Full line up – just saying, not bad at all. October 11th, Motion, Bristol, tickets here
Event
I’ve been giggling along with these this morning with my kids who are extremely excited that Angry Birds Star Wars 2 is out today. This (in case you’ve been living under a rock) bolts the Star Wars franchise to the Angry Birds games and it’s done extremely well and with great humour in all the designs and promo.
It’s one of the SW franchise spin-offs that they got right and now it’s the turn of the prequel characters to get a turn. Which means you get to play as Darth Maul, General Grievous, Anakin and yes, even Jar Jar. Despite that there are some beautifully crafted promo films which I’ve honestly had more enjoyment watching that the whole prequel trilogy put together. ‘Boba’s Delivery’ has a brilliant moment with Vader and a carton of juice and Darth Maul‘s spot is just as cute.
Boris Tellegen aka Delta has work in three new shows this month:
Rennes – Groupshow at Les Ateliers du Vent “Teenage Kicks”
Sept. 7 – Sept 29, 2013 – 59 Rue Alexandre Duval 35000 Rennes
Paris – Groupshow at Backslash Gallery “(de)constructions”
Sept. 12 to Oct. 31, 2013 – 29 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, 75003 Paris
Opening on Thursday 12 September, from 5 to 9 pm / closed from Sept. 24 to Oct. 4 included
Amsterdam – Groupshow at Mini Gallery “Col.la.ge”
Sept. 14 to Sept 28, 2013 – Nieuwe Looiersstraat 68-1, Amsterdam
Opening 13 Sept.
Can never resist a bit of orange! Here’s the original teaser image for Steve Cook‘s ‘Sophie’s World’ exhibition which opens this Thursday at the Orbital Comics Gallery in London. Sophie is Sophie Aldred aka Dr Who companion Ace from way back when Sylvester McCoy was the current incarnation of the Doctor.
Steve once worked as a designer for the Doctor Who magazine and was one of the first people to photograph Sophie and the show will feature many unseen images plus some surprises. Seeing as it’s the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who this year it’s a trip back in time in more ways than one.
The exhibition runs from September 5th – September 30th and Sophie will be signing on Saturday, Sept 7th, 12pm – 3pm. There will be prints for sale of several of the images too and you can find out more about the event on the Facebook page and from Steve’s Secret Oranges site.
The last showing of ‘The Search Engine’ 360 dome show is on this Thursday at Birmingham’s Think Tank planetarium. The remaining two shows have been cancelled as there has been a reshuffled in personal so August 22nd is the last date on the cards to see it at this moment in time. Dome Club will continue but outside of Think Tank in various other ways but with Mario Di Maggio at the helm.
(disclaimer: I started writing this over a year ago and it’s sat on another machine for a while, I’ve slightly updated it but imagine it would have been published 18 months ago. Photos from my scrapbooks of flyers, cuttings and memorabilia)
90’s nostalgia
In recent months I’ve felt the first genuine pangs of nostalgia for the early 90’s, a time I generally think of as ‘the last decade’. Of course, it’s no longer the last decade, the beginning of the 90’s being 23 years ago. It’s a time I hold very dear as it shaped my life and career as it is today and the person I started out as in 1990 was very different to the one that saw in the new millennium fireworks over London in 1999.
For me, the 90’s was a decade of music, upon music, upon music. My teenage years in the 80’s were a diet of pop (80-85) and Hip Hop (85-90) – almost exclusively, aside from forays into more guitar-orientated material and the House /Acid /Dance explosion at the end of it all. The 90’s seemed to herald a new music style every year: 90: Rave, 91: Ambient, 92: Intelligent Techno, 93: Jungle, 94/95: Brit Pop, Trip Hop & Drum n Bass, 96: Turntablism & Indie Hip Hop, 97: Big Beat and the resurgence of Lounge and Easy Listening, 98: Post Rock and Krautrock’s reappraisal…
In between all this I was steadily helping build the house of Ninja and getting to travel the world for the first time, acquiring huge amounts of new music in the process. I practically bought my Jazz and Funk collections in the US and Canada in the 90’s, along with plenty of Soundtracks, Moog, Easy Listening and Spoken Word records. Europe yielded Music Concreté as well as yet more Jazz and Japan gave up it’s vintage Hip Hop treasures, at double the price they would have no doubt paid for them elsewhere. All the while back home labels like Mo Wax, Warp and of course, Ninja Tune were pumping out classic after classic alongside a revitalised US Hip Hop scene that had managed to extricate part of itself from gangster-ism with labels like Fondle ‘Em, Stones Throw, Def Jux and Sole Sides. The UK Rap scene was also getting itself together with Sound of Money, Bite It, Jazz Fudge and Big Dada.
Late last year (2011) I did an interview with Joe Muggs for Word magazine about the differences between the world and the music industry in 2000 (when ‘Kaleidoscope’ was released) and how it stands today, now that there’s finally a new album out. The contrasts were, of course, quite stark, being that the music business has gone through one of the most radical upheavals in memory in the last 10 years.
At one point in the conversation though, we went off on a tangent and discovered a mutual love for an early 90’s breed of music he’d christianed ‘Drug Dub’. Never a real scene at the time, more a hybrid existing in those transitional moments of fallout after one musical movement and the coalescing of another. In the music world nothing is ever cut and dried and many strands are working simultaneously in different areas, when these veer into each others paths, you usually find a new style emerging at the crossroads they’ve created.
If you had to bookend the schools that spawned this music you’d probably peg the resurgence of ambient after the acid house come down of the late 80’s at one end and Trip Hop in the early to mid 90’s at the other. Inject a heavy does of Dub into the mix via post-‘Screamadelica’-era Weatherall remixes and acts like The Orb and the On-U Sound stable but bypass the resurgence of Jazz and and Soul and any uptempo Rave tendencies you might have. This is electronic stoner music pure and simple, the big come down after the hedonism of the ecstacy-fulled 80’s all-nighters and the, then current, rave boom. This is B-side music, those odd, experimental tracks tucked away on the reverse side of the club bangers on a Rising High 12″ or on compilations by fledgling labels scraping together an ad hoc roster.
It was mostly faceless, save for the odd name artist like Depth Charge, Coil or Meat Beat Manifesto straying into the territory. Odd tracks here and there by John + Julie, Halftone, Aquamarine, Friends, Lovers & Family, Digidub or The Moody Boys. Whilst the KLF, The Orb and The Shamen were giving the charts a major kicking where dance music was concerned and the Rave tours of the Prodigy and 808 State were in full swing, an underbelly of post-club ‘chilling’ (always hated that word) was happening in the early hours. Coldcut were already mining some of this when I first joined them on their Solid Steel show and one of the first tracks I played was ‘Sexy Selector’ by Original Rockers – one of the tracks Joe had selected for a compilation he’d put together, called, you guessed it… ‘Drug Dub’.
A few weeks later (now 2012) we did a Stealth special on Solid Steel where we talked a bit about what went on back in the day at the Blue Note club in Hoxton, the place where it really kicked into gear for Ninja Tune in the mid 90’s. PC played a set entirely made of tracks we used to play at the time and the rush of nostalgia was almost too much, I found myself grinning from ear to ear for the whole hour as it came flooding back. I’d had to delve into this era two years previously for the Ninja Tune 20th anniversary book but that didn’t involve music, only imagery. The reason we did a Stealth special in the first place was to give listeners who were new to the show a bit of history, because, as one person at the station put it, “now that we are into a full-blown 90’s revival…”
It feels like we’re still at the early stages of the 90’s with The Stone Roses reforming, The Orb celebrating 25 years and Primal Scream having done ‘Screamadelica’ in full last year. Classic House and Rave sounds have been coming back into production and the resurgence of the Amen Break in the last year or so seems to indicate that we’re at roughly ’92-93 currently. Can the Trip Hop revival be far behind? Talking of which, I have an even older, longer post about that coming soon…
Ralph Steadman at 77 is a retrospective currently running at the Cartoon Museum in Little Russell St., London, WC1A 2HH. Featuring over 100 of his works, most of them originals, from Punch, Rolling Stone, Private Eye and the Observer. His book illustration work is also featured with some of the incredible Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass images (see below), Leonardo, Fear & Loathing and various children’s books.
Seeing the originals of some of these classic (for me) images was amazing, his line work is incredible but it was nice to see the amount of white out where he hadn’t quite nailed it every time too. The real treat though, was seeing some of his earlier 60’s work that I wasn’t familiar with, a few incorporating colour imagery collaged into the background (see top). Another was an illustration of the infamous Rolling Stones drug bust but my favourite of all was a square print from 1967 called ‘Bedlam’. This circular design of what looked like a board game was unlike many of his works that I’d ever seen, tightly (typo)graphic with all his usual unhinged, unkempt flair reigned in.
Seeing original work like this is one of my favourite past times, with a connection in scale and technique that is rarely captured in the books the pieces were made for. The imperfections and corrections, staining, yellowed paper and sometimes pasted-on additions fascinate me in the same way as a making-of documentary. An artist’s early work, his or her formative years, are always the most interesting for me, the style signposts slowly emerging whilst others are discarded as they find their own direction. Steadman found his fairly quickly and has been mining the same vein for decades now but he’s one of the few that have kept pushing himself into new areas, thus keeping the ‘shock’ factor intact. After the satire and bile of the 70’s and 80’s caricatures he and Gerald Scarfe became known for he moved into promotion for Oddbins, the off-licence, and then on into children’s books, neither of which you would ever have dreamed his material suitable for.
The exhibition runs until September 8th so there’s still a month left to catch it. Entry ranges from £5-3 and children are free. The upstairs houses original art from a lot of classic children’s comics at the moment, the Beano and Dandy being well represented but also a couple of pages from vintage 2000ad too: a Mike McMahon Dredd and a stunning Massimo Belardinelli Dan Dare splash page. By coincidence, Dave Gibbons’ ‘Whaat!?’ piece from the Image Duplicator show also currently resides there too at the moment.
Going to this next Sunday, The Simonsound playing all night in one dome, psychedelic visuals, telescopes to watch the meteor shower (maybe), Ashley Beedle DJing and more, should be fun. There will be limited free Simonsound mix CDs available and he should have copies of the new 10″ single if they arrive in time. Get more info and tickets here.
Yes that is a real photo, not computer trickery, Lemmy from Motorhead loved The Nolans.
There’s a new mix available by Doug Shipton from the Finder’s Keepers collective that was recorded for the Cinefamily gig in LA recently (or it may be a recreation of his set). It’s a half hour mix of spacey New Age electronics, the new love of the digging set it seems. Great poster here too, featuring Suzanne Ciani with a head full of wires, presumably by the man Votel, he really should do a book of his work some day.
And here’s another for an event coming up, a Hocus Focus night featuring Andy’s missus, Jane Weaver, re-scoring ‘Belladonna of Sadness’ live as well as a screening of ‘Vali The Witch of Positano’ (no, me neither). Love what these guys are doing, wish they would do more down South but then we’re pretty spoilt anyway.
A new retrospective exhibition about Ninja Tune just opened in Pau in the Pyrénées, France at the André Labarrere Mediatheque. Curated by Fred Elalouf of the Ping Pong promotional agency in Paris, it also ties in with Ping Pong’s 15th year of existence. They have represented the label in France throughout their past decade and a half through thick and thin.
Earlier this year Fred visited the Ninja offices and my studio on a mission to gather as much original material as he could find for this event. Original art, promotional posters, sleeves, videos, slides and other ephemera are all present, some of it never exhibited outside the UK before. I have to say, he’s done an amazing job as you can see by some of these photos.
The exhibition just opened and is on for the next two months, closing on August 24th. It’s free (I think) so, if you’re in that part of the world, go and take a look as there are a lot of items that will go back into private collections when it’s over. Original Kid Acne, Mr Scruff and Kid Koala artwork hangs with cover proofs and promotional toys. The model robot that was projected on for the front cover of the ‘Funkungfusion’ compilation is on display as well as some of the original drawings for the now famous Ninja logos.
Josh from Posthuman put this excellent little compilation of clips together for to Boards of Canada-inspired night we’re doing next week. Attack magazine have just posted a feature with quotes and anecdotes from Josh, Tom Central, Mach V and myself about why we’re doing it and what we find so special about the world BOC have created and, in turn inspired.
It’s difficult enough to get a handle on the various activities and schemes of Psychedelic Satanism that Jason Atomic has his hand in.
Just to say that this weekend sees the first of his Super Satanic Saturdays at the Resistance Gallery.
Go to the Satanic Mojo blog for more background info on the upcoming comic and exhibition based on his exploits. The video above gives you an idea of where he’s heading, sounds right up my street.
The Image Duplicator show opened last night at the Orbital Gallery and was a great success with artists and punters out in force. The standard of work was excellent and centre stage was Dave Gibbons with his take on Lichtenstein‘s ‘Whaam!’, retitled ‘Whaat!?’ He graciously signed and chatted to all and was a thoroughly top bloke. Rian Hughes and Jason Atomic did a fine job organising everything, as did Mark Blamire in getting all the prints made and packaged up for people to buy. 
Prints of selected items are available to buy online here.
Special mentions for Garry Leach who turned up with a newly finish Popeye piece called ‘Plop Art’, complete with toilet roll, and Michelle Amir‘s Barbie car hosting a couple apeing ‘In The Car’. Massive thanks to Karl and everyone at Orbital Comics as well for hosting it at their gallery and providing hospitality. I was so pleased to be a part of it and even managed to sell my piece too! Second comic-related result of the week. The show is on at the Orbital Gallery inside Orbital Comics, 8 Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7JA until May 31st after which it moves to the A&D gallery in Chiltern St.
For more photos see Steve Cook’s ever-excellent Secret Oranges blog or Rich Johnston‘s Bleeding Cool feature
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I’ll be at the Image Duplicator show in London tonight for the opening of the 2 week run but I’ll be at Dome Club in spirit, eating the free popcorn. It’s highly likely that I’ll physically be there for the June 6th showing though.
It’s that time again, this Thurday at Dome Club, the return of my Search Engine full dome show – this time with free popcorn!
The Image Duplicator show opens for 2 weeks this Thursday at the Orbital Gallery inside Orbital Comics on Neal St, London. It sets various comic artists and graphic designers the task of re-appropriating, and in the process highlighting, the original artists that Roy Lichtenstein copied without credit for his most famous works.
Lining up to take part, and in some cases take the piss, are Dave Gibbons, Shaky Kane, Steve Cook, Howard Chaykin, Mark Blamire, Graeme Ross, myself, Jason Atomic and Rian Hughes – the latter two of which have put this whole event together
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There are many more too, and a catalogue has been put together along with high quality prints with all proceeds going to The Hero Initiative, a charity that aids ageing comic illustrators who are struggling to make a living. The prints are available online for those who can’t make it and some will be sold at the opening on Thursday night at the gallery. Hopefully a late addition to the show will be this cover of the current issue of Viz by Simon Thorp and interior cartoon by Lew Stringer and Graham Dury about a young Lichtenstein at school with Warhol.
When I first saw Lichtenstein’s work, probably as a teen in the 80’s, I liked it a lot. What was not to like as I had read comics since by youth and was familiar with the ‘graphic language’ that he took from? ‘Cool’, I thought, ‘an artist bringing comics into the fine art realm‘. ‘Whaam!’ was fun, friends had posters in their rooms, when I first met my wife she had a postcard on her wall of ‘M…Maybe’ (‘…he became ill and couldn’t leave the studio’ – oh the irony of that later on). I wasn’t particularly taken with his style, it just seemed adequate, all I really saw were generic comic panels of a certain era, large on a wall or in an art book. You could always tell it was Lichtenstein because no one else did that in the art world, why would they? It was a great idea but anyone else would have been accused of copying Roy Lichtenstein (ironic indeed).
I, like most people I imagined, assumed that he had looked at various War and Romance comics of the 60’s – when a house style was encouraged and artists were told to draw in a certain way – and then done his own versions of the kind of images he saw. I never read these kinds of comics as a kid but saw them on spinners in the local newsagent, or at least the 70’s equivalents. I never saw the Mickey and Daffy Duck paintings and there were no references to Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc. so I figured he had his style and was doing the retro thing with it. It never occurred to me that he had literally copied panels from the issues of the day, that would be plagiarism wouldn’t it? Surely someone would sue him?
It wasn’t until I was pointed to David Barsalou‘s Deconstructing Lichtenstein site that the penny dropped – these were copies, direct lifts, but simplified to erase any traces of style the original artists had injected that could make them easily detectable. Despite this ‘blandardisation’ it’s still easy to tell what comes from where and in each case, almost without exception, the original was better than the copy. And it went on and on and on, I never knew he’d done so much work but his one idea rolled on for decades with diminishing returns. A lot of critics will bring up the amount of money Lichtenstein makes from the sale of his works, and, although it’s an unfair turn of events when the original he copied goes for a 1000th of the price of his copy, it’s not the thing that gets my goat. People will pay all sorts of prices based on the perceived resale value and no one paid more for a piece of work because it was ‘better’ than another – beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. It’s the high art vs low art attitude of the galleries, critics and historians that have taken it upon themselves to designate one thing as trash and another as Art.
I first became aware of this distinction in the college art class when we were asked to bring in a copy of our favourite painting and talk about it. Up until this point I had had no art history tutoring and could barely tell my Picasso from my Cezanne. I had no ‘Art’ books at home but I decided to look through the books that I did have and see if any of it took my fancy. Even then I was aware that comics weren’t considered Art so I looked through an illustrator book of Horror stories and found a painting of a gent holding a candelabre in the dark, illuminating mainly just his face. It was OK but nothing special, some nice light and shadow effects and I had nothing else so it got taken in. When it came to show my selection my tutor said, ‘but that’s not Art, that’s just illustration’, and that’s when I realised the divide existed.
Next weekend Funki Porcini debuts a project he’s been working on for years – it’s an interactive environment called ‘City’ and it will be installed as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.
It runs from 18th-21st, opens from midday to 8pm and it’s free, there’s very little info about it but he’s assured me that it’s the best thing he’s ever done and there’s very little else like it.
There are a couple of short promos on his Vimeo page but it’s all very secretive, when pressed he won’t even give away details, saying that it has to be a surprise.
The Image Duplicator show opens in 10 days at Orbital Comics in London. I have a piece in it which is also available as a print online up until the day the show opens. There will also be a catalogue available when it opens (my pages shown below). Currently there is a downloadable press release and selection of images on the Facebook page and it runs from May 16th-31st. See the blurb below for the concept if you’ve missed my previous posts on the subject. It’s been getting some great press in the comic world so far but if you want to write something about it elsewhere, please feel free or get in touch.
