Album Covers

The Send Occasionals

(Ant is third from the right)

This creative collaboration began in the 1970’s, and was forged on the village greens of England. Ant had recently left the rock band Genesis to start his own cricket team ‘The Send Occasionals’. Playing cricket brought together many musicians and artists whose different styles and eccentric personalities provided a catalyst for artistic creativity.

Ant and I used to open the batting. We rarely troubled the scorers and would soon be back in the pavilion. With nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, AP would find a quiet corner and settle down to write music. As he mulled over his score(s), I would sketch out ideas for covers on my-pads (This was years ahead of Hockney).

Summers came and went; albums were written and covers were illustrated. But then Vinyl was superseded by CDs and that great and glorious ‘Golden Age of Album Cover Art’ came to an end. Or so I thought. When a publisher in Japan started to re-release Ant’s albums in CD box sets, my artwork was reused, albeit in a smaller 20/20 format.