Brian Cannon Masterclass

Brian Cannon will be giving an exclusive 'masterclass' session at the British Music Experience exhibit at London's 02 Arena complex on March 3.

Not only is Brian Cannon as designer and Photographer, and art director, but he also has band management and music video direction to his name. In the 90’s Brian’s Company Microdot had substantial influence over the visual for the Brit Pop Movement. Designing covers for Oasis, The Verve and Ash all of which were number one albums, as well as album covers, Cannon has worked on logos and typography, and Microdot as a company has worked with esteemed clients and artists such as Levi’s, Groove Armada and Suede.

Two of Cannon's record sleeve designs - Definitely Maybe and "This Is Music" - featured in Q magazine's "The Hundred Best Record Covers Of All Time" list published in 2001. He is noted for "his grandiose, ridiculously time-consuming (photo) shoots", and has produced a number of record sleeves for UK number one albums, including Urban Hymns[4] (The Verve) and 1977[5] (Ash), along with two further Oasis albums - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?[6] and Be Here Now. He has also designed record sleeves for Ruthless Rap Assassins, Suede and Super Furry Animals,and is the former manager of the now-defunct Scottish experimental rock group, The Beta Band.

Tickets £7.50
Time 7:30- 9pm

Click here for more information.

Visit my newly launched Beady Eye fan site www.standingontheedgeofthenoise.com by clicking here.

Autumn/Christmas Microdot Memorabilia Brochure

Click here or here for a PDF of the Autumn/Christmas Microdot Memorabilia brochure.

For more details of Microdot's work visit www.microdotcreative.co.uk or www.facebook.com/MicrodotCreative.

Brian Cannon Talks Oasis And More

Brian Cannon, the man behind some of the most iconic sleeve designs in the history of British music this year celebrates 20 years in the business. Over the past two decades, Brian’s company Microdot has worked with bands such as The Verve, Suede, Insprial Carpets, Super Furry Animals and of course Oasis.

After training as a graphic designer, Brian set up Microdot in 1990 and first came to prominence working with The Verve. Sleeve designs such as those for singles ‘She’s A Superstar’, ‘Gravity Grave’ and the band’s debut album ‘A Storm In Heaven’ are still regarded as some of the most innovative and original of the last two decades. The company eclipsed their own early success however with their work with Oasis in the mid-nineties.

From the iconic white on black logo Oasis to every single and album sleeve until 1998, Microdot’s designs were seen as a fitting visual companion to the bands music, often referencing both the songs themselves and giving a nod to band’s own influences. Brian is a central figure in Oasis history not just for his work with Microdot but as a friend of the band, he often made appearances on record and is one of the few ‘eye witnesses’ to the band’s early success.

In 4 short years, the company founded in a small office in the North West of England saw their work on the covers of multimillion selling records across the world in a not so distant era before technology diluted the prominence of sleeve designs and the skill of ‘man made’ cover art. Microdot resisted digitized artwork until the release of Super Furry Animal’s 1996 debut ‘Fuzzy Logic’ however Brian would still rely on traditional graphic design methods as would become their trademark in the years to come.

In a Q magazine poll of the Top 100 album covers of all time, Microdot were featured twice, for Definitely Maybe (Oasis) and This is Music (The Verve). As well as these classic pieces, Microdot also designed the StopCryingYourHeartOut logo, arguably the zenith of their 20 years in the business....

A retrospective of their work is currently on display at www.microdotcreative.co.uk and to celebrate the company’s 20th, Brian Cannon granted us an exclusive Q&A this month.

What's the strangest thing happened to you while shooting a band?

That has to be the Wonderwall story, originally Liam was the person seen through the picture frame. I had sent a message to Marcus Russell, Oasis manager to tell him and Noel about the shoot, a message he obviously didn’t receive. Mid shoot, and this is totally true, Noel just happened purely by chance to be passing in a taxi!! Next thing you know an irate Noel Gallagher jumps out the taxi which screeched to halt and shouted ‘What the f****s going on here?’ he put a halt to proceedings saying it had to be a girl in the shot!

Are there any recent bands that you'd like to work with?

I’d absolutely love to work on Noel’s new stuff, and seeing as he, probably more than any other rock star, values the opinions of his fans – get a petition going!! Other than that, I think the Arctic Monkeys are ace and The Whip.

Besides photography have you tried any other kind of art, like painting?

I am actually trained as a graphic designer, photography is just one of the disciplines I enjoy. I haven’t painted for a while and used to really enjoy printmaking. Compiling collages is also something I enjoy.




















What in your opinion are the top three album/single covers you have worked on?

Can I have four?... The Verve - A Storm In Heaven, Oasis – Some Might Say, Oasis - Definitely Maybe and The Verve – This Is Music.

What album covers first inspired you to take up the profession?

It was all about The Sex Pistols for me as a young lad, Never Mind The Bollocks is, in my opinion, the greatest typographical album sleeve of all time. It was punk generally and the Pistols in particular that inspired me to do the job.









On a overwhelming majority of Microdot sleeves NO digitisation was used. Why was this so important to you?

A lot of it was down to the fact that in the early days I simply couldn’t afford the technology!! Then when we could we still resisted as it became our trademark. It gives me great satisfaction to look back on all those great sleeves and think, ‘we actually DID that.’




















For the cover of The Verve 'She’s A Superstar' how much food colouring did you add to the water to get that effect? And did you have to get permission to do it?

It was a plastic dustbin full, the sort you’d have in your garden and no we didn’t ask for permission, it was after all bio degradable and caused no harm.

How involved was Noel in the creation of the album and single artwork. How much collaboration was there between him (or the band itself) and you?

It varied, but Noel and I ALWAYS got together before a sleeve project, he’d give me his thoughts then I’d turn it into reality. Communication was always the key, borne out by the fact that we NEVER had to re shoot a sleeve.

Would you work with the Gallagher's on any of their new projects?

See above.




















What is your favourite album artwork of all time?

Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma & The Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks.

What is the hardest part in doing an album sleeve?

I don’t find any of it ‘hard’, I love doing it and I’m good at it. I suppose it only ever becomes a bit difficult if the band I’m working with has no ideas and the communication between us is lacking – something that never happened while working with Oasis or The Verve or most of the bands I have worked with.











How/when did you meet Noel and what were your first impressions of him?

I first met Noel in 1992/3, I had a tiny office in the same building as the Inspiral Carpets in Manchester for whom Noel worked as a roadie. Noel and I would see each other around the building but we were too cool to actually speak to each other. That was until one day when I got into the lift at work wearing a pair of trainers unavailable in England at the time, Adidas Indoor Super, which I had bought in Rome when I took my Mum for her 60th birthday. The first thing Noel Gallagher ever said to me was ‘Alright, I put me hands up, where the F***k did you get them trainers?!’ We got talking and he asked what I did, I told him I was into designing record sleeves – he asked me what I had done, I told him about the early Verve stuff, he was impressed as he liked The Verve and their artwork. As he was leaving the lift he said ‘I’m in a band, and when we get signed I want you to do the artwork’ That literally is it, talk about being in the right place at the right time!!!!!!

What made you commit to working with him?

I thought he was not only cool, but a really good laugh and very likeable. Oh .... and his band were brilliant!

What process did you and Noel use for creating the artwork? Did you see Noel becoming more confident in it as you worked with him, or was he always confident about it?

He’d tell me his ideas, I’d listen to the music, study the lyrics, dunno how it happened really – I just got it, you have to realise I didn’t just do the artwork for Oasis, I was a MASSIVE fan too. Noel was always confident about everything, everything related to Oasis at least.

Did Noel always have the final say in what artwork was used?

Of course, he was, as he was known within the inner circle – ‘The Chief’




















Which Oasis artwork are you most proud of?

I love Some Might Say, a great literal interpretation of the lyrics, and my Mum and Dad are on it too! Definitely Maybe has become a classic, I also think Roll With It is top, we had a great laugh doing that.

Are there any covers which, with hindsight, you would have designed differently?

No. They are what they are, no point looking back and thinking ‘Oh I wish....’

Noel said in November 2006 that his favourite Oasis covers were Shakermaker and Who Feels Love. Could you talk through the process for creating Shakermaker and what do you think about Who Feels Love?

The concept behind the Shakermaker artwork was kind of based on the lyric about Mr. Soft and this imaginary wibbly wobbly world. If you look at the back sleeve everything is normal and there is no music being played through the cassette player. On the front you can see my hand pressing play on an Oasis cassette, the music comes out and melts all the objects in the room! As you know we never used any photoshop effects and the most difficult thing was sourcing all objects that were plastic and thus meltable, the most difficult being the plastic picture frames that looked like wood. We did the back sleeve then took everything outside and I literally got an industrial blowtorch and melted everything. Funnily enough at this point of the process Bonehead and Liam turned up and saw me having the time of my life playing with fire and stated ‘Cannon, you’ve got the best job in the world!’. With regards Who Feels Love, I think it’s the best Oasis sleeve I didn’t do.




Which Oasis recordings do you appear on?

I do handclaps on All Around The World, I speak on the end of the Warchild version of Fade Away, I play keyboards on the title track of Morning Glory and my footsteps can be heard on the end of Be Here Now.

Did the other members of the band ever show any interest in, or have any input to the artwork at all?

They were all very interested, they didn’t have input as such, that was all down to Noel, but we always had a laugh doing them.

Which Oasis era was the most memorable for you and why?

94 -96, I worked with them till 98, but the first 2 years when I saw them go from nothing to being almost as big as The Beatles was amazing. It was just such an incredibly exciting time and we all knew it was something special. Also they were making great music which people absolutely loved – it was ace!

Noel often used to criticise previous albums (with the exception of Definitely Maybe) when there was a new release. He did the same with the artwork a few times, how did you feel about this criticism?

I look at is this way, he approved it all in the first place – no artwork would have ever made a sleeve if Noel hadn’t been happy about it at the time



















You were thanked in Paul Mathur's book "Take Me There". What did you think about the book?

I designed that book as well, I think it’s an honest account of the time, Paul was really the first journalist to get onto Oasis and be accepted by them. When we finished designing the book I treated all the Microdot team to a weekend in New York, Paul came with us and he STILL owes me £300 that I lent him!!

Did you like the artwork for Oasis' singles collection, Time Flies... What concept would you have used for it?

I think it’s good, probably because it looks like something we would have done at Microdot and it uses my logo.

Would you like to work with either Noel or Beady Eye on their new projects in the future, or would you prefer to keep the Oasis connection as the perfect memory that it is?

Oasis will always be the perfect memory, but I would love to work with Noel again.

Of all the artists you have worked with, with whom did you feel the greatest connection? Did this make for the best work?

The best work I ever did was for both The Verve and Oasis, we were great friends and I think it shows.

For more details of Brian's work visit www.microdotcreative.co.uk

Brian Cannon On Working With Oasis

Unbridled access to two of the country's biggest bands, a work ethic unmatched and a walk-the-walk rock 'n' roll attitude, Brian Cannon acted as Artistic Director for a number of projects with both Oasis and The Verve. He has also created work for a number of world-wide brands such as Converse and Levi's®. His company, Microdot, has just celebrated its twenty-year anniversary at the forefront of British Rock 'n' Roll. To celebrate Brian's work and his achievements, Zani some questions to Brian.

ZANI - How did you get involved with Oasis?

Brian Cannon - Noel asked me to do the Oasis artwork after he saw the early Verve sleeves.

ZANI - What was your impression of Creation Records?

Brian Cannon - Creation was a one off, coupled with the fact that I was working with Oasis, I have never had so much creative freedom with a label. They just let me get on with it and then paid the bills... couldn’t fault them really.

ZANI - Some of the covers you did including the Oasis single Some Might Say relayed the lyrics to the song within the artwork. Do you always listen to a song before you decide on the angle of the work, or do you just get ideas?

Brian Cannon - I find it astonishing that people actually design covers before, or not even listening to, the record at all. I think it’s impossible to do a good job that way. I am charged with the responsibility of ‘dressing’ a piece of music so I ALWAYS listened to the track(s) as much as possible and got my head around the lyrics too.

ZANI - You toured with Oasis back in 1993 for 12 months, just before they took off. It must have been something special to be “in the eye of the hurricane”: what can you remember from the period...if anything?

Brian Cannon - I remember it being very exciting. The band themselves were absolutely bang into it. I can’t stand po-faced bands who think the world owes them a living and that rock 'n' roll lifestyle is the norm. Bonehead used to be a plasterer before the band took off and he, more than the rest, never forgot what he might otherwise be doing: it was a full on fun time.

- Is it true that you and Liam once offered out a whole pub?

Brian Cannon - I can’t confirm that either way, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

ZANI - You were there during the short, but hectic, recording session for (What The Story) Morning Glory?, in which (rumour has it) Noel hit Liam with a cricket bat after he brought back the whole pub to the studio. Is it true that you locked yourself in your room as all hell broke loose?

Brian Cannon - Totally. It was between the two of them and there was NOTHING anyone could do to diffuse the situation. I just went to my room, had a beer and waited for the whole thing to die down.

ZANI - Tell me about the shoot for the Wonderwall cover – wasn’t the girl in the picture-frame an employee from Creation?

Brian Cannon - We originally shot the sleeve with Liam depicted through the frame (an idea I nicked from the paintings of Belgian surrealist painter, Rene Magritte). Mid-shoot, and I am totally serious about this, Noel just happened to be passing in a taxi. I mean, talk about a coincidence. We were shooting on Primrose Hill, London, and Noel Gallagher by chance drove past.. He obviously did not get the message I had sent to his manager about the session. The taxi screeched to a halt, and, much to everyone’s amazement, an irate Noel jumped out, called a halt to the proceedings stating that it had to be a girl in the shot. This totally put me on the back foot as the artwork was due to be delivered in a few days. Primrose Hill was a few hundred yards from the Creation Records office at the time; we called upon Anita Heryet who worked there, and that’s how she became the cover star.

ZANI - Do you think it’s fair to say you held the sixth Oasis member tag for a while? Weren’t you also part of the group that added hand claps to All Around The World at Air Studios?

Brian Cannon - I dunno about the sixth member thing, but I was part of the ‘inner circle’. You have to understand, I had known them before they were massive and when they finally became big many people tried to befriend them and leak stories to the press. They knew myself and all the Microdot guys could be trusted. Liam would turn up at my flat in Camden at tea time on a Friday night and get hammered all weekend with us lot knowing that nothing would appear in the papers. I did do handclaps on All Around The World, and I also played keyboards on the title track to What’s The Story? A little known fact.

ZANI - Was that a “pinch me” moment?

Brian Cannon - The whole Oasis thing was a pinch me moment.

ZANI - Would you mind sharing the story of when you and Dave Halliwell pitched the one-off 199magazine to a certain publisher? (Only if you want to of course, I read about it on your Facebook page, it sounds funny)

Brian Cannon - I pitched the idea of an official Oasis magazine to Noel and Oasis manager Marcus Russell as a counter to all the garbage that was being written in the press about them at the time. They gave me the green light to publish it. I was Editor and Art Director on the project, Dave Halliwell (who was The Verve’s first manager) was Business Manager. The magazine industry works on the following premise – you only get paid once a magazine has physically sold over the counter and then you can only expect 50 per cent of the cover price. We had a cover price of £3.50 and managed to convince the Virgin Megastore Group to take the mag on an exclusive basis if they gave us £3 per copy and paid us upfront... Dave and I left the meeting at their office with a cheque for 30 grand and we hadn’t even had the magazines printed by then...

Click here to read the full interview.

Source: www.zani.co.uk

Questions For Brian Cannon

I'm gathering some questions, for a forthcoming interview with Brian Cannon. If you have any questions you would like to be ask please send them into scyhodotcom@gmail.com.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the name, Brian Cannon was the art director for all Oasis work from Definitely Maybe right through to The Masterplan.

Noel Gallagher approached Brian Cannon after seeing the work he had done for The Verve.

Brian formed Microdot after finishing University they were responsible not only for Oasis sleeve imagery in the 1990’s but also a wide range of promotional and merchandise material.

Two of Cannon's record sleeve designs—Definitely Maybe (#14) and The Verve's "This Is Music" (#79) — featured in Q magazine's "The Hundred Best Record Covers Of All Time" list published in 2001.

Brian has also designed record sleeves for Ash, Ruthless Rap Assassins, Suede and Super Furry Animals and more.

See some examples of Brian's work including some rare Oasis pictures visit www.microdotcreative.co.uk

'Time Flies... 1994-2009' is out now for more details click here.

Brian Cannon Q&A

Brian Cannon, don't know the name? What if we said Definitely Maybe? Whats the Story Morning Glory? Urban Hymns?.. Getting the picture?

Brian orchestrated huge photo shoots, everything you see on a microdot sleeve ( Brian's design company) is real, its not pasted, its not photoshop'd, That in itself is reason to revisit his work. With creative budgets in decline, record companies going bust, no physical product released, digital technology making us work cheaper, faster and some times with less imagination we'll probably not see music covers like these again.

Manchester Gossip caught up with Brian and got his thoughts on a couple of points...

Is there a sense that you worked in a golden age for British Music.
The nineties was an amazing time to be involved with the bands I worked with, as for golden age, I don’t know about that, half a dozen or so good bands doesn’t constitute a golden age, but it certainly was good fun.

Best decade for music and the best year ever ? (and why ?)

I think both the sixties and seventies were incredible decades for music. As a massive fan of both The Beatles and Sex Pistols I suppose I’m bound to say that, but there was so much good music during that period that it was self perpetuating, bands were feeding off each other – a lot of inspirational music is bound to have an effect. As for a particular year, I’d have to go for 1977, the punk explosion had a nuclear effect on not only music, but the way the industry worked.

Read the full Q&A by clicking here.

Source: www.manchestergossip.com

'Time Flies... 1994-2009' is out now for more details click here.

New Website Launch Coincides With The 20th Anniversary Of Microdot

Brian Cannon who the art director for all Oasis work from 'Definitely Maybe' right through to 'The Masterplan'. Has just completed a archive Microdot website, there is a comprehensive Oasis section in there.

You can find it www.microdotcreative.co.uk

The website launch coincides with the 20th anniversary of Microdot.

Noel Gallagher approached Brian after seeing the work he had done for The Verve.

Pre-order 'Time Flies... 1994-2009' and win some signed exclusive album artwork, more details here.