Barney Bubbles designs go regional at the National Museum Cardiff + Ludlow Fringe Art Trail
//A doozy: This point-of-sale design by Barney Bubbles for Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ 1980 LP Get Happy!! is among rare rock posters on show at Mod Lang in Ludlow. Photo: Paul Bradshaw//
The regions are where it’s at these days, so we are told, and naturally Barney Bubbles designs can be found in the thick of it.
//The main image of the show is this Barney Bubbles 1978 poster for Elvis Costello, paired on the cover of the show’s postcard box-set with his masthead for the NME produced the same year//
Photographer Chalkie Davies has chosen Bubbles’ 1978 poster incorporating one of his images of Elvis Costello as the key image for his current show at the National Museum Cardiff. It also appears on the cover of the exhibition catalogue and the box-set of postcards.
The show – presented in association with the UK’s last remaining music paper New Musical Express – features extensively the masthead for the publication designed by Bubbles when he oversaw an overhaul of the layout in 1978. This logo remains in place, albeit in finessed form, today.
//From the Ludlow Trail guide, another Bubbles’ poster, for Rockpile’s 1980 album Seconds Of Pleasure//
Meanwhile Shropshire vinyl and collectibles haven Mod Lang – run by the evergreen Paul Bradshaw – features more Bubbles designs in a show of original rock posters from the 1960s and 70s on the current Ludlow Fringe Art Trail.
Find out more about Davies’ show here and read more about the Ludlow event here.