A PLUG FOR A NEWSPAPER...

This very nice e-mail dropped into the Inbox during the week:-

Jim

Just a heads up.

In this Saturday’s Herald Mag I’ve got a feature about the late David Band running (I was prompted by one of your posts after David’s death last year). I’ve spoken to his parents, brother, partner, Gary Kemp & Clare Grogan amongst others. Thought you might be interested.

Teddy

Teddy Jamieson
Senior Features Writer
The Herald
200 Renfield Street
Glasgow G2 3QB

It was actually a very fine post penned by Mr John Greer last July that Teddy Jamieson is referring to.  John wrote at the time:-

Back in April this year the world of Scottish music lost one it’s unsung heroes to cancer.

David Band, who designed record sleeves for Altered Images, Aztec Camera and Spandau Ballet died aged 51.

All of the early singles by Altered Images including Dead Pop Stars, I Could Be Happy as well as the album cover for Happy Birthday all had David’s distinctive paintings on their sleeves. Clare Grogan recently described him as being the closest thing to a brother she ever had and a real member of the Altered Images family.

Roddy Frame asked Band to design the cover of Aztec Camera’s debut album High Land, Hard Rain.

Frame gave Band a demo tape of the album and a free hand to come up with an album cover, Frame wanted to shy away from the usual glossy cover that was common during that time.
He said, “David was a real music fan, who I knew would listen to the tracks and put his own interpretation into the artwork. If you look at the cover you can see the bugler from The Bugle Sounds Again and the train from Lost Outside The Tunnel”.

Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet asked David to design the covers for the album Parade and the single True and his bird symbol featured in the video for the successful Gold single. Band continued to produce artwork for the subsequent Spandau singles and album.
David studied at the Glasgow School of Art. His brother Keith was bassist for Bourgie Bourgie. He produced artwork for Bourgie Bourgie, including the iconic cover of the single Breaking Point.

He went on to set up an art collective and studio "The Cloth" with Fraser Taylor, who produced covers for Friends Again. It was during this period David Band designed T-Shirts for Paul Smith (incidentally a favourite in JC's wardrobe)
As an artist, he was described as having a keen sense of colour and form.

David Band’s paintings hung in galleries in Sydney, New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

On hearing of his death Lloyd Cole said, “I hope he is remembered as a vibrant artist and a key component in the Glasgow music scene”

David Band died on the 20th of April in Melbourne, Australia, where he lived with his partner and 7 year old son.

What Teddy has done is mark the anniversary of David's passing with a superb six-page feature in the magazine section of The Herald. It tells of his time at the Glasgow School of Art, his involvement in the local music scene, his move to London where he found fame and a fair bit of fortune, the sudden and unexpected move to Australia and the subsequent legacy he has left behind.  It's a superb bit of writing that brought back a lot of memories for me....and I reckon that if the Glasgow music scene of the 80s is something you're fond of, you'll want to read it.

Right now, it's not available on-line.  But if that changes, then I will put up a fresh posting letting you know.  In the meantime, it's well worth buying a copy of the paper for the article, especially for some of the great photos that accompany it.

mp3 : Aztec Camera - Lost Outside The Tunnel
mp3 : Altered Images - A Day's Wait
mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Careless