#peter-blake

#peter-blake

The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I'm just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? It's just a lot of memories of Liverpool.

I developed the book's grid and typographic style in collaboration with designer David Carroll, then laid out the book myself, focusing on clean design that allows the imagery to breathe. The aim was to create something that feels timeless and functional, rather than overly stylised.

Shot by photographer Michael Ochs, the band appears completely wrapped in a single sheet of translucent pink plastic or fabric, a playful literal riff on their name that perfectly suits the whimsical, experimental spirit of the psychedelic era.

Music doesn't weigh anything anymore. We went from shelves full of vinyl and towers of CDs to playlists that scroll infinitely and libraries that live nowhere in particular. Streaming gave us everything, all at once, all the time. But somewhere in the exchange, we lost the part of listening that involved our hands, our eyes, and our attention.

The RA is led by leading artists and architects, with the UK's oldest-and, crucially, free-art school at its heart. The opportunity to shape the RA's artistic programme and respond to its extraordinary gallery spaces, as well as launching the expanded Collection Gallery, is tremendously exciting.

"We started by asking everyone to collect images regularly. Just spontaneous snapshots as we went. Of everything. Sketches, screens, notes, half thoughts, moments in motion. Over time it became this huge grab bag of elements," Simon says.

"the one flyer that I think, received the most attention last year was Doomscrolling Live for a small ambient listening night organized in Antwerp by my friends SYSTM. I don't remember how many times people have come up to me and said ' Oh I loved that poster you did with the goblin '," he says. "Doing self-initiated things, local things, things for your friends does pay off."

Helping people to reconnect with old memories, viewers are transported to their local corner shop, school playgrounds and childhood cupboards. "I think this project has struck a chord because there's a particular interest in hand drawn designs of the past in the current age of AI where human effort is at an all-time low. Now the first thought is 'I'll get AI to do that', rather than commissioning an illustrator," says Chris.

"I'll Follow the Sun" is "a 'Leaving of Liverpool' song," McCartney explained in his 2021 book The Lyrics. "I'm leaving this rainy northern town for someplace where more is happening." Once they did leave, the band's rise to fame was stratospheric.

Revolución to Roxy begins long before glam, synthesizers, or LP covers became cultural landmarks. Manzanera's earliest memories are shaped by upheaval: childhood in Cuba during the revolution, displacement, and an upbringing that crossed Venezuela, Colombia, England, and beyond. That instability, he says, produced something lasting-understanding. "If you grow up speaking two languages, you are scientifically proven to be more compassionate," Manzanera says. "You have this kind of duality, and one of those is the power to be empathetic. For a musician, that is such a helpful tool."

Frequently described as a post-conceptualist, the US artist Rutherford Chang (1979-2025) created works from everyday objects, often amassed in large quantities over extended periods. His best-known projects include CENTS (2017-25), a solid block of 10,000 melted pennies, and We Buy White Albums (2013-25), an ever-evolving installation composed of hundreds of vinyl copies of The Beatles' self-titled ninth studio album, commonly known as The White Album because of its largely blank cover.

UK proto-sophistipop post-punk OGs The Monochrome Set are back with their 17th album, Lotus Bridge, that will be out March 13 via Tapete. Frontman Bid co-produced the album with engineer John Clayton and features original Set bassist Andy Warren alongside Stephen Gilchrist on drums and Athen Ayren on keyboards. The album's themes were born out of a dream Bid had when the band were talking about making a new album.

Sutcliffe, who was born in Edinburgh but grew up in Liverpool, met John Lennon while they were both studying at the Liverpool College of Art. By early 1960, the pair were living together and Sutcliffe joined Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison 's band in May. Sutcliffe played acoustic guitar and took on the responsibility of booking gigs, but various accounts suggest he was no more than a competent musician. Sutcliffe's real talents lay in his "marvelous art portfolio," according to Lennon's description.

"When I read the fine print, it was 'an experience with REO Speedwagon's music.' It's none of the original members," Fletcher recalls. "I don't want to promote the show unless it's the real thing. I don't know why you would want to see that. It's just a cover band. To me, that's a little bit strange." He adds, with a sigh, "If there are no original members, who cares?"

There isn't one songwriter, and so the flavour of the band is always going to change, says Dave Vanian, reflecting on 50 years of the group of which he has been the sole constant member, the Damned. Captain Sensible is a great fan of syrupy pop music and prog and glam rock. So his writing is very poppy, melodic and quite wonderful.

After seven solo albums, Tempest had begun thinking about working with others, and so the night before the recording session, he and Chatten repaired to Albarn's studio and wrote their verses together, responding to each other. It seemed to work really well, he says: A true collaboration. Nevertheless, he concedes, the actual recording of Flags proved to be quite the baptism of fire.

In the story of art history-the art and artists, movements and trends-a select number of galleries have played a defining role in the evolution and trajectory of art itself. Among them, the Mayor Gallery in London is surely one, as it has maintained a position fostering and promoting some of the most significant developments in art for an astounding 100 years.

The arrival of Robbie Williams's 13th album has been a complicated business. It was announced in May 2025 and was supposed to come out in October, when its title would have chimed with the 90s nostalgia sparked by the Oasis reunion. Williams spent the summer engaging in promotion, unveiling fake Britpop-themed blue plaques around London and staging a press conference at the Groucho Club.

Perhaps it's fitting that Al Bowlly's death is as well-remembered as his life, or rather, as his voice. After all, his most celebrated appearance in popular culture wasn't physical, but spectral. In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), when Jack Torrance enters the ballroom and the ballad titled Midnight, the Stars and You (1934) plays, the film reaches one of its most memorable moments.

Our new line of Colossal merchandise is finally hitting the (digital) shelves in the Colossal Shop. We're big fans of repping publications that inspire us, and we're excited to finally offer our own goods to this special community of readers. Hats and mugs are now available, and all proceeds directly support our ongoing commitment to make art accessible to everyone. You can also receive a mug by joining us with an annual Patron of the Arts membership.

For those who are in desperate need of stimulation, this zine delivers - its visual language is razor-sharp and packed with colour, each page feels like a porno magazine that has vomited everywhere. Hattie calls it a "frenetic deluge", a collection of themes that circle the drain of "online fatigue", a way to process an excessive amount of information in order to create meaning and seek comfort.

One of Vija Celmins's wonderful Night Sky works. Maybe one of her charcoal drawings of the cosmos, with a comet flaring across the surface. She conjures up such immensity, and such intimacy, with countless tiny points of light shining out of the darkness. Which cultural experience changed the way you see the world? In a word, Paris. After I left school, I spent several weeks working in Paris and discovered the pleasures of looking, on my own, for myself.

CONDO WEEKEND BEGAN in the same way that all good British rom-coms, or Martin Amis novels, do: walking against the wind, en route to an oversize redbrick Victorian house in Earls Court, a spot that my press invitation had unabashedly advertised as being located in Notting Hill, but is an easy two tube stops away. This was the "standing" dinner to celebrate Arash Nassiri's "A Bug's Life," newly open at Chisenhale Gallery, in a renowned collector's home.