Fan meet-up , London , Oct. 16 '10

[Man out of Time]

I will aim to be there as soon as I can after 2pm. I have phone numbers for John and for Sulky Lad, but not for Verbal. I will be sure to bring my camera....

MOOT

[krm]

I will aim to be there as soon as I can after 2pm. I have phone numbers for John and for Sulky Lad, but not for Verbal. I will be sure to bring my camera....

MOOT

Camera is essential for this according to us non-londeners!

[Neil.]

Okay, see you around 2 near the exhibition/in the pub near the exhibition/
I have Verbal's number, if I fall out of the loop!

[sulky lad]

So - having been some days in preparation .....
Many, many thanks to Donald And Paul who guided us five miscreants around and took the time to actually describe some of the concepts behind much of the work of Barney Bubbles. i had no idea just how prolific and how much of his artwork runs through the history of popular music from Stiff to his untimely demise. There was a huge amount of Costello related material and the "rejected" album cover for PTC was wonderful to behold as were the sketches made for "Cats And Dogs"
Afterwards Man Out Of Time, Verbal, Neil, John Foyle and myself reconvened to a hostelry to reminisce and, in most of our cases try and not learn too much about National Ransom. Despite my best efforts at mocking up a clear vinyl Tangerine Dream album with a National Ransom label last night, no-one believed me when I produced my allegedly already procured 78 ! The hand written 78rpm on the label probably gave it away !
No doubt a few photos will follow soon, hope everyone got home OK !

[johnfoyle]

Sulky well tells the tale of a most pleasant day in London. It was great to catch up with everyone. My travel to and from was very straight forward. What with going merely going bus/'plane/train from Dublin to Pimlico and back again it really only feels like I popped around the corner for the day.

Here are a few images -


Neil examines the 'domestic' display.


One of the collections of Barney's doodles.


Curator Paul Gorman tells Nick (aka Man Out Of Time) about an exhibit.

As you can see we accepted Paul 'n Donald's offer of a beer. The display got quite crowded while we were there. A woman asked us, at one point, about our interest. As we chatted it turned out she is Barney's 'widow' (they never actually married) and their son was there too today. She told me about their time in Ireland in the 1970's, how she had to drive him everywhere 'cos he didn't drive etc. She was only seeing the exhibition now 'cos she has been travelling recently. She was clearly very proud of Barney's work and happy he is getting recognition. She also commented that it was lucky that the show had content 'cos Barney never kept stuff, always throwing stuff out etc..

It really was a thrill to see all the artifacts - no reproductions on 'net or 'paper can do them justice. They had sold out of copies of the new, second edition of Paul's book about Barney - it should be back in stock by next week. I mentioned to Paul a story I remembered from the book ( I re-read it on the 'plane) and he told of how he had removed that from the new edition 'cos the source turned out to discredited. There was a sample copy of the new edition and , from a quick flick through it, it has tons of new images etc.

A good day - thanks all!

[krm]

Sulky well tells the tale of a most pleasant day in London. It was great to catch up with everyone. My travel to and from was very straight forward. What with going merely going bus/'plane/train from Dublin to Pimlico and back again it really only feels like I popped around the corner for the day.

Here are a few images -



As you can see we accepted Paul 'n Donald's offer of a beer. The display got quite crowded while we were there. A woman asked us, at one point, about our interest. As we chatted it turned out she is Barney's 'widow' (they never actually married) and their son was there too today. She told me about their time in Ireland in the 1970's, how she had to drive him everywhere 'cos he didn't drive etc. She was only seeing the exhibition now 'cos she has been travelling recently. She was clearly very proud of Barney's work and happy he is getting recognition. She also commented that it was lucky that the show had content 'cos Barney never kept stuff, always throwing stuff out etc..

It really was a thrill to see all the artifacts - no reproductions on 'net or 'paper can do them justice. They had sold out of copies of the new, second edition of Paul's book about Barney - it should be back in stock by next week. I mentioned to Paul a story I remembered from the book ( I re-read it on the 'plane) and he told of how he had removed that from the new edition 'cos the source turned out to discredited. There was a sample copy of the new edition and , from a quick flick through it, it has tons of new images etc.

A good day - thanks all!

Thanks for a good review, and it looks like it was a great day indeed. wish I could have joined.......

[Man out of Time]

Thanks to John for arranging this, and for travelling furthest to be there.

Although the Chelsea space is not the largest gallery, it was full of material for this exhibition. It runs for another week and I commend it to anyone who can get there.

Paul Gorman is hoping to exhibit the material again next year "in the provinces" as he put it, but he would not be drawn on where that would be.

Paul revealed that Nick, Graham Parker, Elvis and the Rumour will all be in New York around next weekend, so who knows what may ensue.

MOOT

[verbal gymnastics]

I must admit that initially I wasn't that fussed about seeing the exhibition but I was looking forward to seeing everyone.

My view changed somewhat when I saw some of the exhibits and heard some of the stories from Paul Gorman. There was also some fabulous unreleased material eg a mock up of the rejected Punch the Clock sleeve.

There were also jokes within jokes from Barney's work eg Hamer and Sickle.

I would also urge you to go if you get the chance.

Thanks to Paul and Don for their hospitality.

A good day was had by all.

It was great to see everyone and the beers after were enjoyable (although the prices weren't!!!)

[Neil.]

Yep, good exhibition with a very dapper tour guide in Paul Gorman. Great to see everyone - thanks sulky lad for the cds - watched the DVD tonight - good concert! Verbal, thanks for putting up with my increasingly drunken ramblings and my appalling Elvis impersonation!

[migdd]

Wish I could've crossed the pond to join this excursion. Would've particularly enjoyed catching a glimpse of the proposed PTC cover artwork. I'm sure it would have been an improvement over the original and would have leant an bit of sophistication to the album, especially coming of the Bubbles masterpiece that graced the cover of Imperial Bedroom. Alas.

And, ahem, sharing a few beers with fellow board members would've been pretty nice as well.

[sulky lad]

The PTC rejected cover had the heads of the Attractions replaced by various emblems or graphics - as seen in the Rhino reissue on the last page of the CD booklet - though not in such garish colours. None of us had noticed the "cute,cute,cute" lettering coming from Pete's eyes and we all surmised different reasons for the symbols for Bruce (including postulates about genies, and symbols of Islam ). According to Paul the curator, Barney was devastated when the design was rejected and said of course all pop stars are concerned with promoting their own particular image rather than perhaps being "artistic" in the truest sense of the word.
Brilliant afternoon, as VG said, I wasn't too bothered about the show until I got there and then was mighty glad I had attended it.