THE BIKE SHED 87-89

For the four years before I came to NYC I worked for the London iteration of The Limelight Club.
My partner Tommy D & I were resident Saturday DJ’s playing a mix of House & Hip Hop hot tunes of the day.
For the last two years, the club offered me my own night, and I came up with the idea of a night called The Bike Shed. For Americans who might not know, as school boys, a bike shed was where we went to smoke fags (cigarettes) & snog (make out) with girls. The concept was to play five generations of Rock N’ Roll within the same night all mixed up together! Everything from Bo Diddley & Gene Vincent to Sisters Of Mercy & Zeig Zeig Sputnik. The tag line was, The Only No Disco, Disco. My DJ partners in crime were Mike Wells & Tommy Danvers & did we have fun!
I made the work of doing a weekly event extra hard on myself by not only having to book the bands, handing out the flyers outside Kensington Market every Sat but also each week’s flyer had to have 5-10 rock history facts listed listed on them!
After The Bike Shed had been successfully running on Today's nights for a few months, the club told me Marlboro cigarettes wanted to sponsor it. I told them I would not take money from them. but they insisted it was happening, & told me to just use their money to book bigger bands, including Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Below are a few of the more memorable nights & some of the trivia..


SEVEN FEET OF WARHOL

Ordering plexiglass to frame this seven foot strip of Andy Warhol / Velvet Underground banana stickers, as we (@stuckupofficial) gear up towards my long term goal of showing “100 Years of Pop & Counter-Culture - told through adhesive materials : STICKERS”, in museums around the world.

I wrote in the first Stickers book—that the Warhol banana for the VU was the first sticker in pop culture that I was really drawn to conceptually and aesthetically, also because I found its backstory fascinating: that a bigger, text-based sticker needed to be slapped on the back sleeve to save the band from being slapped with a nasty lawsuit. (see 2nd image) 

What I didn’t know then was that the bananas came off these large sticker rolls that were apparently kicking around Warhol’s Factory. The kids that worked for him, or just hung out there, took it upon themselves to use the stickers as a sort of critical marker. They would run around to art openings in SoHo and slap the stickers on the windows, walls, and doors of the galleries where they thought the show sucked. Having now heard this story from a couple of different people, it leads me to believe it could be true.

The “Blue Chip” exhibition panel below shows stickers by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst. Ryan McGinness, Barry McGee, Jose Parla, Tom Sachs, Keith Haring, Marilyn Minter, Robert Lazzarini, Kenny Scharf, Jenny Holzer, Todd James, JR, Mathew Barney, James Victore, Chris Johanson & Bansky.

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Stefan Sagmeister “Beautiful Numbers” Exhibition

It’s always a little risky to actually meet the people who’s work you’ve admired for many years. Don’t they say “Never meet your hero’s”. So what a nice surprise to meet Stefan Sagmeister & find him to be warm, friendly & even complementary of some of my own work. His new show “Beautiful Numbers“ is perfect example of how conceptual art can also be beautiful. It’s actually a show of optimism.

Below is just a small sample of the exhibition. The shapes on the paintings represent factual statistics. 

1 - Suicide II, 2000/2015 

Suicide rate worldwide, number of deaths per 100,000 population
2000 13
2015 11 


2 - “Suicide I, 1950/2005” 

Suicide rate USA,
1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970. 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000. 2005 


3 - “Oil, 1970/2010” 

gray dot: large oil spills 2010 red dot: large oil spills 1990 yellow dot: large oil spills 1970 

4 - “Death Penalty, 1970/2010”

Abolishment of death penalty 

1970 21 countries
1990 66 countries
2010 98 countries 


5 - “Carbon II”

Carbon footprint of protein-rich foods from le# to right: Cheese 85kg CO2 per 1kg of protein, Chicken 43kg, Beef 250kg, Lamb 200kg, farmed fish 35kg 


6 - "Woman I, 1900/2000"

Female Voting Rights 

1900.1950. 2000


This edited from the Thomas Erben Gallery Press Release..

Beautiful Numbers, Sagmeister’s new body of work was conceived in 2020. Media – reflects a world seemingly out of control, with democracy in peril, ubiquitous conflicts and an overall outlook of doom. The reality is actually less war, hunger and illiteracy; fewer people die in natural disasters, more people live in democracies, an increased number of women serve on Parliaments, and life expectancy has increased.

Sagmeister has visualized data collected over 100 years and transformed these graphs, inlaid into 19th Century genre paintings, embroidered canvases, lenticular prints and hand painted water glasses – all of which will be for the first time on display at the gallery.




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ART SLEEVES BOOK REVIEWED ON CNN

Obviously one doesn't do creative projects with getting reviews as the end goal but its still a very nice feeling to get them. Especially strange & wonderful to have a mainstream platform acknowledge ones work. CNN had my Art Sleeves book on their front page yesterday

I cut and pasted it here, in case it disappears, and then no one believes me ;)

The famous artists behind history's greatest album covers

Published 1st April 2021
The sleeve for Stompede an EP by Tokyo band Saigan Terror  was designed by American artist Pushead -- the same man behind the Metallicas merchandise

The famous artists behind history's greatest album covers

Written byLeah Dolan, CNN

Throughout the 20th-century record sleeves regularly served as canvases for some of the world's most famous artists. From Andy Warhol's electric yellow banana on the cover of The Velvet Underground & Nico's 1967's debut album, to the custom-sprayed Banksy street art that fronted Blur's 2003 "Think Tank," art has long been used to round out the listening experience.
A new book, "Art Sleeves," explores some of the most influential, groundbreaking and controversial covers from the past forty years. "This is not a 'history of album art' type book," said the book's author, DJ and arts writer DB Burkeman over email. Instead, he says the book is a "love letter" to visual art and music culture.
For the 45th anniversary of The Velvet Underground  Nico in 2012 British artist David Shrigley illustrated a special edition  reissue cover for Castle Face Records
For the 45th anniversary of "The Velvet Underground & Nico" in 2012, British artist David Shrigley illustrated a special edition reissue cover for Castle Face Records. Credit: David Shrigley/Rizzoli
Featured records span genres and decades. Among them are Warhol's cover for The Rolling Stones' 1971 album "Sticky Fingers," featuring the now-famous close-up of a man's crotch (often assumed, incorrectly, to be frontman Mick Jagger in tight jeans) as well as an array of seminal covers designed by graphic designer Peter Saville, co-founder of influential Manchester-based indie label Factory Records. Despite having relatively little art direction experience under his belt, Saville was behind iconic covers such as Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" (1979), depicting the radio waves emitted by a rotating star, and the brimming basket of wilting roses -- a muted reproduction of a 1890 painting by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour -- that fronted New Order's "Power, Corruption & Lies" (1983).
New Order Power Corruption  Lies Featuring A Basket of Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour 1890
New Order, "Power, Corruption & Lies." Featuring 'A Basket of Roses' by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1890 Credit: Peter Saville/Fantin-Latour/Rizzoli
The book also includes a sleeve by Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the eminent Obama "Hope" poster, for "7-inches for Planned Parenthood," a limited edition vinyl box-set to raise funds for the sexual health charity. On the cover, a woman's sleeping face is rendered in Fairey's trademark stencilized finish while a red vertical banner screams at her to "Wake Up!"
Yayoi Kusama's brief foray into album art also features in the book. In 2013, the Japanese multidisciplinarian designed the artwork for Japanese DJ Towa Tei's eighth studio album, "Lucky." The cover is a simple smattering of red and white polka dots -- a signature Kusama motif. Kusama even features on the album's last track, "Love Forever," where she recites a short poem.
In 1992 dissenting graphic designer Barbara Kruger created the artwork for the only LP ever released by short-lived riot grrrl band, Growing Up Skipper. The group took their name from a controversial Barbie released in 1974, a version of Skipper, Barbie's younger sister, who grew breasts when you twisted her arm (the company says the doll matched "little girls' dreams of growing up").
For the cover of the LP, "Use only as directed," dismembered Barbie parts appear alongside Kruger's signature black and red 'scrapbook' text.
Art Sleeves Album Covers by Artists by DB Burkman is published by Rizzoli priced at 4000
Art Sleeves: Album Covers by Artists by DB Burkman is published by Rizzoli priced at £40.00. Credit: Rizzoli
The book also shows Jeff Koons' Renaissance collage for Lady Gaga's album, "ARTPOP" (2014) -- where a statuesque Gaga sits inside Botticelli's giant scallop shell -- as well as Cindy Sherman's work for Arthur Doyle and Maurizio Cattelan, famous for his duct-taped banana, who photographed a toothy, red-lipped grimace for Toilet Paper magazine's 2016 special edition single of Daft Punk's "Da Funk" (1995).

The vinyl revival

Despite the ubiquity of digital downloads (or perhaps in reaction to it) both sides of the pond have been experiencing a vinyl revival for over a decade. In 2020, UK sales of vinyl were at their highest since the early '90s, while last year in the US more than 27 million vinyl records were sold-- nearly 50% more compared to 2019. The impact the coronavirus has had on listening habits has been sizable, too, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) found. "The increase in (music) consumption was achieved despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic," they said in a report published earlier this year. According to the BPI, streams and sales in the UK "dipped around the start of the first lockdown".
Aphex Twins Collapse EP 1990 was illustrated by London-based artist Weirdcore
Aphex Twin's "Collapse" EP (1990) was illustrated by London-based artist Weirdcore. Credit: The Designers Republic/WEIRDCORE/Rizzoli
Yet despite the growing comeback appeal of LPs, the accessibility of digital platforms means streaming services are still the main source of music globally.

For Burkeman, the digitization of music is positive insofar as it means artists don't need record companies to put music out. But the rise of streaming has also resulted in the forfeiture of exciting album appendages like designed lyric sheets or handwritten notes from the recording artist. "We've definitely lost something as far as experiencing emotions one might feel while listening to a record and studying, analyzing, or simply enjoying the physical object."




THE COVID YEAR (and after)

Below is a truly insane list of TV shows, films, documentaries, audio books, youtube streams and podcasts that have I have consumed over 12 months since being sent home from work last March. (2020)

Some were inspired & inspiring works of art, while others were a waste of my time. While I watched many seasons of some TV shows, and possibly did find them somewhat enjoyable or enough to keep me distracted from the paranoia of Covid-19 life, I ultimately felt like I should have spent those hours doing something else.

The ones I have bolded, are ones that I feel like I did get something from them, whether it be simple entertainment, or a deeper understanding of culture or even life itself. I would not feel bad recommending these and I could argue their merits. I’ve added links to the lesser known ones, or ones that might not be known to some Americans. 

This may seem like an egotistical thing to post. However Its mostly for myself, to remember what I've watched & what a crazy year its been. If anyone gets something from it, then that's a bonus.


TV :
Top Boy - Seasons 1,2 & 3 
Victoria - Season 3 
The Crown - Seasons 1,2,3 & 4 
Better Call Saul - Seasons 1,2 3 & 4 
Billions - Seasons 1,2, 3, & 4 
DEVS  - Season 1 
After Life - Seasons 1 & 2 
Broadchurch  - Season 1 (abandoned season 2)
Hand of God -  Season 1 (abandoned season 2)
Peep Show -Seasons 1,2 & 3 (rewatched)  
Seinfeld : 23 Hours to Kill
The Wire - Season 1 (rewatched), 2, 3, 4 & 5
Lie To Me - season 1 (abandoned) 
Space Force - Season 1
Jack Ryan  - Seasons 1,2 & 3
Broadwalk Empire - Seasons 1,2, 3, 4 & 5
Line of Duty - Seasons 1,2 ,3, 4 & 5 
Mayday - Season 1
The Man in the High Tower -  Season 1 (rewatched), 2  3, & 4.
Umbrella Academy - Season 2 (abandoned)
Hanna - Seasons 1 & 2
Doom Patrol (abandoned)
Raised By Wolves  
The Vow
ZeroZeroZero - Season 1 
The Great (abandoned)
The Boys - Seasons 1 & 2 
London Spy    
Away (abandoned)
LEGION - Season 2 & 3   
Fargo - Season 4
Halt and Catch Fire - Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4    
Formula 1 : Drive to Survive - Seasons 1, 2 & 3
Gangs of London (abandoned)
Peeky Blinders - Seasons 2, 3 & 4
The Expanse - Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
The Flight Attendant  (abandoned)
Collateral
Unforgotten  - Seasons 1,2 & 3
Westworld - Seasons 1, 2, 3 (abandoned)
Bodyguard 
The Trip  - Season 1 
How To : with John Wilson 
Taboo (abandoned)
Last Tango in Halifax - Seasons 1,2 ,3 & 4 (abandoned)
Snowpiercer  (abandoned)
Fortitude - Season 1  (abandoned)
River - Seasons 1 & 2
Spy Craft - Season 1 
Queens Gambit 
Dark - Seasons 1, 2, 3 (abandoned)
The Tunnel - Season 1 
Schitts Creek seasons 1,2,3 & 4


FILM :
Blue Velvet (rewatched) 
Uncut Gems
Joker
Hereditary 
24 Hour Party People (rewatched) 
Paris Texas (rewatched) 
Performance  (rewatched)  
Gimme Danger : Iggy Pop   
Force Majeure                              
The Celebration (aka Festen)   
Avengers: Infinty War
Avengers: End Game
Thor: Ragnarok
The Banker
Have a Good Trip
Ford v Ferrari  
Stranger Than Paradise
Down by Law (rewatched) 
Pineapple Express (abandoned)
The Go Gos’ Movie 
American Dream/American Knightmare - Suge Knight
Project Power 
Capone 
71   
Aggie   
Moneyball
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Knives Out
Tenet
Take
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Cooler
Constantine (abandoned) 
VICE
SPENSER, Confidential (abandoned)
The CLASH : Don Letts 1978 Unreleased documentary
Fast and the Furious 
Inception (rewatched) 
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
The Old Guard
Manc
The Midnight Sky
Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art



AUDIO BOOKS :
Beastie Boys Book


PODCASTS: 
Adam Buxton 123-151 
Reply All - 159-173
Raised By Wolves  1-5
Films to be Buried With. -“Joe Cornish” 
Distraction Pieces - approx 10 shows

ART on YouTube :
Mark Leckey -4 hours  
Zdzislaw Beksinski 1 hour
Ed Rousha 3 Hours 
Francis Bacon 2 Hours 
Francisco Goya 2 Hours
Black Art: In the Absence of Light  1.5 Hours
Jean Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child  (rewatched) 

UPDATED : After The One Year Post

FILM :

Army of the Dead (2021)  
The Gentleman
Without Remorse  
The Bank Job 
Snatch  (Rewatched)  
Shazam  
The Tomorrow War
American Animals 
Memento (Rewatched)  
WEWORK 
Too Funny Too Fail 
My Scientology Movie 
Batman & Bill 
Mister America 
Zero Dark Thirty 
Anthropoid 
Boss Level 
Safety Not Guaranteed  
Palm Springs 
Gunpowder Milkshake (abandoned) 
Zack Snyder's Justice League (abandoned) 
Coming 2 America   
Ted  
Ready Player One 
No Sudden Move 
The Vault
The Suicide Squad
Suicide Squad
Birds of Prey
A Life of Crime
War Dogs
Deadwood : The Movie
Vice (2021) (abandoned)

TV :

Schitts Creek seasons 5 & 6 
Hacks
Thunder Force
The Mole 
Star Struck 
Mare of Eastwick 
The Line Of Duty - Season 6 
63 and Up 
Line of Duty - season 6
Better Call Saul - season 5
Thick Of It - season 1

PODCASTS :

I Can't Believe it's Not Buddha 1,2, 3

Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast -
Beeple with Jordan Wolfson
Robert Crumb with Art Spiegelman
Sofia Coppola with Rainer Judd
KAWS with Lucas Zwirner
Minimalism Today
Alex Da Corte with Charlie Fox
Jordan Wolfson with Jeremy O. Harris
Marcel Drama with Will Butler
Lisa Yuskavage with Tamara Jenkins
Jeff Koons with Luke Syson 


Audio Books :
The Flamethrowers : Rachel Kushner
The Hail Mary Project : Andy Weir

Grounded with Louis Therous Approx 10 shows

Audio Books :
The Flamethrowers : Rachel Kushner
The Hail Mary Project : Andy Weir

Music on YouTube : 


Trash Theory, including... 
Before Loveless: How Shoegaze Became Shoegaze
Exploring Massive Attack & "Unfinished Sympathy"
Tim & How The Replacements Ruined Everything
The Endless Struggle Behind Soft Cell & TAINTED LOVE
Dizzee Rascal, I LUV U & The Birth of Grime
The Story of Pulp and COMMON PEOPLE
CLINT EASTWOOD & The Birth of Gorillaz
The Complex Journey of M.I.A. & PAPER PLANES
The Most Controversial BRIT Awards Performance Ever (Dave - "Black")
FKA twigs & The Fragile Bombast of "Cellophane"
"Can't Stand Me Now" - The Shipwreck of The Libertines
The Universal Appeal of Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love"
How an Illegal Mash Up Reignited British Pop (Sugababes - "Freak Like Me")
The Smirking Revenge of The Sisters of Mercy & THIS CORROSION
FIRESTARTER - How The Prodigy Won Over the Metalheads
Fugazi: The Path of Most Resistance
Before Black Sabbath: How Psychedelic Rock Became Metal
Before Bauhaus: How Goth Became Goth
"Ghost Town" by The Specials: The Sound of Impending Doom
Aladdin Sane: David Bowie's Dark Reflection of Ziggy Stardust
Exploring Joy Division & "She's Lost Control" 
How Echo & The Bunnymen and God Wrote "The Killing Moon"
How Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Maps" Transcended the Post-Punk Revival
"How Soon Is Now?" - The B-Side That Defined The Smiths
Blur Vs. Oasis: Who Won The Battle of Britpop?
Before Are "Friends" Electric?: How Synth-Pop Became Synth-Pop
Before 1976: How Punk Became Punk
The Shocking Real-Life Story Behind "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus
Songs That Are Most Likely About Courtney Love

CHAOS / The Dave Goodman Story (11 parts)

ART on YouTube : 

3 Hours of Oliver Payne and Nick Relph - “Driftwood”, “Mix Tape , Comma , Pregnant Pause,  Oliver Payne - “Inventory Eleven”

2 hours of Matt Pyke : Universal Everything




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JOYCE PENSATO “FUGGETABOUT IT (REDUX)" at PETZEL

So happy I finally got to see this wonderful show, as I’d missed the original 2012 show, and of course because Joyce sadly died in 2019.

In 2012 Pensato premiered her installation “Fuggetabout It” at Petzel Gallery on West 22nd Street to commemorate her beloved studio on Olive Street in East Williamsburg, where she had worked for thirty-two years and had lost in a landlord/tenant dispute in 2011. The move after three decades prompted a re-evaluation and packing of hundreds upon hundreds of objects and items of all manner, including: stuffed animals; figurines; posters, books, invitation cards, and other paper ephemera; milk crates; furniture, both broken and intact; paint cans and paintbrushes, among others. (text from Petzel)

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ASSISTING MAX BURKEMAN ON HIS PRATT FILM SHOOT : Nov 21st & 22nd 2020

A tiring two days (for an old man) yet fun and exhilarating, assisting auteur/film maker, Max Burkeman on his "Little Trouble In Big Chinatown" short music based fashion film. I was assigned to shoot behind the scenes and keep cast & crew supplied with ample Asian food throughout the weekend. 

Writer/Director : Max Burkeman

Cast : Kenna Skye & Rel The Kid

Makeup : Eve Burkeman 

Stylist :  Sebla Maaza

Wardrobe : Wini Burkeman

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GEORGE CONDO at HAUSER & WIRTH 11/12/20

It’s been a bumpy ride for my appreciation of George Condo. When I first saw his work in the late 90’s & early 2000’s I don’t remember liking it much. I think I thought it was too Picasso-esque or something but by the end of the decade I had come around to being a fan. Then in 2010 Supreme & Kanya turned him a household name for the Hypebeast kids, triggering an unfair knee-jerk reaction that turned me off him. He is an incredible painter, and this new show of brand new works at Hauser & Wirth took my breath away.

Large canvass. 

Works on paper.

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Studio Visit with Sam Jablon 11/9/20

New York is massive but also sometimes very small.

My close friends, James Hyde and Erik Foss, who did not know each other till recently, both spoke highly of Sam Jablon’s practice.

About a month ago I was meeting James and Sam just happened to be on the street, so James introduced us. Sam and I have had lunch twice now, talked art a little & laughed at the state of the world. I got to see some of his lovely works.


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