TWO EVENINGS WITH JO QUAIL

I'm pleased to say I've designed the poster for a very special event taking place this weekend ...

The amazing electric cellist and composer JO QUAIL will be performing two concerts in London. 
In the atmospheric and intimate surroundings of The Harrison bar, just a stone's throw from King's Cross, is your chance to see Jo playing live.

With hugely successful European and Australian tours already under her belt, Jo's reputation as an innovative and exciting performer is just growing and growing. But hurry up, as Sunday is already sold out and there are just a few tickets left for Saturday.

Get them HERE

WONDERFUL WEST BAY

Just in case you were going to wander down to West Bay some time soon, I thought I'd let you know that The Customs House is now on its winter hours.

The fantastic antiques centre in Dorset, where I have my unit, is now open from Thursday to Sunday of each week between 10am and 5pm. 

So to avoid any disappointments don't turn up on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday!!!

Sales are still brisk down there and people are already stocking up with, (dare I say it?!), Xmas pressies...!!
I have plenty of gorgeous vintage pieces, my own designs on frames, laminates, fridge magnets and cards as well as wonderful books, both vintage and new novels.

So get down there and start shopping!!!

This is their website for further info... HERE

And after all that shopping, take a stroll along the wonderful beach at West Bay!

NOVEMBER 11th

Armistice Day is once more upon us ...

This year we have seen the 100th anniversaries of the worst savagery war can produce, the Somme and Verdun. Also the sea battle at Jutland. Next year will be the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele, in my opinion a titanic catastrophe and shocking waste of life.

I'll be at the Cenotaph in London at 11am, for the extraordinarily understated and silent ceremony that takes place there. Absolute silence prevails right in the centre of London. 

Still good to see so many people wearing a poppy all this week. Everyone will have their own personal reason for wearing one, and it should be left at that.

The poppy should also be worn to remember the survivors who came home from the trenches. Those people, who for years, silently and resolutely lived with their memories and never spoke of it.

My favourite war poet, Siegfried Sassoon, wrote this to prove how little people really understood.

Survivors

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain
   Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they're 'longing to go out again,' –
   These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
   Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died, –
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
   Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride ...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

©Siegfried Sassoon
Craiglockhart, October 1917

NEW STOCK AT THE CUSTOMS HOUSE!

This weekend I'll be roaring down the A303 to stock up my unit The Customs House!
So pop in to the gorgeous antique centre at West Bay in Dorset and check it all out.

I've been hard at work producing new frames, getting A3 laminates done, putting together some football programmes packages and sorting and sifting through many fantastic vintage items.

So have a peep here and get a sneak preview of all the goodies on offer!!!

Here are some retro Arsenal programmes, I also have packages of Tottenham and West Ham.

You can now get my popular Beatles collage on an A3 sized laminate. Handy for framing, sticking to the fridge or plonking anywhere!

Lovely Ordnance Survey map of Bournemouth from 1954.
I have many more vintage maps in the unit.

A dazzling array of classic Duran Duran singles from the early 1980s, available together in one package.

A mad bit of retro footie memorabilia, a cheesy 12" single from Euro 88 by Stock, Aitken and Waterman!!

A fantastic 1958 Film Show Annual featuring Elvis Presley.

Classic Planet of the Apes Annual from 1978.

This enhanced photo of Portland Bill in Dorset I did is also available on an A3 laminate.

Sizzling Sixties Crown Devon ceramic flour and sugar shakers!

A brilliant soundtrack album of the absolutely iconic 1965 film The Sound of Music. It also features a rare 8-page booklet.

A fantastic box set of 1940s Swing music, with 3 records and a book, produced by Time Life Records in 1971.

Gorgeous shaped glass vase from the 1960s.

BOBBY TAMBLING – CHELSEA LEGEND

The other day I picked up a copy of the autobiography of a 1960s footballing legend.

BOBBY TAMBLING!!

Bobby was banging in the goals for Chelsea, as the club mirrored the fashionable King's Road and became an iconic part of Sixties London.

He was very much part of that young and exciting team, who lead by the enigmatic manager Tommy Docherty, became one of the most talked about teams of the decade. But despite all the glitz and the glamour, Bobby was an unassuming and down-to-earth guy who just got on with his job.

A classic A & BC card from 1963, showing Bobby in Chelsea's fashionable new kit.

Through his tenacity and fighting spirit he became Chelsea's record goalscorer with 202 goals when he left the club in 1970. A phenomenal record which was only beaten by Frank Lampard 43 years later!

Brilliantly the book was signed by Bobby, with the nice touch of 202 added!

Bobby is a true gent and a proper legend, who missed out on all the silly wages now swilling around the game, so had to dig deep to survive after his playing career was over.
With serious ill-health in later life he needed his fighting spirit all over again, and the support he got from the club and its fans helped him battle through the tough times. 


Back in the late 80s, I actually met Bobby at a Save the Bridge charity game at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately I can't remember it!!
I do recall meeting Peter Osgood, David Webb, Tommy Baldwin and a few TV celebs of the day, but not Bobby. Years later I found the programme tucked away in the ArtPix Archives, and in amongst all the autographs, was Bobby's signature on a picture of him. What a shame I don't remember him signing it!

FRANCE AND THE GREAT WAR

I've wanted to do a collage dedicated to France's First World War experience for a long time now.
And after my last visit there last month I've once more been inspired...

On my original 1914-18 collage, the starting point was the ordinary Tommy. I deliberately chose at random, from a selection of WW1 postcards in an antiques shop, a portrait of a soldier to represent the Unknown Warrior.  
I was really keen to do this for the French collage as well, again at random. And whilst visiting a brocante fair in Auvergne I managed to find a tiny Carte de Visite card, in amongst a huge stall, with a picture of a French soldier. An anonymous face from the past to represent the ordinary Poilu. 

France's relationship and memory of the First World War is much different to our own. To us it was mostly an overseas war, but to the French it was a direct attack on their own homeland.
We have the Somme and Passchendaele, while they have the crushingly senseless slaughter of Verdun as their focus of remembrance.

As such their memorials have a subtle difference to our own. Having been to France many times I've studied them and noticed they can be dramatic with figures in exaggerated poses with a defiant air about them. A sense of victory sometimes seems to be the focus. Ours are often sombre and reflective.

The defiant pose of a soldier's head on the memorial at St Jacques des Blats, with the wording 'Hardi les Gars', which has the rough translation of 'Take courage and go forward lads'.

Again, an exaggerated pose on this memorial at the village of Job.

I'll be rooting around the ArtPix Archives for all the items of French World War I memorabilia I've got, including medals, postcards, books and many, many photographs.

My original First World War collage.

RETRO LEICESTER CITY

Pleased to say I sold my first LEICESTER CITY frame this week!!!

My brand new design of the Premier League Champions is a retro tribute to the fantastic Foxes. It features many old faves who've valiantly served Leicester down the years.

I'm hoping to get down to my unit at The Customs House in West Bay, Dorset soon to restock all things Retro Football, so I'll be adding more Leicester frames then.

There are still some groovy fridge magnets featuring Foxes legends Frank Worthington and Alan Birchenall in there though, if you want one of those!

Check them out below...

The two different fridge magnet designs with the Leicester legends!

The retro Leicester City design, available in an A4 frame from my unit at The Customs House, West Bay.