Art

RIP Jean Giraud aka Moebius

Jean Giraud aka Moebius has died, he was a massive inspiration, especially on the recent artwork for my album with Henry Flint.

Moebius contributed to the European anthology ‘Métal Hurlant’ in the 70’s, a lot of which was reprinted in the American version, ‘Heavy Metal’, which helped to bring him to worldwide attention. He also drew the cowboy books ‘Blueberry’, collaborated on comics with Alejandro Jodorowsky and contributed designs to many classic films such as Alien, Tron and The 5th Element.

What with Ralph McQuarrie dying last week, it’s the end of an era for some of the most original designers of the sci-fi I grew up with.

Posted in Art, Comics, Design. | 2 Comments |

Wagon Christ ‘Chunkothy’ video stills by Celyn Brazier

This video debuted last year but I never got round to posting a series of stills I got from it at the time. Seeing as I’m playing with Luke Vibert in Dublin this Friday that seems like excuse enough to revisit this beautiful piece. The images are by Celyn Brazier, who has illustrated all the Wagon Christ albums on Ninja so far and you can watch the video again below.

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[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpPVPEoJdb0[/youtube]

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From the heart

 

 

 

 

I recently received back into my possession, several old scrapbooks from when I was aged between 11 and 15. Some of these consist entirely of cuttings about Adam & The Ants but that’s a story for a future blog. Whilst going through these I found this, written by Adam Ant back in 1980 for a teenage magazine. Seems apt to post it today, more to come in the coming months…

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Only 3 more days to catch the Pure Evil exhibition

That’s right, it’s all coming down, Monday 13th Wednesday 15th * extended for 2 more days* so if you want to see original Henry Flint artwork for my album, original 2000ad comic art for Judge Dredd, Nemesis, Deadlock and the like, original drawings from Henry’s book ‘Broadcast’ (on sale as a cheap price too), buy limited signed prints or just marvel at some nice pics of me in a spacesuit – best get along there before it closes on Sunday night. It’s at The Pure Evil Gallery, 108 Leonard St. London, open 10-6 Friday /Saturday, 11-6 Sunday – free entry.

If you can’t make it, here’s an audio tour and some pictures, courtesy of Strongroom Alive.

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Ninja Tune, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment |

Brendan McCarthy commission

This stunning commission piece is by Brendan McCarthy (my track ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ is a nod to one of his first published strips from the 70’s). This was done for a friend of mine, David Rees, and features some of the McCarthy-created characters from the Strange Days comic which appeared for 3 issues back in the 80’s. See the initial pencil prelim below and note that Martin Atchitson from the book ‘Skin’ has made an appearance in the final version.

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Jonathan Edwards’ does Jonny Alpha

Eleven years ago, upon the release of our album, ‘Kaleidoscope’, PC and I did an interview for Flipside magazine (now long lost in the ether). Illustrating the piece was this image by Jonathan Edwards.

11 years later and the new album is out, he tweets it and, on inspection of his I Heart Pencils blog, I notice that he’s supplied a version of Strontium Dog Jonny Alpha for the 2000ad tributes at Down The Tubes. Weird synchronicity, or, as the name of another blog suggests: Everything Comes Back To 2000ad.

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Pure Evil Gallery artwork photos

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Yesterday I finally had time to go back to the Pure Evil Gallery to take some photos of the work in situ, I didn’t have time on the night as there were too many people and we didn’t finish setting up until the last minute. There are a few reviews online of the show by Contemporary Talks, Scraffer and Inkymole with one promised by Art Review too.

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Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Openmind designs, Photography, Poster / flyer, Records. | 1 Comment |

Pure Evil Gallery special prints

I’ve had a few inquiries about the limited prints available only through the Pure Evil Gallery for the duration of the show as I mentioned them in the recap from last Thursday. Sorry if it’s not been too clear but we decided at the last minute to make them available as they were going to be a one-off just for the show.

There are two giclée posters available from the Pure Evil gallery for the duration of the exhibition (on now until Feb 12th), the prints are as follows – ‘Octopus’ (from the ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ cover – above) and ‘Beats Per Second’ (from the ‘Shape Of Things That Hum’ – below).

These are both editions of 33, come signed by the two of us and anyone can order via the web or phone too here, you don’t have to go to the gallery personally. They measure 64.5cm x 47.1cm, cost £60 each and will be mailed out a few weeks after the exhibition finishes.

The previous three prints – ‘One Man’s Weird…’, ‘Life Cycle of a Machine’ and ‘Cosmonaut’ are also available to pre-order from the gallery or from Scraffer.com. ‘One Man’s Weird…’ is a signed edition of 33 at £65 and each one comes with a unique doodle in the speech bubble by Henry Flint. ‘Life Cycle of a Machine’ is a signed edition of 33 at £60 and ‘Cosmonaut’ is a signed edition of 100 at £55.

Here’s how they all look framed up at the exhibition:

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Happy 35th Birthday 2000ad!

I was 8 when I saw my first issue of 2000ad – Prog 61 to be exact, the start of the Cursed Earth saga, what a point of entry. Since then I’ve collected the missing 60 before it and read every issue including annuals, specials, the Megazine and even acquired about hundred pages of original art.

I’ve seen pretenders come and go (Starlord, Tornado, Crisis, Blast, Revolver, Toxic) and endured a mid to late 80’s slump as the graphic novel boom led writers and artists to other pastures. I’ve been lucky enough to work with artists like Henry Flint and Jason Brashill on record sleeves and meet others like Ian Gibson, Rufus Dayglo, Steve Cook and Rian Hughes.

The Judge Dredd film featuring Stallone might have been a turkey but the new one starring Karl Urban lined up for the autumn shows good signs. I love it, I read it ever week and it’s like a soap opera to me. Happy Birthday 2000ad!

There’s a month-long feature on downthetubes.net from contributors past and present answering questions on their time with the galaxy’s greatest and the birthday issue arrives in 2 weeks with one of two covers (one is featured above).

Posted in Art, Comics. | 1 Comment |

Jean-Paul Goude Retrospective, Paris

I found an hour to visit the Jean-Paul Goude retrospective at Les Arts Decoratifs whilst in Paris over the weekend (two gigs in France and I managed to forget my Serato controller discs!) after a tip off from Steve Cook. You will probably know Goude’s work from the iconic images of Grace Jones he produced in the 80’s but he has photographed and mutated everyone from Bjork to Naomi Campbell to Vanessa Paradis. The retrospective features original photos, models, clothes and a huge steam train in the main hall (that looks like it was made for a parade of some sort if I understand correctly).

His cut up images are simply stunning, where he slices people up and repeats parts of their body, turning them into graphic works of angular abstraction. My biggest thrill was seeing the original cover photo for Grace’s ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ album, a record that I adore and have held the master tape of, all I need now is to see her perform it live and my life will be complete (or something).

Anyway, I’ll let some of the images do the talking and just recommend you try and catch it before it ends on March 18th.

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Steve even found time to shoot a short film on his phone while he was there:

Goudemalion from Temporal An0maly on Vimeo.

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DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition opening – Thurs

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The day had finally arrived and the first problem to be solved was the audio/video one, re-exporting wasn’t an option as there wasn’t the time so I decided to copy both parts to an external hard drive and just hope Charley (Pure Evil gallery owner) had enough kit to play both back separately. Next was the name cards, they were printed but had to be mounted on foam board and then cut out, also there was the matter of framing one of the postcard records I’d made specially for the show. They’d arrived the week before but, with the planetarium gig and others, I’d not had time to put them in for a mount to be cut so that they could be framed. I tried several different backgrounds but decided in the end to just screw the card to the wall and hang a frame around it sans anything else.

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Anyway, time ran out and I left for the gallery, when I got there it was looking fantastic as Charley and Molly had done a great job with the painting and hanging, just the AV thing to sort now and, with the help of Aneek and Mark, who I’d met through Matt Black, we set about trying to find the best combination with the laptop we had. Downstairs was a little stark so the guys hired in oil projectors and it was nearly time to open when we finally got the audio and video projection to synch. The Ninja staff had arrived to set up banners, beer and merch tables but no sign of Henry yet as he’d said he’d be there around 6pm with a box of forty ‘Broadcast’ books.

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Just time to frame one final piece that I’d found and give the pictures a wipe before people started coming in and a queue quickly formed to buy the postcard records. As with every event like this, the rest is a blur of beer, catching up with friends and people asking questions, all the while keeping an eye on the artwork, straightening the odd picture or resetting the audio. Matt Johnson popped by with his girlfriend, Nathaniel aka Natural Self turned up, Matt Black from Coldcut and Pete Quicke, Ninja Tune label manager, with his boys in tow. Tons of friends I’d not seen for a while and a few I knew but had never met in person too. Steve Cook, Rian Hughes and David Hine turned up to represent the comic contingent and soon Steve was tapping me on the shoulder to tell me Henry had arrived. It was great to finally meet him in person as we’d only ever emailed before and he is the nicest, most unassuming guy you’ll ever meet, so good to meet your heroes and not be disappointed.

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The whole thing went on way past 9pm and, right at the end, Mat Ducasse from Skylab, an old friend of Charley’s, dropped in having jut played a 6 minute gig round the corner. Drunk and on cloud 9 with relief that it had all come together, I staggered home and watched the new Noel Fielding luxury comedy which was just what my addled brain needed after the previous four days. I crashed out, only to be woken by a steaming hangover at 6am before getting ready to go to France for two more gigs.

Thanks to everyone who helped out to make it happen and came down to have a look and wonder what it was all about. Most of all I’ve got to thank Charley and Molly at Pure Evil, Will Cooper-Mitchell for his outstanding photos of me in the astronaut suit and of course, Henry Flint, for his amazing artwork which kicked all this off and his continued help and support (donating personal work for the event). Also thanks to the various people who let me use their photos here: Matt Black, Steve Cook & David Hine but if anyone else has shots I’d love to see them.

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It’s on for three more weeks, the last day is Feb 12th and you can pre-order the gicleé prints there, including two which are exclusively available from Pure Evil during the exhibition – ‘Octopus’ (from the ‘Magpies, Maps & Moons’ cover) and ‘Beats Per Second’ (from the ‘Shape Of Things That Hum’ – below). These are both editions of 33, come signed by the two of us and anyone can order via the web or phone too, you don’t have to go to the gallery personally. The previously released prints are on sale too, including the new ‘Cosmonaut’ one featured on the album cover that made its debut last week, plus limited copies of Henry’s book, ‘Broadcast’, which features the original drawings and tons more – on sale for £12.99 which is a bit cheaper than retail price.

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Posted in Art, Comics, Design, DJ Food, Openmind designs, Photography, Records. | 2 Comments |

Pure Evil Gallery preparations – Mon/Tues/Wed

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What a week it’s been, after the planetarium shows on Thursday 19th, straight off to gigs in Amsterdam and Brighton on the Friday and Saturday and back home for a brief respite on Sunday. Monday 23rd saw the release of the album in Europe (Feb 7th in N. America) and final preparations for the show opening with Henry Flint‘s work at the Pure Evil Gallery in Shoreditch. I’d done a fair bit of framing over the Xmas period so some of the larger pictures were ready but there was still a lot of smaller pieces to finish and the show to hang. In addition to this I was playing at the Pepe Deluxe album launch party at the London Aquarium that night (see upcoming post for more). It was an early finish (mercifully for a Monday only 9pm) then it was back home to try and get some more done for the exhibition but I had to give up after half an hour as I was falling asleep.

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The first setback was on Tuesday morning when I picked up the huge front cover image from the framers and realised that it just wasn’t going to go in the car. That would have to wait another day while I worked out how to get it there. The rest of the day was spent at the gallery with the owner, Charley and his assistant Molly, working out where to put things, audio and video considerations and lighting.

When I returned that evening I still had a load of framing and mount cutting to do and ended up pulling an all-nighter to get it done. As I set off for another day at the gallery, after less than 3 hours sleep, I set the audio visual piece off rendering and figured it would be done by the time I got home. The problem of the huge picture was solved by hiring a cab driver I know with a Range Rover to deliver me and the last batch of pictures to the gallery, even then, the picture only just fitted inside. Second setback was upon arriving at the gallery I found it all locked up and no answer on any phone numbers I had. After waiting an hour in the car, dodging traffic wardens with the meter running, texting and calling everyone who I could think of with no joy, I phoned my agent whose office was down the road to ask if I could drop the pictures at his place.

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After doing that and a quick post-planetarium meeting to go over future options I went back to the gallery to find Molly and Charley there apologising profusely. Turns out Charley had to go to the American Embassy for a visa and had to leave his phone behind in the office, Molly had had a little too much to drink the night before and didn’t have my number but all was fine (although Charley got refused a visa, despite living there in the past). We’d lost the morning though and there was still a lot to painting to do where the walls had images in the past that needed covering up.

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Also there was the fact that all my pictures were sitting down the road but luckily Ninja had sent an intern up to help and we took three trips back and forth to ferry them all to their intended destination. By the end of the day we’d nearly got it all in place or had an idea where it was going. I got home to find that the AV file was still rendering and set about designing the title cards for each piece now that I knew exactly what was going in the show. Eventually the AV piece finished after 13 hours but had inexplicably only rendered the video, not the audio. Shit, I tried all sorts to embed the audio or re-export it but was so tired I was falling asleep at the machine (again).

 

Posted in Art, Comics, Design, DJ Food, Event, Openmind designs. | No Comments |

Henry Flint x Strictly Kev limited print #3

New print from Scraffer.com.

The third in our series of Henry Flint x Strictly Kev prints.

This time it’s a standalone image of the cosmonaut that features on the cover of the new album, ‘The Search Engine’.

Signed by both artists and printed on 300gsm Somerset Photo Satin cotton paper, the gicleé print measures 64.5cm x 47.1cm.

The edition is limited to 100 hand numbered prints, at £55, comes unframed and rolled in a sturdy cardboard tube and will ship sometime in February.

Two more prints will be available for pre-order only from the Pure Evil Gallery during the 3 week run of the exhibition which starts tomorrow.

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“This is Electric, and man we keep it charged”

Comics nerds fans among you may have spotted my little tip of the hat to one of comic artist Brendan McCarthy‘s first published works, ‘The Electrick Hoax’, in the title of a track on the new album, albeit with my own spin on the spelling. Appearing in Sounds magazine in the wake of punk in ’78 was a half page strip of utter madness, drawn by Brendan and, after a while, written by Pete Milligan, who McCarthy went on to do much great work with.

Packed with cultural references and trademark phrases the adhoc ‘plot’ featured cameos by the like of Jonny Rotten and Patrick McGoohan amongst others. Until recently only a few were available to view on the web, via Brendan’s site, but recently David Hine‘s excellent ‘Waiting For Trade’ blog has bought to light a few more, along with a couple of equally vintage strips from the Cipher anthology. More McCarthy here and here and also to come on this blog, maybe I should ask him to draw a special one-off episode for the cover of my forthcoming ‘The Illectrik Hoax’ remix 12″ in April?

Posted in Art, Comics. | 1 Comment |

DJ Food & Henry Flint exhibition reminder

I know I’ve already published details of this a while back but it’s been announced to the press in general this week and already been blogged by Design Week, Secret Oranges and ECBT2000ad amongst others. Here’s the final flyer with opening times, myself and Henry will be there on the opening night to drink chat and sign things if you wish.

There will be free booze, kindly provided by Peroni, and you can order signed gicleé prints direct from Scraffer.com which will also be on display (third one to be announced next week) as well as pick up an ultra limited postcard record (if they arrive from Vienna in time).

 

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Event, Openmind designs. | 5 Comments |