T-Shirt Friday 25 !

The Car Boot Caper! (Part One)

Well... we have made it! T-Shirt Friday is now officially 25! Like a fine mature cheese T-Shirt Friday has grown from a sparkle of a cotton field in some ones eye to a fully blown piece of well crafted apparel! Happy 25th Anniversary T-Shirt Friday!
...and now on with the show and so to the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! which was: What is the title of the famously unreleased 1977 Neil Young album? it's quite a tricky one, as 'ole Neil has actually made a follow up to the unreleased album and just as only Neil can do confused us all in the process but the 'unreleased' album is 'Chrome Dreams' it's said that a lot of the tracks on the album have been dispersed onto many of Neil's other albums, there are however apparently some very different takes of the songs we have all come to know and if you own 1993's 'Unplugged' and ever wondered where the beautiful track 'Stringman' came from... it would have been on 'Chrome Dreams'. If you got it right, how will you celebrate? You could shake things up a bit by taking some polish to any chrome surface that you might have around the house... some Cif in the bathroom, some AGA to your fireplace surrounds, a bit of Vitasol on the chrome exhaust tail pipe maybe...

Today's T-Shirt was originally from here: http://www.clothingattesco.com
Sadly they don't seem to do the tee anymore but they do have some other great shirts!

If you were to think of a place you would like to visit for a day trip it you might consider Windsor, Greenwich perhaps or maybe Canterbury... what about Taplow? Taplow?? yes near Maidenhead??? Well... Taplow near Maidenhead boasts (if nothing else) one of the biggest car boot sales you can go to, in fact it's termed as "Giant" and "Berks & Bucks Busiest & Best Late Start Car Boot"and while we were still living in Paddington we had a gateway to the stars that sparkle from the rear view mirrors of the unloading cars. One fairly sunny (for a bank holiday) Monday Miss Russell was away and so I took the opportunity to go and see what was going on in Taplow, originally I'd been looking to go to a record fair but this seemed like a very exciting prospect and there is always a possibility of picking up some vinyl at a car boot, expectations were high and Taplow met them ten fold and then some... it really is a 'huge' car boot with loads to offer, a lot of bargain vinyl, a lot of everything and some great food stalls for lunch too... Miss Russell called me on the mobile while I was munching through a German bratwurst hot dog that was the size of an OTRAG rocket!
It was a wonderful day, some great boot bargains, very friendly people, it's a family originated event for all! The train station is right near by, it's a direct line from Paddington with no changes, a low price train ticket and about a 45min journey, the ease of travel was mind blowing or so I thought...

The following week while recounting all of this to my Mum and Dad on the phone, we thought it would be great to all go for a family day out. Unfortunately though there were no more bank holidays coming up... Do not fear Taplow is on Sundays too!!! Similar to the stars doing it - the front car tyres had aligned with the back ones! Sadly Miss Russell was again away (is there a pattern emerging)  but Mum and Dad could make it... the plan was for them to stay at the flat on the Saturday night for ease of travel in the morning, when they arrived they presented me with the below t-shirt, it seemed very apt and has since been dubbed 'the car boot t-shirt'. After watching 'The Black Hole' on DVD and a fish finger sandwich or two we all headed off for a good nights sleep and awoke at the designated time of 7am ready for the car boot ahead, you could feel the atmosphere crackle with anticipation, I popped on 'the car boot tee' and off we all went to Paddington station to re-tread the steps to Taplow... something was amiss... this time there was no direct train to the station, after a little confusion though it emerged that we could go to Slough and take a bus that would drop us at the foot of the boot... The train started to slowly leave the station and we were off! Mum and Dad both looking forward to some bargains... The trip to Slough was very quick and we made our way off the train and towards where we thought the pick up point for the bus was... we checked with a station member and were pointed in a slightly different direction but eventually found the stop... we waited... actually not all that long... a bus pulled up... we almost all got on but something made my Mum just check with the driver "Ah sorry... this bus doesn't stop at Taplow" "the next bus might go there". It came across like he wasn't too sure, we had our doubts, we exited the bus, as we did a jolly station member was passing: "In all the years that I've worked here and that is over 25 years mind, I've never heard of a bus going from this station or any on this line, to Taplow on a Sunday" We all had the same group thought... Hmmm...

To Be Continued...

There we are, stranded in Slough! ...and so until next week for the final finale of 'The Car Boot Caper!' but before that here is the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! Which this week is: Which famous musician and pioneer of electronic music went to school in Slough?

More info on Taplow Car Boot Sale? - http://www.giantcarboot.co.uk/taplow.html
More info Pioneers of electronic music? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music
The OTRAG rocket - http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/otrag.htm
Disney's The Black Hole - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Hole
How to make a great fishfinger sandwich - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_finger_sandwich

T-Shirt Friday 23 !

A  'Chopping Wood' T-Shirt!
T-Shirt Friday 23? - I hear you ask, but should it not be 25??? Ah well, here is the missing '23'! Admittedly it has been some time since there has been any T-Shirt Friday's at all!!! do not fear though, there is and will be a 25, however just for this week lets go back into the 'Bad Fog of Loneiness' and bring forth out of the mists this one from the vaults... 

So... where did we leave off... the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum question! which was... 'Cosmic Egg' was an album released by which Australian heavy rock band? The answer is of course Wolfmother! - did you get it right? How will you celebrate? maybe with your pet Wolf if you have one, or cook your Mother dinner, however you decide to celebrate just enjoy! it's Friday and the weekend is coming after all!

A version of today's T-Shirt can be found here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mens-Young-HARVEST-Shirt-MEDIUM/dp/B009CBLFE8
Mine is an older version and sadly doesn't seem to be available any more.

"I was chopping down a palm tree, When a friend dropped by to ask, If I would feel less lonely, If he helped me swing the axe. I said: No, it's not a case of being lonely, We have here, I've been working on this palm tree, For eighty seven years, I said: No, it's not a case of being lonely, We have here, I've been working on this palm tree, For eighty seven years, He said: Go get lost! And walked towards his Cadillac. I chopped down the palm tree. And it landed on his back."

'Last Trip To Tulsa' - Neil Young


It's seems fitting almost to publish T-Shirt 23 after having already released T-Shirt 24, it's the kind of thing that Neil might do, in fact has done... like recording albums and then releasing them many years later or never releasing them at all!

'Harvest' on it's release in 1972, divided both critics and fans opinions. Even Neil himself in retrospect has described the album (almost in the same breath) as an 'MOR aberration' and his 'finest album'. Neil's most famous quote from that time, is about the song 'Heart Of Gold' "This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I met more interesting people there."
Often though 'Harvest' along with it's counterpart 'After The Gold Rush' released in 1970 are an accessible way in to a sometimes uncompromising but brilliant artist.
This is true of myself, 'After The Gold Rush' was my first Neil Young album and from that moment I was captivated. Once you have heard Neil and you 'get him' you kind of sign up to be a life long fan, no matter what direction he wants to take you in. However I was a bit confused... 'Heart Of Gold' was the first Neil song I'd actually ever heard, (they often played it at Walthamstow Dog Stadium along with some other classics between races) but it didn't appear to be on the cassette tape of 'After The Gold Rush' that I'd just purchased. Some more digging was necessary. Of course at that point I was very naive and had no idea of how vast Neil's output and back catalogue was. Somehow though the cassette tape that greeted me when I walked back into Woolworth's at Chingford Mount was 'Harvest'.

Collecting and cutting up wood have both become a bit of a fixture for my Dad. Fairly recently Mum and Dad decided to get a wood burning stove, it really suits the house, keeps it lovely and warm and just looks so romantic. Wood in abundance is of course needed though, Dad has collected a number of tools in readiness to prepare old planks, logs and trees! And it's at a tree where this story really begins... Whilst staying back at my Parents, my Dad mentioned that he might need some help with a tree that had fallen down at my Brother-In-Laws, Mum's house, it needed to be cleared and there was an opening over the upcoming weekend to do it, I did very little in preparation, until that is last minute on the Saturday morning, we needed to be up early... Still half asleep I dressed myself adding two odd socks to the mix and went downstairs, we had some breakfast and off we went. The tree was already down although there was a stump which Dad had to cut through and we began to clear the chunks of wood, noticeably there was a lot of amber sap seeping out through the bark which I'd managed to get down my t-shirt, I looked down not even taking into account before that moment the tee that I had on... it's OK I thought it's only that old worn out 'Neil Young - Harvest' t-shirt and then it hit me... that old Neil Young shirt... the lyrics of the last verse of 'Last Trip To Tulsa' filled my head. Without even knowing it or putting any thought into it I was wearing the right t-shirt for the chop! 
Incidentally 'Chopping Wood' is a way of playing drums where the drummer plays a strong rim-click on the two and four beats, often Ken Buttrey's drum's on 'Heart Of Gold' are described as 'cutting wood' or 'chopping wood drum style'.

Walking back from Woolworth's I slid the tape in my Walkman and popped on the headphones, from that day onwards I played 'Harvest' over and over again, to the point of when you could no longer read any of the text on the body of the cassette tape and the tape itself was getting worn, the case was scratched and you could barley see the beautiful typography of Tom Wilkes cover design through it. I loved that album so much and I wanted to tell the world, I found a way to do so... the below t-shirt! 
In somewhat a similar way to the tape, I wore it so much, (taking it everywhere with me) that the print soon became very faint, it gained holes and started wearing very thin, soon it became apparent that with much sadness it would have to be retired and put away into the bottom of the chest of drawers at my Mum and Dad's... and there it stayed, only to be rediscovered quite by mistake many years later while in a dozy rush to get down the stairs to have breakfast and help my Dad chop up a tree!

Well here we are again it's time for the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! which this week is: What is the title of the famously unreleased 1977 Neil Young album?


More info on Neil Young? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young

Neil Young discography - http://www.neilyoung.com/archives/discography/nyd_start1.html

Neil's website - http://www.neilyoung.com

Wood Burning Stoves - http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/guides/wood-burning-stoves/
Tom Wilkes (One of my favourite all time album cover designers / art directors) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wilkes

Detail of the 'Harvest' T-Shirt with tree sap!

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Year Of The Horse - Side 2

Horseshoe man!

Sometime ago now my great friend and colleague James McAllister, Creative Director at Karmablue Studios: http://www.karmabluedesign.co.uk very kindly asked if I would be interested in working on a re-design of the DVD artwork for the Neil Young and Crazy Horse release 'Year Of The Horse' I jumped at the chance! 

You may remember that we came up with some original visuals but then the whole project took a slightly different direction...

Here is how the final artwork turned out...

Music Listened to while working on Neil Young, Year Of The Horse final DVD artwork:

Volume 4 by Black Sabbath

Little Feat by Little Feat

Decade by Neil Young

Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush

Volcanic Rock by Buffalo

Fragile by Yes

DVD full front / back cover sleeve and inside

DVD Booklet front and back

DVD onbody

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Year Of The Horse - Side 1

Don't Spook The Horse!

My great friend and colleague James McAllister, Creative Director at Karmablue Studios: http://www.karmabluedesign.co.uk very kindly asked if I would be interested in working on a re-design of the DVD artwork for the Neil Young and Crazy Horse release 'Year Of The Horse' I jumped at the chance! 

Often I'll work up a number of ideas before choosing the ones that go off to the client and sometimes the client will want to make changes or may decide that we need to take the artwork in a different direction. Which can mean that you tend to amass many unused visuals or variations, the below cover ideas won't be used, but just thought you might like to see them...

The aim that I wanted with these ideas was to to keep traditional Neil Young elements, such as his hand written titles that have appeared on his albums (e.g. from the Tonight's The Night album and incorporating elements from the original 'Year Of The Horse' album artwork) but to try to give the whole thing quite a cinematic look... We actually ended up going in a totally different direction in the end...

Music Listened to while working on Neil Young, Year Of The Horse DVD artwork:

Manassas by Manassas, Stephen Stills - A forgotten Stephen Stills masterpiece

If I Could Only Remember My Name by David Crosby - Just beautiful...

Year Of The Horse by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Tonight's The Night by Neil Young, "Goodbye Waterface"

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell

Cry Softly Lonely One by Roy Orbison