AN ABUSE OF KITCH-COOL:

 

We cut two tracks at Point, ‘I can’t Stand Cars’ & ‘Teenage Teenage’

both inspired by an obsession with Elvis Costello & the current 

trends for Kitch-cool & Memphis styling – bubblegum colours & a 

plastic fascination with molecular structures. I became a camp 

follower, leaving the rich path I’d found at art stool for something 

generic, hunting a fast track into the VIP lounge of pop stardom. 

We borrowed money from our then manager, a local businessman who 

came to us an enthusiastic fan, eager to help build our careers. 

He ended up in tears too often, victim to the cruelty of youth high 

on frustration & a sense of it’s own importance. He was a good guy 

with a good heart & I regret not having always treated him with the 

respect he deserved. The sleeve was a home made design put together

in the front room of our flat up on Cathedral Road. Having fled 

Penarth & moved back to the bright lights I’d jumped several rungs

up the evolutionary ladder to live in the posh part of town.

Though I’d turned my back on fine art (& would for another 13 years) 

& fallen into mimicking the current trends in pop graphics, 

resurrecting a passing fascination for fighter pilot imagery from my 

days at foundation college. A bargain bin book full of photographs 

& accounts of Vietnam dogfights was my inspiration & I would read it 

obsessively over breakfast every morning. Tracings from the photographs 

became the basis of the cover art plus, mashed up with a cursory glance 

at Memphis styling. I was shallowing out, looking at the surface, 

loosing the rigour, the passion for exploration, becoming a 3rd rate 

mimmic. going backwards with an assured grin.

 

(K)