Thanks are due to the indefatigable Brian McCloskey for turning up this little-known interview given by Barney Bubbles to journalist Johnny Black for an early 80s Smash Hits feature on the fledgling promo video industry.

The quotes from Bubbles appeared exactly 30 years ago in the issue of the teen mag dated Jan 21- Feb 3, 1982.

Just a couple of months earlier the graphic designer had relented for the only full interview of his career (for the November 1981 issue of The Face).

Lining up with such “producers” (actually directors) as Dave Robinson – with whom Bubbles worked at Stiff Records – Bubbles’ comments to Smash Hits were made in the wake of his magisterial video for the previous summer’s number one for The Specials, Ghost Town:

“A good video can sell a record which might not do so well. The record companies know that. I think Chrysalis would agree that The Specials’ Ghost Town video helped sales a good deal. This year I intend to make videos which are really inexpensive but really inventive. It can be done you know.

“For Ghost Town we had a convoy of three cars, started filming about midnight on Saturday and finished at ten on Sunday morning. They really got into all the fighting and action scenes, leaping out of moving cars as if they’d done it all their lives. At one point a £2000 camera fell off the car roof, but when we saw the results we kept them in because they looked so great.”

As you can read in Chapter 5 of Reasons To Be Cheerful,  Bubbles didn’t direct too many more promos; his “inexpensive/inventive” formula resulted in fabulous clips – such as Is That Love for Squeeze – which were canned as too experimental by scaredy-cat record companies.

Frustrated, Bubbles left the promo business behind and returned professionally to producing record sleeves, all the while painting privately.

Here is the Smash Hits Jan – Feb 3 cover and four page video feature from Like Punk Never Happened, Brian McCloskey’s wonderful site which reproduces each full issue of Smash Hits exactly 30 years after publication:

Visit Like Punk Never Happened here.

Barney Bubbles' fold-out poster for UK tour by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. 59cm x 64cm. 1978. To be featured in the exhibition British Design 1948-2012.

Today the rehabilitation of Barney Bubbles’ legacy moved a step further with the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of a half-hour documentary about the personal life of this graphic design master.

I was refused a preview copy, having been told last summer by the presenter/writer Mark Hodgkinson that I would not be needed as a contributor. No mention was made of my book, exhibition or this blog.

The exclusion of the latter three projects feels clunky even from an objective P.O.V. (as confirmed by a number of supportive messages).

While I am perfectly content not to have been involved – not my cup of tea, ’nuff said – I am also extremely chuffed that Bubbles and his legacy have reached another staging post in the journey to widespread appreciation.

Barney Bubbles' Ian Dury poster for Stiffs Live Stiffs tour. 60" x 40". 1977. To be featured in the forthcoming exhibition British Design 1948-2012

Next stop: the inclusion of some amazing Barney Bubbles/Ian Dury collaborations in this spring’s big British Design show at the V&A show. Watch out here for exclusives.

Listen to In Search Of Barney Bubbles here.

//Proof copy of unused front cover for single sleeve, Your Generation/Day By Day, Generation X, Chrysalis, 1977.//

Presented here for the first time in nearly 35 years, this is Barney Bubbles’ original artwork for the front cover of Your Generation, the 1977 debut single by Generation X.

The design was rejected because the photograph was considered too routine. What a shame. This is a typically high-impact Bubbles work  combining concise photographic presentation with audacious typography.

The quartet’s manager Jonh Ingham, the journalist who had been at the forefront of punk reportage, has dug it out from his archive exclusively for this blog.

“I cut, folded and glued it, so we could see what the sleeve would look like held in the hand,” says Ingham.

In the photograph – possibly by Ray Stevenson -  the usually peroxide blonde frontman Billy Idol (centre left) has dyed red hair.

“That would have been an issue if we had gone with Barney’s first idea,” says Ingham. “But the band rejected it because they thought it looked too much like a ’standard’ group photo/cover. At the time almost no punk sleeves had band photos.”

The decision not to use the artwork has broader significance, particularly in terms of appraising Bubbles’ contribution to the development of graphic design in the 70s.

//Front cover, Your Generation, designed by Barney Bubbles to be the back cover.//

In the event, the graphic he planned for the back cover – the Constructivist-style play on the number 45 containing song titles and credits – appeared on the front and was repeated on the back without the info.

This example of Bubbles’ plundering of the history of 20th Century art has been cited by designer Peter Saville as an inspirational spark for a post-Modern approach to graphics by the new generation of music industry designers. This in turn enabled them to keep pace with developments in the wider world of commercial design.

“We saw the Generation X cover and received a very clear signal: Mr Barney Bubbles was saying: ‘Constructivism has our blessing’,” says Saville in Reasons To Be Cheerful.

“‘Our response was: ‘Yes, this is the way’.”

Would this message have been broadcast so effectively had the graphic appeared only on the back cover? Who’s to know? It’s certainly something to ponder as we admire this missing piece of the puzzle after nearly 35 years.

Read here how Bubbles drew inspiration for the Generation X sleeve from the work of Henryk Berlewi and El Lissitzky.

Read Jonh Ingham’s back pages here.

]]> http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/archives/5437/feed 0 http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/archives/5406 http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/archives/5406#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:08:57 +0000 Paul Gorman http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/?p=5406

//Selection of slides from Hawklords projection.//

With the legacy of Situationism the subject of a couple of posts on my blog, it seems timely to point up Barney Bubbles’ inclusion of frames from Christopher Grey’s Leaving The 20th Century: The Incomplete Work Of The Situationist International in his slide-show for Hawkwind’s post-punk offshoot Hawklords.

The SI content dovetailed neatly with the dystopian Hawklords project, for which Bubbles designed the sleeve of the concept album 25 Years On, was well as the booklet available on the tour, stage set, choreography, costumes, lighting and promotional ephemera.

//Page from Chris Grey's Leaving The 20th Century. (c) Derek Harris.//

//12" x 12" sleeve, front cover, 25 Years On, Hawklords, Charisma, 1978.//

//From Hawklords tour booklet.//

//Left: sticker. Right: postcard, both 1978.//

//Hawklords live, 1978. Photographer: Unknown.//

Working with frontman/lyricist/conceptualist Robert Calvert, Bubbles art-directed a team which included photographers Frances Newman, Bob “Bromide” Hall and Chris Gabrin, who shot a film about the fictional totalitarian organisation central to the plot, Pan Transcendental Industries. The PTI slogan “Reality you can rely on” appears on the album front cover.

Many of the performative and non-rock elements were abandoned after just a few dates of the only tour by the original line-up; these slides have never been published outside of Reasons To Be Cheerful.

“I wasn’t involved in the slide-show, though a couple of the word-boards – such as ‘Operate Without Blades’ – may have appeared in my PTI film,” says Chris Gabrin.

The comic was produced in France in 1968 as part of the Situationist arsenal during the May évènements and later translated into English; it was this version which appeared in Grey’s book, which was published in 1974.

Here’s (Only) The Dead Dreams Of The Cold War Kid, a standout track from 25 Years On and a career highlight from the wayward career of the late Robert Calvert:

Designs by Barney Bubbles feature in three exhibitions which have opened in London this week.

Above are 24 of the Crown wallpaper variations of Bubbles sleeve design for the 1979 album Do It Yourself By Ian Dury & The Blockheads, as featured in the Donald Smith-curated group show Ideal Home at Chelsea Space.

Below is sneaky iPhone shot of Bubbles’ extraordinary design for Armed Forces by Elvis Costello & The Attractions, which was released the same year as Do It Yourself and appears in the V&A’s big autumn show Postmodernism: Style & Subversion 1970-1990.

And above is a shot of Bubbles’ Elvis Costello poster for the 1977 Live Stiffs tour, which looms large in the subterreanean Old Vic Tunnels, venue for Stuart Semple’s exhibition Mindful Of Art, which is in aid of mental health charity Mind. The poster was sold last night at a gala auction hosted by Stephen Fry and Melvyn Bragg.

Also on display is a video installation by Kate Moross incorporating many Bubbles designs. Beamed from three TV screens this powerful light-show is cut to Hawkwind’s live 1972 track Orgone Accumulator.

Ideal Home is at Chelsea Space, Chelsea College Of Art & Design, 16 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4JU until October 22. Details here.

Postmodernism: Style & Subversion 1970-1990 is at the V&A, CRomwell Road, London SW7 2RL until January 15, 2012. Details here.

Mindful Of Art  is the Old Vic Tunnels, Station Approach, London SE1 8SW until next Monday, September 26. Details here.

Front covers, 12in card. Top: Armed Forces, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Radar, 1979. Above: Music For Pleasure, The Damned, Stiff Records, 1977.

Coming soon to the V&A is the first full-scale exhibition to tackle Postmodernism, and it not only positions Barney Bubbles as “the key innovator” in music graphics in the 1970s but also aligns his practices with those of Robert Rauschenberg in fine art and Frank Gehry in architecture.

According to curator Glenn Adamson, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 will also show how Bubbles’ work anticipated that of the digital design pioneers of the late 80s and early 90s such as David Carson.

“Bubbles was creating by hand work which looks to our eyes as though it were assembled on a computer,” says Adamson. “He foreshadows the visual eclecticism we find so natural in the internet age”

Opening on September 24, the show will present 250 exhibits from a full-scale reconstruction of Hans Hollein’s facade for the 1980 Venice Biennale through to examples of the work of Memphis, Jean-Paul Goude, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Robert Longo and many others.

For a preview selection of images from the exhibition see here.

Bubbles is represented by his designs for the album releases Music For Pleasure by The Damned and Armed Forces by Elvis Costello & The Attractions (which contained contributions from artist Tom Pogson – who painted the David Shepherd pastiche cover – and graphics and illustrations from the French collective Bazooka).

Armed Forces with interlocking leaves unfolded to display the album title + credit.

7 x back cover fold variations, Armed Forces (with illustrations by Bazooka).

“Barney Bubbles was the first important post-modern designer to work in the music industry,” says Adamson, who has curated the exhibition with Jane Pavitt.

“He is of cardinal influence as one of the primary innovators of this new style, and remains fascinating because he crossed the line from the psychedelic genre of design we associate with Pop in the late 60s to the postmodernism of the 70s.”

In terms of graphic design history, says Adamson, Bubbles can be placed alongside US designer Paula Scher. “Though she was only getting going by the time Bubbles had made the transition,” Adamson points out. “Bubbles was already established, had a great network and, as the two exhibits of his show, was at the top of his game.”

Both sides of the Armed Forces inner sleeve.

Both sides of the Armed Forces record label.

From left: Back and front of 7" sleeve for Armed Forces free EP Live At Hollywood High.

So where does Bubbles work lie in the wider context of postmodern design? “By our definition, which is based on quotation and bricolage (assemblage of a work by diverse elements), Barney Bubbles is absolutely right on,” says Adamson.

“He quoted the range of art-historical sources and ripped up and pasted together, using strategies we associate with Robert Rauschenberg in fine art or Frank Gehry in architecture. When considering his work, we situate him not just in graphics but with other disciplines.”

Frank O. Gehry, The Gehry House, Santa Monica, CA, 1977-78. Photo: Craig Scott.

Cover, Wet magazine, April Greiman + Jayme Odgers, 1979.

Adamson says that Bubbles achieved the anticipation of digital design by “a very involved, seamless, crafted commitment to the form. Like April Greiman and Vaughan Oliver, for instance, he was able to anticipate the visual collisions of hyperspace”.

The show’s representation of work by these and other designers who followed in Bubbles’ wake -  Peter Saville, Neville Brody and others – underlines Bubbles’ importance. “In certain respects their work in the 80s and 90s reminded everybody that Bubbles was the key innovator,” declares Adamson.

So why Music For Pleasure and Armed Forces?

“These are both fine illustrations of quotation and bricolage,” says Adamson. “The lifting of Kandinsky for The Damned cover was combined with an interesting play of typography; Bubbles took something non-typographic and turned it into letter-form in a neo-Dadist leap of imagination.

“And the understanding that Kandinsky was a modernist meant that Bubbles was literally being ‘post-Modern’ by re-purposing his repertoire.”

Adamson believes Armed Forces to be the best-ever example of bricolage in record sleeve design.

Musician portraits on four offcut cards supplied with Armed Forces.

Backs of the offcut cards with repeat chevron motif and exhortation"Don't Join".

“Nothing comes close; it’s so explosive, folding out into space in an architectural way,” enthuses Adamson. “The design seems endlessly creative, like he’s got more ammunition to bring to it than can ever be absorbed by the object. We always say ‘Postmodernism is always a little too much’, and Armed Forces meets that definition.”

And the ingenuity of the design accords with postmodern principles.

“The ultimate 80s cliche was ‘Thinking outside the box’,” says Adamson. “That was literally what Bubbles did with Armed Forces. We know there’s a lot of crap postmodernism, but at it’s best – as in the work of Barney Bubbles – it is ingenious, rethinking format and crossing disciplinary lines.”

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 is at the V&A from September 24 2011 to January 15 2012. Details here.

Posters, each 60" x 40" designed by Barney Bubbles for the October 1977 Stiff Records UK tour Live Stiffs. Photography: Chris Gabrin.

Exhibits in Chris Gabrin's exhibition at Dimbola Lodge, Isle Of Wight.

Chris Gabrin’s exhibition From Hear To Photography includes a doozy for Barney Bubbles fans – for the first time since their creation more than three decades ago, Bubbles’ huge Live Stiffs poster designs are displayed together.

Each measuring 60″ x 40″, the posters are among the best examples of Bubbles’ vivid application of colour. Their Warholian fizz captures the energy of Britain’s new wave scene at its height.

Photo: Chris Gabrin.

Photo: Chris Gabrin.

The exhibition at Dimbola Lodge on the Isle Of Wight presents Gabrin’s 70s music work. In this period his photography was used in many Bubbles’ designs.

“About a third of the 70 or so exhibits are based around work I did with Barney,” says Gabrin, who points out that the show was the brainchild of Brian Hinton, curator at Dimbola Lodge (once the home of 19th century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron).

“I first saw her work when I was at college in the late 60s,” adds Gabrin. “The museum and galleries are a charitable trust run by part-timers and volunteers. It’s a national photographic institution which deserves as much support as possible.”

Photo: Chris Gabrin.

Gabrin shot the poster portraits of Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis and Wreckless Eric during a photo-session for the Stiff Records’ autumn 1977 Live Stiffs UK tour.

This shoot produced a range of imagery which found its way into promotion, advertising and, in the case of the live album which followed, a couple of record covers.

Music press ad, 1977.

Music press ad, 1978.

Front cover, 12in sleeve, Stiffs Live Stiffs, various artists, Stiff Records, 1978.

Reissue, Music For Pleasure, 1980.

From Hear To Photography is on until October 2 at Dimbola Museum & Galleries,  Terrace Lane
, Freshwater Bay, Isle Of Wight.

Full details here.

]]> http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/archives/5271/feed 1 http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/archives/5259 http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/archives/5259#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:42:28 +0000 Paul Gorman http://www.barneybubbles.com/blog/?p=5259

This is the Barney Bubbles-directed video for The Specials’ 1981 number one hit Ghost Town.

Here Dorian Lynskey explains why the song is still the sound of a country in crisis.

Poster, 60in x 40in, Live Stiffs tour, 1977.

This Larry Wallis poster design – one of five of the stars of the 1977 Live Stiffs tour – is among 20 or so examples of Barney Bubbles’ work included in Rude & Reckless, the punk and post-punk graphics exhibition opening tomorrow (July 21) at NYC’s Steven Kasher Gallery.

The show samples the collection of New York resident Andrew Krivine, who started accumulating records, posters, flyers and ephemera during family visits to the UK in the late 70s.

The teenage collector was given a fast-track to London’s music scene via his fashion entrepreneur cousin John Krivine, one of the founders of musician-haunted King’s Road boutiques Acme Attractions and Boy.

“Over the summers of 1977 and 1978  I became obsessed with punk, and was particularly drawn to Stiff Records and its extraordinary promotional materials,” says Krivine.  ”I visited the Stiff store several times and hoovered up whatever materials weren’t nailed down, in the process becoming a big fan of Barney’s work.”

The Bubbles designs in Rude & Reckless include two more of  the Live Stiffs posters as well as items relating to Elvis Costello, The Damned, Nick Lowe, The Rumour and Ian Dury & The Blockheads.

Rude & Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics 1976-1982 also features work by Michael Beal, Peter Christopherson, Nick Egan, Malcolm Garrett, Jamie Reid, Parched Art, Peter Saville, Linder Sterling and X3 Studios.

Full details and a selection of exhibits here.

Also opening tomorrow at the same gallery is Musicians, a show including portraits of many punk and post-punk artists by photographer Laura Levine.

Poster, 900mm x 750mm, 1978.

Barney Bubbles produced this striking poster for a performance of Vivian Stanshall’s one-off show An Evening At Rawlinson End at the London’s Collegiate Theatre (these days the Bloomsbury Theatre) in October 1978.

The grid overlaid an image of Stanshall aboard his favourite vehicle – the bicycle – in character as the “still unusual” Hubert Rawlinson.

Typically the multi-talented Stanshall created the artwork for his projects; in this case Bubbles’ assistant Diana Fawcett remembers handling the lettering for this poster to Bubbles design at their Shoreditch studio (which traded as Ditchwater Designs).

Neck + Neck sketches, sheet 1, side a, 1983.

Neck + Neck sketches, sheet 1, reverse, 1983.

Neck + Neck sketches, sheet 2, side a, 1983.

Neck + Neck sketches, sheet 2, reverse, 1983. Sketches from Glen Colson's collection.

A few years later Bubbles roughed out ideas for a curious album proposal concocted by Stanshall’s collaborator Glen Colson.

Stanshall provided the title Neck & Neck & Never Caught for Colson’s plan to devote a side each of a spoken-word LP to the distinctive voices of cricket commentator John Arlott and horse-racing broadcaster Peter O’Sullevan.

Sadly, this never reached fruition. It was intended as a follow-up to another Colson-guided spoken-word release, John Arlott Talks Cricket, which came out in December 1982 with a cover by Ralph Steadman and was promoted with another Bubbles poster.

Poster for John Arlott Talks Cricket, Charisma, 1983.

Detail, Neck + Neck sketches, 1983.

Front cover, Mango Crazy, Roger Chapman, RCA/Instant, 1983

Like all good commercial artists, Bubbles was never one to let a good idea go to waste. The multiple profile graphic sketched for Neck & Neck was developed for his wavering horizontal hold front cover for Roger Chapman’s fourth solo album, Mango Crazy, released in 1983.