Haines 57

Regular readers may dimly recall me raving about an art exhibition by Gina Birch a few months back. That was held at Gallery 46 in London's swinging Whitechapel, and on Saturday just gone I went down there again for an exhibition by Luke Haines (ex Auteurs, Black Box Recorder etc). It runs until 5 February and it is worth popping in if you are in the area.

If you are familiar with his lyrics you won't be surprised to hear that his art is also heavily influences by pop culture of the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition is called 'It's A Royal Knockout' and features the likes of Brian Jacks of Superstars fame and Dennis Waterman dressed as Les Gray from Mud. 

Here are a couple of the pieces on display. The first one features Ulrike Mienhof, the second Rod Hull and Eno (top punning there by Mr Haines). I have shared a few more over on Flickr if you are interested, including a good one of Geoff Capes. It includes a rude word so I didn't display it here in case anyone is reading this before the watershed.

The pictures are followed by a track apiece from his two best known bands, followed by one from "All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out", his new album with Peter Buck which came out late last year.

"Show Girl" - The Auteurs

"I Ran All The Way Home" - Black Box Recorder

"Waiting For The UFOs" - Luke Haines & Peter Buck

When I visited on Saturday I was the only person there apart from the curator, who turned out to be famed promoter and former Subway Sect and JoBoxers drummer Sean McLusky. Inspired by our surroundings we shared a trip down Memory Lane, visiting Mick McManus, 'Logan's Run' and all points in between. Here is Sean with his mates back in the day.