Barney Bubbles question

Pretty self-explanatory
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PlaythingOrPet
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Barney Bubbles question

Post by PlaythingOrPet »

Is he still alive and with us?
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pophead2k
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Post by pophead2k »

I don't know the details, but I know Barney passed on some time ago.
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Post by martinfoyle »

Barney's long gone, god rest him. Thankfully his art lives on. You probably saw that present tense mention of him by Peter Blake in this morning's Observer, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/qand ... 76,00.html
-DG: Did you do a lot of stuff for Stiff records?
PB: I did one thing for Ian, I illustrated 'Reasons to Be Cheerful'. But the designer for Stiff was Barney Bubbles and he was so good I wouldn't have really competed with him. He lives just down the road from me still.
I presume that's a miss-quote/poor sub-editing/atrocious fact checking.
Last edited by martinfoyle on Sun May 23, 2004 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
PlaythingOrPet
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Post by PlaythingOrPet »

Thanks Pophead. Martin, that was indeed what got me wracking my brains.
johnfoyle
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reasons-Cheerfu ... 890&sr=8-9

Image

Reasons to be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles
by Paul Gorman

# Hardcover: 208 pages
# Publisher: ADELITA LTD (7 Nov 2008)

More here-


http://designresearchgroup.wordpress.co ... ign-canon/

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton ... s-revival/
Will kane
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by Will kane »

My brother photographed all the Bubbles artwork for this book and there's lots of Elvis in it (My brother was at Jake Riviera's house last week!).
Lot's of previously unseen artwork; not just completely different unused album sleeve artwork, but completely different album titles!
"Cats & Dogs" (I think this was for "Get Happy") anyone?

Be excited!
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krm
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by krm »

Will kane wrote:My brother photographed all the Bubbles artwork for this book and there's lots of Elvis in it (My brother was at Jake Riviera's house last week!).
Lot's of previously unseen artwork; not just completely different unused album sleeve artwork, but completely different album titles!
"Cats & Dogs" (I think this was for "Get Happy") anyone?

Be excited!
I will buy!!!! Waiting for release!!!!!!!!!!!
charliestumpy
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by charliestumpy »

He popped his orbs sadly long since:

e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Bubbles

I love his art all over much of my favourite Ian-Dury-plastic paperwork.
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Man out of Time
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by Man out of Time »

This article from Argentine newspaper "Clarin" published in December 2009 proposes the "canonization" of one of the pioneers among rock illustrators, who embraced the geometry of sharp angles, the sense of humor and the value of the instantaneous, from the first promotional poster of the Rolling Stones to the discs of Elvis Costello.

http://edant.revistaenie.clarin.com/not ... 053453.htm

Original text - in Spanish:

"El esplendor geométrico de Barney Bubbles

El autor de esta nota propone la "canonización" de uno de los pioneros entre los ilustradores del rock, quien abrazó la geometría de ángulos puntiagudos, el sentido del humor y el valor de lo instantáneo, desde el primer cartel de promoción de los Rolling Stones a los discos de Elvis Costello.

Erase una vez un tiempo en que los artistas eran artesanos. Los pintores sabían pintar, y los novelistas escribir novelas con trama, y los músicos fabricaban canciones y sinfonías. En esa época feliz y dramática, algunos diseñadores - entonces aún un trabajo digno- eran a la vez grandes dibujantes. No se rían, caramba. Sé que parece una utopía lisérgica a lo William Morris, pero era así, se los juro.

En aquellos años paradisíacos (acotemos: de 1960 a 1989), las portadas de discos eran - como dijo Peter Saville, el hombre tras el look de Factory Records, el "vehículo por excelencia de un lenguaje estético que hablaba a millones". Sólo en el punk y postpunk estaban diseñando/ dibujando portadas Neville Brody para Fetish Records (y The Face), el propio Saville, su colega de estudios Malcolm Garrett (de Buzzcocks - ¡bieeen!-a Duran Duran - ¡buuu!-)y otros.

Pero ninguno de ellos hubiese hecho nada de nada sino fuera por su ídolo/mentor en común: Barney Bubbles. Únanse a mí, se lo ruego, en el proceso de canonización de este tipo genial.

El gran Barney Bubbles (no se dejen engañar por su nombre de payaso del Circo Ringling, o de chimpancé) nació en 1942 en algún lugar de Middlesex, en el Reino Unido. Como todo hombre de bien, era semimod a mediados de los 60 y freak alucinado hacia el final de la década. Un tipo supercool desde muy temprana edad (fan de los Who), empezó a dar pruebas de su gusto y arte con el primer cartel promocional de los Stones en 1963, y ganó su primer premio de diseño por el póster R&B here tonight. Desde allí, su trayectoria 60 se lee como la evolución sistemática de todo hipster sesentoso: empieza diseñando para compañías convencionales (sidra Strongbow), pero al poco ya está metido en lightshows psicodélicos y burbujeantes - de ahí lo de Bubbles-para clubs como el famosísimo UFO.

Tras el arquetípico viaje a California (con los inevitables viajes que ello conllevaba), Bubbles vuelve hecho un completo hippiota (hippie idiota) y se vuelca por completo en el ambientillo Notting Hill freak, la revista OZ y, muy especialmente, Hawkwind, el famoso grupo de agresivo rock espacial y ciencia ficción que por su antipomposidad y cabreo puede considerarse precursor del punk.
Bubbles sería durante años el artífice de su imagen, en cuanto a concepto coherente: portadas, pósters, chapas y ritual space-rock escénico. Eso, para empezar. Pero lo que marcaría para siempre al artista sería su relación con la escena pub-rock desde 1970 (diseñando para Brinschley Schwartz y Chilli Willi and The Red Hot Peppers) y, consecuentemente, con uno de los primeros sellos punk-new wave que emergería de aquel milieu seis años más tarde, Stiff Records, futuro hogar de Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Damned, etcétera.

Para entonces - mitad de los 70-Barney Bubbles ya tenía un estilo propio y reconocible. Para empezar, no sólo pintaba fotocopias o usaba copy-camera, sino que dibujaba, armado de Rotring y Letraset. Trabajaba en grande (ENORME), prestando atención a cada detalle infinitesimal para luego reducir. Su inteligencia anárquica (Saville dixit) y buen gusto imperial le empujaban a utilizar todo aquello de lo que era fan, transformándolo en algo suyo: el art nouveau checo 1890 de Alphonse Mucha, el constructivismo, el futurismo ruso, dadá, el arte victoriano, los libros para niños y Bauhaus, entre muchas otras cosas.

No hace falta recordar que por aquel entonces nadie pensaba de este modo, y Bubbles se anticipó veinte años a lo de reusar vanguardias culturales de principios de siglo (hobby favorito de todos los refriteadores famosos de hoy, 100 años tarde).

Barney Bubbles era un trabajador y fan obsesivo, más maniático que una yaya solterona y más control-freak que Serge Gainsbourg. Su capacidad de autodisciplina, concentración y autoabstracción eran absolutas (un atributo casi obligado si uno pretendía hacer algo de valor en Stiff Records, donde cada cinco minutos aparecía un grupo punk borracho por la puerta) y no era raro verle trabajar a lo largo de noches enteras. Su arte de portadas desde 1976 es refinado y angular, puntiagudo, a veces explosivamente colorido y a veces austeramente monocromático; simple, pegadizo, llamativo y chulo como las canciones punk y pop que contenían los discos que diseñó.

Puede decirse que Stiff hizo a Barney Bubbles como Barney Bubbles hizo a Stiff. En su primer día de trabajo, los dueños del sello, Jake Riviera (también ex mod) y Chris Robinson, obligaron a su nuevo diseñador a... ¡cortarse el cabello! Desde allí, la conversión de Bubbles a la Nueva Idea sería total: "Estoy por el cabello corto, ela anonimato y la maquinaria", declararía años después (Bubble nunca firmaba sus obras, por cierto: más punk imposible); o: "El ángulo agudo existe: usadlo". El punk rock encajaba brillantemente con las cosas de las que Bubbles ya era fan, y el renacido diseñador (ya luciendo pelopincho mod, cameperas op-art o Mondrian y botas Martens) abrazaría su geometría, instantaneidad y humor con evangélico entusiasmo, hasta resultar inseparable de él.
Stiff era producto de tres cosas inseparables: 1) Los ingeniosos trucos promocionales, morro y humor del equipo Robinson/ Riviera, 2) El artwork de Barney Bubbles y 3) el macanudo pop que explotaba de sus discos. Aquel maniaco Bubbles se implicaría cada vez más en el sello, y llegó a dirigir las sesiones fotográficas y a diseñar todos los anuncios para prensa, logos y chapas, incluso en algunos casos (Costello o Ian Dury) interviniendo en la imagen de los artistas. Además de Stiff, Bubbles sería el diseñador único de Radar (el sello que formó Jake Riviera al pelearse con Robinson) y F-Beat, además de realizar constantes trabajos ocasionales para el NME, el sello Chiswick, Go! Discs y Chrysalis. Un don nadie, como ven.

Si intento hacer una lista de todas las portadas que realizó Barney Bubbles, moriríamos. Pero si a ustedes les gusta todo esto de los discos de pop pistonudos (y no son de los que se los bajan) les aseguro que a ojo de buen cubero tendrán como mínimo unas 15 portadas de Barney Bubbles.

¿Que diga unas cuantas? Ok: la portada futurista del Music for pleasure de The Damned (y todas las demás), el One chord wonders de The Adverts, todas las de Elvis Costello. "

Or in "English" via Google Translate:

The geometric splendor of Barney Bubbles

The author of this note proposes the "canonization" of one of the pioneers among rock illustrators, who embraced the geometry of sharp angles, the sense of humor and the value of the instantaneous, from the first promotional poster of the Rolling Stones to the discs of Elvis Costello.

It was once a time when artists were craftsmen. The painters knew how to paint, and the novelists wrote novels with plot, and the musicians made songs and symphonies. In that happy and dramatic period, some designers - then still worthy work - were at once great draughtsmen. Do not laugh, dammit. I know it sounds like a lysergic Utopia to William Morris, but I did, I swear.

In those paradisiacal years (from 1960 to 1989), album covers were - as Peter Saville, the man behind the Factory Records look, the "vehicle par excellence of an aesthetic language that spoke to millions". Only in punk and post-punk were they designing / drawing covers for Neville Brody for Fetish Records (and The Face), Saville himself, his colleague of studies Malcolm Garrett (from Buzzcocks - bieeen! - to Duran Duran - buuu!) And others.

But none of them would have done anything but for their common idol / mentor: Barney Bubbles. Join me, I beg you, in the process of canonization of this genius.

The great Barney Bubbles (do not be fooled by his circus ringling clown or chimp name) was born in 1942 somewhere in Middlesex, UK. Like any good man, he was semimod in the mid-60s and hallucinated freak towards the end of the decade. A supercool guy from a very early age (Who fan), he began to show his taste and art with the first Stones promotional poster in 1963, and won his first design award for the R & B poster here tonight. From there, his career 60 reads like the systematic evolution of all sixty hipster: he starts designing for conventional companies (Strongbow cider), but soon he is already in psychedelic and bubbly lightshows - hence Bubbles - for clubs like the most famous UFO.

After the archetypical trip to California (with the inevitable trips that this entailed), Bubbles returns as a complete hippopotamus (idiot hippie) and turns completely into the environment Notting Hill freak, OZ magazine and, especially, Hawkwind, the famous Group of aggressive space rock and science fiction that by its anti-pomposity and cabreo can be considered precursor of the punk.
Bubbles would for years be the creator of his image, in terms of coherent concept: covers, posters, plates and scenic space-rock ritual. That, to begin with. But what would mark the artist forever would be his relationship with the pub-rock scene since 1970 (designing for Brinschley Schwartz and Chilli Willi and The Red Hot Peppers) and, consequently, one of the first punk-new wave seals that would emerge from That milieu six years later, Stiff Records, future home of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Damned, et cetera.

By then - half of the 70s - Barney Bubbles already had its own recognizable style. To begin with, he not only painted photocopies or used copy-cameras, but also drew, armed with Rotring and Letraset. He worked in large (HUGE), paying attention to every infinitesimal detail and then reducing. His anarchic intelligence (Saville dixit) and imperial good taste pushed him to use everything that was a fan, transforming it into something of his own: Alphonse Mucha's Czech Art Nouveau 1890, Constructivism, Russian Futurism, Dada, Victorian Art, Books for children and Bauhaus, among many other things.

Needless to say, no one thought that way then, and Bubbles anticipated twenty years to reuse cultural avant-gardes at the turn of the century (favorite hobby of all famous refriters today, 100 years late).

Barney Bubbles was an obsessive worker and fan, more cranky than a spinster yaya and more control-freak than Serge Gainsbourg. His capacity for self-discipline, concentration and self-abstraction were absolute (an almost obligatory attribute if one intended to do something of value on Stiff Records, where every five minutes a drunken punk group appeared by the door) and it was not uncommon to see him work through nights Whole. His cover art since 1976 is refined and angular, pointy, sometimes explosively colorful and sometimes austerely monochromatic; Simple, catchy, flashy and cool like the punk and pop songs that contained the albums he designed.

It can be said that Stiff made Barney Bubbles as Barney Bubbles did to Stiff. On their first day of work, label owners Jake Riviera (also ex mod) and Chris Robinson forced their new designer to ... cut their hair! From there, Bubbles's conversion to the New Idea would be total: "I'm short hair, she anonymity and machinery," he would declare years later (Bubble never signed his works, by the way: more punk impossible); Or: "The acute angle exists: use it". Punk rock fit brilliantly with the things that Bubbles was already a fan of, and the reborn designer (already wearing fancy mod, cameopas op-art or Mondrian and boots Martens) would embrace its geometry, instantaneity and humor with evangelical enthusiasm, until it became inseparable of the.

Stiff was the product of three inseparable things: 1) The witty promotional tricks, morph and humor of the Robinson / Riviera team, 2) The artwork of Barney Bubbles and 3) the pop gun that exploded from his records. That maniac Bubbles would become more and more involved in the label, and managed to direct the photographic sessions and to design all the commercials for press, logos and plates, even in some cases (Costello or Ian Dury) intervening in the image of the artists. In addition to Stiff, Bubbles would be the unique designer of Radar (the label that formed Jake Riviera when fighting with Robinson) and F-Beat, in addition to doing constant occasional work for the NME, Chiswick, Go! Discs and Chrysalis. A nobody, as you see.

If I try to make a list of all the covers made by Barney Bubbles, we would die. But if you like all this piston discs pop (and are not those who are lowered) I assure you that in the eye of good cube will have at least 15 covers of Barney Bubbles.

Say a few? Ok: the futuristic cover of Music for pleasure by The Damned (and all the others), the One chord wonders by The Adverts, all by Elvis Costello."

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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by emotional_fascism076 »

I'm a huge fan of Barney's work. I had no idea there was a book. Thanks for the link.
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Man out of Time
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by Man out of Time »

More on Paul Gorman's book here:

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Some of us went to an exhibition of Barney Bubbles' work that Paul Gorman curated in London in 2010. You can read about that here:

Process

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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by johnfoyle »

sweetest punch
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.google.be/amp/s/amp.theguar ... ic-in-2020

Punk artist Barney Bubbles joins Manet among works given to UK public in 2020
Paintings, fossils and archives among cultural objects given in record year for tax gifting schemes

Barney Bubbles was once described as the “missing link between pop and culture” producing record sleeves, T-shirts and stage sets for the likes of Hawkwind, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Nick Lowe.
He also directed the 1981 video for the Specials song Ghost Town, featuring the band glumly crammed into a 1961 Vauxhall Cresta being driven through the empty streets of London.
On Monday, it will be announced that his archive is now owned by the UK public, as part of a list of treasures by artists including Manet, Rembrandt and Chagall which are going into public collections thanks to the UK’s cultural gifts and acceptance in lieu (AiL) schemes.

The latter scheme, created in Lloyd George’s 1910 “people’s budget”, allows cultural objects be left to the UK as a way of offsetting or settling inheritance tax bills. The cultural gifts scheme was introduced in 2013, and allows people to leave treasures in their lifetime.
The 2019/20 year was a record one, an annual report reveals, with objects worth nearly £65m left to the public, settling tax of £40m.
The Bubbles archive was comparatively small in terms of tax settlement (£16,500) but it is arguably one of the most fascinating collections on the list, shining light on a figure who his many fans say deserves to be better known.
Born Colin Fulcher, Bubbles produced distinctive designs in the 70s and 80s for a huge swathe of punk, post-punk and new wave acts. He also designed the masthead for NME and the archer logo for Strongbow cider.

The science fiction writer Michael Moorcock described Bubbles’s record covers as “lasting images for fleeting times” while Factory Records designer Peter Saville called him the “missing link between pop and culture.”
Bubbles never signed anything he produced, shunned publicity – apart from an interview with The Face – and took his own life in 1983, aged just 41.
His archive includes sketchbooks, drawing equipment, collages, photographs, badges, stickers, album covers and his library of reference books. It has been permanently allocated to Liverpool John Moores University in accordance with the wish of the donor.

Edward Harley, chair of the AiL panel, said two-thirds of allocations had been made to institutions outside London. “The variety of objects remains as diverse as ever, and it is particularly exciting that the number of institutions receiving items through the scheme continues to grow.”

Harley also highlighted significant acquisitions made to national museums in devolved nations. Wales has received an important Manet portrait of his cousin Jules Dejouy and a Corot landscape; Scotland a gouache titled L’Écuyère (The Horse Rider) by Marc Chagall; Northern Ireland six etchings by Rembrandt.
Paintings by Leonard Rosoman that include the first gay kiss in British theatre history have been allocated to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, West Sussex.

Other archives now owned publicly include those of Lord Carrington, foreign secretary under Margaret Thatcher, which has gone to the Churchill Archives Centre; and barrister Jeremy Hutchinson, who defended Penguin in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial, which has gone to the University of Sussex.
The annual report reveals that this is the first year that the maximum amount of tax which can be settled, £40m, was utilised.

Among the more eclectic objects left is a collection of more than 50 fossils found in a West Lothian quarry which includes Westlothiana lizziae – or “Lizzie the Lizard” – thought to be the oldest known reptile. The collection was allocated to National Museums Scotland.
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Man out of Time
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Re: Barney Bubbles Birthday Books

Post by Man out of Time »

Paul Gorman's long out-of-print book "Reasons To Be Cheerful - The Life And Work Of Barney Bubbles" (Adelita, 2008) is to be reprinted in a "collectors' edition" and published to coincide with what would have been Barney's 80th birthday in July 2022.

Details are here: Vol.co.

The publishers say:

"Limited to only 500 copies, this edition is presented in a clothbound pink solander box, featuring a screenprinted design taken from Bubbles’ legendary artwork for Ian Dury and The Blockheads’ smash hit single ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick/There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards’. The outer box design continues into the interior and the book itself, bound in a contrasting white cloth.

Included in the box is a folio of exclusive reproductions of selected Barney Bubbles ephemera: a ‘Dome Sweet Dome’ geodesic dome; a make-your-own pyramid printed on reflective foil stock; a ‘Hankie Pantie’ screenprinted cotton handkerchief; a high-gloss ‘Do It Yourself’ three-colour sticker; and a stunning twenty-one piece reproduction of Bubbles’ ‘Galactic Tarot’ set.

Each edition is individually numbered and signed by author Paul Gorman."

The price is £95.00 (including postage) which is a lot, but less than original copies of the book are selling for these days.

There also appears to be another book by Paul Gorman due out in June:

The Wild World of Barney Bubbles: Graphic Design and the Art of Music
The Wild World of Barney Bubbles - Paul Gorman (2022)
The Wild World of Barney Bubbles - Paul Gorman (2022)
The Wild World of Barney Bubbles.png (86.82 KiB) Viewed 5943 times
More reasonably priced at £30, the publishers say this is:

"A celebration of a graphic design genius, published to mark what would have been his 70th birthday*.

Barney Bubbles' work linked the underground optimism of the 60s to the sardonic and manipulative art that accompanied the explosion of punk. He remains a powerful influence on contemporary artists more than a quarter of a century after his death, having created designs for Sir Terence Conran and underground magazines Oz and Friends as well as remarkable record sleeves and posters for Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello, Depeche Mode, Ian Dury, Hawkwind, The Damned and Nick Lowe. He collaborated with artists and photographers, including Derek Boshier and Brian Griffin, and produced paintings, furniture, set designs and promo videos.

This revised edition of Paul Gorman’s definitive Barney Bubbles monograph contains hundreds of rare and previously unpublished photographs, working sketches, notebooks and original artwork. It includes new essays and sixteen extra pages of rare ephemera painstakingly collected by the author over the years."

Pre-order here: Rough Trade.

* Some disagreement here as to when Barney was born. Wikipedia says 1942, so July 2022 is the 80th anniversary of his birth, not the 70th.

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krm
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Re: Barney Bubbles question

Post by krm »

The question for me now is: If I already have both the original and the reissue of Reason to be Cheerful, do I need to buy The Wild World of Barney Bubbles as well? I am quite sure that will not get myself a third version of RtbC even though it comes with stickers and tarotcards.
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