Page 33 - ION Indie Magazine JulyAugust 2020

MFB: I was lucky enough to have several art teachers through my school days who supported
and believed in me. From the age of 12. I started attending Saturday morning art classes at
the local art college. I had several lessons with old boy, Peter Blake, during one season. He
was the guy that created the ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album cover. By the time I was in my third year
at comprehensive school, I was allowed to use the art room storeroom as my personal studio.
All the materials were there, so I taught myself how to do rudimentary silkscreen prints. Stencils
were cut by hand and it was all very crude. I don’t think I ever did more than a 2 colour print,
but I got good enough to be able to bang out a run of 10 or so of several different designs
during the lunch hours. After a couple of weeks, I had a bunch of posters of people like Bowie,
Bolan, Hendrix, Che, etc., so I decided to take them up to London one Saturday. Pure
innocence…or was it the times? Probably a bit of both. But anyway, I sat on the corner of
Carnaby Street, unfurled a couple, and within an hour or so, I’d flogged the lot. I got a pocket
full of change and nothing else to do and took to wandering around the places like Ladbroke
Grove, Piccadilly Circus, Camden, and Soho…basically anywhere the underground scene was
burgeoning and accessible. I did that for a while on and off, but within a short while, that
openness within the scene changed, as all things invariably do when the man moves in.

MW: I know you wanted to move out of London, but why move to Sheffield in particular?
What brought you here rather than any other city?

MFB: London was bringing me down. The early 70s were tough.

The bubble had burst on the underground scene. People were
disillusioned and overdoses were becoming de rigueur. Die
rather than high. The police were a threat; skinheads an even
bigger one. The only thing that I related to was the early
inceptions of punk. But I was never a punk. At 20, a) I was too
old, and b) I had long hair. I ended up doing photos for The
Damned and The Adverts and did several dates with them. As
time went on, I got to know quite a lot of the original bands, but
when they used to jibe me as an ‘old hippie,’ I used to point out
that as well as The Dead, I also liked The Stooges, MC5, and
The Deviants. I thought the original punks were just dayglo
hippies with attitude. So, after leaving Canterbury Art College, I
didn’t want to carry on at college in London, so I looked around
the country, came to Sheffield to check it out, and fell in love with
the place. The people were down-to-earth, unaffected by the
hype of the south. The city, nestling in its hills, seemed
overgrown with trees and you can see countryside from just
about anywhere…BIG change from London. I knew right from
the start that this would be my base -- somewhere I could carve
out a niche for myself on my terms -- even before The Leadmill,
which I suppose was my springboard.

'Overdoses were becoming de rigueur. Die

rather than high.' ~ Martin F. Bedford