Classic_Pop_Issue_30_July_2017

studio and his extremely varied

illustrative capabilities meant that

together we could handle most of

Andy’s requests.

One of my favourites is Skylarking

featuring a very delicate illustration

from Dave and understated

typography from me. The Big

Express is another because it

involved a very complicated late

night photo session at an engine

yard. Andy Partridge was, and still

is a remarkable talent and it was

always a pleasure working with him.

In 1984, you worked on the

album sleeve of Working

With Fire And Steel and its

singles for China Crisis.

I must have started working for

China Crisis with the single

Of all the bands Ken

Ansell has worked

with, XTC were the

most demanding

and rewarding.

Their collaborations

include Skylarking

(1986) and The Big

Express (1984)

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KEN ANSELL POP ART

whole look, essentially a reworking

of a European Vogue cover they’d

seen. The photographs had already

been taken and needed retouching

to match the original magazine

cover. Again there was virtually

no time to put the sleeve together.

Fortunately, we all wanted a

minimalistic typographical approach

with plenty of white space.

We would add little attachments

to the band logo − ‘Red’, ‘Blue’,

‘100’ etc. I can’t remember exactly

what the concept was and we

never printed the words in the

corresponding colours, RED was

blue and BLUE was red!

The Human League clearly

recognised your role as

integral. You even got your

photograph on the sleeve of

the Love And Dancing remix.

I was walking along one of the

corridors at Virgin Records when

I bumped into Phil Oakey, he

announced that the band were

putting out a remix album and

wanted to feature ‘the team’

and asked if I’d like to have my

photograph taken and have it

appear on the back cover.

I expected to be mobbed in the

street moments after its release, but I

only ever got recognised once − at

The Human League: Dare (1981),

Hysteria (1984) and The Sound Of The

Crowd EP (1981)

a Human League concert at the

Royal Albert Hall.

In 1982, you began working

with XTC, a partnership that

would last for a decade...

Out of all the bands I worked with,

XTC were the most demanding

and also the most rewarding. Andy

Partridge acted as Creative Director

for almost every release. He would

arrive at meetings fully armed with

a notebook, visuals and mock-ups

ready to do battle with Virgin.

His ideas were almost always

challenging from a production

cost perspective.

Most of the XTC work was done

with an ex-colleague of Adrian

Sadgrove’s from the EMI days;

Dave Dragon. He and I shared a

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