john squire, wreckage by johnny, c1985
Background
Wreckage by Johnny, cover image for the 1,200 press Manchester-only debut The Stone Roses 12" 'So Young' (September 1985).
"I smashed an old radio, glued all the pieces on a board and painted them. It's abstract, but it doesn't use any of Jackson Pollock's techniques. Someone told me there were similarities with Kurt Schwitters." (Speaking to Select Magazine Nov 97)
) |
) |
SO YOUNG LYRICS
) |
) |
) |
Talking to Saatchi Gallery Magazine in 2008 about why he started out creating the Stone Roses' record covers:
"I think I was trying to make the music more like the Jesus And Mary Chain, and to me the Jackson Pollock artwork represented their [signature guitar] feedback; I was trying to incorporate that into our band, I was trying to deface the band. But the motivation behind doing it was quite simple: I was petrified that some designer guy from the record label would knock up a sleeve in an afternoon and that would [forever] be a visual association with the band.
I made a sculpture for our first single [1985's 'So Young'] that had been given to an ex-factory designer who messed it up recreating it, so I was determined to do it all myself. The sculpture was of two beer bottles and a radio smashed up and reassembled and painted."
