Inner City Unit illustrations by Barney Bubbles
Rebecca and Mike: Here are some Inner City Unit illustrations by Barney Bubbles that were published in Cheesecake #4 (1981). Cheesecake was a zine published by Nazar Ali Khan, Inner City Unit bass player and friend of Barney’s. Check the toothbrushes in 1, maybe these are the type Barney used for his artwork? And the ‘DER’ in 3 will be familiar to those with an interest in the extended Damned discography. These pics are from Rebecca and Mike and Nazar’
rebecca and mike, 
David Wills tells tales 
John Coulthart 9:13 pm on November 18, 2008 Permalink |
Did Barney design all the ICU stuff? I’m guessing now he did although I didn’t consider it at the time. A couple of the singles were striking as well and they had that spiky logo/symbol thing that was very un-Hawkwind.
Another question: is there any of that stuff which Nik Turner *didn’t* sign? (Ha!)
rebecca and mike 9:46 pm on November 18, 2008 Permalink |
hi john,
welcome back to the world of fanzines LOL!
without getting into a complete listography (new word we just invented?) of Barney-ICU items, the ones that immediately spring to mind as Barney are Pass Out, Maximum Effect, Punkadelic and the Riddle Records house sleeve. there are some ICU items he didn’t do, like the Solitary Ashtray single.
Nazar Ali Khan 10:27 pm on November 18, 2008 Permalink |
I did the artwork for New Anatomy, which was ICU’s post-Barney album. All the artwork, including ads and t-shirts, was based on conversations that I’d had with Barney about his interests in particle physics and quantum mechanics.
davidwills 10:43 pm on November 18, 2008 Permalink |
The toothbrush reference refers to a time when, in ’69, Barney put the word out that he needed to know what alternatives there were available to spray stencil, “not using a fancy spray-gun… you know like the Gallois Pack, but not smoke you know, like the……Lautrec posters.” Barney harbored massive feelings against those on whom his fury was unleashed, as it was on poor Alan Aldridge. Beyond all get out. Barney didn’t like the wind-blown anonymous ‘smoothies’ he saw all over. I advised use of the toothbrush, but more practically a can of graffiti artist’s Japlac Black, which works very well.
Like many good Englishmen Barney had bad teeth, I know he cleaned his teeth occasionally, so it was a life changing episode when he got his teeth fixed – up there with getting his hair-cut in 75, ask Kate Moon.
davidwills 1:33 am on November 19, 2008 Permalink |
Please tell us more about your conversation, Nazar.
Nazar Ali Khan 10:16 am on November 19, 2008 Permalink |
I think he was interested in the indeterminacy of matter and in the role of the observer in the perception of an object.
I remember a large painting that he had done for someone who was nicknamed “Snow White”. A grid of colours. In each square of the grid was a letter, creating a concrete poem across the painting. As you stepped back, a portrait of Snow White appeared from the grid and the letters were snow.
Barney was full of ideas. He once grabbed a book called “Anatomy of the Motor Car” off his shelf and showed me a drawing of a V12 engine. “Look at this, Naz, it could be a city!” Soon after he died, I found a second hand copy of the same book and still keep it on my bookshelf.
davidwills 3:43 pm on November 19, 2008 Permalink |
Thanks Naz, got a picture of the engine to share?
rebecca and mike 4:15 pm on November 19, 2008 Permalink |
have you noticed how the toothbrush bristles get darker from left to right: the more you clean the dirtier things get.
John Coulthart 4:22 pm on November 19, 2008 Permalink |
Hmm, interesting about the airbrush versus toothbrush stuff. I spent most of my teenage years wishing I could get hold of an airbrush. I had a cheap plastic thing for a while, the real ones were too expensive. I borrowed a proper one for a few days which was powered by an antique compressor that made a noise as loud as a motorcycle engine and which vibrated so much it moved around the floor. So I also ended up with a range of toothbrushes for splattering ink, something I used increasingly in the comics I was doing in the 1990s.
I have a proper airbrush now, and a can of Letraset propellant, but they remain unused; Photoshop makes all that effort spent masking bits of paper seem rather redundant.
Paul Gorman 6:37 am on November 20, 2008 Permalink |
Hi Nazar
Is the painting to which you refer a portrait of Claire, a girlfriend of furniture-maker Marcus Cain?
It’s big – 6ft x 4ft.
It’s also wonderful; the letters spell out the first verse of Heartbreak Hotel.
We feature it in the book so have a butcher’s there.
Apologies for not getting touch with you. There was a finite amount of people I could talk to directly but wuite a few people talked about you and I do make reference to you, your work with BB, Cheesecake and the fact that you designed New Anatomy.
Best
PG
rebecca and mike 4:52 pm on November 20, 2008 Permalink |
The engine story that Nazar tells above, brings to mind the cover Barney did for Clover’s ‘Unavailable’ LP. You can see it here:
If you were to un-explode and un-cutaway the object depicted, you would end up with a four-leaf clover.
(And the toothbrush clearly got put to work on this artwork too!)
davidwills 8:53 pm on November 20, 2008 Permalink |
Furniture maker Marcus Cain (with no ‘e’) – It was suggested by me (wrongly, thank you RandM) that Marcus is the son of Osmund Caine, the Headmaster at Barney’s art school, Twickenham. I was wrong. Osmund was an unintentional instigator of Eel Pie Island’s ascendancy in the History of Rock ‘n Roll, see my earlier post on the subject.
rebecca and mike 8:40 am on November 21, 2008 Permalink |
small point but… it’s marius cain, not marcus, not caine with an ‘e’.
davidwills 7:37 pm on November 21, 2008 Permalink |
Who’s got a date on the Snow Flake painting, my guess is 82/3 ?
I think he spoke about this in ’83, when he talked about what he was working on, mayso I saw it before the text went on in May ’83 on an easel (could that be?) in the Geotgian row house basement close by Paddinton. But I have a easy perchant for memory enhanced invention in these matters, so take it with a pinch of sodium.
Paul Gorman 9:58 am on November 22, 2008 Permalink |
Damn – thanks for pointing out the misspell – and apologies Marius (post in haste etc).
Marius told me he received the portrait of Claire in 1982 as part payment for a job he had done for BB (he couldn’t recall exactly which one).
David – you’ll see in the book (soon come) that I expand on your memories of Osmund Caine with reference to an obituary.
rebecca and mike 3:36 pm on November 23, 2008 Permalink |
The obituary for Osmund Caine published in The Independent on Tuesday, 7 December 2004 can be found here in its entirety:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/osmund-caine-678783.html