Here’s what became of some of them, from this drawing by Anthony ‘Doove’ Woolaston, who’s subsequent life and career remains something of a mystery. He was certainly talented and managed to capture most of us with uncanny accuracy. I am my usual smiling self in the front row. Also in the show are some of out fellow fine artists, like Bob Nancolis, Bob Frith, and Graham Wells, who don’t feature in this drawing as they avoided graphic design. There are one or two names that I cannot recollect from the drawing, and staff and tchnicians are marked by just a … Continue reading Drop in and check this out.

Interesting to know quite what you expect of something like that word. A Monet or someone pretending to be someone else. I’m recently back from Manchester where, as readers of this tome know, I’ve been wading through nostalgia. Manchester School of Art, as it is called now, were kind enough to allow myself and several other ex students who graduated in 1969, that they were happy to put on an exhibition for us to celebrate our 50 years away from them! They’ve done a great job, and after meeting up with them and my colleagues last week we are still … Continue reading Impressionists?

In addition to posts about the exhibition:Where it all started:, I’m determined to get to the end of my L A pictures. I’m keen on this one, as I like trucks and it looks great in the winter sun. Continue reading Truck stopped

This place is where all the people in the poster below started their degree courses back in the 60s. I used to sit in one of these windows looking out more than down more than I should I suspect. Now a hotel and not very five star, this building housed the graphic designers of the future. Not difficult as there were few graphic designers of the past. And occasionally at the end of a days drawing or designing we’d repair to the Alsatia Cafe, which was part of the greasy spoon franchise that you could find anywhere in Manchester in … Continue reading Where it all started:

Continue reading 505

One of Rosalind’s watercolours that will be on show at the exhibition below from tomorrow, it’s a print on show but well worth seeing as well as the talents of all the others in the group, who have multiple skills. Continue reading This makes a change…

A chance for more musing on Manchester in the 60s. We paid for stuff in pounds shilling and pence, and in 1969 the farthing was discontinued! We were lucky enough not to generate a debt from our studying being given a Government Grant to attend and keep us in beer and cigarettes. Some of us were better at looking after this sum than others, I supplemented mine by working in the holidays at Haydock Park Racecourse where I helped the groundsmen to cut saplings to make the fences for the steeplechase from Lord Derby’s Estate at Knowsley. We then took … Continue reading …dum diddy dooh!

Continue reading Car Wash

In my first year on the degree course at Manchester we assembled in the former lost property offices of the Manchester Corporation( we still got little old ladies popping in complaining of lost umbrellas, even though it had been closed for years) We were a motley group of individuals from all over the country. Myself from not far away, but we had others from as far away as Walthamstow, which to us was really the dark side of the moon. A bloke addressed us with a cigarette in hand and told us his name was Williams, he had more spots … Continue reading Remember this?

With the coming exhibition in Manchester coming up next week, I make no excuses for putting myself about as they say. I’ll be exhibiting with a number of friends who I spent my time with at Mancheste in the 60s. Sadly two of them have died in the meantime, but their work will be there, and many happy memories of them. I had a brilliant time in Manchester after first completing the Foundation year, which was in Openshaw and surrounded by heavy manufacturing factories and there were times there in our lunch breaks when we would play football on a … Continue reading Honky Tonk?