Tag Archives: album artwork

Barney Bubbles Artist and Director – A Celebration

Today, I decided to show off some artwork that I didn’t know was by the same person. That person was a fantastic artist who went by the name (most of the time) of Barney Bubbles. We’ll keep our eyes out for his artwork from now on. In record hunting, sometimes the music is not the only reason to love the vinyl. Sometimes, it’s a visual pursuit, too.

Armed Forces 12 inch abum cover_Barney Bubbles

This album, Armed Forces by Elvis Costello and The Attractions,is my earliest memory of Barney’s work. Thankfully, my relatives brought this great album home in early 1979. Little did I know, more artwork from this fellow would later turn up in my record collection as I looked for all the top British New Punk and some New Wave bands of  the early ’80s.

Damned Stretcher Case Baby_Sick of Being Sick  7 inch sleeve Stiff Records 1977 Jesus Of Cool (Discogs)
He was the artist behind much of the album art for Stiff Records. For a time, he lived in the Stiff Records offices, designing all types of promotional material for the company, album sleeves, record logos and promotional posters.

Do It Youself 12 inch LP various designs The Jesus of Cool Radar side 1 (Discogs)
There’s a lot of discovering left on my part. Unfortunately,though he was prolific, he tended not to identify all of his works with signatures. He was also a victim of mental illness which brought his life to an early end. Some say other artists had begun to steal his style, while others mentioned money problems and recent album cover rejections were the cause of the mood swing that led to his suicide.

Many of his famous album covers and posters are featured in the book Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles for sale here.  Also, you can hear more of the people who knew the man, including relatives in this BBC Radio 4 Documentary, In Search of Barney Bubbles.

Hawkwind Star Rats Poster 1972 Barney BubblesBubbles designed the poster above for the band Hawkwind.  He built a strong relationship with the band during the ’70s as well as with Ian Dury and The Blockheads (Reasons to Be Cheerful is an Ian Dury and The Blockheads song). Bubbles designed their black and white ‘profile’ logo below.Barney Bubble Blockhead Logo

He also was a director in the early ’80s video scene. One of his best known videos is Ghost Town by the Specials. I decided to include this nice one he directed for Squeeze.

With luck, now that I know that a lot of those bizarre album covers that represented the bands so well were by one man, I’ll see more examples of his work out there. Maybe, someday,  I’ll have my own little collection to share with everybody in new blogs.
Jen Kilzer

WTF Album Covers Joe Gibbs Pot-Free Reggae Christmas

reggae_christmas Joe Gibbs WTF bad album coversby Joe Wallace

Yes, that’s a great big old marijuana plant or two on the cover of the Joe Gibbs Reggae Christmas album. At Turntabling, we tend to sympathize with Anthony Bourdain, Don Letts, and Peter Tosh when it comes to legalization of the herb–after all, what are malt, hops, and barley? The presence of George Washington’s favorite plant on this album cover is laugh-inducing, but it doesn’t necessarily make it a BAD album cover all by itself…so what gives, Gibbs?

I’ll tell you what gives. The WTF factor for yours truly (aside from having a powerful case of the munchies just LOOKING at this cover) comes when you compare the cover for this vinyl record with the cover for the Joe Gibbs Reggae Christmas album available for download on Amazon.com.

Joe Gibbs Reggae Christmas sanitzed and pot-free

Is this even the SAME ALBUM? Nicely sanitized and pot-free, we’re guessing this makes the world safe for the kiddies who don’t want to come downstairs on Xmas morning to find a nice big fatty in their Christmas stocking. Well, darlings, that’s all YOU. Me, I kind of like the idea of having a glazed Christmas, thanks.

I bet poor ol’ Joe Gibbs had NOTHING to do with any of this–some record company hack or Amazon corporate doink decided that purple sticky wasn’t appropriate for Christmas. After all, it’s marketed at the kiddies, right? Can’t have the rugrats wondering why Mom and Dad are giggling so much and eating all the fruitcake.