Brian Griffin celebrates his retrospective titled Face to Face from September 30, 2010 until November 21, 2010 at Snow Hill Plaza in Birmingham. The outdoor exhibition focuses on his portraiture showcasing some of his influences that inspired his creativity and work over his career of photography, film and Audio-Visual Art. Brian Griffins body of work is inspiring and influential and he is considered one of the most influential British Photographers creating colorful iconic imagery for music, commercial, and film from the seventies until today. Although he mainly focuses on commercial and Film these days, it's hard to forget the iconic imagery he created for some of the great musical artists in the 80's including Echo and The Bunnymen
, Depeche Mode, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, and Joe Jackson to name a few. |
Echo & The Bunnymen 'Crocodiles' Photography by Brian Griffin 1980 |
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Echo & The Bunnymen 'Heaven up Here' Photography by Brian Griffin 1981 |
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Echo & The Bunnymen 'Porcupine'  Photography by Brian Griffin 1983 |
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Echo and & Bunnymen 'Ocean Rain' Photography by Brian Griffin 1984 |
Brians image for Joe Jacksons Look Sharp
is considered by many to be one of the greatest album covers of the seventies.
is considered by many to be one of the greatest album covers of the seventies.
Brian worked with co-conspiritor and genius graphic designer Barney Bubbles on many photo and design projects during the seventies and eighties creating album covers for many great artists including Elvis Costello and Depeche Mode. Barney passed away in 1983 but his work is still inspiring and influencing designers and artists today. A Barney Bubbles post will sure to be up soon!
Echo & the Bunnymen "The Killing Moon" Directed by Brian Griffin 1984
The exhibition Brian Griffin: Face to Face, a retrospective runs until November 21 and showcases portraiture from the last 38 years.
For more information on Brian Griffin and his work visit
and 
era and Cummins was given full access during this period to document what we now know as one of the most influential bands from the 80's. Spanning 200 pages, Cummins photographs show the landscape, the mood and the intensity of Ian Curtis and introspective moments of the band as well as a smattering of memorabilia including lyric sheets, 
posters, and concert tickets. The photos immortalize and stretch full page giving the gripping essence of the environment from which the iconic band existed for such a short but influential time. 
but does anyone know that before 
hit the mainstream they were a post-punk noise band in the vein of 
? Their first album 
recorded before the band's debut album, Mesh & Lace, in 1981, the band in the early days showing a strong Joy Division influence.A second Peel session was recorded in October 1981. The follow-up, After The Snow (April 1982), was more keyboard-oriented and was compared to Simple Minds and 
.It was also released in the United States by 
the following year, where it reached number 70 on the Billboard chart, and sold over 500,000 copies.Grey said of the album, "We used to think 'God, we'll never make a pop record. We're artists!', but things don't always turn out as you planned and when you actually create a pop record, it's so much more of a thrill than anything else". The second single from the album was also a hit in the US, the jangly "I Melt With You" reaching number 78. When he reviewed the album, Johnny Waller of Sounds described the track as "A dreamy, creamy celebration of love and lust, which deserves to be showcased on as 12" single all by itself, with no b-side", while his colleague Tony Mitchell described it as "suburban amateurism at its most unrewarding". The band relocated to New York City and worked on a third album, 
, which again made the top 100 in the US, after which the band left 4AD and were solely signed to 
outside the UK and Canada.The album Stop Start (1986) was the last record Modern English record released by Sire, with the band splitting up after its release. Grey and Conroy along with Modern English worked with 
before re-forming Modern English with Mick Conroy and Aaron Davidson for a new album in 1990, Pillow Lips, now on the American 
fan stating that anything after 
is crap and too arty. I have to say I completely disagree.
was released in April of 1987 and holds strong in 2010. I have to admit at the time it was released in 1987 the direction seemed a little done in the sense that Bands like 
had already made the transition from punk to dance music several years before and were taking it to the main stream. 
of course was on a different pursuit. They were experimenting with sound and the times have finally caught with these art rock innovators.The Ideal Copy never sounded so good. The direction that Wire went with The Ideal Copy would not be understood by us earthlings until the world was run by 
.
in 1986 after reuniting). Mute Records released the album.
, 
, and 
. This prompted music critics to compare The Ideal Copy to groups such as 
.One critic, Kirk Fillmore, further compared the electric bass's sound on the single "Ahead" to that of New Order's Peter Hook, though bassist Graham Lewis had played in such a style on previous Wire albums.Indeed, journalist Richard Grabel pointed out that "New Order and any number of other synths-and-guitars bands took cues from late-70s Wire," suggesting that "things [had] come full circle."
format.(source:wikipedia)
was less a band than a never-ending collective of musicians messing with tapes in the basement of a London flat. Begun in 1979 by Alig Pearce, a label called Small Wonder released their first 7" when they still went by the name Te Deum. (Interestingly, the other two singles released concurrently by the label were the first 
single and 
' "Bela Lugosi's Dead.") The band was led by odd splices of 
, 
effects, and Dominique Levillain's chanteuse vocals. Influenced by 
t, 
, and 
, Pearce moved his compositions from 
to 
to 
music full of cut-up 
. The band thought themselves to be very serious musicians but the music takes on a light air due to the splicing and humor throughout. The group toured three times between 1981 and 1982. In 1983, Pearce borrowed some of the band's record advance money from their new label, Fresh, to fund another project's tour. The resulting album, All Styles, came out of these diminished funds and was scratchy, ill planned, and home-recorded. It sold only about 100 copies when released. Pearce went on to be a professional accordionist and in 1989 reformed Family Fodder with Levillain, Hobbs, and Wilson. He also tours under the name Johnny Human. With the 1999 reissue by Dark Beloved Cloud, Family Fodder has found a new audience with avant and new wave enthusiasts.