Film by Ben Brown at Maniac.

Vaughan Oliver, the acclaimed English graphic designer who defined the aesthetics of a whole post-punk genre via his work for London imprint 4AD amd one of the few graphic designers with an instantly recognisable style has passed away.

Born in Segefield, Durham County to working class parents “the young Oliver spent most of his school days in the ‘art room’ where he developed an interest in Surrealism and the work of Salvador Dali. The local record shop was his ‘art gallery’” writes Vaughan Oliver Archive’s Kickstarter page.

“After studying graphic design at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic, he went south to London to work for one of the big design groups. But Oliver wasn’t made for the world of commercial graphic design, and a chance encounter with the record label owner Ivo Watts Russell led to a 30-year marriage between Oliver and the cult indie label, 4AD. ”

“I like to elevate the banal through surrealism,” he has said. “Mystery and ambiguity are important weapons in a designer’s arsenal. I try to make images where you don’t always get “the message” straight away – but these things leave a hook in you. Leaving some space for interpretation is important.”

His enigmatic visuals are his trademarks, a tribute of his to Roger Dean and Dali, who inspired him to follow the path of graphic design and mesmerize everyone.

Oliver was best known for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. Both studios maintained a close relationship with record label 4AD between 1982 and 1998 and were to give distinct visual identities for the 4AD releases by many bands, including Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pale Saints, Pixies, and Throwing Muses.

Oliver also designed record sleeves for such artists as David Sylvian, The Golden Palominos, and Bush.

Some things inevitably change while others stay the same. Did you know that in the 1970s, it was still acceptable to talk, kiss and even smoke on the London Underground?

What would that have looked like? Photographer Mike Goldwater spent many years documenting chance moments of intimacy and humour across the iconic network of tunnels that live beneath the capital.

The pictures, taken between 1970 and 1980, tenderly capture special moments, moments we still see today: the kisses goodbye, the buskers, the Friday night revellers, a man cradling a cat, and the commuters deep in thought and desperate to get home. We also see old ticket booths (before Travelcards existed), old school carriages, retro film posters and bell flares.

You can enjoy this fascinating series in a new book, London Underground 1970-1980. Arts writer Lucy Davies says in the book’s introduction: “Goldwater was already familiar with the Tube, though it was quite different from the one we know today. Back then, you had to buy your ticket from a window and show it at the barrier. The advertisements on the wall were unabashedly sexist. You could puff undisturbed on a cigar and tap your ash on the carriage floor.”

Lucy adds: “Some stations were lit only by individual hanging bulbs in white light shades, immersing travellers in a dim, Hades-like gloom. It made taking photographs incredibly difficult, forcing Goldwater to function at the very limit of his film’s capabilities, but it gives his pictures a wonderfully brooding, unearthly cast.”

London Underground 1970-1980 by Mike Goldwater is published by Hoxton Mini Press.

Clive Limpkin almost slept through the defining moment of his career.

Having taken nine hours of pictures with little happening, the photographer – working at the time for London’s Daily Sketch – fell asleep on a settee in the foyer of Derry’s City Hotel.

When the trouble that would become known as the Battle of the Bogside broke out in August 1969, it was a young barman who woke him to tell him the rioting had started.

“I lifted my camera and just started to run towards the Bogside. He ran after me shouting that I hadn’t paid for my drinks. I dipped into my pocket and gave him £1 for the drink and £1 for saving my career.”

Reportage, political photography has always held a fascination with me. The immediacy and spontaneity of the shots capturing moments in time are more powerful than film.

Now aged 81 but still as sharp as ever, Clive will return to Derry next month to discuss the pictures that made him world famous, won multiple awards and were the inspiration for one of the Bogside’s most striking murals.
His picture book ‘Battle of the Bogside’ documenting his time in Derry was first published in 1979 and is now a collectors’ item.

It has been republished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the three-day battle that followed an Apprentice Boys march in the city.

His picture book ‘Battle of the Bogside’ documenting his time in Derry was first published in 1979 and is now a collectors’ item.

It has been republished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the three-day battle that followed an Apprentice Boys march in the city.

Recalling that time, Clive said: “When I arrived in Belfast first, my initial thoughts were ‘this isn’t going to happen’. I could see a Woolworths – you don’t have wars being fought in front of a Woolies.”

Great fun at the Community Fest, Finsbury Park, London – got a few decent shots.