Barry Jones

Music | Video | London Cowboys | Johnny Thunders | Flyer Art

By the mid-seventies, the rock and roll revolution had become large, fat and cumbersome. The change came quickly, in the form of a new musical phenomenon-- the punk scene. Musicians and graphic artists pooled burgeoning talents and resources to spawn a new wave of underground artwork, with the stripped down do-it-yourself attitude that fuelled the music. At the forefront of this take-over was Jamie Reid, famous for his Sex Pistol work, and Barry Jones for his Roxy club flyers. During the 100 days of the now legendary club, which he co-managed with partner Andy Czezowski, Jones' artwork featured bands Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Police, Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, The Damned, The Stranglers and more.

By the end of '76 Reid's stylish red-black and white artwork with ransom-note lettering, was already established and being copied. Jones took a different road; his influences came from comic book graphics, fashion magazines and art school heroes. In these collages he blasts us with color and depth, from ink and pen drawings with speech bubbles, magazine-type cutouts, color band photos and a variety of homemade fonts, thrown together in a seemingly reckless manner that lends an excitement and newness to the bands and gigs he's promoting. The introduction of the color Xerox copier made reproduction readily available to a new generation of artists but we don't see much use of its range until Jones' work. His passion for the art and music of the time jumps from these color saturated flyers, in an age which has been defined by it's rejection of multi-color images, it's easy to see why these became collectors pieces and have remained so.

The artist's original works from the '70's were featured in August '05 in an exhibition called, "Suffragette Cities" at the Pentagram Gallery, London.

Barry Jones flyer is featured in a new book called Cult Rock Posters 1972 - 1982