Poster (and logo) for Please Don’t Stop The Music, an initiative by Andries van Wieren, to help Dutch music acts through the Covid-19 period. Peter Hordijk (who also built this site) and I worked overnight to launch the site just the morning after we got the assignment.

Haarlem Comic Festival asked the Spinshots to perform live and have a fashion show with Comic Sexy. We had a very nice stage and dancers in the dresses: the dancers were drawn by a comic artist at the spot.

These photos were made by Thijs Tennekes.

With the Spinshots, our music styles varied too much to be easily bookable. We decided to start our own booking agency and this was the logo. i mad this with stuff that i had lying around in the house, i actually have a special room for assemblages and styling objects called ‘the treasure room’ – and this could be made in one day!

One of the brighter kids I had the pleasure of teaching at art school was Marlon, who was in transition and wrote a book about his previous life. Not only was he bright, he also was very sad to hear that I would not agree on this book being his examination work for art school. Then he made a smart move: he ‘directed’ a movie for which he asked al kinds of people, mostly criticasters to show how the work is done and made it one of his examination stunts to present a very long lasting movie about his life, seen through other people’s eyes. It was a bit of a stunt, and I think it was more ‘producing’ than ‘directing’ but conceptually i thought it was a strong idea.

So I had to make this in a few hours: choosing one of the chapters from his book and turn it into a visual. Smart ass. i hope they are doing great, out there.

Oh I wrote the music too – played by the Spinshots.

Ir Vendermeulen, the ‘Godfather of Amsterdam’ and initiator of the Amsterdam Beat Club, asked me to perform with the Spinshots and create a fashion show with the models presenting the designs while the band backed them up live.

This all happened at Paradiso, the rock temple of Amsterdam.

Part of the fun of making promotional art for your own brand, is the freedom with which you can do so. I had to laugh out lout when I came up with the pay off – ‘Aliens Today, Sisters Tomorrow’ – but then again, this really reflects a concept I use more often in my work. It also reflects the MAYA principle (coined by Raymond Loewy), which shows that people are always scared of the new but we can overcome our fears by simply getting acquainted.

Heck, let’s not get philosophical now, just enjoy these nice and smart girls wearing Comic Sexy dresses and listen to the music I wrote, executed by The Spinshots.

The song ‘Balkan Dinosaur’ was written for the Spinshots, during their ‘Seven Bullets, One Gun’ period. You can here the full song here.

In 2013, The Spinshots had the honour to back up Arthur Brown at the Amsterdam Beat Club Paradiso Show