Adam Mole's 'The Mrs. Won't Pay For A Caravan Fund'

Hello and 'welcome to my world'. Every two weeks I plan to auction (via eBay) 'Pop Will Eat Itself' related 'lots' in a quirky, experimental, mildly amusing, most unlikely scheme to raise enough cash to purchase a nice cosy vintage caravan... for myself!

This conceptual extravaganza is also described in glamourous literary fashion at James Brown's 'Sabotage Times' website.

[link removed by eBay]

Here for auction is lot ‘PWEI008’.

‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’.

Three XL tee-shirts by ‘the Designers Republic’.

Our fruitful collaboration with ‘the Designers Republic’ began in 1988 when we first recorded at ‘Fon Studios’ in Sheffield. They had already produced amazing artwork for in-house ‘Fon’ artists like ‘Age of Chance’ so when resident ‘Fon’ producer Robert Gordon re-mixed such a cracking version of ‘Love Missile F1-11’ Robert became the obvious choice to produce our first album. It was almost inevitable we would cross paths with ‘Mr. Designers Republic’. It was a marriage made in heaven.

For many years ‘PWEI versus the Designers Republic’ artwork would create ground-breaking and distinctive product. Well ahead of the competition.

For some reason Ian Anderson, (head and creative director of tDR) liked us to call him ‘the Ginger C’ and would incorporate this name in our credits and artwork just for his own amusement. Of course we obliged. He seemed pleased, we liked him.

Like our manager C.J, he would turn up for the glamour fixtures where the most fun was to be had. Unfortunately we were yet to grace the ‘Monaco Grand Prix’, ‘Buckingham Palace Garden Party’ or the ‘Cannes Film Festival’ but he seemed happy with his little trips out to London, Sheffield or Wolverhampton. He enjoyed our rock and roll lifestyle but wasn’t much of a drinker, though he tried, often he tried. Hangovers were a common feature of his little trips to see PWEI play live. He wasn’t alone!

‘The Good’.

The classic ‘PWEI’ design by ‘tDR’. My blue long-sleeved ‘Pepsi’ tee-shirt.

Worn over many years on countless tours, gigs and nights out about the town. The design is totally worn and thus full of character and history. Honest it is! It has lost its shape and may have been worn in later life whilst decorating a room cos it has a couple of patches of what looks like paint but this just adds to the character and history. Honest it does!!!   

 Clint came up with the ‘Pepsi’ idea, although other corporate logos had been ‘spoofed’ or mimicked before, it was pretty ingenious at the time. Graham’s slogan ‘Sample it, Loop it, F**k it and Eat it’ often encircled the ‘Pepsi/PWEI’ logo.

One such example was our huge live backdrop; this was to cost us dear in Cardiff.

I remember playing a gig at Cardiff University and apparently some of the more intelligent members of society were a little unhappy to play host to such a bunch of ‘undesirables’.

One such member of some ‘Lentils R Us, Yoghurt Knitting Uni. Soc.’ allegedly contacted ‘Pepsi’ and ‘spilt the beans’ about our use of their highly protected logo. RCA readily accepted a fine in the thousands rather than the millions threatened. No more shirts were manufactured, no more use of that artwork and no more backdrop. I wonder where that backdrop is now!

We pushed our luck and we are sorry ‘Mr. Pepsi’ but it did make for an exceedingly striking work of art.

Ian Anderson and ‘the Designers Republic’ produced all of our artwork until we disbanded in 1996 and again when we made a temporary comeback for five re-union ‘Reformation’ gigs in 2005.

Ian went on to produce artwork for ‘Coca Cola’. Funny that!!!

‘The Bad’.

Contrary to popular opinion, not everything tDR created was a 'must have purchase'. On this occasion for example Ian must have been suffering from a PWEI induced hangover and just wanted to get the job done. Famous for his use of simplicity, urban strength and colour, this shirt is, oh alright...simple!

Magnolia gothic lettering on a navy blue shirt. Oh, I almost forgot to say, the identical design features on the back of the shirt too. Bloody genius.

Bloody ‘Ginger C’.

‘The Ugly’.

PWEI were never fans of photo sessions or seeing themselves immortalised forever in visual splendour. Consequently we rarely advertised our lack of ‘model-like’ status.

Graham had written an early track called ‘Ugly’ and I guess we always amused ourselves with this self-deprecating humour. We rarely used our photographs on any artwork but were ‘badgered’ into it for ‘The Looks or the Lifestyle’ album...so long as we could be distorted. This was cutting edge technology at the time, now it can be done by a kid on a cheap phone. Oh, the ‘good old days’.

Little did we know our faces would end up on a tee-shirt too! It was too late, by the time we saw these shirts they were on a tee-shirt stand being ‘not sold’ by one of our three favourite merchandise guys...Willie, Johnnie or Eddie and they could 'sell'! You could write a book about those guys...diamond geezers. Hope you are all doing fine lads!  

The only other time I can remember our face being on a tee-shirt was on our first trip to America as new signings to RCA. Some ‘Artie Fufkin’ record company fool had taken an arbitrary photo of the four of us and plastered it over the front of a shirt along with the RCA and BMG logos as a promotional tool to give to D.js, record shop owners and any general American subject keen to appear an idiot. I think they were part of the promotional effort that accompanied the multiple remix C.D of ‘Can U Dig It?’ by legendary New York ‘Mudd Club’ D.j ‘Justin Strauss’. I bet he was impressed!

I can only presume this magnificent marketing ploy was dreamt up by the same dork who, on hearing our first single for the mighty RCA was called ‘Can U Dig It?’ decided to commission and send out little packets of garden seeds with the name of the band and single on the front. Do you get it? ‘Can U Dig It? Get it?

Someone please tell me they were not accompanied by tiny rakes and spades, this would be too much. They could have you know?

I have none of these little packs of seeds to offer but the ‘PWEI008’ auction will include one of these rare U.S promo only tee-shirts/dusters thrown in too!

Like the other three shirts its XL and I would like to think it has never been worn but it does have the look of hosting some idiot potentially from Stourbridge hidden away inside it on more than one occasion. I can’t be bothered to photograph it...so it will be a wholly unpleasant surprise for the auction winner.

Happy bidding!