Badge of the Day #65 (Spartak Hradec Králové)

Another recent acquisition for the (mostly) European club collection, representing the name of DSO Spartak Hradec Králové, of the former Czechoslovakia, who existed as such between 1953 – 76 (now, through the course of numerous rebrandings, being known more prosaically as FC Hradec Králové), achieving a championship & subsequent appearance in the early years of the European Cup during that period.

The badge is another of those lovely, irresistibly redolent vintage objects, hauntologically rich - being the manifestation of a ghost - & inspiring the familiar 'Ostalgie', featuring the ever-exotically Eastern European socialist sports society name & legend ‘Spartak’ upon & most harmoniously contained within the cog-like design of the club crest (as is the iconic Soviet red star, of course) which, to someone saturated in the particular aesthetic during the post-punk times, is reminiscent of those (East) European Modernist, Futurist-Constructivist-inspired, machine-age designs appropriated/produced by Peter Savile during the early years of Factory Records’ redefining of the landscape of music-related graphic design, perfectly suited to the ‘industrial’ (yet in the very process of becoming post-industrial) Manchester milieu in which they operated. One is reminded, particularly, of the ‘anvil’ logo that had its very own Factory catalogue number – FAC 47 - & appeared imprinted upon both the reverse of the sleeve & the disc labels of the 12” release of New Order’s ‘Everything’s Gone Green’/’Mesh’/'Cries and Whispers’ amongst others, a pleasing conjunction of art, football & music, those enduring passions & staples of TOoT’s content.

Misshapen Identity

Today the opposite of tomato is "a redder shade of neck on a whiter shade of trash"


graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Being the latest entry in the aluminium drink cans 'roadkill' diptych series, this particular object's attraction lay primarily in the extreme folding & consequent reshaping to which it had been subject in the process of its flattening transformation, its rendering down from three dimensions into (almost) two.

Soundtrack:


New Order 'Low-life'
Pavement 'Brighten the Corners'
Underworld 'Second Toughest in the Infants'

Finally having invested in a CD copy of New Order's mighty & enduringly exhilarating 'Low-life' (yes, we tend to do things very slowly around these parts), it was comforting to find that the associated artwork at least echoes that of the original vinyl LP version (the sleeve of which was very much a desired object) in featuring a translucent, tracing paper-like outer covering containing individual photographic portraits of the four band members, here thus presented sequentially:


A rare pleasure too to be reacquainted - in archaic-format cassette-style - with the sly wit, singular wisdom & idiosyncratic sonic aesthetic of Pavement, indeed brightening the corners of a graphite-shrouded Saturday afternoon. Although grounded in the familiar slow-quiet/fast-loud musical dynamic that grew out of the Pixies & thereafter grunge generally, this tendency seems particularly pronounced with Pavement given the especially languid-to-meandering nature of the former passages which then erupt with & into surprisingly energetic bursts: corking stuff.

Joy & Happy-ness

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 2 05/09/08

This drawing being processed from an old original made topical through being used in a daily newspaper television guide to illustrate a BBC4 evening’s programming focussing on certain aspects of the Manchester music scene of the recent past. A pleasure indeed to have the opportunity to enjoy once again the excellent documentary ‘Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays’ charting the history of the record label with particular emphasis on its leading lights Joy Division, New Order & Happy Mondays, & featuring fabulous anecdotal contributions from the main surviving players (including, at the time of its making, the late, great Tony Wilson): essential viewing, filled with any number of ‘madeleine moments’. Also a fascinating ‘Rock Family Tree’ focussing on JD-NO & the Buzzcocks, whose early music in particular endures with a delightful energy: the ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP truly was a seminal release, ‘Boredom’, ‘Breakdown’ et al.
And, positively spoiling anyone so ‘nostalgically inclined’, a compilation of BBC TV appearances by Manchester bands from the 60s & Freddie & the Dreamers to the present day with the Ting Tings, including a performance on ‘Something Else’ by Joy Division of ‘She’s Lost Control’ of such intensity (Ian Curtis & Stephen Morris particularly absorbed in themselves & their roles, Peter Hook & Bernard Sumner, also, studies in cool concentration), the sound exhilaratingly visceral, harsh, essential, the encapsulation of the power & purpose of the band that, as alluded to by Tony Wilson – that they simply had to be on stage, as an act of absolute necessity, making music, communicating their art – marked them out at their all-too-brief time & has subsequently ensured that they have endured, undiminished.

Soundtrack:


Belle & Sebastian 'The Life Pursuit'
Radiohead 'Kid A'New Order homemade compilation of singles & selected album tracks
Tricky 'Maxinquaye'

New Order sounded magnificent, as with Joy Division the passage of time since the music’s original release serving only to reinforce its majesty & quality. Interesting to realise too, just how strongly a band such as Radiohead have been influenced by JD & aspects of ‘the Martin Hannett sound’.