AGNETHA:
Abba’s willowy blonde, a solo album sleeve with friend and associate Gered Mankowitz.
ANASTACIA:
event book for tour.
AVALON GUITARS:
an identity and brochure.
BEATLES: The Anthology.
Under Neil Aspinall's watch, the book to accompany the Dvd compilation was seven years in production pretty well from the first draft visuals to the day of publication, and a million-plus copies sold. Also the album sleeve for the remastered and stripped-down
Let It Be Naked, The Capitol Albums
boxsets Volumes 1 and 2, and the
First US Visit
Dvd.
BEYONCE:
the event book for her 2008 tour.
BLINDS AND SHUTTERS:
the work of Sgt Pepper photographer
Michael Cooper
for Genesis Publications, see below.
BOB DYLAN:
the republished Robert Shelton biography
No Direction Home
for Palazzo Editions
BOB MARLEY: I Know a Place,
a Greatest Hits package.
BOND: James Bond, The Legacy,
a major anthology for Boxtree MacMillan, and that followed by The Art of Bond.
BOOK OF ROCK:
an A-Z of 500 rock photographs and profiles for close friend and associate Colin Webb, then of Pavilion Books.
CAT STEVENS: The Very Best of
plus the Definitive boxset but undertaken under the guidance of
Yusuf Islam
. See below.
CLIFF RICHARD:
(Sir Cliff, of course, and should probably file under S along with
Sir Elton
and
Sir Mick
) an album sleeve again with Gered Mankowitz on the shutter, and a further in later years with Brian Aris.
COWBOY: How Hollywood Invented the Wild West
, a book for Reader's Digest.
CRAFT of the LUTHIER:
curation and organisation of the first ever exhibition of British guitar makers in conjunction with
David Linley
(see below for Linley).
CREAM: Greatest Hits.
DAVID LINLEY:
a series of brochures for his bespoke furniture and accessories business, and the glamorous shops that deservedly emerged. In later years David and I collaborated on
The Craft of the Luthier
exhibition (mentioned above), curated and assembled by myself to bring the product of thirty or more of Britain’s most talented guitar makers under one roof for the first time.
DEAN:
James Dean,
The Definitive Dean
for Palazzo Editions.
DERREN BROWN:
series of event books to accompany his theatre tours. Altogether a spookily psychic experience.
DESTINY’S CHILD:
the event book (
Destiny’s Child Weekly
) for their final world tour.
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA:
remember Electric Light Orchestra? The
Secret Messages
album cover.
Jeff Lynne
to emerge again a little further down the line under
Traveling Wilburys
.
ELTON JOHN:
where to begin, other than to thank him and John Reid for their years of support and enthusiasm - first efforts under Michael Ross’s guiding hand, cowgumming down elements of
Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player,
thereafter beginning to fly solo with
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
and on to
Blue Moves, Greatest Hits Volume Two, A Single Man, Victim of Love, Leather Jackets, Live in Australia, Reg Strikes Back, Sleeping with the Past, To Be Continued
(in separate US and UK versions),
The One, Rare Masters, The Very Best of Elton John, Made in England, The Captain and the Kid
(coming in a late favourite) and numerous singles and compilations alongside - these together with tour books over the last thirty years too numerous to mention and to accompany some of Elton’s greatest shows, from
Louder Than Concorde
all the way through to the Las Vegas
Red Piano
and
Million Dollar Piano
show books, including the
Face to Face
tours with Billy Joel, and indeed the current
Showman… Showtime… Showbook
touring book.
ENGLISH HERITAGE:
a surprise entry requiring us to assemble a packaging scheme for a range of foods and toiletries and I’ve never checked to see if they’re still there. The ginger biscuit package was nice, as were the contents.
ERIC CLAPTON:
various albums sleeves such as the blues tribute
From the Cradle, Pilgrim,
the definitive box set
Crossroads Two, 24 Nights
(and the limited edition Genesis book in collaboration with
Peter Blake
, also called
24 Nights
), the dvd
Nothing but the Blues
, and the album with
BB King, Riding with The King.
FENDER GUITARS:
event book for the fiftieth anniversary of the
Strat
and endless presentations for the proposed exhibition to follow.
FISHER LANE FARM:
one of my favourite identities, the digital cow. Fisher Lane Farm is the studio complex owned by
Genesis
, who follow below.
FORMULA 1, THE ANTHOLOGY:
lots of fast cars and one or two fast women but decidedly short on the fairy folk who follow...
FROUD: with Brian Froud
, heady and slightly mad days spent on
Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairies
and
Lady Cottington’s Fairy Album
, and days spent taking the Fairy world very, very seriously at that, along with the delightful
Strange Stains
, and odd books on Goblins and Runes and other matters otherworldly etc. The first Lady Cottington book went on to sell in excess of a million copies worldwide and rightfully so, Froud’s richly inventive and surprisingly titillating world deserving of such.
FIELD: The Field
– many years previous, redesigning Britain’s oldest weekly journal to transform it into a sexy monthly glossy with magazine luminary
Dennis Hackett.
A three-month project which might have taken half the time, had not the majority of regular staff disappeared on Thursdays to head off to shoot small furry animals of one species or another, or to get astride larger furry animals to do just the same but from a more sporting height.
GENESIS:
albums such as
Calling All Stations, Greatest Hits, Archives 1
and
Archives 2
boxsets and numerous tourbooks. Followed in more recent years by
Chapter and Verse
, the extensive autobiographical book for Weidenfeld.
GENESIS PUBLICATIONS:
for the greatly missed
Brian Roylance’s
Genesis Publications, at least a dozen or so major volumes in total including
Michael Cooper’s
seminal
Blinds and Shutters, Eric Clapton
and
Peter Blake’s 24 Nights, Stuart
(on the tragically short life of
Stuart Sutcliffe
),
Astrid Kirchherr
and
Max Scheler’s Liverpool Days, Astrid Kirchherr
and
Klaus Voorman’s Hamburg Days, Gered Mankowitz’s Mason’s Yard to Primrose Hill
and
Eye Contact, Bob Gruen’s Sometime in New York City
on
John Lennon, Ravi Shankar’s
autobiography
Raga Mala, Bill Wyman on Chagall
etc etc.
GEORGE HARRISON:
a very privileged relationship fondly remembered. The albums
Cloud Nine, The Very Best of Dark Horse
and both the remastered and repackaged
Concert for Bangladesh
and
All Things Must Pass
, together with both
Wilbury
albums included below, under
Traveling Wilburys
. With
Olivia Harrison
to work alongside BMW to produce the special Mini 50th Anniversary tribute edition based on George’s original 1965 psychedelic Mini, featured momentarily in Magical Mystery Tour.
GERALD SCARFE:
the almost complete works in the major autobiographical book
Drawing Blood.
GIRLS ALOUD:
from the sublime to the probably just as sublime
Girls Aloud
, a series of tourbooks.
HAMAKI:
two recent album sleeves and campaign for Egyptian mega pop star
Hamaki.
IL DIVO:
a trio, I think to date, of high-end event books for the soignee semi-operatic quartet over various concert tours.
INTERNATIONAL GUITAR FESTIVAL:
a short spell on the board of the renowned festival based in Bath, on a variety of remits, and thereafter a series of associated album sleeves and annual programmes.
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE:
uncompleted tourbook but thankfully with little tragedy other than loss of income.
JIMI HENDRIX:
working alongside the late but legendary
Alan Douglas
to repackage all three original albums –
Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love
and
Electric Ladyland
together with multi-million selling
The Ultimate Jimi Hendrix
compilation in a mission to bring the message to new generations. Repackaging of original sleeves received humiliating condemnation in the Music Week Design Awards, in itself not unbearable other than that I happened to be on the panel of judges at the very same time.
Ink Icon
, with long time friend and associate
Gered Mankowitz
, initiated to produce limited edition silkscreens from his iconic photography of Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones. The beautiful (and very limited)
Portrait Edition Fender Stratocaster
was produced in association with both Fender Guitars and Experience Hendrix and involved painstaking positioning of silk-screened decals – like you’d stick on an Airfix Spitfire but ten times the size – around the complex contours of a high-end custom shop Strat. And the virtual autobiography
Starting At Zero
, published in 2014 after two decades of stalling in a protracted adjudication process.
JJ CALE: Anyway the Wind Blows
, a definitive box set.
KANYE WEST:
failed to get a great-looking tourbook through the approval process.
KILLERS:
another disastrously incompleted tour book which could have been something good, like so many, many other truncated projects cut off in their prime. What is it with these K-people?
LIONEL RICHIE:
For
Lionel Richie
, a
Greatest Hits
package.
MICHAEL JACKSON:
poised to prepare the event book for the ill-fated
This Is It
shows at O2 only to be shoe-horned, sadly and suddenly, into a tribute book for his Memorial Service in Los Angeles. A strange and stressful change of affairs and an opportunity tragically missed.
MARK KNOPFLER:
the renowned
Golden Heart
album sleeve and deluxe box set.
MARTIN GUITAR: Martin Guitar Masterpieces
, a major book for Palazzo and Bulfinch illustrating the limited-edition output of the custom shop of one of the world’s most loved guitar brands. Certainly most loved by myself and a labour of devotion.
MIKE AND THE MECHANICS:
sleeves for
Greatest Hits
compilation and for
Silent Running.
MOODY BLUES:
the retrospective box set
Time Traveller
, and album sleeves for
Hall of Fame
and the
Best of the Moody Blues
along with numerous event books to accompany their continued touring schedule over the years.
NEIL SEDAKA:
an album sleeve.
NELSON MANDELA:
In the privileged position of consultant Creative Director for
46664
, the campaign vehicle of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, an ongoing responsibility to assist in emerging strategies requiring identities and literature over the last few years, including the 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park, summer of 2008, and the ensuing campaign launching
Nelson Mandela Day
in New York in July 2009.
OASIS: Out of the Blue
, a limited edition book with renowned photographer Michael Spencer Jones.
OZZY OSBOURNE:
Am still convinced I did the Ozzy Osbourne logo, but if I didn’t I apologise unreservedly to him and to whomsoever actually did do it.
PAUL McCARTNEY:
a failed attempt at a Dvd compilation but thereafter redeemed by tour identity and merchandise for the US tour of 2005.
PAVILION BOOKS and PALAZZO EDITIONS:
under the gaze of renowned publisher
Colin Webb
, a vast array of books for both companies, many referred to herewith under their respective titles.
PETER GABRIEL:
sadly not as much as I’d have wished – I’d have paid good money to work with him – but at least got to do the
Little Red Book
for his
1984 Tour of China
. Nearly forty years ago, so early days yet and the door’s still open.
PHIL COLLINS:
various albums and many tourbooks, albums such
Dance Into the Light
(again with Gered Mankowitz, and one of personal favourites in the Wherefore Art? portfolio)
Hits, Serious Hits - Live, Finally - The First Farewell Tour
dvd set,
Love Songs
, and amongst the many tourbooks for himself that great-looking one with the drumkit made out of garbage on the front.
PHILIP MORRIS ARTS FOUNDATION:
a major interactive Dvd package to highlight all their philanthropic activities.
POLICE:
For Sting and The Police, their 2008 reunion tour book.
PRINCE: Purple Rain
tourbook, an early foray into digital manipulation and Scitex repro. Many hours spent in Stockholm awaiting approval.
PUNK:
John Mitchinson’s post-Beatles Anthology masterwork, a greatly applauded and definitive book with Messrs Colegrave and Sullivan for Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
QUARTO GROUP:
an identity to cover the group and many of their imprints, together with numerous book designs and a raft of Annual Reports over a period of about a decade.
QUEEN:
two early album sleeves best not remembered but selling in prodigious quantities.
QI:
yes, that QI, and undoubtedly the most fun you can have in a design studio with your clothes on. With editor
John Lloyd
, creative direction and design on Volumes E, F, G and H (so far) of the QI Annual for Faber & Faber and we hope for all letters henceforth, even some letters as yet unthought of.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS:
a tourbook.
RICHOUX:
an extensive rebranding campaign for the chain of coffee stores in an effort to reposition prior to the landing over here of over-sexed, overpriced Starbucks.
ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS:
hard-backed event book for their Raising Sand tour following the hugely successful album.
ROLLING STONES:
Our National Treasures. The authorised anthology
A Life on the Road
, celebrating 25 years on the road (passed 45 now) and published by Virgin; Charlie: ‘Twenty-five years in the Stones, five years work and twenty years hanging around...’ alongside lavish event books for their
Bridges to Babylon, Forty Licks
and
A Bigger Bang
tours, including the
Uptown Book
, a limited-edition, lenticular-covered hardback volume.
SEX: Shooting Sex, or The Definitive Guide to Undressing Beautiful Strangers
by the tragic, irreplaceable
Bob Carlos Clarke
. By way of footnote, discovery in early years that the meaning of life was probably sex with Susannah York, whatever sex was.
SHAKIRA:
Tour book book for the sinuous
Shakira.
SHANIA TWAIN:
And a pair of tourbooks for the equally sinuous but slightly more country
Shania.
SHERINE:
album sleeve for the major pop diva of the Middle East, also sinuous.
SIMON & GARFUNKEL:
the event book for their
Old Friends
reunion tour. Less sinuous.
STIRLING MOSS:
the definitive authorised illustrated biography for Cassell.
SPICE GIRLS:
For whom we prepared the elegant event book for their get-back-together-for-as-short-a-time-as-possible tour in 2008.
SUGABABES:
And oddly enough yet again with
Sugababes
, further tour books.
STEVIE WINWOOD:
The
Finer Things
box set.
TAKE THAT:
event book for the giant 2009
Circus
reunion tour.
TATLER:
During my newspaper and magazine period, under Dennis Hackett’s avuncular gaze, redesign of
Tatler
, that glossy of glossies, dragged into the 20th century with
Tina Brown
as its editor before its safe delivery into the hands of Conde Nast where it still resides.
THE WHO: Then and Now
compilation package, and a tourbook many, many years ago.
TODAY:
the first UK daily newspaper generated digitally. I prepared the first branding and layout drafts of
Eddie Shah’s
groundbreaking, union-aggravating newspaper.
TRAVELING WILBURYS:
both original album sleeves for the unique conjunction of the talents (and uncannily empathetic voices) of
George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty
and
Jeff Lynne
, second time around, Volume 3, sadly without the late (by then) Roy Orbison. Also the rare but eminently desirable
Wilbury guitar
designed for
Gretsch
- one last seen hanging up at Hank’s in Denmark Street, London, but several years ago now.
TREES:
an entire autobiographical side road, this, but thankfully chronicled in other publications. My contribution undertaken on the other side of the fence, as guitar player. Both albums (
The Garden of Jane Delawney
and
On the Shore
) remastered and repackaged by Sony (and ourselves) in 2008 - the latter having been given the seal of hipness in 1970 with sleeve by
Hipgnosis
, and again in 2007 by
Gnarls Barkley’s
sampling throughout the title track of their multi-million selling
St Elsewhere
album.
THIN LIZZY:
the
Vagabonds, Kings, Warriors, Angels
box set compilation.
Unusually nothing it seems beginning with
‘U’
. An opportunity for someone with a project beginning with ‘U’ to pick up the phone.
VIRGIN AIRLINES:
an extensive and very successful billboard campaign briefed in the silkscreen style we’d developed with Ink Icon for Jimi Hendrix and for which we had become recognised, and to support the launch of the airline into different cities around the globe.
VOGUE BOOK OF BLONDES:
an Anthology in Blonde for Pavilion Books.
WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?:
a definitive history of Country Music developed in conjunction with Colin Webb of Palazzo,
The Country Music Hall of Fame,
a host of Nashville writers and editors and a foreword by none finer than
Willie Nelson.
WOODSTOCK:
the official book and account to celebrate the 40th anniversary, working again with Colin Webb of Palazzo Editions, with introduction by legendary filmmaker
Martin Scorsese
. One of my guitar cases has on it an original Woodstock ‘3 Days of peace and music’ sticker; a point of circular interest.
X-FACTOR:
Event books for touring X-Factor shows, probably best not admitted to.
YUSUF ISLAM: An Other Cup
album sleeve heralding his first return to recording since the
Cat Stevens
days (and see under Cat Stevens). And like father, like son, two albums for
YORIYOS
, the second with his band Noxshi.
ZUCCHERO:
album sleeve of great merit (I still believe) for, and soundly rejected by, Zucchero. Of inestimable worth when trying to be an A-Z completist.
From
Abba
, kind of, to
Zucchero
, kind of, therefore.