content by: editor  jamie reid in conversation with billy childish
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Watch punk rocker Billy Childish talk to punk graphics supremo Jamie Reid. Every punk graphic you’ve ever seen is probably by Jamie Reid. Either that or it's someone ripping him off. From ransom-note lettering and subverted corporate logos to swastika eyes and safety pins through the Queen’s lips.  Details from Slated.For Reid, though, punk was merely the chance to get cultural protest into the mainstream. “All I've ever done is re-adapt my work from the late 60s and early 70s into different contexts,” he says. “Continuing with the same themes and messages that have been fought over for the last 2,000 years, and I don't think they will ever go away.”Reid’s association with Malcolm McLaren began when they staged a student protest together in 1968, organizing a sit-in at Croydon Art College. Two years later, he was still protesting, co-founding the Suburban Press and flooding London with agitprop like “Save Petrol - Burn Cars” and “This Store Welcomes Shoplifters”. The perfect man, then, to graphically define The Sex Pistols when McLaren suggested it in the mid-70s.  Billy Childish with Jamie Reid & wallpaper from Slated.Now, almost 30 years on, while the Pistols sound dated, Reid’s edgy cut-up graphics remain as potent as the day they were unleashed. In his new show, Slated, they sit side-by-side with paintings inspired by a less well known aspect to his work - his long-standing involvement in Druidism. We asked punk rocker and renowned anti-establishmentarian, Billy Childish, to go and ask Reid what it was all about… |
