RETRO WEST BROM

Here is the next instalment of my quartet of Midlands Retro Football collages ...

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

This fine club began life in 1878, and were one of the founding members of the original Football League in 1888.

Down the years they have achieved success in all the major English trophies, most notably winning the F.A. Cup 5 times. The Baggies added a League title in 1920 and the League Cup in 1966.

Arguably West Brom's finest player, JEFF ASTLE, played a major part in their last big triumph. He scored in every round of the run to the 1968 F.A. Cup Final, and topped it off by scoring the winner against Everton at Wembley.

He also plays a big role on my collage as he leads the way over some fantastic West Brom memories and memorabilia!

Here he is below, and look out for these other bits on the collage as well ...

Jeff Astle bagged 174 goals in 361 games for the Baggies. 

Brilliant souvenirs of the 1968 F.A. Cup victory. Here we have the programme, an A & BC trading card and an original ticket for the final. Unfortunately I sold this ticket at Spitalfields Market a few years ago, but luckily I did a good quality scan of it first, so I could re-use it here!!

Cool retro pin badges from the 1970s, although the top one could be a little older?

These players created an iconic and really important step forward in British football. 
Although not the first black players to play in this country, it was the first time three had played in the same side. Dubbed a cringe-making 'The Three Degrees', they blazed a trail with their talents in an exciting Albion team in the late 70s.
Brendan Batson played in the first football match I ever went to, turning out for Cambridge United. And as I was leaving a packed tube station near Wimbledon's Plough Lane ground, on my way to a match in 1988, Laurie Cunningham squeezed passed me and sprinted down the road. Great memories!!

 

Classic vintage football programme, with a giant West Brom  player booting a ball at the Hawthorns! The Baggies won this match in 1962 against Man City 2-1. 

Next up will be the final part of this Midlands quartet, BIRMINGHAM CITY. 
Stay tuned!!! 

RETRO ASTON VILLA

Here it is, my latest Retro Football collage ...

ASTON VILLA

This proud Midlands club, with a huge history and tradition, having been going since 1874.
And it didn't take them long to accumulate stacks of trophies, winning 6 League titles and 5 F.A. Cups before the First World War.

They've since preceded to win 5 League Cups and a further 2 F.A.Cups, before perhaps their finest achievements happened in the early 80s.
In 1981 they clinched the League Championship, their first for 71 years, pipping rivals Ipswich, in an extraordinary Liverpool-free Championship race. Sensationally, the next season they beat Bayern Munich to win the golden prize of the European Cup.

So I hope Villa fans will enjoy this tribute to the Midlands' most successful club!

Keep an eye out for these bits:

Captain Johnny Dixon lifting the F.A. Cup in 1957, after a Peter McParland double beat Man Utd 2-1.

Bit of a mystery this card! It looks like a classic Godfrey Phillips Pinnace Card from the early 1920s. But after a bit of research online I can't seem to find it. It must date from around 1924, as it mentions they were Cup Finalists in 1923/24. Could be a rare one then?! 

This was a very lucky find at a recent vintage fair. An Aston Villa autograph book with signatures of several Championship winning Villa players dating from the 1981/82 season. Some of them went on to win the European Cup later that season!

Fantastic Panini sticker of a fresh-faced Platty from Football 89. He would go on to have a stellar Italia 90 just a year later.

This 1977 programme didn't make it into the collage, but I just love the cover. It has a bold and slightly incongruous Art Deco font for the title, with a natty logo tucked into the letter O, and a fantastic cover photo. 

The editor thought better of having another boring photo of a player or action shot, and brilliantly decided to have an ordinary match day scene. Just some average punters checking their tickets as they wait to squeeze through the turnstiles. 
And I love it!! 

This match against QPR, scheduled for 19th February 1977, was actually postponed. Strangely they had to replay QPR in a League Cup Semi-Final clash on the 22nd, on their ultimately successful replay-ridden League Cup run. Eventually it was played on 20th May, ending in a 1-1 draw, hopefully they kept the same cover!!

Keep an eye out for the next instalment of my Midlands club collages, as I've now finished Villa's rivals West Brom and Birmingham!

BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE – 100 YEARS ON

Of all the First World War centenary anniversaries to come along, this one perhaps represents the most tragic.

Any modern-day historian who quibbles and moans about the fallacy of the "Lions led by donkeys" mantra, need look no more than this futile battle.

The worst conditions, the worst location and against enormous German fortifications, you had an utterly predictable outcome. Add the fact they threw huge amounts of high explosives onto the area, churning up the already waterlogged ground even more, made the whole battlefield a quagmire.

The arrogance and stupidity of Haig and his staff wasted thousands and thousands of lives.
Just the single word 'Passchendaele', has long since been associated with the wholesale waste and slaughter of a generation.

Any lessons and tactics learnt from the Somme a year earlier were simply thrown away.
The whole sorry saga started on July 31st 1917 and slogged onto 10th November 1917. Casualty figures, although much debated, stood at around a baffling 260,000 for the Allies and about the same for the Germans.

Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery near the village of Passchendaele, is the place to go to get a sense of the battle. It has 11,965 graves, and a Memorial to the Missing with the names of 33,783. 
Of course its a sobering place, with German pillboxes in amongst the graves and placed on crucial higher ground, giving you a view of the Cloth Hall tower in Ypres, barely a few miles away.

After visiting it a few years ago, I spotted a lone poppy just outside the entrance, on the edge of a field full of crops. A field where thousands of people died. 

Just a few of the names on the Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot.

Three postcards of the huge cemetery, dating to the late 1920s, early 30s. Note the still bare landscape in the background.

The totally ruined Cloth Hall at Ypres. This postcard was sent on the 1st August 1919, unbelievably, it had a Censor stamp on it. Meaning the military were still monitoring what people were saying.

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres, which holds the names of 54,896 soldiers from the surrounding battlefields, including Passchendaele.

RETRO WOLVES

Welcome to my latest Retro Football collage

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

It was great fun working on this as Wolves are a great club with a great history.

I always chose a legend of each club as a main image. However, there were so many players that fitted the bill, I had a huge list! But in the end I had to use the incomparable BILLY WRIGHT.

He was the first player to reach a 100 England caps, won 3 League Titles, an FA Cup, and captained Wolves and England with great distinction throughout the 1950s. He even married Joy, one of the famous Beverley Sisters, making them the Posh & Becks of their day!

The 50s really were Wolves' moment in time, lead by manager STAN CULLIS, the trophies kept coming, and they established themselves on the European stage with iconic floodlit friendlies with some of Europe's elite. It's a shame the club has been on a roller coaster ride ever since.

Cups, promotions, relegations, financial meltdowns, you name it, it's happened to Wolves!!

As my cut-off point for these retro tributes is the year 1989, the extraordinary goalscorer STEVE BULL just about makes it on here! His debut was 3 years earlier, before he embarked on scoring an absolute mountain of goals for Wolves.
Other folk heroes included are 'THE DOOG' – DEREK DOUGAN, JOHN RICHARDS, JOHNNY HANCOCKS, MIKE BAILEY, KENNY HIBBITT and DEREK PARKIN.

See who you can spot in there!!

Below are a couple of bits to look out for:

Future Wolves manager, Stan Cullis, featured on a 1938 Churchman's Cigarettes Association Footballers card.

Rare metal pin badge celebrating Wolves' 1974 League Cup win over Man City.

Iconic 60s and 70s striker Derek Dougan.

And here is one item I just couldn't fit in:

THE DOOG'S AUTOGRAPH!!! 

At the top of the page, in amongst other Wolves players from the 1981/82 season.

I'm currently trying to complete the set of all the major Midlands clubs. At the moment I've nearly finished ASTON VILLA, and will then start work on WEST BROM and BIRMINGHAM.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!

DRIFTWOOD ART

One of the many delights of living by the sea is finding driftwood on the beach after a storm.

But we at ArtPix Towers like to go a bit further. Not just picking up bits of wood, but coming back with whole bits of furniture!

We found this amazing and slightly bashed bench down on Chesil Beach a couple of months ago.
After hauling it up the hill and getting it home, I set about cleaning it up and working out what to do with it.

As it was missing its legs on one side, I sawed it virtually in half. Then stripped away the bits falling off and repaired the other legs.

After much sanding down, I painted it a rather dashing red and white, and hey presto, a lovely new bench for the back yard!!

So keep an eye out for washed up bits of furniture after a storm!

SPACE INVADERS!!

Here is another decoupage that has just come off the ArtPix production line ...
As you can see there are some cool retro Space Invaders, raining down on a kaleidoscope of people.

I actually started thinking about this collage about 5 years ago, I painted the canvas bright yellow and collected the images, but have only really had the time to complete it now.  The canvas is 60cm deep x 45cm wide, so it was a nice size to work on.

It's a bit Sgt Pepper/Peter Blake as there are a few famous people in there, but they are mostly just cut from random spare magazines that were lying around. Although I was pleased to get John Betjeman on there, probably tutting at the horrible building!!

I've really enjoyed doing these collages, and I've also completed one on the Liverpool football team as well, that's already in my unit at The Customs House in West Bay.

I've been doing digital collages in Photoshop for about 20 years, so it was a completely different experience and way of working. Nice to get covered in glue and then realise you actually wanted that person over there, but is too late as you've already stuck it down!! A good tip is not to look at it too much when you finish, as you can't change anything, unlike a Photoshop collage!

Now I'm rooting around the ArtPix studio for any spare vintage magazines for my next venture!

DELVING INTO DECOUPAGE!

Just recently there has been a flurry of creativity at ArtPix Towers down on the Isle of Portland!
I've finally had a crack at doing a decoupage as well!!

Have been meaning to try it out for absolutely ages, but have never had the time or actually worked out how you do it, and what materials you need.

So I bought a small canvas, some PVA glue and gloss varnish and rescued a torn copy of a Beano from my unit at The Customs House, which I could no longer sell, and started to rip it up!

After working out where all the bits will go, I started sticking it all down. I'd never used PVA glue before and couldn't believe how easy and brilliant it was!! I'll no longer be surrounding myself with clouds of spray mount or getting stuck together with double-sided tape in the future!!!

Then after 3 coats of varnish it was all finished!

It was all an experiment really, to see if I could do it, and obviously using a Beano is hardly original, but it was great fun!

Although I hate to use and cut up original vintage items, I do have a few tatty 1950s Belgian magazines hanging around, that have amazing pictures and adverts in them. So as they are beyond selling I can use those.