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Pete in MOJO magazine



I was wondering whether I should post this, but since
a lot of readers here probably dont have access to
the wonderful British music magazine MOJO, I thought I
would.

The March 2002 issue has lots of music stars picking
their personal heroes. Heres Petes:

Pete Townshend
Hero, Peter Blake

Peter Blake, the Pop Artist. In 1962, when I was at
Ealing Art School doing my second year of a Foundation
course, I came across some early screen prints of his.
I admired his gentleness and sense of humour, but most
of all his quintessential Englishness. Of course, I
admire his work most of all. His lightness, sense of
colour, love of pop iconography  and everything that
is pop  cant disguise the fact that hes a
wonderful draughtsman, a proper painter. I love his
combination of craft and passion.

My art college experience led me away from fine art
and graphics and towards semiology and cybernetic
theory. When art college was interrupted by The High
Numbers getting a record deal, I realized that I could
express some of my more colourful ideas by combining
pop music and Pop Art. I used a lot of his images for
my early clothes designs for The Who  especially the
Union Jack jacket and Target T-shirt that were Carnaby
Street staples within a few months of my first wearing
them on-stage at the Marquee Club in 1964. I borrowed
freely from Peters use of graphic icons to support
youthful energy, but also to create irony in a
post-war, post-Empire society.

I was disappointed when Peter had his Tate
Retrospective in the 80s because some of his most
important pieces were described as Works-In-Progress
when, in fact, they just hadnt been finished in time.
However, since then Ive used the same technique a lot
on my website.

Why not make unfinished work-in-progress visible? My
admiration for him will never fade. Ive met him many
times. Peter was a bit of a Who fan. We both love the
Everlys and were serious fans of Ian Dury, before he
got famous and afterwards. We saw a lot of each other,
especially in the 80s. Less these days, regretfully.

For an introduction to his work try
http://www.britart.com, check out the covers of The
Beatles Sgt. Pepperor The Whos Face Dances. He also
has a beautiful study of David Hockney on every bottle
of Abbey Well water.

-Pete

Only one person picked a member of The Who as a hero:

Topper Headon [of The Clash]: My hero was Keith Moon.
I was 14 and had a badly broken leg from playing
football. My Generation had been around a couple of
years. While I was laid up, I listened to the radio. I
was overwhelmed by his drumming. His whirlwind energy
leading the charge. My Dad went out and bought me the
record, which I played over and over. From that
moment, I just knew I wanted to be a drummer.


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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