Show Notes
In this episode of Art on your sleeve, I speak with painter and former graphic designer, David Storey. David's career designing record sleeves began in the 1970s when he landed a job straight out of design school working for Elton John's Rocket Records. This position provided a crucial platform for him to build a career in the industry leading to his renowned work for the 2 Tone record label. 2 Tone spawned a raft of charting artists including Madness, The Specials, Bad Manners, The Selecter, The beat, The Bodysnatchers and so many more, all of whom received the design treatment of David, often under the creative direction of label boss (and member of The Specials), Jerry Dammers.
I spent an hour with David at his painting studio in Hove, near Brighton on the south coast of England where we looked back at his incredible catalogue of design exploring the above and so much more.
David is now an established painter, having moved away from the music industry in the 1990s. More recently, however, he has combined his love of fine art and painting with a return to record sleeve design with some beautiful works for ex-Housemartin/Beautiful Southerner, Paul Heaton with his more recent collaborations with Jacqui Abbott which brings the episode right up to date.
This episode is an audio supplement to a five-page Pop Art feature in the July/August edition of Classic Pop magazine, issue 76, published in June 2022. The magazine is available in all good UK newsagents and online.
Find out more about David Storey's work at: david-storey.co.uk
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More from Art on your sleeve
On 19 March 1990, Depeche Mode released what is still considered their finest album - 'Violator'. Anton Corbijn created its sleeve with assistance from graphic designer Richard Smith of Area. The two would go on to collaborate on dozens of sleeves for a wide range of artists, but to celebrate this seminal album's 35th birthday, I spoke to Richard about his creative involvement.
Graphic designer, painter and sleeve artist, Andie Airfix was born in Scotland but grew up in Warrington in the north west of England. After studying art and English literature at Chester teacher training college, he spent almost a year teaching art and English in Southampton. In 1970 he started travelling around the USA, Canada and Mexico, a trip funded by selling psychedelic paintings to poster companies in New York and San Francisco. On his return to the UK, he spent some time in Devon where he concentrated on painting and writing before heading off again to India for a few years.
This episode of the podcast is a bit different... Instead of our usual, reverent look back at examples of the best in record sleeve creativity, we dig into its darkest and often unexplored corners of obscurity to expose some of the worst, or at best, most bizarre record sleeves ever created.
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