//Front, 7″ and 12″ sleeve, Keep Us Together, Sad Café, Charisma, 1983//

From the Barney Bubbles grab-bag comes this little-known sleeve for Charisma Records, commissioned by label chief Peter Jenner for Manchester soft-rock group Sad Café.

Produced a matter of months before his demise in November 1983, the spare design is marked by the increasingly reductive approach Bubbles adopted in this period and bears similiarities with another Jenner single commission for Charisma: Mercy Ray’s You Really Got To Me (down to the use of  fingers and fingernails as graphic motifs).

//Proof, front and back of single sleeve for Mercy Ray’s You Really Got To Me, Charisma, 1983//

//Back cover detail, You Really Got To Me//

The Sad Café sleeve is replete with the typographic play (the “o” and “g” of  ”Together” are intertwined) and visual dualities Bubbles enjoyed communicating: the front displays a tick while the back has a cross; the illustration on the front could represent two fingers (one with a ring) or two closed legs, “keeping them together” (with the inverted band of the ring as a stocking top).

//Back, Keep Us Together//

On the back the image was flipped, the ringed finger spraying perfume and the A-side lyric’s most poignant phrase visually grounding the design: “There’ll come a time, You will be mine…”.

Bubbles also stamped his mark on the band’s logo, created for Sad Café over a series of late 70s and early 80s releases by design house Hipgnosis.

//Hipgnosis logo//

In Bubbles’ version, it was marked by six dots, two aside each “a” and two forming an umlaut-shaped grave accent over the “e” of “Café”.

//A-side, label copy with short lived logo by Bubbles//

//B-side label copy//

Released in June 1983, Keep Us Together failed to make a dent in the top 75. By that time Jenner had departed Charisma to launch his boutique label Utility, based around new signing Billy Bragg, with Bubbles on board as art director.

And Sad Cafe reverted to the Hipgnosis branding on subsequent releases.

Read about Bubbles’ association with Billy Bragg here and his design for Utility’s great lost album, Keith Allen’s Station Breakfast Pirate Radio, here.

I am indebted to Melanie de Blank, widow of the late gastronomic pioneer Justin de Blank, for this treasure; a rare copy of a little known Barney Bubbles design, the recipe booklet Feasts by Victor Gordon.

Bubbles worked alongside Justin de Blank at Terence Conran’s design studio in the mid-60s and was regular commissioned when the central London-based restaurateur and purveyor of fine foods set up on his own.

Feasts was published in 1975 as a guide to seasonal British recipes. It was printed in sections of olive green, light yellow and pale blue on wove, the same paper stock Bubbles used for his design a couple of years earlier for the sleeve of the Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers’ album Kings Of The Robot Rhythm.

The idiosyncratic Victor Gordon chose to use the Julian calendar, which was replaced by the Gregorian in the 1580s, and the endpapers and illustrations  – by Bubbles with contributions from British counter-cultural cartoonist Edward Barker – enhanced the arts and crafts feel with decorated drop capitals introducing each chapter, woodcuts and depictions of rural harmony, stained-glass windows, etc.

//January.//

//February.//

//March.//

//April.//

//May.//

//June.//

//July.//

//August.//

//September.//

//October.//

//November.//

//December.//

Bubbles produced a delightful series of monthly demarcations in the style of cross-stitch patterns; these are similar in execution to a sticker he produced in the same period for Chilli Willi.

An illustration of clouds emitting thunderbolts chimes with another contemporary Bubbles design, the lightning logo for the rock magazine Let It Rock  – for more about that commission read here.

Read about Barney Bubbles’ working relationship with Justin de Blank here.

Read the obituaries of Victor Gordon here and of Edward Barker here.

Restaurateur and fine food pioneer Justin de Blank – who died last month aged 85 – was an early champion of Barney Bubbles’ talents.

They met at the Conran Group design studio in the mid-60s; as marketing director, de Blank was fresh out of a top job with advertising giant JWT and Bubbles – then plain Colin Fulcher – was senior graphic designer. Soon the pair had both exited Conran: when de Blank launched his own business with partner Robert Troop,  Bubbles became freelance art director.

//Bubbles working on JdB artwork at his west London studion, 1970.//

“I recognised that, as well as being a nice chap, Barney was extremely talented, hard-working and always spot on,” de Blank told me for Reasons To be Cheerful in 2007. “When I left he handled designs for my clients: wine labels, packaging for Jackson’s Of Piccadilly tea and seed packets. He was already quite a hippy by this point but we always found common ground.”

Although Bubbles dived into music business commissions, he maintained his association with de Blank well into the 70s, producing the livery for the business along with a range of other designs including these sketches for postcards and ex libris plates.

The Daily Telegraph obituary for Justin de Blank is here.

Thanks to Kosmo Vinyl for digging this out of his archive; a late 70s shot of performer Pearl Harbour strolling along east London’s Bow Road clutching a carrier bag bearing that ubiquitous Barney Bubbles design, the Blockhead logo.

Fashion fans please note: Harbour is wearing a suit from north London Teddy Boy tailor Jack Geach (in pink with black velvet collar).

The photo was taken by Vinyl’s pal Mick Collins.

Read about the Blockhead watch here.

Jack Geach features on my map The Look Of London; here‘s Vinyl with Bubbles.

And there’s a photo of Pearl Harbour from the same period in my Blokes Of Britain interview with Chris Salewicz.

//12" x 12" proof, front cover, Programme 1, 1983.//

Programme 1 was to be the second release on Utility, the label launched by music business manager Peter Jenner (Ian Dury, Pink Floyd etc) through Charisma in 1983.

As detailed here, the album purporting to be a broadcast by London pirate radio station BPR was conceived and performed by Keith Allen with appearances by others including the late actor David Rappaport.

Barney Bubbles was on board as Utility’s in-house designer, handling the high-impact, low-cost Penguin Books-based identity and producing the cover of first release on the label, Billy Bragg’s debut Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy.

12" x 12", front cover, Life's A Riot, Billy Bragg, Utility, 1983.//

//Left: Drafts for label design/Right: Label logo, both 1983.//

The BPR sleeve reached proof stage and the album was flagged in a news piece in The Face of June 1983, but the takeover of Charisma by Richard Branson’s Virgin derailed the Utility deal. Jenner subsequently returned to music management by signing Bragg to Andy McDonald’s indie Go! Discs (for whom Bubbles also designed).

12" x 12" proof, back cover, Programme 1.//

//Design detail.//

//Design detail.//

//Front cover label logo with slogan.//

//Back cover label logo with catalogue number.//

The proof copy of the sleeve – which was published for the first time anywhere in Reasons To Be Cheerful – conveys how close the release came to being issued. On the back the text stated that distribution was to be handled by Phonogram, the major which worked with Charisma until the Virgin intervention.

The design was replete with engaging and elegantly executed details which struck chords when Bubbles’ own proof was displayed as part of the 2010 exhibition Process; graphics communications students at Chelsea College Of Art incorporated a couple of them when they staged their response to the show.

And Bubbles couldn’t resist adding one of his trademark deliberate mistakes to the BPR design; the decimal point is missing from the recommended low retail price.

The work of Barney Bubbles is celebrated in the cover story of the current issue of French graphics and visual culture magazine Étapes.

Richly illustrated, Renaud Faroux’s 10-page feature includes an interview with Reasons To Be Cheerful author Paul Gorman, coverage of the recent show about Bubbles’ work in Chaumont – The Past The Present & The Possible – and the designer’s influence over, and relevance to, contemporary practice.

Visit Étapes online here.

//Photo: R. Pelletier.//

//Photo: Pierrick Mouton.//

The Past The Present & The Possible was the title of the section in graphics music exhibition White Noise devoted to Barney Bubbles and curated by Reasons To Be Cheerful author Paul Gorman with artist/curator Sophie Demay and Etienne Hervy, director of the International Graphics & Poster Festival held every year in Chaumont, France.

//Photo: R. Pelletier.//

The previous Bubbles exhibition – Process in 2010 – focused on the late designer’s working practices. In contrast, the thematic approach adopted for The Past The Present & The Possible presented finished artwork and used two contrasting yet similarly ambitious projects as counterpoints: the sleeve for 1972′s triple album Revelations: A Musical Anthology From The Glastonbury Fayre and the packaging for Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ Armed Forces, released in 1979.

//Photo: R. Pelletier.//

//Photo: R. Pelletier.//

//Photo: Pierrick Mouton.//

As you can see from these photographs taken at Chaumont’s Les Subsistances, the Bubbles section occupied around half the available space, with 18 tables and vitrines displaying a total of 300 exhibits and specific areas devoted to:

• Kate Moross’ video triptych (see below)

• Monitors screening videos directed by Bubbles

• A vinyl deck allowing visitors to select records housed in Bubbles’ designs

• Wall spaces dedicated to work for Ian Dury, including the Do It Yourself promotional campaign, and the group of 6ft x 4ft Live Stiffs posters.

These were contributed by photographer Chris Gabrin from his own framed collection.  Others who provided original examples of finished artwork include Deke Eichler, Peter Jenner, Andrew Sclanders and Belinda Syme, to all of whom much thanks.

During White Noise’s run from May 26 to June 10 it was visited by more than 2,000 people, many graphics and design students from all over France.

For photographs and details of the other White Noise participants, go here.

A popular element of the Barney Bubbles exhibition within the recent graphics/music group show White Noise: Quand Le Graphisme Fait Du Bruit was the cubicle housing designer Kate Moross’s Barney Bubbles video triptych.

This stemmed from the collaboration with Reasons To Be Cheerful author Paul Gorman at last year’s Glastonbury Festival, where Moross activated Bubbles designs into a hypnotic light show to complement a DJ set.

Her triptych utilises the same source material for an immersive video installation presented across three screens and edited to Hawkwind’s live track Orgone Accumulator.

Read about White Noise here.

Keep up with Kate Moross here.

This Saturday (May 26) sees the opening at Les Subsistances gallery in Chaumont, France, of the exhibition Barney Bubbles: The Past, The Present & The Possible.

This is part of the group show White Noise: Quand le graphisme fait du bruit (When graphics make the noise), which is co-curated by Sophie Demay and Etienne Hervy and coincides with Chaumont’s 23rd International Poster & Graphic Design Festival.

Among those who have contributed to The Past, The Present & The Possible is photographer Chris Gabrin, who has provided the five Live Stiffs posters Bubbles produced from his images in 1977.

The photographs featured here were taken by Demay a couple of days ago; the install is well on the way now.

Read more about the exhibition here.

//Front, John Cooper Clarke Directory, Omnibus Press, 1979. 10" x 7", 52pp (inc covers).//

//Front, Ian Dury Songbook, Wise Publications, 1979. 12" x 9", 68pp (inc covers).//

In 1979 pop songbook design was shaken up by Barney Bubbles and the artist Derek Boshier, who had come together to collaborate on the group exhibition Lives.

The show, which opened at London’s Hayward Gallery in March that year, was curated by Boshier from his purchases on behalf of the Arts Council collection. He commissioned Bubbles to provide the catalogue design, poster and private view invitation at the suggestion of the art critic Marco Livingstone.

Front, invitation card, 8.5" x 6".

//Back, invite card.//

//Front cover, Lives catalogue, 11.75" x 8.25", Arts Council Of Great Britain, 1979. 84pp (inc covers).

//Lives spread for Fritz Wegner.//

//Lives spread for 'Ovski' (a collaboration between Barney Bubbles and Chris Gabrin.//

Evidence of the artistic exchange conducted between Boshier and Bubbles can be found in the songbooks they each published that year. These share the Lives book’s canny use of spot colour, lively graphics, monochrome photography, quirky illustrational style and unusual lettering.

These elements were all manifest in Boshier’s Clash 2nd Songbook – read about this remarkable document here.

Clash 2nd Songbook was distributed by Music Sales, which also handled the Bubbles-designed Ian Dury Songbook while its Omnibus imprint published Bubbles’  John Cooper Clarke Directory.

//Double page spread, JCC Directory.//

//DPS, JCC Directory.//

The Ian Dury book is one of Bubbles’ best-known works, and was featured in the V&A’s 1991 exhibition The Art Of Selling Songs. Read Cynthia Rose’s review of that show and her pinpointing of Bubbles’ significance in Eye magazine issue 3 here.

//DPS, Ian Dury Songbook.//

//DPS, Ian Dury Songbook.//

//DPS, Ian Dury Songbook.//

//DPS, Ian Dury Songbook.//

Bubbles produced front cover variants for each book. The alternate for the Ian Dury title used a tight crop of a photograph of the performer to great effect. There were plans for another version of the book to be printed in green and yellow rather than pink and black, but this was scrapped at proof stage.

Meanwhile the other JCC book was in a different format, in that it wasn’t perfect bound but stapled. In addition it did not include the word ‘Directory’ or the publication year in the title.

//Front cover variant of the ID Songbook.//

//Front cover variant of the JCC Directory.//

Boshier’s engagement with music is the subject of a forthcoming exhibition at British gallery Pallant House. Read more here.