Argus - An Appreciation

Wishbone Ash, 'Argus' - An appreciation

In a dusty red all in one moulded plastic cassette tape box, a bit like the ones that people kept in there cars back in the 1980's to house music, before things thinned down again... sits a rather battered and scratched up plastic tape case... not as it happens, an all clear one with the slimline look and shiny curved edges we may all remember from the 90's, but rather a boxed square shape with the black acrylic back and clear front, giving away somewhat the origin of it's age...  Through the clouded, finger marked scuffed surface of the tape case you can still just about make out the Hipgnosis cover artwork for the album hiding inside, it's Wishbone Ash's 1972 magnum opus 'Argus'...

The red dusty tape box with all it's contents is a part of a time travelling experience back at my parents and my old bedroom. We are currently in-between moving from our flat to a house and so my Mum and Dad have been invaded by us, we will be with them for the next two months. Going back to where you grow up opens up so many great memories. It's funny because we are a close family and so visit all the time, but now living back with Mum and Dad has allowed for a bit more exploration of old books, comics and albums...

There are so many classic albums that came out in the seventies, in fact when I first considered writing this piece it seemed more obvious to cover something on 'Wish You Were Here', 'Rust Never Sleeps' or perhaps 'Volume 4' but Argus is a bit more forgotten about and it really is time that it made it back into every music fans record collection. As with everything, albums come and go, some stick around for a while starting at the top of your CD pile and slowly moving down giving way to all new replacements. Others just get stored away, forgotten, waiting to be re-discovered building up layers of dust over the years. Some however keep coming back, like a kind of musical magnet and that is the relationship that I share with Argus, it's timeless in it's sound and song cycle, it's also extremely profound and ultimately gives back (as all truly great music does) so many special memories.

Wishbone Ash began life as a collection of other bands (including 'Tanglewood') and line-ups but by 1970 they released their first album known simply as 'Wishbone Ash' - the album employed the twin guitar interplay of Andy Powell and Ted Turner. Although there was nothing new as such with the idea of two lead guitars in a band (It had been done  before namely The Allman Brothers and to some extent with Neil Young and Stephen Stills) Wishbone Ash brought in a sound and dynamic that was very much their own. Taking in blues, hard rock, prog rock, classical music, acoustic and folk. They built upon their reputation as a superb live act as well and even included a live track, the 10:23 minute long 'Where Were You Tomorrow' on their second album - 1971's 'Pilgrimage' which focuses more on the folk, acoustic and jazz side of the Wishbone sound. They also began bringing in vocal flourishes, especially a four part harmony on the track 'Valediction' a hint perhaps at a CSN&Y influence and also towards what they would go on do next with their third offering...

Argus opens with the epic 9:46 minute long track 'Time Was'. It's a statement of intent, sending a message out that you're about to hear something very special. With it's gentle acoustic beginning, the melody flows around your head in it's mellowness, then out of nowhere just when you think that you have a soft gentle ride on your hands a great up tempo riff comes in and with a time change similar to something that Stephen Stills or David Crosby might have done on 'Déjà Vu', it's off we go! It's a progressive track taking you on a trip, a lament on life itself, both uplifting and thought provoking at the same time! The follow on track 'Sometime World' has a similar feel with a beautiful haunting guitar refrain. Then it's bang! - a fantastic production technique, where your emotions are left behind with the gentleness and at the same time fired forwards on a rocking rollercoaster into the next track... 'Blowin' Free' which is probably the closest track to being radio friendly but it fits perfectly into the space it's given on the album - Wishbone Ash take influences from Southern Rock here, but blend them with their own sound and in doing so create something quite unique, it's a piece that gets your head and your heart thumping! in the same way that Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' does. To go through each song on the album might just be giving to much away, in fact there may already be too many spoilers within this text, the album as with all albums needs to be heard and the individual to be surprised by what they hear... If you will allow me though, I would like to talk about one final track, It's my favourite song on the album, if a favourite on this album is possible... all the songs are so good and they should be viewed as a whole, but 'The King Will Come' is mind blowing! - with a riff that lasts way after the track has finished. It's impossible to get it out of your brain, the song builds from a kind of marching drum to some truly exceptional intertwined guitar work, it's biblical in it's size, stature and lyric! - it will rock you to your very core! & then there is Leaf and Stream with it's pastoral... Oh so sorry I'll stop there, it's just so difficult to not keep talking about it all...

Recorded at De Lane Lea Studios in London, Argus was produced by Derek Lawrence noted for working on Deep Purple's first three albums, he also produced Wishbone Ash's first three as well, Martin Birch was the sound engineer, he later worked with Black Sabbath and other hard rock bands... Depending on if you own a vinyl or the CD version of the album you may notice discrepancies with the artwork. The vinyl gatefold contains an extra part of the story in that it depicts the warrior on the cover (as with the CD) but also that the warrior is looking upon a flying saucer in the sky... as to why the UFO is missing on the CD artwork, it still remains a mystery...
Hipgnosis created and designed the alluring artwork, the photograph was taken by Barry Wentzell (famous for taking many classic shots of rock musicians) it's a very powerful composition of the warrior overlooking the Gorge of Verdun with a sunburst outlining him. Argus isn't depicted as such, or at least the Greek 100 eyed sentinel isn't, which is where Steve Upton took his inspiration for the name of the album from but Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell as with many of their classic album covers capture the mood of the music perfectly. I've spent hours just looking at the cover wondering where the warrior might be travelling to, who might be coming to meet him, is he surprised by the UFO.... so many questions, the artwork tells a story just like the music does...

There are many debates as to what Argus is... is it progressive music, is it art rock, is it classic rock... these discussions will go on for ever and ever and really the truth is that it doesn't matter, Argus is an album that has and will continue to stand the test of time... Wishbone Ash made 'Wishbone Ash' music in much the same way that Pink Floyd made 'Pink Floyd' music and to try and label it to any one genre seems pointless and takes away the mystery and the art of what those great bands did. Argus is an album for both the heart and the mind as if someone were baring their very soul and reflecting on all the happiness and sadness that life brings, all emotions are weaved within the timeless music that Wishbone Ash created... 

So if you have an old dusty cassette box or a shelf full off vinyl that you can't remember the last time you looked at, double check to make sure you don't have a copy of 'Argus' tucked away in a dark corner. It really is an album that needs the cobwebs blown off it and it's epic twin guitar, medieval, pastoral, mythological, romantic, fantasy, hard rockin', thoughtful, ethereal, Arthurian, heroic, escapism to be let out and rediscovered!

Wishbone Ash - Argus line-up

Andy Powell - Guitar Vocals
Ted Turner - Guitar Vocals
Martin Turner - Vocals, Bass
Steve Upton - Drums
Jon Tout - Organ on 'Throw Down The Sword'

Wishbone Ash: http://wishboneash.com


Wishbone Ash went on to create many other great albums and also to influence bands such as Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy...

T-Shirt Friday 24 !

Cosmic Crofton Park!

It's been an extremely busy time at the T-Shirt Friday HQ, Reasons for this can be read below, hence why there hasn't been any T-Shirt Friday posts for so long... However... that's all set to change as T-Shirt Friday is back to rock your world in more ways then one! Still in it's traditional spot of appearing on Fridays, Still ready to engage you in wondrous tales of the apparel type! So let us not dither any further and jump straight into it, big toe first... the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum, how did you get on with it? it was so long ago can you remember what the last question was? If your either a Little Feat fan or a Rolling Stones fan you may well have known the answer straight away, if not it may have taken some digging... the famous guitar player that appears on 'A Apolitical Blues' is.... wait for it ..... Mick Taylor! did you get it right? If so how will you celebrate? Perhaps you could crack open a bottle of Taylor's port!

Today's T-Shirt can be found directly here: http://www.101apparel.com

Have you ever found your self lost in the cosmic splendour of music? - perhaps curling back into your own mind, while listening to rainbow streamed guitar sounds - blowing your brain out with riffs of ultimate power that seem to be echoing from psychedelic signals originating from somewhere out there in infinite space and beyond the very stars themselves, causing time itself to fold inwards into black holes that give birth to symphonic universes beyond our human understanding? - If so, perhaps you have also been to Crofton Park?

However you also may have never actually heard of Crofton Park... much like us. Let me take you right back to the beginning, perhaps not as far back as when Dinosaurs stomped around the earth, leaving footprints the size of Brockley. But to around January 2014. After the big event of last year and Miss Russell becoming Mrs Gibbons, we thought perhaps it might be time to start looking for a slightly less multi-staircase'd place to live, So we began our search for a new home. We began by taking my Mum and Dad for a trip to West Norwood and it soon became obvious that we were probably going to be heading in that South Easterly direction. Although perhaps we would branch out from the Norwood area and look around at other neighbouring ones, we spent some very memorable weekends in both Forest Hill and Brockely but there was one Saturday when we set foot in a place that sits in-between the both of them...

Crofton Park, is technically still really in Brockley but way back a little bit after those stomping Dinosaurs, when Steam Trains chugged there way across the landscape in 1892... Another station was opened in Brockley. There were already two 'Brockley Station' and 'Brockley Lane Station' so the third one was given a name that would differentiate it. 'Crofton Park Sation' was a part of the railway line informally known as 'The Catford Loop' the Station eventually gave it's name to the small pocket area that surrounded it. If you go to Crofton Park these days you'll discover both the Rivoli Ballroom and The Brockley Jack, a pub of which Mrs Gibbons and myself would recommend whole heartily, having spent quite a bit of time there (once when we just walked in to use there loo but thought better of it and walked straight back out again!) - It has a Whales shoulder blade bone hanging above the fireplace... The Rivoli Ballroom was originally The Crofton Park Picture Palace. Both places as with Crofton Park in general, are steeped in history...

Our trainers crossed from what was Brockley pavement, to Crofton Park pavement and along with the trainers I was wearing my usual attire, old jeans, un-matching socks and slightly battered old black fleece jacket, there was one thing different though... I was trying out a brand new t-shirt that Mrs Gibbons had very kindly bought me for Christmas! It was in fact the first time of wearing it, 'The Cosmic Dimension Music' T-Shirt was a fantastic Christmas surprise and it felt really good to be wearing it, as we made the momentous crossing into the unknown. As you enter into Crofton Park, one of the first sights is the cemetery and it was at this very point where the incident happened....

I will set the scene. As we walked along past the aforementioned Brockley and Ladywell cemetery we could see in our midst two gentlemen pushing along there children in pushchairs. We came to the corner of the road, that runs around the park area, our paths crossed with them and just at that very moment one of the chaps very gently whispered and to quote "Ace T-Shirt" without even stopping or acknowledging his appreciation any further. They both just continued on there way, as if nothing had happened. Both Mrs Gibbons and myself looked at the back of there heads as they gradually disappeared down the road we had just walked up. We then looked at each other, had the gentlemen really just said that? It was all a bit of a blur, we came to the conclusion that it really had happened, after all we had both heard it (all-be-it, only just) but we had and more over we felt better for it! Warm in the knowledge that a prospective place where we were considering living accepts the 'cosmic' in all of us!

...The funniest part about it all is that although we did see a couple of really beautiful houses in cosmic Crofton Park and liked the place very much, we ended up not putting an offer on any house in the area at all but in another dimension altogether...

Well here we are again, it's time for the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum question, which this week is... 'Cosmic Egg' was an album released by which Australian heavy rock band? and now all that is left for me to do is bid you a very cosmic weekend! until next time....


More info on the Cosmic? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic
More info on Brockley, Forest Hill &  Norwood - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockley
More info on Crofton Park - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crofton_Park

T-Shirt Friday 22 !

Forever 'waiting' on a t-shirt!

It's been a long time since I rock 'n' rolled... It's been a long time since a T-Shirt Friday! But here it is, it's back! The summer time has gone for another year, dreams of Brian Wilson's golden sand and surf start to re-occur as we begin to move into those long wintry months... so for some stories of fabric and screen printing wonder to warm up your Friday nights, why not snuggle up in your favourite t-shirt (perhaps with a cardie or jumper on over the top) and let t-shirt Friday work it's winter wonderland magic!
Where exactly did we leave off... Ah yes of course... the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum, which if you remember that far back was... What Californian city do Astra originate from? ... and the answer is San Diego! did you get it right? If so how will you celebrate? perhaps a crusty roll and a nice hot bowl of tomato soup? Actually, talking of tomatoes....

Today's T-Shirt can be found directly here: http://www.littlefeat.net

Who or what was waiting for Columbus? A ready made globe to prove his theory? Was it the indigenous people, or Indians as he mistakenly called them? or perhaps a Lady Tomato lazing comfortably in a hammock?

...Let's find out... 

You may recall way back in the mists of time the mention within the text of T-Shirt Friday 16, of an elusive tee... well here it finally is...

Little Feat's live album 'Waiting for Columbus' was released in 1977... before we go any further were you at 'The Rainbow Theartre' London, when they played from August 1st-4th 1977? everyone was, weren't they? well those gigs plus shows from 8th-10th of August recorded at the Lisner Auditorium (George Washington University) are all included on the album to make one full set. The album proved to be one of there biggest selling and is cited as one of the greatest live albums ever recorded, along with a few others of course Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous being one of them.

Sometime ago now, Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd in conjunction with Rockpalast and WDR released the DVD 'Little Feat - Skin It Back' or 'Live At Rockpalast' if you're in Germany. I was very lucky to be able to work on the sleeve design for the project. We were given some really great archival material to work with, including some extraordinary photos of Lowell George and the band, taken by photographer Manfred Becker. As often the case with working on these types of projects and with the little bit of knowledge I already had of Little Feat's history I became more and more intrigued by them, the original footage that appears on the DVD had been recorded just a month (July 1977*) before they gave the performances that make up the 'Waiting For Columbus' set, it really is a fantastic document of what was to come... Little Feat are a band you can really get hooked on, I have been a massive fan of the group ever since... which you may have noticed as there have already been two other T-Shirt Friday's covering them!

Along with the incredible recording that is 'Waiting for Columbus' is the thing that makes it stand out on the shelves of those dusty scratchy old second hand vinyl shops where you might be lucky enough to find a copy, the album cover art... once again Neon Park designed and illustrated it, giving his interpretation of what might be waiting for Columbus, which isn't only the lady tomato quietly waiting to be discovered by Columbus, Europeans at that time also might not have ever seen a hammock, Neon Park had created the painting before Little Feat commissioned him for a cover and in fact he had already named it 'Waiting For Columbus', the name was kept for the album.

Just before... (then Miss Russell now Mrs Gibbons) and myself headed off to South America (please see T-Shirt Friday 6, for more detail) it became more then apparent that new clothes would be needed, a trip to South America with a 'Waiting for Columbus' tee seemed to me to be the perfect tie-in! So along with the BöC t-shirt, I ordered away... two weeks passed by, excitedly I waited and then the BöC tee arrived in good time for the upcoming trip! Still no sign however of the WFC tee though... another week went by... an email popped in from Little Feat Merchandising, Hooray! a message to say it's on the way, shaking with excitement I opened the mail... it was quite the opposite, a very nice note to say that there were no XL sizes left and the t-shirt might be discontinued, they did suggest ordering a different t-shirt however, but my head hung low as if it were a giant tomato that was causing my smaller weedy body to collapse under it's sheer weight. Then off we flew leaving behind all those sad memories of a wonderful tomatoey red purchase gone askew.

A year passed by... 

On a whim I made a return to Little Feats website, clicked on the merch button and in amazement fell back off of my chair, it was back! as if by baby bio they had brought back the Waiting for Columbus tee, it was nearing Christmas so hurriedly I added it to my list for Father Christmas, he wears red and he must like tomatoes in the summer months, surely he would understand... Christmas day came and went Father Christmas brought many lovely things but a WFC tee he did not...

Three months passed by...

After the financial crisis that can sometimes be Christmas, it was time again to get ordering, Ah! but this time I decided to take a different tact, Ebay had the tees, this would be the answer, sadly though it wasn't. In a similar vain to going direct to Little Feat, a nice message reply read "Unfortunately we no longer have any XL sizes and this t-shirt is to be discontinued"

Another month passed by... It was time to think outside the ordering box...

Lose weight? Go for a small size, then try stretching it? - wait a minute I'd done that before, it didn't work... hmmm....

Buy some fabric colouring pens and draw my own one...?

Another year has already nearly passed by...

In fact the reality is that it just got left, I still don't own one, like so many other things in life, time moves on, but one day, you never know, the tee may adorn my rotund top half (I didn't lose weight either). 
It is nice to know though that the Waiting for Columbus t-shirt is still out there somewhere 'waiting' to be discovered and just like it's name sake will bring back with it, lots of amazing stories and memories of a very special time in rock history to so many!

* July 1977 also happens to be when Miss Russell now Mrs Gibbons was born!


Well there we are, we are at the end of another T-Shirt Friday but before the final farewell for this week, there is of course the small matter of the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum, which is: Which famous guitar player and one time member of the Rolling Stones plays on the WFC version of 'A Apolitical Blues'?




More about Little Feat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Feat

More about 'Waiting For Columbus': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Columbus

More on Neon Park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Park

Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd : http://www.eagle-rock.com

Rockpalast: http://www.rockpalastarchiv.de/welcomee.html
Skin It Back DVD: http://www.littlefeat.net/index.php?page=news&n_id=623


There is a fantastic new book by Ben Fong-Torres called 'Willin' - The story Of Little Feat':
http://www.amazon.com/Willin-The-Story-Little-Feat/dp/0306821311

T-Shirt Friday 21 !

...An Astra-nomical t-shirt!

T-Shirt Friday is back!!!! In it's new slot of a fortnightly post, are you all set and excited?! well to get your whistles wet here is the answer to the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! It was quite a tricky one as they were more famous for being signed to EMI's progressive label 'Harvest' I was told on good authority that the label took the name 'Harvest' after signing Barclay James 'Harvest' and a famous music label was born! Now firstly I must apologise to my sister... as we only just yesterday, had a discussion about the answer to this and... She was right about what the answer was and I was totally wrong... Sorry Lil Sis, I read some mis-information about who they were signed to... BJH where originally signed to Parlophone for just one single in 1968. So that means that Misaki and Dawn Rey are this weeks winners of the now prestigious T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum badge of honour!!! But as always, the all important question is... how will you celebrate? - Do let me know what your celebration ideas are....

Today's T-Shirt can be found directly here: http://www.astratheband.com
or here: http://riseaboverecords.com

Do you ever find yourself wandering around... say HMV or your favourite record shop, actually not really knowing what your looking for...? It actually happens to me quite a bit. Sometimes I find myself in HMV, hoping that something will leap off of the shelf at me and it will be the 'holy grail' the 'golden fleece', the 8th wonder of the world of an album that I have been searching for all my life... the reality is that sometimes you'll find something really exciting and sometimes you end up buying an album by a band you already know, just to add to the collection, mainly because nothing else did 'pop' out and say "I am 'that' album of legend, that you have been waiting for..." Except that one trip to said HMV in 2009 did actually result in the discovery of a band that truly are on the way to becoming prog rock legendary wonders...!

In the midst of going through all of the Gentle Giant albums in the rack at HMV, something swayed my concentration from re-buying their back catalogue on CD... a sound that my ears had not heard before... a number of fully fledged musical journeys warped and absorbed the very air in the shop.... deep meandering, thundering riffs wrapped themselves around my very structure, cascades of sound spilled out of the speakers as if the amps were at that very moment being turned into liquid form, the sound lashing out like immense tidal waves... but who was this? The sounds and the music were quite retro, but it was almost impossible to pin-point the band... All at once sounding like King Crimson suddenly the music would shape-shift moulding itself into the Floyd, to last but a few seconds before segueing into Yes... the most surprising thing was that although all those influences were in there, this band still managed to keep their own identity too. Was it a long lost prog band from 1971? - maybe they had influenced all of the previously mentioned bands? The music was so awesome that I had to find out, luckily there weren't too many people around and it turned out that the chap that I spoke to was in fact the very person that had shared the album and it's treasures with the world, we spoke for a good while about them and he showed me to their rack. Only one album was left, nestled in the space provided... it felt like destiny calling! As it turned out they had only made the one album, I thought for a moment that this might be a 'Growers Of Mushroom' but it was just the beginning and what I had been hearing was an amazing debut album...

2010, We stood outside the doors to the London Scala, waiting in anticipation... My brother-in-law, Dave and myself that is... It has to be said that we didn't really blend in, there were a great deal of hardcore prog fans (if hardcore is the correct term?) in the queue, Dave commented, all be it very 'quietly' that "You can always tell a prog fan" and it's true... or at least it certainly was that night! Astra, the creators of the album that had cosmically blown a worm hole in my head at HMV, were playing that night and debuting said album (2009's The weirding) to a UK audience, along with Astra, were Diagonal and Litmus, who we had seen before at The Standard (Blackhorse Rd, Walthamstow) we were lucky enough to be a part of the first 100 people into the venue which meant that we were given by Rise Above records an Astra/Diagonal shared vinyl single, Wow! we already felt on top of the world and then the prog began... all three bands were fantastic! it turned out to be an amazing night, and a great showcase for the very best in new prog rock bands, Astra were just off the planet, which they are of course anyway, but they were orbiting a totally different universe that night and then... that same question that always creeps into your brain at some point at any great gig, started to seep in... how do we mark this incredible occasion? Dave wanted to buy the Weirding on CD, which they were selling directly at the venue and my brother-in-law and me spotted Astra T-shirts! Arik Roper designed and created the artwork for The Weirding as he did for Astra's second album 2012's The Black Chord... there in front of us lay an Astra t-shirt illustrated and designed by him too! It really was a no-brainer, until that is, we had been through the whole box full of t-shirts, only to not find any size above a medium....

T-Shirt sales brainwashing is a reality....

"You don't happen to have a large do you?" we asked the t-shirt chap, we got the answer we weren't hoping for "Sorry gov, we've run out of large and extra large mate...." he paused, but we could see that his mind was working overtime, we were waiting to be pulled in by what ever he was going to say next... as if the tee's were somehow the treasure at the end of a rainbow... the answer came in all it's glory... "You could always stretch the material" I wanted to believe in that idea, "great" I thought... "I'll go with that" My Brother-in-law saw straight through the rather weak concept that the t-shirt chap had just made up and decided not to pursue... On the other hand my brain was saying "Astra.... Arik Roper.... T-Shirt... stretch it... it will fit" and it kept repeating it... over and over again...

We left the venue, leaving behind us a night of amazing musical memories, me with my Astra t-shirt swept over my shoulder so that the artwork was on show to the world and the label slightly askew read 'medium'. Every now and again I would give the material a bit of a tug so as to stretch it, in readiness to be able to put it on when I got home, we each said our goodbye's and began to make our journeys into the night, I charged up the stairs of our building to the flat, so excited to show Miss Russell the now ready-stretched tee (or so I thought) Excitedly I told her about the gig, then bare chested and pre-t-shirt ready, I held aloft the t-shirt of Astra-nomical power and began to put it on... until... Oh!... I struggled... it wouldn't even go over my head, it was stuck there over my forehead, I pulled again at the material, maybe it needed some more stretching I thought... After all the t-shirt guy never stipulated how much stretching would be needed... I tried again, but still to no avail, tugging at the material to try to at least get one arm through... after about 30mins of stretching and contorting myself into strange shapes, while Miss Russell creased up with laughter! It suddenly dawned on me... it was as if I could suddenly see what everyone else was privy to... I had indeed seen the light (...and not only because I'd finally removed the tee from over my head and eyes!) this t-shirt was never going to fit me... A very important lesson was learned... stretching t-shirts to make them fit is not really a very viable idea at all!

That very same night Miss Russell became the proud owner of the Astra T-Shirt... and She still has it now... only last night She put it on in remembrance of this very story....

Well here we are again, it's the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! This weeks question is indeed Astra based... and it is:  What Californian city do Astra originate from?

More about Astra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_(band)
Astra's prog archive page: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4492
More on Arik Roper: http://www.arikroper.com
Gentle Giant? : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentle_Giant

Miss Russell, channels the power of the
non-stretching Astra-nomical tee! 

T-Shirt Friday 20 !

...A BJH on wholemeal to go, please!

Well T-Shirt Friday has been on a two week summer sabbatical, it's now fully refreshed though and full to the brim with stories of 100% cotton and polyester wonder! 
So the last T-Shirt Friday had a rather back-to-basics approach to it, did you get the rather back-to-basics T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum though? There were some very good guesses, ranging from the cotton fields of the US right through to the marvel that is India... the real answer though is rather surprising. did you get it? The answer is... China! and we have a winner too! possibly due to her adventures a little while ago now in said country... Miss Russell wins theT-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum badge of honour! Well done Miss Russell! 
In 2007 alone China produced 35.8 billion bales of the stuff! Loads and loads of cotton t-shirts worth! If you did get the question right or even wrong come to that! ... what will you do to celebrate? A suggestion might be to wear as many items of cotton clothing that you have in your drawer or wardrobe all at the same time! Whilst balancing a china plate on your nose!... You could do that... or you could just have a nice cold beer or wine at your local pub!

Today's T-Shirt can be found directly on: http://www.bjharvest.co.uk

Some time ago now... in fact when I first started working as a young graphic designer in the music industry, we would have a visitor come and join us every now and then, in our little broom cupboard of a studio. The other guys would chat away with him... He had a running joke with Marv about designing sleeves for military band compilation albums (which he did) and Reginald Dixon's, 'Dixon Magic', Wurlitzer albums (which to my knowledge he didn't design, Marv?) This unknown chap, would regale us with stories of the music industry, while taking out his lunch box and eating sandwiches. After a period of him visiting, it became obvious that the sandwiches were in fact prepared in anticipation of him coming to our office. He would sit with us for hours on end, just chatting away. One such story that he told, was to do with him and his band... (which he took quite some care not to ever mention their name for some reason...) falling into financial difficulties and he, reluctantly having to sell stuff off... his house was even put up for sale, passionate about trying to keep the building and hoping for some resolution to his money woes he decided to put perspective buyers off by placing a number of large salmon wrapped in newspaper under the floor boards, the smell after a couple of weeks was so bad... he told us... that the place was left unsold and his hopes were answered with his finances coming back to some normality, thus the house remained in his possession!!!
Every now and again his visits would be cut short by our MD slinging him out on his ear... he would come into our office, see the sandwich munching chap and say... "Right 'Woolly', what are you doing here again?"... It became more and more obvious that they knew each other. It was only later after doing a little bit of design work for 'Woolly' (which I hasten to add never got used) that I figured it out... this Tupperware wielding bloke was Stuart Wolstenholme other wise known as 'Woolly' Wolstenholme, Keyboardist (although actually a multi-instrumentalist) with Barclay James Harvest. 
It also came out much later that he struggled with mental illness and he very sadly passed away in 2010... I'll never forget those moments though, when he came to Eagle and we got to spend time eating sandwiches and just chilling with a truly talented musician and writer...

In 2010 we found ourselves at Victoria Station and approaching the gate for the Gatwick Flyer, Miss Russell was off to Italy, Milan to be precise, to go to visit her publishers and work on a project. We approached the chap to ask for our tickets, straight away his eyes fixed on the t-shirt I was wearing... "Blimey!" he said, slightly startled... "I haven't seen a Barclay James Harvest t-shirt in years" I laughed not really knowing what to say..."Great band, saw them loads of times, a couple of times at the Astoria", he went on to say... "Mind you, don't think anyone would know who they are now..." he almost finished his question with an answer, possibly with the realisation that I might know who they are as I was in the t-shirt... of course though, there is that classic thing of people wearing t-shirts of bands and not knowing anything about them... more often then not though, that falls into the category of someone wearing a 'Rolling Stones' tee they have purchased from Primark, not with a rather obscure band that not many people have ever even heard of... which is perhaps what he was getting at....? I agreed with him to try to add weight to that very fact "Yes... great band"... Miss Russell laughed and as we walked away having purchased our tickets, She said her now infamous line "People always comment on your t-shirts".
We arrived at Gatwick and joined the queue for check-in, as we turned in the line, the lady behind us exclaimed "Oh! Barclay James Harvest! haven't heard of them in years!" "I had my first dance at my wedding to a Barclay James Harvest song!", She paused "'Gone To Earth', was my favourite album of theirs" She said " Don't hear much of them now..." almost echoing what the ticket man had said earlier "Yes" I agreed, we chatted for  a bit longer and Miss Russell returned from having handed in her baggage, She laughed having heard the beginning of the conversation with the lady and myself finishing off her story. Miss Russell shook her head and laughed again, finding it funny that two people in not so much as 45mins had commented on the same t-shirt. Miss Russell flew off to Bologna and I headed back on the Gatwick Express, the ticket man had gone by the time the train got back to London... For sometime after though, I thought about those two people, whose lives had been touched in their own way by Barclay James Harvest and by default Woolly Wolstenholme, even if BJH don't mean as much to anyone as they did back in the 1970's, they have still left a trail of cherished memories and that really is all that anyone can hope to do... nothing that we do is done in vain... to quote Dickens.

Well here we are again! it's that time, it's the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! which this week is: what label were Barclay James Harvest originally signed to? Hmmm bit tricky that one....

Would you like to know more about Barclay James Harvest? : 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_James_Harvest
More on Woolly Wolstenholme: http://www.woollywolstenholme.co.uk
More on Reginald Dixon (check out the Dixon Magic album cover!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Dixon


P.S. It should be noted that it's a 'John Lee's Barclay James Harvest' tee that I own. As shown below... original BJH shirts seem hard to come by...

Some new t-shirts!

The shape of things to come...

It's been quite a busy time just lately... but I thought it might be quite nice to squeeze in a little bit of self initiated work, so combining my love of t-shirt's with some of the musical influences and design influences that I have, I thought it would be nice to come up with some t-shirt designs, below are just some of them, the ones below predominately play with design, colour, shape and pattern... do let me know what you think...

more to come too...

Music Listened to while working on self initiated T-Shirt designs:

Graceland by Paul Simon

Blood On The tracks by Bob Dylan

Stephen Stills by Stephen Stills

Stills 2 by Stephen Stills (Both awesome)

Brothers and Sisters by The Allman Brothers

One Man and His Prog - Planet Rock show on Sunday nights 12pm

T-Shirt Friday 19 !

The Comfort Of... A Well Worn T-Shirt !
Well now... did you get last weeks T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum? You'd probably have to be a bit of a Rush fan to know the answer.... The answer is.... Ayn Rand (Who was famous for her two novels 'Atlas' and 1943's 'The Fountainhead') So all that is left to do is reveal the winner... who this week is Mollie, well done Mollie, how will you celebrate? Maybe by putting on some Rush and turning all your frying pans and saucers upside down and bashing them with a set of spoons in a style not unlike Neil Peart perhaps?


Today's T-Shirt can be found on: http://direct.asda.com/george/clothing/10,default,sc.html 


It's very easy to forget when you have a big collection of T-shirts, that the ones that are really comfortable and you find yourself wearing the most are actually the plain ordinary ones that hang day upon day in your wardrobe or are neatly folded at the bottom of your draw with the moth balls, Not with motifs on, or tour dates printed on the back... Tee's with nothing to shout about... Quietly waiting for you to re-discover them... In fact though, just one said tee can be all you need to help you get through what ever you have to face in life...

Nearly 8 months ago now, I took voluntary redundancy from where I'd worked for the last 13 years. Most of my collection of tees had built up over that time and are certainly influenced by that job... Suddenly I found myself not having to get up on the alarm any more, not following a routine and not really feeling the need to wear any of the rock band and music t-shirts that were... Well... there is no point in saying neatly folded up in the chest of draws because they weren't, let's just say organised into a chaotic pile on the bedroom floor... Time and routines started to spin out of control, "focus is needed" I thought after spending six hours in the flat during the day in just my pants, this same thought was also echoed by Miss Russell, many good friends and family... So with the help of the aforementioned I began to slowly and surely... Well to quote the Pink Floyd song... come back to life, an important aspect of that was job searching but also realising that it would be possible to take on some freelance work.... Work started to come in, trickling to start with and then (never really gushing) but at a level of a constant stream, with all of this going on, I hardly noticed the clothes that I had been wearing and then one day I stopped for some reason to take on board what I had on, as I peered down I found myself in the light green tee pictured below... there it was, an ordinary everyday t-shirt, doing what it does best, silently working it's magic to make the wearer feel comfortable and relaxed, I'd spent many a day lounging around in it and now it was with me while I worked too... As you'll see it's done battle a few times with toothpaste being dropped down it and many ingredients from our kitchen and fridge being smeared and rubbed in... To quote Miss Russell "Many canteen badges" have found there way on to it's well worn surface! What makes it even more special is that it was bought by my Mum and given as a gift along with a pair of rather comfy Asda pyjamas... not for Christmas, a birthday or even pancake day, but just as a gift, that's what makes it such a great t-shirt, it's had the benefit of being a part of that unique process when a loved one just gives you something for no reason, just because they want too...

So there it is, my everyday t-shirt! ... and it's stayed with me ever since, along with Miss Russell sitting up with me through many late nights of designing, writing and finishing projects, helping with my confidence by just being a very wearable tee... It was then that it hit me just how important t-shirts can be to us all and so it was that the slightly battered light green, Asda t-shirt, bought by my Mum, became the catalyst for what has become the very thing that you are reading right now... T-Shirt Friday! 

Well here we are again, and so fitting with the more general feel of this particular piece of apparel, here is a general knowledge question for the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conudrum this week: Cotton is often used purley or mixed to make t-shirts: Which country is the largest exporter of cottton? Hmmm... That one should get you thinking...

More on Cotton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton
More on t-shirts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Shirt
Asda? : http://www.asda.com