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Beskrivelse
A VIEW FROM INSIDE THE PINK MONSTERPortrait of the Young Artist as a Londoner Is a graphic designers drift through the late 70's London and an eyewitness account of the 1970's involving street politics, The Police, The Clash, The Metropolitan Police, Street Politics, H.R.H. the Queen, Graphic Design, The National Front, Rock Against Racism, Sham 69 and Monster Munch "A View from Inside the Pink Monster" is the autobiography of artist, video director, scriptwriter, performance poet, and art photographer Graham Rhodes, who in the mid nineteen seventies, left a Northern Art College as a mature student to work in London . It traces his career from working as a paste up artist on the Tupperware House magazine to becoming one of the first designers of 35mm slide based audio-visual presentations and product launches, to being introduced to H.R.H. the Queen for his work in the refurbished London Science Museum. Along the way he describes how he came to design print work for Miles Copeland III and his stable of bands that included The Police, Squeeze, The Cramps and many other bands. He provides an insight into the workings of the back room office, and the people behind of one of the UK's biggest bands. His story also tells of other lesser known bands and musicians, how Miles introduced Graham to one of his own guitar heroes Randy California (Spirit) and on seeing The Cramps on their first UK gig. Running alongside this career as a graphic artist Graham also pursued a career in fine art and the book documents his working on a one-man exhibition commissioned by the Battersea Arts Centre. Graham's chosen exhibition theme was "Cool Violence" a visual exploration of violence in the years 1977-78. This journey into the exploration of violence took him from the picket line at Grunwick to Ban the Bomb demonstrations in Trafalgar Square, to the violent anti-National Front demonstrations in Brick Lane and to witness the vicious street fighting between London's Metropolitan Police, the National Front and Anti-Nazi demonstrators at what is now known as "The Battle of Lewisham." This in turn led to Graham's involvement in the organisation Rock Against Racism, working with Sham 69 and meeting The Clash at the now famous Victoria Park, Rock Against Racism gig at Hackney attended by over 100,000 people and how he ended up as part of the backstage security team. Graham paints a vivid picture of 1970's London, of working in Soho and meeting with its many characters, of the frequent IRA bomb scares, building the stage at The Roundhouse, designing the launch of the famous Smiths Food Group snack Monster Munch, and spending twelve days on the road performing a nightly song and dance routine as the pink monster Throughout the book Graham not only commentates on his own small part in the events of the 70's but traces the history of the organisation Rock Against Racism (did you know it was founded in protest at Eric Clapton?), The National Front, The Anti-Nazi league, the background to the Grunwick strike, and reading poetry with Roger McGough.
