interview on Resonance FM

Here is the interview I did with Fari Bradley on Resonance FM back in August. We share tracks and chat about flyers and London Clubbing memories. I play some Plastic People favourites (Manzel, Moodymann) as well as some personal favourites (Nina Simone, Dobie, Bobbi Humphrey).

Graphic Descriptions - Funk and Hiphopology by Fari on Mixcloud

Boogie Christmas Special

Jean-Claude invites Marc Mac, Ross Allen, Patrick Forge, Nick Salmon, Chris Phillips and Acyde to Plastic People for a Christmas Boogie special. December 22nd 9:30pm – 3am. Only £5 on the door. No Reindeers or DJs were hurt in the making of this flyer.

If Music Specials

If Music / You Need This celebrates the music of Island Records at Plastic People, June 22nd 10pm – 3am. £3 entry. Ross Allen, Acyde, Patrick Forge and Jean-Claude. 

Motown Special, October 12th 10pm – 3am. £3 entry. Marc Mac, Acyde, Jean-Claude.

Marc Mac - Hipology

An explosion of inspiration was the thinking behind the image for Hipology. Having a single image for the album cover would've been wrong, especially after Marc had explained the thinking behind the project. A scrapbook / montage of imagery seemed a better approach with Hipology set in the centre.

Using a shared Dropbox, we pulled together imagery that reflected the project, from old photographs to scans from magazines we soon had more than enough to work with. I was keen to build the montage by hand so cut a 600mm square piece of plywood and applied some old school cut 'n' paste (scissors n glue) rotating the board as I built the image up. Check out the original BBE logo that's in there, I designed it 15+ years ago. Lots of gems in there I love the Dollis Hill tube sign alongside Buggin' Out.

The project became a labour of love for the last part of 2011. I'm pleased with the final artwork, especially the 12" vinyl. The album sounds incredible and up there with the best of Marc Mac productions. Hipology is released on 28th May on double CD and vinyl. A limited box set of 5 x 7" is also out there. Released on BBE. Check out 101_Apparel for the t-shirts and mixtape too.

Marc Mac, Patrick Forge & Jean Claude at the Launch of the Hipology boxset at If Music, Record Store Day 2012.

Exhibition – British Library

The advantage of only having 24 hours to get an exhibition together is you get on with it.

At the beginning of March, I was invited to take part in Illuminate at The British Library. The event was part of the library's Spring Festival. A five day celebration of creativity, fashion and design.

To have your work shown alongside the likes of Martin Rowson, Quentin Blake, Jamie Hewlett and Posy Simmonds was amazing and a massive thank you to Jon Fawcett and Mr. Scruff for giving me the opportunity.

I pulled out all 24 'cover versions' for the show – the first time I've put them together in one piece. As ever, it was enjoyable watching people trying to guess the album artwork (most people can spot Amy Winehouse, few spot the Koop cover).

As it was a London event I chose to include the #saveplasticpeople campaign with the drawings of the Soho record shops. The feedback was good and the work was appreciated by those vinyl junkies who knew the shops but had never stopped to look at the outside. A lot of respect for Wyld Pytch (now a juice bar!). There was also a lot of enthusiasm and interest for my drawing of Matthew Herbert alongside Sam Floating Points.

brilliantly observed cartoon by Posy Simmonds

The use of space was excellent – I hope they do more in the future. Best of all was how good the music sounded from Scruff's DJ set, especially the Reggae.

Here is Mr. Hewlett talking some more about the event:

British Library - LATE event with Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz) from Buzz Films on Vimeo.

Many thanks for everyone who came down.

Exhibition – Berlin

I got an invitation from J.A.W.'s Thomas & Julien in the middle of 2010, asking if I'd like to take part in an exhibition and Plastic People party in Berlin. With Sam Floating Points and Ade already on-board, it didn't take much persuasion.

I discovered the J.A.W. family were real Plastic People heads with a stack of old flyers and memories, I was surprised our paths hadn't crossed before. I put it down to me stubbornly occupying the same patch of dance floor, week in, week out (why do we do that?) My spot; left hand speaker / DJ box was a world away from the dark mysterious corner inhabited by these guys.

HHV was the choice of venue for the exhibition. The ever efficient German project management came into full-effect as I was sent photos and measurements to help me plan the layout. By this stage I had completed nearly 12 flyers for Floating Points, so these hung on the right hand side. Some larger square prints, mainly Hip Hop based, hung above them. On the left hand wall a 'timeline' of the x29 Balance flyers I had created from 1998 – 2003. Above these more classic posters from the club.

I went to work on the flyer for the gig at Festsaal Kreuzberg. The layout was based on the Floating Points series I was currently doing. This would be my third flyer for these two, this time taking on the role of robots. Sam: technical and Ade… not so. Ade's body is JCB yellow with a concrete waist, he holds a bag of lemons. (he would always going AWOL on busy nights – and be off, buying lemons).

Getting friends together these days can be hard, even in London, on your home turf, it can be difficult getting your crew together. But somehow with days to go, a whopping party of 8 Londoners were Berlin bound. I was put up at the Michelberger Hotel. Very cool. Even cooler if you like The Big Lebowski. On arrival, the first thing they told me was that the bar was open 24 hours and check out was at 4pm. This was going to be alright.

With some time spare in the afternoon, I explored Kreuzberg. I loved it and it reminded me a lot of old Williamsburg in New York. It also made me realise how clean and sterile London has become pre Olympics. The only thing I'd change would be the weather… too damn cold.

In the evening we drank beer on the top deck of a bus that had been turned into a bar, followed by Korean food (cooked by Ade) and then some smoke-filled clubbing and German karaoke (Sade, Smooth Operator, yes, it cleared the room but felt good). Some 3am Pizza and a cold walk back to the hotel, passing queues of punters outside clubs at 4am.

It was inevitably that Saturday started slowly. We headed over to HHV where we received a warm welcome. Lovely to see so many people had turned out – it felt a little strange getting so much attention and even weirder being asked to sign work, but I soon got into it! Some food, more drinks at the hotel and then we had to return to the bus. We arrived at Festsaal Kreuzberg for the main event. The venue was a scaled up version of Plastic, even the colour scheme matched. A decent sound system made it feel like home from home. It quickly filled to capacity and Ade & Sam played a blinder. Highlights: All the Balance classics, Space Funk, The Pixies, Shades of Jae, Johnny Hammond, Leon Thomas… so good. Tune of the night for me was Mala / Alicia which sounded incredible in the early hours. An amazing night. We bundled into a taxi at 6:30am to find some breakfast and The Michelberger.

Masses of thanks to Thomas & Julien for organising a memorable one, to HHV Store for lending me their walls and for everyone who came to the exhibition, big thanks to the London Family for all the support and for making the journey over.

a few limited Floating Points flyer packs are available here

I'll be back. Maybe in the summer when its warmer.