“An Alternative Use For A Prize Winning Marrow”

Paul Vickers 02 May 2003

I have only worked as a photographer, in a paid professional manner, once in my life so far. I was pushed but I jumped into it with both feet. That was when the band which I front “Dawn of the Replicants” was signed to East/West records. We had completed the recording of our first album and we were gearing up towards our first commercial releases, but had no ideas as to how to present the band visually. So, to get things started, one of my fellow band mates Grant Pringle and I went down to London to have a meeting with East/West’s in-house graphic designer, Paul Chessell. We talked about what we liked as far as cover art was concerned. Grant talked about his love of 4AD art man Vaughan Oliver and his work with the Pixies. I talked about Factory Records and their minimalist marketing approach to the artwork with bands like Joy Division. I also spoke of my love of the Smith’s artwork and their use of movie stills from kitchen sink dramas of the early 1960s.

I felt we needed something that had a sense of continuity, so that our records would have a slightly regimented look in the shops. Paul Chessell told us that he had always loved Iron Maiden’s artwork as a kid and loved their use of the mythical character Eddie and that was what got him interested in graphic design in the first place. I got a little worried at this point. Chessell spoke about Sisters of Mercy and their fairly minimal approach to design. I started to sweat and became engulfed in a misty river of uncertainty about Chessell’s involvement in the project. Then he started speaking about R.E.M.’s use of industrial romanticism through Michael Stipe’s bleak and spiky photographs. I felt that we were on safer ground but an earthquake may still be inevitable.

We talked about the lyrics and the need to express their meanings and themes in the Artwork. As the lyric writer I was keen to do this, but only in an abstract fashion rather than focussing on literal interpretations. Then Chessell came up with the idea of me experimenting with a Polaroid camera. I was quite excited by this concept and said I would go away and do some work. The meeting was concluded with Chessell telling me that East/West would buy me a camera and pay me for doing the job. This tickled my fancy, although I was a little worried as to what I could do. But I was keen to take on the challenge.

I went back to Galashiels an took a series of images of barber shop windows, shopping centre architecture, broken machinery and telegraph posts and tree stumps. I distressed many of the images by burning the back of the photo as they developed to create a natural explosion of colour. I liked the idea that images could have been taken by an obsessed fan stalking the band’s hometown and familiar haunts, such as the vast practice area which was the top floor of a warehouse that also housed a large car mechanic’s workshop. Some of the images focussed on the band themselves, setting up their equipment before a practice. But these images seemed too direct and didn’t work as well.

Then I went down to London for another meeting with Chessell. He loved them and started to separate the images according to their most prominent colours. Many were a cold blue, some a fiery red and some that I took inside a deserted shop space – pure white. Chessell worked on a logo that would suit the organic, yet dramatic nature of the photos. He came up with something that looked like lettering for a Godzilla B movie, by overlaying two text blocks Helvetica and Times New Roman slightly off centre with each other, and then printing the logo out on card and distressing the writing with razor blade cuts and sellotape. The strips of sellotape were stuck down on the card and then removed quickly, so that parts of the black ink on the original logo were removed, giving the letters a distressed look that reflected the mood of the photos.

The plan was certainly coming together and I was happy that Chessell was obviously very good at his job, and now speaking more Vaughan Oliver than Iron Maiden. Chessell also planned to put the logo in the left hand corner, instead of the more natural right corner, to create further unease in the overall look of the artwork. This look worked perfectly for our first 3 E.P.s, but the marketing department had worries about this lo-fi look as the album release drew near.

I needed to find a less dreamy or abstract image. Something more memorable and direct. I had numerous conversations with Chessell about finding this image. We weren’t exactly looking for a dark side of the moon George Hardie kind of image, but wanted something that had a classic look. Chessell had some kind of idea that involved using a deserted farmhouse, seven televisions, and a series of security cameras. Basically the whole band would be running around the house, as professional photographers documenting this grand multimedia event caught fleeting glances of them on T.V. screens. But this idea gave me the fear. It just seemed too fussy.

We thought about going to art galleries and finding a young up and coming artist to do the album cover, like the Manic Street Preachers had done with Jenny Saville and her images of grotesquely obese naked women. But I was determined I would get what we needed with my Polaroid and that we would not need an outside source. Chessell kept going on about Vaughan Oliver’s most recent work with the Icelandic band Gus Gus. I was getting more and more stressed out. Gus Gus had a booklet accompanying their debut album; it included photos of blocks of ice on benches. The local police force arrested members of the band and a beautifully composed portrait of the band sitting around a table like some sort of dysfunctional family which re-sparked an old idea I had had of having a day out at a cheesy family photographers studio so that the whole band could be photographed like a bizarre family unit. The formulaic manner in which these photographers’ work often involves rolling moors backdrops and fake antique furniture as props. This would have made the band look like a hardworking homosexual Bulgarian hippy commune, which I thought could be interesting but it was not to be.

Then in a pine warehouse, I found something I liked. A two-foot tall bellboy statue holding out a tray. I didn’t know what exactly to do with it yet, but knew I needed a cool environment to place the bellboy in. So off my friends Andy Foggin, Grant Pringle and I went in the car to find an interesting location. We stopped by an avenue of trees leading up to an orchard and a farmhouse. Grant got out of the car to go into the main building to conduct an interview for the regional interest magazine, Border Life. It was a lovely day and Fog had his Shabba Rank’s tape cranked up in the car and was grinning like the king of Spain. Something good was bound to happen. The creative cogs in our minds started turning. When we opened the boot, to my surprise Fog was not only carrying our bellboy mate but a large prize-winning marrow, which his mum had grown for the Earlston fete. We simply placed the bellboy in the lane, put the marrow on the bellboy’s outstretched tray and I snapped away burning each photo as they developed. Grant came out of the farmhouse after his interview and looked at the photos and loved the results. Hey presto, we had an album cover. Later on Fog accidentally smashed the head off the bellboy while lifting it out of the car. We improvised with this disaster and got some great photos for the back cover of the now headless bellboy.

The band loved it. Chessell loved it and the marketing department at East/West kept their mouths shut. The job was a “Good’un”. The artwork for our album and assorted releases seemed to have the desired effect of reflecting the mood of the band, and many commented on it in interviews. The biggest nod as far as influence went, was probably to Vaughan Oliver and his abstract and sometimes disturbing photography with its mixture of distressed and primitive use of bubbles of text. The way he uses the element of cut and paste in his work glorifies mistakes yet still manages to be stylish without descending into the amateur or messy design.

We may have only touched the coattail of his genius, but at least I got paid and remain proud of the work I put in. Also, I must add that we met our deadlines, but by the end of the campaign I was sick of my Polaroid hanging around my neck wherever I went. I looked like some bumbling American tourist. So I moved to 35mm and my passion for photography was rekindled when I came to Edinburgh College of art to study the medium in greater depth.

Now I consider myself to be not only a songwriter and performer, but a photographer as well. There are two sides to every coin and I just love flipping between the two.

Reference Material

Young British Artists;The Saatchi decade Bloomsbury Books
4AD Website
Details of action, Leo Rune Chapel House press
Dawn of the Replicants Archives