Reasons to be Cheerful

Reasons to be Cheerful by Paul Gorman

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but the same rule doesn’t apply to LP’s and singles.

When you leave school and suddenly you are earning enough cash to buy your own stuff, you quickly learn the value of money. Every purchase you make becomes a life or death decision.

Back in 1979 I found myself earning the amazing wage of £18.50 a week which was a massive amount compared to the £1.00 pocket money I was used to. But after giving a fiver to me mum for my keep and then taking out my bus fares and dinner money and maybe buying a pair of jeans or some other item of fashionable garb I’d have a couple of quid left to spend on records.

Top of the Pops was the only time you could see and hear bands. Half of them were shite and a precious few would go on to your “Bands I like” list. The NME, SOUNDS and The Melody Maker was where I learned about proper bands that hardly ever made Top of the Pops but would sometimes appear on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’.

But you can be deceived by a great review. If you’ve never actually heard the band on the radio, the last thing you want to do is waste precious cash on records bought on naff advice from some ‘muso’.

So I came up with my own formula for picking out music to buy.

I owned a little box of precious singles that I loved.

The ones I played the most were “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” by Ian Dury and “Accidents Will Happen” by Elvis Costello both of which had great sleeves. The Elvis one was inside out and was blank on the outside. My mate in school actually owned the album“Armed Forces” which had an amazing cover with fold out flaps that allowed you to turn the sleeve inside out if you wanted. So I started buying records which looked like these.

They were all designed by the same fella - Barney Bubbles, although I didn’t know this at the time.

This formula proved to be a good one. As well as Ian Dury and Elvis Costello he designed covers for The Damned, Dr Feelgood, Billy Bragg, Nick Lowe and countless others. He even did the logo for the beloved NME and directed my favourite music video of all time “Ghost Town” by The Specials.

If you are a fan of British music from the 70’s and early 80’s and Graphic Design. Buy this book. (If you can get your hands on a copy! Currently going for around £160 on eBay).

Barney Bubbles deserves to be famous and not just a graphic design hero.

Here’s a short documentary called “In Search of Barney Bubbles” that’s well worth a listen.

UPDATE!: The book has now been re-released in paperback with a new title and some extra material. Click on the link below.