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CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY OF KRUSHER'S 2009 DESIGNS
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY OF THE DIARY OF A MADMAN DESIGN
A question that often rears its ugly little head is, "How did you get
started in the world of album design?"
Well to be totally honest I haven't a foooookin' clue!!!
But I remember being freelance, phoning loads of record companies and
dragging my sorry little arse around to show them my work, and then being
politely asked to leave the building and never to show my face there
again. A bunch of miserable, ego driven, arsechickens who wouldn't know a
good design even if Rolf Harris stuck his one inch sable up their purple
eye!!!
But there were a few good organisations and one of them was a label
inspirationally called The Label which was run by three geezers. One of
them went under the name of Carusso and one was legendary knob twiddler
and Sex Pistols' producer Dave Goodman and unbelievably they liked my work
and asked me to design a cover for a live EP that young punk whipper
snappers Eater were going to release called 'Get Your Yo Yo's Out'.
This was back in the day when bands did different coloured sleeves,
different coloured vinyls and any other marketing ploy to try and get it
some attention. In fact, if my memory serves me well, their drummer went
under the magnificent moniker of Dee Generate and he was only 12!!!!
For Eater I think we did four different coloured sleeves. We also did a limited
edition on white vinyl and because I fucked up with the layout, a single
cover where you pulled the record out via the left side rather than the
traditional right side. I believe that it's now a collectors' item and can
probably be purchased for 50p on eBay.
Another person that I greatly admired was a designer called Barney Bubbles
who'd done a lot of work for Hawkwind and came up with the brilliant line
'If it ain't Stiff it ain't worth a fuck' for the much missed Stiff
Records.
Anyway I plucked up courage and phoned the great man to ask him if he
would take a butcher's at my portfolio, to which he kindly agreed and I
went to see him in his studio somewhere near Holborn. He was not only very
complimentary about my work but asked me to join him and a few chosen
ones in brain storming meetings that he held every few weeks in the boozer
near his studio. Bloody splendid times and very special and magical!!
Sadly Barney and also Dave Goodman are no longer with us, but wherever
you are gentlemen I raise my glass and salute you for your kindness!
Back to the plot.
So there I am at home one day doing a bit of knitting and low and behold
the old dog and bone starts ringing. I answer it and it's Barney asking me
if I could handle doing a tour programme that he'd been asked to design
but due to other commitments didn't have the time to do.
I'd never done a programme before but thought what the hell it can't be
that hard, so I said yes and then asked him who it was for.
"Oh it's some band called Blondie," was his reply and when I stopped
shaking I put the phone down and went to the toilet... in my pants!!!!
Subsequently I had to go to a merchandising company called 'Holy T.Shirts'
whose offices were based in Great Western Road to pick up the copy and
pictures that they wanted using and slunk off back to Terror Tower and did
the job.
Holy T.Shirts were well happy with the result and consequently I was asked
to pop downstairs to another office in the building as there was this
manager who'd seen the programme and was interested in me doing something
for one of his bands.
Well 'this manager' just happened to be Doug Smith whose clients included
Hawkwind and Motorhead and it was Motorhead that he wanted me to design a
programme for.
It was going to be their first ever programme and all I can remember is
that it used to be referred to as 'the all about being deaf programme'.
Again I delivered the goods, met the band and my life was ruined forever.
Glorious, glorious daze!!!!
This led to more work for Motorhead and also for Hawkwind, Black Sabbath,
April Wine, Gamma, Girlschool and Sammy Hager, to name a few.
I remember doing Hawkwind's 10th anniversary tour programme in 72 hours
without sleep and handfuls of really good acid and on the strength of that
I got asked to do the Hawkwind Live '79 album sleeve. And the rest is
history!!!!
Enjoy.
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| Album Sleeves |
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| Tour Programmes |
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| Magazines & Books |
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Krusher's portfolio is massive so we will be adding new images all of the time. Keep checking back for new stuff.
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So there I am at home one day doing a bit of knitting (don't laugh, some
get their highs playing poker on pokerstars or watching Britney on
MTV, I get mine while knitting) and low and behold the old dog and bone
starts ringing. I answer it and it's Barney asking me if I could handle
doing a tour programme that he'd been asked to design but due to other
commitments didn't have the time to do.
I'd never done a programme before
but thought what the hell it can't be that hard, so I said yes and then
asked him who it was for. "Oh it's some band called Blondie," was his reply
and when I stopped shaking I put the phone down and went to the toilet...
in my pants!!!!
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