Hastily arranged photo session after a fire in a music shop (true story). Definitely scores 20/20 in the looking cool stakes.
Fan-club magazine Punty featured cartoons on the back page. This one coincided
with the release of board game Hype .
Artwork featured on the formal invitation to the Techno Exhibition at the Art Centre, autumn 1983. Three rooms had been taken over, the first mainly featuring Fairnie’s
art, the second Bev’s prints and collages, while the third was ‘The Casual Room’.
According to Punty, the Casual Room was “completely bandaged and filled with furniture and stage props from previous Writz, Techno and Casualtease shows, plus several objects found on the premises, all of which have been bandaged.” Among
the exhibits were Bev’s Supertin Series: “The remains of tin bags that toured with
Bev and the band Writz from 79-81. The SUPER HEROES tin, which joined Bev on every Writz gig, was also the inspiration for the song ‘Super Heroes’. If you look carefully, ‘Super Heroes No.1’ still bears the scar of a pyrotechnic explosion on stage
at the Music Machine (now the Camden Palace). Every tin has its own story.”
1985 advert to promote Foreign Land. Note ukulele: in the early Fish Co days,
Fairnie was performing when an altruistic punter came up to him and said “God told
me to give you this ukulele”. Fairnie was only too glad to comply and accepted the gift, and even composed numerous ditties on the instrument (Goodnight Brothers, to name but one). A few years later, having veered into the cruel world of secular rock, the same disillusioned punter came up to him at a gig and announced “God’s told
me to ask you to return my ukulele”. Fairnie briefly hesitated before answering
“God’s told me not to give it to you.” (Another) true story.