#Martin Aitchison

[holespoles]

Martin Aitchison

"Man and his Car", 1974

[storyofmorewhoa]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs illustrations by Martin Aitchison

[downthetubes]

"Danger Unlimited" stalks Eagle Times!

The latest issue of the long-running Eagle Times is available now on subscription from The Eagle Society, offering another enjoyable mix of features on the original Eagle comic, and more

The latest issue of the long-running Eagle Times is available now on subscription from The Eagle Society, offering another enjoyable mix of features on the original Eagle comic, and more. This issue has a decided American influence, not only launching a new series on the Eagle strip, “Jeff Arnold”, written by David Britton, taking a look at the real (and sometimes darker) real history that…

[fuzzysparrow]

The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists

This year, the fascinating tale of the skilled artists who brought Ladybird books to life for over three decades was explored at The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath. The exhibition featured rare books, original artworks, and artefacts, demonstrating the role of the illustrators for Ladybird. The exhibition also looked into the…

[nofatclips]

It's What I Want To Do, Mum by Mogwai, live for Studio Brussel

[nervoussystemmusicreverence]

Mogwai - Two Rights Make One Wrong

Music

Artist

Mogwai

Composer

Mogwai

Produced

Dave Fridmann

Credit

Dominic Aitchison – Bass Stuart Braithwaite – Guitar, vocals Martin Bulloch – Drums Barry Burns – Guitar, keyboard, vocoder John Cummings – Guitar, piano Gruff Rhys – Vocals The Remote Viewer – Programming and banjo Willie Campbell – Backing vocals Charlie Clark – Backing vocals Gary Lightbody – Backing vocals Michael Brawley – Strings and horns

Released

April 30 2001

Streaming

[jules-has-notes]

Aca Top 10: Summer Hits 2014 — VoicePlay music video

After the whirlwind schedule of the first Sing-Off tour, completing several video projects it spawned, and then embarking on a series of cruise ship gigs, VoicePlay were ready for some summertime relaxation. For the first installment in their "Aca Top 10" series, they put together a countdown of recent chart-toppers. Recording it live meant that, once they got a good take, there was very little post-production required.

Details:

title: Aca Top 10 — Summer Hits 2014

original songs / performers: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams; [0:15] "Summer" by Calvin Harris; [0:32] "Turndown for What" by DJ Snake & Lil John; [0:42] "Wiggle" by Jason Derulo, featuring Snoop Dogg; [0:58] "All of Me" by John Legend; [1:13] "Stay with Me" by Sam Smith; [1:30] "Am I Wrong" by Nico & Vinz; [1:48] "Rude" by Magic!; [2:03] "Problem" by Ariana Grande, featuring Iggy Azalea; [2:22] "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, featuring Charli XCX

written by: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams; "Summer" by Calvin Harris; "Turn Down for What" by William "DJ Snake" Grigahcine, Steve Guess, Jonathan "Lil John" Smith, & Martin "Tchami" Bresso; "Wiggle" by Jason Derulo, Ricky Reed, Andreas "Axident" Schuller, Jacob Kasher, Sean Douglas, "John the Blind" Ryan, Joe Spargur, & Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus; "All of Me" by John Legend & Toby Gad; "Stay with Me" by Sam Smith, James "Jimmy Napes" Napier, William "Tourist" Phillips, Tom Petty, & Jeff Lynne; "Am I Wrong" by William Wiik Larsen, Nico Sereba, Vincent Dery, & Abdoulie "Abile" Jallow; "Rude" by Magic!, Adam "Messy" Messinger, & Alex Tanas; "Problem" by Max Martin, Savan Kotecha, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Amethyst "Iggy Azalea" Kelly, & Ariana Grande; "Fancy" by Amethyst "Iggy Azalea" Kelly, Charlotte "Charli XCX" Aitchison, George Astasio, Jason Pebworth, Jonathan Christopher Shave, & Kurtis "The Arcade" McKenzie

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci & Layne Stein

release date: 11 August 2014

My favorite bits:

Tony's aura of genuine enjoyment during "Happy"

Geoff and Layne's concerned reactions to the beginning of "Wiggle"

Earl and Eli whistling in flawless harmony

Layne gazing wistfully into the distance during "All of Me" because there's no percussion for him to do

the sincerity in their voices during "Stay With Me", and Earl's gorgeous high riffing

the cute "Did you know they were from Canada??" note on the sign for "Rude"

♫ "We're gonna give you some number 2." ♫ ::awkward pause::

the perfect fading echo effect at the beginning of "Problem"

Layne spitting bars once again on "Fancy"

Trivia:

Earl made the title-and-artist signs that Layne holds up. (I assume he also made the butts for "Wiggle", but that particular detail wasn't specified.)

"Rude" was part of the "aca-Disney mashup" VoicePlay recorded a few months later as part of the Disney on Broadway 20th anniversary celebration.

They later performed a full version of "Stay With Me" for their VIP sessions during the 2015 Sing-Off tour, and recorded a video for it while they were on the road.

"Wiggle" was also included in Home Free's "Butts Remix" medley, which Layne helped them arrange.

A very speedy creator made a My Little Pony fanvid using the audio from this medley in less than a week.

[nacentart]

Ladybird book Exhibition. Williamson Art Gallery Birkenhead.

I had been following the curator and all-round Ladybird book expert Helen Day for some time on Twitter or ‘X’ as it is now known, and I was very pleased that Helen’s Ladybird book exhibition was coming to my hometown of Birkenhead. I knew I had to go, the question was, how many times I would end up visiting The Williamson Art Gallery for the exhibition? As I have previously stated, nostalgia envelopes me with each passing year, and for the exhibit to be on in a gallery I have come to since the age of seven, I knew it would be special. Yes, the exhibition did give me a warm glow as if I had just eaten a hot bowl of Ready Brek. Just to give a brief history of Ladybird books, they are the ubiquitous small children’s educational book series from all our childhoods. The original publishers Wills and Hepworth published their first books for children in 1914 under the Ladybird symbol after Henry Wills had opened a bookshop in Loughborough in 1867, previously printing guidebooks.  The big change happened in 1940 when due to the outbreak of the Second World War, there was a paper shortage, and they discovered the perfect way to cut down on wastage was to fold the biggest sheet of paper they could find and cut it into all the pages of a single book. This was the format that came to be known and loved for the nine decades, since, by children around the world.

The exhibition was full of interesting artefacts, ephemera, artwork, letters, and the actual pram, which was painted for the Peter and Jane books. A vast array of beautiful Ladybird books adorned a large wall in one of the main gallery rooms; 500 books in total. This wall of books, alone, could occupy a family for a day or three. My own love for Ladybird books started just like anyone else's love for them, I was given one or two books at an early age and I was immediately drawn to the colourful and vibrant artwork that would send me off into a world of wonder and fantasy. It would have been the first time I saw a witch or Rumpelstiltskin or Little Red Riding Hood. I genuinely believed the characters that had been painted were real. It is difficult to recreate that first sensation of childhood wonder, but on seeing some of the images now, it is the closest feeling to that early sense of awe of being a small boy learning about the world. There were many categories in their series of books such as the ‘learn how to read’ books with Peter and Jane, historical figures, Fairy Tales, and I also loved the ‘How it Works’ series which took in some of the technological inventions of the times, with books on televisions, computers, cameras, telescopes, and space rockets. You name it, any cultural marvel would be dissected and painted in a Ladybird book; they represented so much social history of the twentieth century.

Some of the Ladybird artists were notable artists in their own right, such as Harry Wingfield, and Martin Aitchison who produced photos of the bouncing bomb in World War Two, and John Berry who was an official war artist, whose wartime paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery and painted in North Africa and Egypt during the war, incidentally, where my own father was based at that moment; I wonder if my dad knew or met John? Another Ladybird artist was Charles Tunnicliffe, who was a renowned internationally known painter of wildlife and birds; the books were brimming with artistic talent. We have Douglas Keen, who was the editorial director for Ladybird Books to thank for picking his artists carefully for each genre. The exhibition also displayed photographs of some of the real-life people, who inspired some of the illustrations in the books, which was charming to see. Sometimes neighbours, friends, or wives were used as models. I loved this exhibition, and it moves around the country. I would recommend it to anyone who has a love of these pocketbooks of joy.

[antiqueanimals]

From Animals, Birds, and Fish, volume 4, written in 1975 by W. Murray and illustrated by Martin Aitchison. 

[picturebookshelf]

The Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme, Book 3c: Let Me Write (1965)

Story: W Murray -- Art: Martin Aitchison

[holespoles]

‘invisible ink’

Martin Aitchison (1967) from Ladybird books

[konczakowski]

[rainingmusic]

Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-Snake

[books0977]

Great Artists -- Book 1. Dorothy Aitchison. Illustrated by Martin Aitchison. Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1970. First edition. Red pictorial paper boards. Colour illustrations.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669, Johannes Vermeer, 1632-1675, Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640. Juvenile.

[nofatclips]

Dry Fantasy by Mogwai from the album As The Love Continues