Number 8 in this series of ten archive items from my dad's loft are some surviving copies of The Blue Blanket fanzine, which briefly flared on the streets of Norwich from 1981 to 1982.
Three years in Manchester may have seen a mixed development with my artwork, but it had a profound effect on other aspects of my life - especially through music. It was a fabulous time to be in Manchester - I moved there at the height of punk, and left just before the Haçienda opened. I saw all the iconic bands of the era, from Buzzcocks to The Fall to Joy Division, and all their touring contemporaries. Despite poverty as a student I loved Manchester and often wonder why I didn't just stay in the city after graduating, but I was penniless and disillusioned with my artwork, there were no potential clients for my drawings and the prospect of looking for a job or signing on in Manchester filled me with dread, I couldn't see any reason to stay in the city. A temporary return to the family home was inevitable, however while I was in Manchester my parents had decided to leave the West Midlands and move to a village outside Norwich. It was an entirely alien world to me, from the gritty streets of Manchester to a hamlet in the Norfolk countriside, which I'd only visited there on holiday once. What was I going to do now?
My head was full of musical and creative frustration, I needed some outlet for this energy, I was angry, disillusioned, full of post-grad angst and resentment. I needed to get something off my chest....
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| Cut from Blue Blanket issue 4, 1982 |
Musical ambitions were never to be fulfilled, so I did the next best thing - I started a fanzine.
Why
The Blue Blanket? The first thing my parents did after I returned to the family flock, after throwing away my entire wardrobe of arty (to my eyes) second hand rags (in theirs), was to tag me along on a short holiday in Brittany. I was really not in the mood, but there was a large blue blanket at the place we stayed, and blue fluff seemed to attach itself to everything - long after the holiday we were picking bits of blue out of things. I wanted a magazine that would get into the crannies of Norwich, a blanket coverage that would stick everywhere. The name was a joke, but it also reminded me of
Der Blau Reiter art movement started by Kandinsky and others.... this was to be a magazine about art as well as music (or so I hoped). Hence
The Blue Blanket. The fact that I knew absolutely
nothing whatsoever about Norwich, it's music or art scene didn't seem to matter, in fact I saw it as an advantage as everything came to me fresh, and to my eyes there really didn't seem to be that much of a scene to discuss anyway. Today, Norwich has several venues and numerous galleries, but in 1981 it was more of a city of antiques and second-hand bookshops, there were only a handful of pub venues and two small clubs that put on indie bands -
The Gala (a former ballroom) on St.Stephens, and
The Jacquard on Magdalen Street, plus occasional gigs at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Nevertheless there was an energy in the city, with some ambitious local bands, an energy which I soon connected with.
The first issue of
The Blue Blanket extended to 16 sides of A4, printed (extremely badly) by the Freewheel Anarchist Bookshop in Norwich. It consisted of a manifesto, a news page, a band interview (the non-band Sans Culottes), some gig reviews and lots of opinionated noises from me (under various aliases) questioning whether Norwich was a creative cul-de-sac, a diatribe against the media, jokes, cartoons, an unplayable song and some truly awful poetry. I think the first edition stretched to 200 copies, some of which were stocked by HMV and other local outlets, Rough Trade in London offered to take some, and to my immense pride John Peel at the BBC gave it a shout out on his Radio 1 programme.
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| Spread from Blue Blanket #2, 1981 |
To my amazement it sold out, so I upped the price and print run and produced another one, followed by another, and another. My fanzine wasn't alone in Norwich (there was another
Is It Fish?, produced by Farmers Boys compatriot Kid Brian), but my policy was staunchly to focus on the whole of the local indie music scene rather than promote any particular band or cover touring acts. Succeeding issues ran features and interviews on Norwich bands The Vital Disorders, Carl Gustav and the 84's, Zod & the Universe, The Suspects, After Dark, The Higsons (author & comedian Charlie Higson's band!) and Popular Voice, though plans to include the local art scene as well as indie music never really materialised. By Issue Four the print quality had greatly improved and it still regularly sold out of it's much increased print run, it was actually turning over a small profit, but the job of writing, compiling, designing and selling it was becoming a burden, though by that stage I had a few contributors and the distribution was much easier. John Peel's encouragement kept me at it for a quite a while (he announced the release of every issue and phoned me up once to talk about the Norwich scene on air, tragically I was out!), but my energy was being pulled back towards my illustration career. The focus and self-discipline of running the magazine was giving me a more professional attitude to my work, it gave me the determination to research the market and produce a new portfolio of illustrations to show around London.
The decision to finally hang up ambitions of journalism and close the covers of
The Blue Blanket came when I was commissioned to illustrate my first children's book in 1982 - Jeremy Strong's
Fatbag, published by A&C Black.
I thought I'd lost all but one remaining copies of
The Blue Blanket, so was very happy to find a few surviving in my father's loft.
This past month has been very hectic, not only with illustration work, but also setting up another major exhibition, a career retrospective at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
The exhibition came about immediately after my return from Tokyo. The hospital Arts Project at NNUH was running a series of workshops for children "Supernatural Garden" run by visiting artists from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, headed by Professor Yasuyoshi Saito and Dr Herb Fondevilla. I'd met Herb some years before in Tokyo, the hospital was very keen to link an exhibition of my children's book illustrations (especially those published in Japan) with the workshops.
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The central corridor is a busy thoroughfare through the hospital, used by staff,
patients and visitors. I hope that the illustrations offer a brief imaginative escape
from what can be for many a very traumatic experience. |
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| The Boat in the Tree (2007, Front Street) |
Emma Jarvis, Hospital Arts Co-ordinator, says: “Our colleagues in Japan take a different approach to art and John is a great example of bridging the gap between the two cultures, allowing East to meet West. The illustrations will allow patient, staff and visitors to be reminded of their childhood, looking at detailed illustrations of well-known stories and provide something that everyone can enjoy no matter of their age or gender. The exhibition is a great and very rare opportunity to explore another world through an internationally recognised and award winning artist’s work who lives right on our doorstep, making it the perfect partnership.”
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Two of the 4 volumes of Hans Christian Andersen Tales
(Hyoronsha 2004-5). |
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Various exhibition pieces, and illustrations for novels (Hawaiian Big Daddy 2003,
The Deptford Mice 2005) |
There are over 140 pieces of artwork on display, in 11 large wall mounted display cabinets dotted along the length of the hospital central corridor. The majority of work is children's book illustration, covering almost 30 years of my career, from my first trade picturebook
The Secret in the Matchbox (Andre Deutsch/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1989) to my very latest
Stone Giant (Charlesbridge, 2014).
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From The Secret in the Matchbox (Andre Deutsch / FS&G 1987),
passing through two prints for Disney Japan to The Cobbler and the Elves
(Oki-na Pocket magazine, Fukuinkan Shoten 2007) |
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Stone Giant (Charlesbridge, 2014) - These are facsimile inkjet prints, as the
artwork is still in Japan |
Artwork from other books on show include
Peer Gynt (1990),
12 no Tsuki-tachi (The Month Brothers) (1991),
Cinderella (1994),
Hoppy no Atarashii Uchi (1995),
The Magic Umbrella (1999),
King Smelly Feet (2002),
Hawaiian Big Daddy (2003),
The Deptford Mice (2004), my
Hans Christian Andersen series (2004-5),
Charlie Bone series (2006-7),
The Boat in the Tree (2007),
The House of the World (2008),
Halloween Forest (2012), and
Jack & the Beanstalk (2012). Also a number of independent works from exhibitions and other projects. So, this is quite a big show, with examples from the whole gamut of my career in children's publishing.
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The Charlie Bone novels (Tokuma Shoten 2006-7), and work for a WWF tie-up
exhibition Denizens (1990) |
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King Smelly Feet (Andersen Press, 2002), and Hoppy no Atarashii Uchi
(Hoppy's New House) (Fukuinkan Shoten 1995) |
Much of the work on show has only been published overseas and is displayed for the first time to the public in the UK. All the works are for sale, either as originals (in the case of stand-alone pieces) or inkjet prints (for book illustrations). The show will run until May 2015, so if you're in the area over the next six months and have a chance to visit the hospital do take a look.
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| Cinderella (Hikari no Kuni 1995), and Peer Gynt (Hyoronsha 1990) |
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| 12 no Tsuki-tachi (The Month Brothers) (Miki House, 1991) |
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The House of the World (a subscription-only picture book for Benesse, 2008)
and The Magic Umberella (Fukuinkan Shoten, 1999) |
The Hospital Arts Project at NNUH works on diverse projects with the community, interior design, site specific arts, performances, workshops, exhibitions, events, gardens and more. It's funded by grants from organisations and charitable donations. For more information visit
www.nnuh.nhs.uk/arts |
| Halloween Forest (Holiday House, 2012) |
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| Jack & the Beanstalk (Fukuinkan Shoten, 2012) |
My deepest thanks to everyone behind the show, especially Herb Fondevilla (Tsukuba University), Emma Jarvis (curator, Hospital Arts Project), Richard Drew (Director of Arts in Hospitals), Eloise O'Hare (Norwich Dandies) and Natsue Hayward (Centre of Japanese Studies, UEA).
It's surprising to think sometimes that the book Fatbag, my first professional (i.e. paid!) job as an illustrator, was 30 years ago this year. I remember creating the drawings like it was yesterday.
Having graduated from Manchester I moved to Norwich, where my parents had decided to re-settle during my absence. Rural Norfolk was a complete contrast to Manchester. I knew nothing about Norwich at all, but there was a burgeoning music and arts scene which I slipped into pretty quickly. With virtually no budget I started anonymously publishing an indies music/arts fanzine The Blue Blanket, through which I interviewed bands, touring and local, ran local event listings, plus there were odd features on the arts, and opinionated flippant essays under various nom-de-plumes. And of course it was fully illustrated with my work. It was fun, made me a bunch of friends very quickly, and invariably sold out. Somewhere along the years of multiple housemoving I lost my own remaining copies, so I've only memories of the magazine now, but recently I did find one piece of artwork in my dad's house.
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| from The Blue Blanket Issue 4, 1982 |
Any funds raised were pumped straight back into the production of the magazine, so the print quality and distribution gradually improved, the print run more than doubled over a year. However by then it was becoming a burden to write, illustrate, edit and publish virtually all by myself, the magazine was a full time job, any help I did get was completely volunteer. I had to make a choice - am I going to do this for a living? In which case I'd need to generate some income from it, or take up the reins of freelance illustration, which I'd just spent 4 years studying? It was time to get serious about my career.
After throwing most of my student artwork out of the window on the last day at Manchester Poly (see previous post) I just had a simple portfolio of graduate pieces I wasn't particularly happy with, mostly black and white. So I began looking with fresh eyes at the market for children's illustration. I worked on some story ideas and drew a full colour dummy picture book
Bored Brenda, (a modern day twist on
The Fisherman's Wife, set in Manchester) plus a couple of other watercolour portfolio pieces, and added drawings from
The Blue Blanket to my degree show black and white work.
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| Bored Brenda at home (original dummy) 1982 |
1 Comments on Blue Blankets, Bored Brendas and Fat Bags, last added: 6/20/2012
I've been pretty quiet on the blog due to another shift of base, this time away from the vicissitudes of London to the gentler climes of Norwich, the jewel city of East Anglia.
There are a number of reasons why I've headed out here, one of them is familiarity with the city (my parents lived here for many years).
My strongest memories of Norwich are rooted in the early 1980's straight after I graduated when I spent two blissful years in the city, roaming the profusion of antiquarian/second hand bookshops, running a local rock fanzine The Blue Blanket and playing miniature wargames with my local mates. That was a long time ago, my old friends have moved on to pastures new and much has changed in the city. Many of my old haunts have been replaced by lifestyle select shops and fashionable cafe's, but these in their turn add a charm to the city in a whole new way. The back streets of Norwich are full of curious little corners, 1990's boom-years development is everywhere in evidence, though recession could mean this all changes very soon. I'm somewhat less convinced by the need for not one, but two major shopping centres. The first, Castle Mall, opened in the 1990's on the site of the old cattle market and was heralded as a model of integrated design. Nevertheless it's since been overshadowed by the rival new Chapelfield centre, which replaces the old Nestlé-Rowntree factory. There are so many shops in Norwich now it's bewildering, I wonder whether the city has the population to maintain this. Fortunately the character of the town has not only survived, but on the whole seems enhanced by these changes. The Riverside development along the banks of the Wensum has replaced ugly old factory buildings (Boulton Paul, Colemans) with expensive integrated apartment blocks that make the area positively desirable. Several post-war eyesores have been replaced, though Magdalene Street, formerly one of the most historical streets in the city until ravaged by 1970's developers is still stuck with it's awful concrete nightmare Anglia Square. Sipping my Latte in the Forum cafe, overlooking the elaborate architecture of St.Peter Mancroft Church I'm overwhelmed with the excitement of re-discovery, even though I only lived in Norwich for a short time before pursuing my career on other horizons. Back in those days there was little in the city to offer an illustration graduate. "Get you down to London" was the advice of the careers officer at the time, and to London I went. Now however the opposite is the case. The internet has freed artists from the need to commute into the centre of the urban capital. A good broadband connection keeps me in touch with everyone, and when I need to see people London is a mere 2 hour train journey away. There's much to attract me to Norwich today. I still have family here. The convenience (we live 5 minutes walk from the city centre). The harmonious balance of history and modern living, tradition and the new. The deep literary heritage. The excellent library services, which survived the burning down of the central library in the 1990's only to re-emerge stronger than ever within the Forum development. The international airport making the city a short hop to Europe and hence beyond. For myself and my daughter it seems the perfect fit, the perfect size for us non-drivers. So far at least it's been a warm "homeco
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1 Comments on Blue Blankets, Bored Brendas and Fat Bags, last added: 6/20/2012
It may be ages before I find it, but I think I've got a copy of "the Blue Blanket" somewhere.
With any luck I'll have discovered, scanned, and emailed it to you in time for your 70th birthday!
Weren't you chums with Charlie Higson for a while in Norwich? You should look him up now he's a media personality.