As some of you know I am a fully paid up member of Julian Cope’s Black Sheep ensemble of outsider artists, musicians and forward thinkers. This is how I met David and was immediately struck by his presence and talent. It was an absolute honour to play a small part in this by taking photographs for the album artwork and enjoy a great day out on and around Anglesea last December taking photos at various appropriate locations.
The album should be available to buy soon at www.headheritage.co.uk
On the subject of the Black Sheep, I must also briefly mention the following project, the first task for my involvement in the Black Sheep Art & Craft Division. After seeing the box I created for my Prehistoric Peak Pocket Guide Series, Julian Cope asked me to create boxes for the first in his ‘Cultural Doorway Series’: individually boxed hand-painted models of the E. C. Dorchester armoured command vehicle. The reason for choosing this model as the first in the series is best described my Cope himself on the bottom label of the boxes:
‘Welcome to the first release from the Black Sheep’s new ‘cultural doorway series’, in which we highlight bizarre and unlikely historical paradoxes. We begin with this re-finished 1950s Dinky Toys 1/60th scale model of the British a.E. C. Dorchester, a mobile armoured command centre used throughout WW2, and named after the luxurious London hotel on account of its (for the time) sumptuous fittings. Bizarrely, the German army – despite its fearsome reputation for wielding highly technologically advanced weaponry – was unable to field an equivalent to the Dorchester. So instead, the German army’s north African-based General Erwin Rommel simply commandeered two such captured vehicles for his own use, painting a large german cross on both the sides and rear, simultaneously creating an unlikely allied/axis hybrid.’
The process of making the boxes was fairly simple and one that enjoyed immensely. After careful measurements I cut the basic box from craft card and glued it together. Then the top and bottom parts were wrapped red and black paper upon which a series of labels were then designed, printed and applied. Simple, but very effective. Each box is custom finished specifically for each member of the Black Sheep.
The boxes are also pictured as part of Julian Cope’s ‘Address Drudion’ for April 2010.
