considering the enduring legacy of Barney Bubbles in the final panel of the day, starting at 5.15pm.
Also on show will be a mini-exhibition of sleeve art courtesy of Art Vinyl.
If you are able, do come along. This is shaping up to be an essential day for anyone engaged or interested in music’s visual identity through graphic design.
Meanwhile John and Catherine have generously supplied us with a free ticket to the event. For a chance to win it, please send your answers to the question below to thelook@rockpopfashion.com by January 22 at the latest.
Q: WHAT IS THE NAME OF KATE MOROSS’ S RECORD LABEL?
Cover. Exhibition catalogue edited by Gladys Fabre and Doris Wintgens Hotte.
Jan, who has also written this feature about Reasons To Be Cheerful in Dutch daily paper NRC Handelsblad, will be hosting the talk and q&a from 2pm at the Scheltema complex, which is a two-minute walk from the museum at Marktsteeg 1 and Oude Singel.
The exhibition has been mounted in co-operation with London’s Tate Modern, where it will be housed from February 4 to May 10 next year as the UK’s first major show devoted to the Dutch artist who was central to the foundation of the De Stijl movement and magazine.
Dada At 45rpm by Jan Vollaard, NRC Handelsblad, November 27, 2009
The city of Leiden is appropriate; this is where De Stijl was founded and also where van Doesburg established his short-lived art review Mécano in 1924. Here, as editor, he assumed the name I.K.Bonset, which some have claimed is an anagrammatic pun for the Dutch phrase “Ik ben sot” – “I am drunk” - or the phonetic joke “I’m crazy”. The pseudonymous Barney would surely have appreciated either. Van Doesburg was in fact born Christian Emil Marie Kupper.
It’s believed that van Doesburg used the Bonset name to distance his more rational work from the Dada-infused content of Mécano, which broke rules in favour of absurdity and spontaneity. The front cover of Mecano 3 was quoted for the sleeve for Nick Lowe’s 1978 single I Love the Sound Of Breaking Glass.
Magazine cover, letterpress on paper, 6in x 5in. Mecano no 3 by Theo van Doesburg, 1923.
There are many other examples of Barney’s appreciation and reinterpretation of the work and practices of van Doesburg and his milieu.
Left: Axinometric projection for Schroder House, Gerrit Reitveld, 1924. Left: Diana Fawcett with Barney Bubbles 1981 painting, 2008.
Diana was instructed to hang the painting at a 45-degree tilt, reproducing the quadrant which recurs in van Doesburg’s work. Around this time it also appeared on sleeves for Blanket Of Secrecy and Elvis Costello & The Attractions.
7in sleeve, paper. Say You Will/Feather In My Hand, Blanket Of Secrecy, FBeat, 1982.
Among Reitveld’s furniture at the Schroder House is a version of his Red Blue chair of 1917. This informed the “turbo” chair Barney designed for Jake Riviera in 1981.
Left: Chair from Reitveld Schroder House, 1924. Right: Turbo chair designed by Barney Bubbles, Editions Riveira, 1981.
“Van Doesburg believed that the boundaries between painting, architecture, photography and other disciplines should be abolished and become part of a single, compressed, modernist worldview,” writes Jan. “Bubbles endorsed those principles and combined his work in magazines and record companies, furniture design, painting, advertising work and directing (primitive) video clips.”
7in sleeve. I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass/They Called It Rock, Nick Lowe, Radar, 1978.
With the focus on van Doesburg’s influence on the international avant-garde, there are more than 300 works by 80 artists, including paintings, sculpture, scale-models, furniture, posters, films, typography and magazines to illustrate what Barney himself exemplified: versatility, tirelessness and the interweaving of various disciplines.
Click on the above to download DAP’s Fall catalogue – Reasons is on page 20.
From that date Reasons will be available online and in all good bookstores nationwide from the world’s largest distributor of high quality art and culture books, DAP/Distributed Art Publishers.
DAP Fall catalogue entry.
A US launch and a programme of entertaining, informative and highly visual events based around the book and Barney Bubbles’ legacy is being planned for American cities in September. We’ll keep you updated and hope that some of you can come along and say hi.
For leading US designer Art Chantry’s views on Barney Bubbles’ legacy, go here.
The ambitious plan to celebrate Barney Bubbles’ and Robert Calvert’s involvement in the Hawkwind legacy has come to nought with the cancellation of the all-day concert Space Ritual 09, due to take place at London’s The Roundhouse on June 7.
Front cover, Hawklords booklet, 1978; poster by Bruce Fisher for cancelled event.
The brainchild of former Hawkwind wind instrument player Nik Turner, the event was to include a rendition of the band’s Space Ritual stage show from 1972, as well as the splinter group Hawklords’ 25 Years On album from 1978. There were to be appearances by reunited fellow travellers such as Amon Duul II – whose ranks included Hawkwind member Dave Anderson -and Quintessence, as well as a performance of a 1976 play written by Calvert and featuring a stage set by Barney.
Barney's front covers for Space Ritual, Hawklords, UA, 1973 and 25 Years On, Hawklords, Charisma, 1978.
Space Ritual 09 had already been delayed once; due to take place on March 8, that gig was pulled at the last minute by Turner after he suffered a back injury.
Barney-designed "Lohengrin" banner for Nik Turner, Space Ritual tour, 1972.
“The change of show date meant various acts and production events are unable to be present,” reads the press statement released today. ”While there has been a concerted effort by all concerned, it has not been possible to find replacement performances. As such, both Hawklords and the promoter feel that to pare down the event would not warrant a £30 ticket price and have made the unhappy decision to cancel the show. All tickets are refundable from point of purchase.”
Commiserations to those looking forward to the event, particularly Trudi Woodhouse, who won our competition for free tickets.
Meanwhile Hawkwind, steered by founder Dave Brock, is playing a number of dates this year in celebration of its 40th anniversary, including a show in old stamping ground Notting Hill. Taking place at the Porchester Hall on August 29, this too promises to be a happening. Tickets have sold out.
Barney's letterhead during his time designing for Hawkwind, early 70s. (c) Reasons 2009.
Hailed in some quarters as the “psych-rock single of last year”, Sonic Attack (Psychedelic Warlords), the Acid Mother’s Temple/White Hills split 7″ is one of three special limited edition releases by Irish record label Trensmat celebrating Hawkwind’s heyday with cover versions by contemporary bands.
Front cover, Sonic Attack (Psychedelic Warlords), Trensmat 2008.
The wonderful Acid Mothers Temple (with oft time collaborators Cosmic Inferno) give it plenty on their version of Brainstorm from 1972’s Doremi Fasol Latido, and White Hills “put the wig-out horse before the cart” on their reshaping of album track Be Yourself from the band’s eponymously titled debut album.
Back cover, Sonic Attack (Psychedelic Warlords), Trensmat 2008.
Labels, Sonic Attack (Psychedelic Warlords), Trensmat 2008.
The single sleeves by Johnny O pay homage to Barney by remaking and remodelling many of the elements of his design work for Hawkwind; each sleeve appears in a different set of acidic colours.
Left: Sonic Attack (Motorheads). Right: Sonic Attack (Lords Of Light).
Some of Barney’s work for Hawkwind was produced under the aegis of design company Hawk Graphics in London’s Westbourne Park.
Left: Front X In Search Of Space, UA, 1971. Right: Record bag, Space Ritual, UA, 1973.
At the top of this post you’ll find the letterhead derived from his double-headed Hawkwind logo. Due to space considerations, the letterhead did not appear in the first edition of Reasons; this is the first time it has been published.
Gatefold, X In Search Of Space, UA 1971.
Many of the elements will be familiar to Barney heads, having appeared first on the cover, gatefold and Hawkwind log insert of X In Search Of Space.
Outer gatefold, Space Ritual, UA, 1973.
There are graphics, symbols and decorations from both sides of the six-panel Space Ritual fold-out as well as the tessallated design of the album’s record bags.
Inner gatefold, Space Ritual, UA, 1973.
And there are images and graphics from both sides of Doremi Fasol Latido, including the chrome Hawkwind “gateway”, as well as from the programme for the tour which accompanied that album’s release
Back + front cover, Doremi Fasol Latido, UA, 1972.
Left: Space Ritual tour programme 1972. Right: Logo 1972.
To play us out here’s Kinski’s version of Master Of The Universe:
From time to time we examine the work of those who collaborated professionally with Barney Bubbles; there are few who fulfilled as wide a range of roles as Antoinette Sales.
Back cover, Pure Pop For Now People, Columbia Records, 1978.
Not only was she the creator of clothes which appeared on Barney’s record sleeves, including the iconic “Riddler suit” sported by Nick Lowe on the back of Pure Pop For Now People (the US issue of Jesus Of Cool), but Tony was also his sometime model. It is she who is adorned with curlers, a face mask and bisected ping-pong balls for eyes appearing alongside a child’s doll in Barney’s disturbing Stiff Records music press adverts for Devo’s spring 1978 single (I Can’t Get Me No) Satisfaction.
Music press ad board, (I Can't Get Me No) Satisfaction, 1978. Antoinette Sales Collection.
Music press ad board, (I Can't Get Me No) Satisfaction, 1978. Antoinette Sales Collection.
Music press ad board, (I Can't Get Me No) Satisfaction, 1978. Antoinette Sales Collection.
And, in 1980, Tony received a six-week crash course in graphics from Barney at his studio in Paul Street in London’s East End, enabling her to become a fully fledged record sleeve designer in her own right.
Tony came up with the title of Lowe’s 1979 album Labour Of Lust, and designed the billboard promoting its US release on Sunset Strip. But she characterises the month-and-a-half she spent learning the craft from Barney as “an apprenticeship”.
Front Cover, Radio Radio, Radar, 1978.
Tony fondly recalls how she would catch the Underground from her home in west London across the city. “As soon as I arrived we’d get going,” she says.
Reversed out freehand drawing; Art center school assignment, Tony Sales. Note F-Beat style crown logo.
“I loved Barney and we were great friends, but when there was work to be done, you got on with it,” she says. “He basically instructed me in the mechanics of sleeve design and packaging.”
Hand-drawn label by Antoinette Sales, 1979.
And this is evident from Tony’s subsequent output. She created a series of photo-driven sleeves for her friend (and Lowe’s wife) Carlene Carter, for whom she also designed stagewear. These included Baby Ride Easy and Do It In A Heartbeat. “I have an aversion to copying anybody else but the choice and arrangement of the typefaces was definitely influenced by Barney,” she says. Tony also handled the sleeve design for Carter’s album Musical Shapes. The front cover shoot was art-directed by Barney, who created a set out of F-Beat singles and sleeves and constructed the wire sculpture communicating the album title.
Front cover, Musical Shapes, F-Beat, 1980.
“Barney set that up in the dining room of our house in Chiswick,” says Tony. “I designed and set the graphics on the back. He’d taught me how to lay down Letraset and make the placement and spacing impeccable. I had fun with the “N” for Notes, “S” for Selections and “P” for Personnel. In the self-effacing Bubbles tradition, there is no artwork credit.”
Retail info sheet, Teacher Teacher, 1980.
Front cover, Everly Brothers EP, F-Beat, 1980.
Back cover, Everly Brothers EP, F-Beat, 1980.
Tony was responsible for the sleeves for Rockpile singles Teacher Teacher and Wrong Way, as well as Edmunds’ singles Crawling From the Wreckage, Girl’s Talk and Queen Of Hearts. And she came up with the title for Carlene Carter’s 1983 album C’est C Bon, though the sleeve for that was produced by Barney.
Back Cover, Teacher Teacher, Rockpile, F-Beat 1980
During this hectic period, Tony also created a welter of point-of-sale and retail promotional material, backstage passes, badges, letterheads (for holding company Riviera Global, publisher Plangent Visions Music and studios UK Pro) and the label for reissue imprint Edsel.
Backstage passes, 1980.
Tony also produced music press ads; she recalls working at Barney’s studio on one for the NME to promote The Attractions’ “solo” album Mad About The Wrong Boy (to which we’ll be returning in the near future).
Double page spread ad for The Attractions, NME, August 30, 1980.
These days a film and TV costume designer , Tony lives in Austin, Texas and is extra busy supplying musicians (Paul McCartney’s guitarist Brian Ray wore one of her shirts to the recent Grammy’s) as well as working with such fashionistas as Boudoir Queen’s Dawn Denton and South Paradiso Leather’s Romulus Von Stezelberger.
