Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day on the set of tonight’s BRIT Awards held within Earls Court Stadium. Whilst I cannot say much as to why I was there (for fear of the intense security coming down on me like a tonne of bricks) all I can say is that I’m very excited about tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to fill you in as to why I was there (nowhere near as glamorous a reason as you’re hopefully thinking...) and I’ll also have a bit of gossip fingers crossed. Whilst there I thought I’d put my journalistic skills to good use and I found out that unless you’re a lucky musician or PR/agent of, a ticket to tonight’s event will set you back anywhere between £1,300-£2,500 – insane!
While I was doing my thing I got to hear most of the day’s warm up and was around for the majority of the run-through. As you all already know Peter Kay will be hosting, and let me tell you one thing – its going to be f**king hilarious! The quintessential British compare, Kay was in his element, so expect the usual series of witty one-liners. Something I did notice was that Kay was armed with a claxon (more commonly found in the hands of a football fan at the Saturday game) which I think he’ll be tooting all-night to anything he doesn’t approve of, from speeches to the audience etc.
What really made me laugh was Kay’s ingenious way of introducing Jay-Z (if I’m remembering correctly): “I’m not too sure I can mention many of his songs here on ITV so let’s just say he’s that hugely famous guy known for the song ‘American Gangster’ and goes by the name of Mr Jason Z” (zed) – absolutely brilliant!
Other tit-bits I gathered were the identities of some of the presenters such as Dame Shirley Bassey and Jonathan Ross who Kay piss-takingly introduced saying: “Please welcome the current host of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross...” Also presenting an award was Andy Serkis, who apparently fresh from promoting the Ian Drury biopic; Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll, is planning to put his acting career on hold to pursue a musical career of some description, so watch this space.
Performances I caught were the mighty Kasabian, who will be doing a rendition of their hit ‘Fire’ complete with brass band, and literal fire and pyrotechnics around the stage... making it rather warm indeed! I also heard Dizzee Rascal rehearsing his duet with Florence Welch, which is a version of her hit single ‘You Got the Love’.
Other than that not an awful lot was happening. Lots of mike checking (1,2,1,2) and Fearne Cotton popping up every now and again to rehearse her backstage interviews with random members of the production team posing as the celebs.... If only I had a camera (unfortunately not... everything had to be firmly locked away, I kid you not).
Lastly there was a huge intake of breath and gasps (from all us ladies) when a video message from none other than a very sexy looking Prince Harry came on, talking about what good work the BRITs do.
Gonna be a great show tonight so make sure you tune in now! Stay tuned for a second post tomorrow on all the shenanigans from the evening.
This was a community led initiative which highlighted local issues, but also campaigned for increased civil rights and most memorably spoke on behalf of the miners during the strikes of the late 1970s. It was his experiences at the Suburban Press that really informed Reid’s artistic style and he went on for many years to create propaganda for and against numerous political campaigns. 
When the suburban Press closed after around four years Reid decided to move to Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and rather randomly received a letter from Malcolm McLaren telling him all about a great new band he’d discovered called the Sex Pistols. He requested that Reid move back to London to work with the Pistols on album artwork and promotional materials. After accepting McClaren’s offer Reid recalls moving back to London and ‘suddenly my work was in all of the newspapers before the Sex Pistols even had a record deal’.
Among the best of Reid’s iconic works with the Sex Pistols are ‘Fuck Forever’, ‘Anarchy in the UK’ and 'Never Trust a Punk'(pictured above and below).
The story of Reid’s life seems to get a bit blurry at the point where he claims that the lovely Dame Vivienne and Malcolm ripped him off when they opened their famed store on the King’s Road called ‘SEX, and used his prints on t-shirts and other merchandise’. As you might have expected after they parted ways the subjects of Reid’s work changed dramatically with him focusing several years (on and off) creating ‘repetitions of imagery and emblems’.
So weird ramblings aside it was worth going to find out more about him and who he is. Recently he has done some great things such as his fashion collaboration with Comme des Garcon which launched in 2007 with his propoganda art plastered all over the exterior of Dover Street Market (see imagery below). Reid mentioned in the lecture that the Tate galleries have just purchased some of his early collages from his Punk series, so would be great to look out for them next time I visit the Tates. 
Whilst I haven’t written many positive things about Jamie Reid’s lecture I do really like his work and think he did great things for the progression of graphic design. I really like his early pre punk artwork as it was really relevant for the time period and admire that it had a political message. Another thing I really liked was his use of typography and that his best works were created largely by collage.
