Fuck Art T-shirt with Madness initials
C-More-Tone
title: Fuck Art T-shirt with Madness initials
artiste/band: C-More-Tone
record label: Stiff Records
format: T-shirt - white cotton
release date: 1980
misc: a Madness promo item...
brief / approach
...the idea originally came from listening to the ex-New York Doll, David Johansen's first solo album's stand-out song 'Leatherette' - which has a repeating chorus of "let's just dance..."- which follows as an ironic, compromised rejoinder to a list of things that turn out to be not what they claimed and are disapointingly ersatz or third rate etc - like the leather trousers aren't real they're only leatherette...
...the slogan's concept has since become an integral part of my subsequent art projects & practices and has come full circle with my recent exhibition & PhD reseach title: 'Fuck Dance Let's Art..'
...the photo above is of the t-shirt I wore - and still have - they all originally had indivul white letters in each dancing silhouette spelling out M A D N E S S - which I had blacked out on mine...
backstory
...when I originally did the this design, whilst still at Stiff, it was meant for a poster & t-shirt for my all-time favourite band; The Cramps - for whom I was doing an ad campaign for their first album - which, if I’d had my way, the cover of which would have been just stark, faux blue suede - with the title, text & photos on the inner/liner bag... (I’ve still got that tactile, flock-effect cover our then sleeve printers mocked up for me...)
...Lux & Ivy had given me a pre-release white label pressing of the album to play to Dave Robinson with a view to hopefully releasing it on Stiff - alas, it was not to be - however Dave was so taken by the “Fuck Art, Let’s Dance...” concept that he politely ‘convinced’ me to use it for Madness - an argument I couldn’t really counter as he’d been employing me for over 4 years as well as letting me do freelance work in the evenings when we weren’t all working late or checking out new bands..!
...Mind, I still have fun re-designing that virtual poster to my heart’s delight...