Somewhere around here I have a great shot of Mike and Dennis with a girl my brother was "seeing" around that time (my brother used to run with Dennis and I don't mean jogging!) If I can find the photo I'll post it.

Hey there,

I think ya might be reading too much into this message board thing.
No conspiracy goin' on...in the course of my biz I just spoke to DeMartin.
They just want to try to make the board a little easier to navigate.

Th...th...that's all folks!


Happy New Year.
 
~ Mark London

I picked up the program at the Saratoga show.

Hey Jude...
I'm glad we had them for Saratoga too! As you can imagine, I was awaiting a call or an
e-mail to change the book a little due to Al not joining the Europe part of the tour, but
it looks like that's how it'll stay, and it's a great reminder of the shows they did this year.
BTW; things are great between Brian and Al. Brian sang on his new album and you may be
surprised just how cool "A Postcard From California" is gonna be.

Mr. London, did you also design the poster that was made for the May and June US dates?

No, sorry I didn't do the poster I think you're talking about (the endless summer type thing?)
that was done by the merch company....I put 2 solid months into just designing that booklet.

The interview is a pretty fun read. It reads more like a transcript of a conversation than strictly an interview.

Brian's known Harvey for a long time, and Harvey's a true character (for those that know him)
so I knew he was the perfect guy to do it because Brian likes Harvey and opens up when he's
around. There was a lot of food happening there, we did it at a Deli, so that's why I titled the
piece "Booth Session With Big Daddy"! and rather than edit it like a standard mag interview,
we transcribed it as a play by play...it's a reality show in print!

I did do the Pet Sounds poster though, but I only got a few myself...
e-mail me at  mlondon@hotmail.com and I'll see if I can find one for ya.

Josh- Thanks. You still in L.A.?
The text isn't that small actually, it's around the size of an album, but the
jpegs are only a small example of the photos and layout for a preview

~ ML ~

Hey y'all,
If you wanna peek at the 2007 program,
I just put up a few pages on the blog-

http://heavypaperz.blogspot.com/

Been a while since posting here, hope you're all cool!

~ ML ~

http://heavypaperz.blogspot.com/


There ya go!

~ ML ~

I think the timeline got lost in translation.
The day I got an E-Mail saying "we need SMiLE art" was the day
I got Frank's phone number and flew up north the next morning.
We both got a fee for the announcment poster/shirt collaboration...
this was a tight deadline, the whole project came very suddenly.

After that, when Brian went to the UK for the announcment where the
poster was printed and distributed (those are the bootleg ones floating
around E-Bay) We began to negotiate for the tour merchandise (don't
forget; no album planned at this point) I don't even think Van Dyke had
been called by Brian & Darian yet.

We were waiting for an offer to come from Brian's office, and in the
meantime, Frank had come to L.A. for family reasons and met with
Van Dyke...I suggested that they might call Brian and Melinda and
go over for a basic hangout/lunch/reunion...but that didn't happen.
I was insanely busy gathering material; archival photos etc...and we
were still waiting for word from the office, when Frank became a little
impatient (understandable) and shot the letter from his lawyer.
When I heard that, I really wished he had gone and visited with the
Wilson's for an hour when he was in town. Just felt a little cold to me.

This is the way I remember it....my story....
I don't and won't speak for anyone else but myself.

Frank did show me recent SMILE art, around 8 or so more songs
that he illustrated, that was to be for a Capitol box set for I guess
sometime in the late 1980's which got canceled for whatever reasons.
He does not have the original '66 art and doesn't know who does...but
it is true that if we had used all of Franks stuff for 2004, there would
be nothing to use for Capitol if they ever did decide to do a box set in
the future. Looking back now almost 3 years later, I am glad I went
in the new direction, and yes, it would've been a little wierd to drop
Bri's name over where the Beach Boys name used to be....MY only
regret will always be that we couldn't find a way to do achieve my
original idea for the cover...which was not to do the SMiLE letters in
blue foil....but to do them in a more reflective blue mirror...so when
you picked up SMiLE for the first time, you would see your own huge
smile right in the middle of the CD, that was my vision.
Oh yeah...and the fact that the UK never asked for my direction when
they did the "special" shadow box package...I had nothing to do with it.

~ ML ~

However, management just flatly refused his offer.  No discussion whatsoever.
Just a "We think that's way too much money to ask.  Goodbye." ... and that was that.

Hey Dan Lega how are ya? It wasn't quite like that. Frank got a lawyer involved.
Anyone else wouldn't think it such a bad idea, but I would not recommend it as
the best way to re-introduce or endear yourself to the Wilsons after 35 years.
To me that's like reforming your relationship with Superman with a gift of Kryptonite.

If they had used Holme's original I think Mike would have another point in his recent lawsuit,
because it had the Beach Boys' name on it and was over the years associated with them

Thanks Rocker, you may have a good point there.
To quote the immortal Hunter Thompson; "Call on God...but row away from the rocks."

The ironic (and unjust) aspect is that we all have his art on the bootlegs!

Have you seen the art Frank sells on his site? Doesn't look too bootleg to me!

Thanks Guys,

~ ML ~

Thanks Charles & Thanks Jeff!

I haven't posted on anything in a couple of years.
I'll never compare my work to Frank's though.
I love Frank's vibe, style and approach.
To say it was a tall order to fill is an understatement.

There were times when I was doing the work, that I could
actually physically feel the anticipation of the (music)
world and my palm was sweating so much I could barely
grip my own damn pen! I had my pal Dennis Loren there
to help keep me at an even keel (Dennis was my "mac"
connection; to gather the art files and pages and organize
them in his mac for the printer... yup, I do it all on PC...big
no-no in the music biz usually!) I chose the early Americana
approach because obviously I couldn't/wouldn't try to copy
Frank, and if I chose to do random abstract/freeform paintings
as I've since seen other artists  post...well, I think that the music
is freeform/abstract enough, the package would've presented
itself as just plain confusing!

The only reason it resembled anything from the original was
because I started the project with Frank, and we were gonna
continue where he left off. By the time negotiations broke down,
I didn't have the time to start over (don't forget, I did have a huge
history/tour program to do on a deadline...this was before we even
knew there would be a studio recording) So I thought of what
visions Van may have had flying through his 1966 mind before he
invited Frank on board, and ran out and got those amazing antique
figures- one for each song, and some old agricultural catalogs and
threw my own little whammy on them.

Anyway, thanks for the welcome and letting me set the
record straight again about the most important work of
my life so far (even if I don't exist in Peter's book)

~ ML ~

I dug Bruno.

My favorite BK role aside from Godfather & Tap would be
Albert Brook's Modern Romance. He was Perfect as
an assistant film editor who gives Albert some quaaludes
to get him over a heartbreak. Find that film if you can....also
you'll see Albert go into a shoe store on Melrose to buy new
jogging equipment for his "new" life without a girlfriend.
If I'm not mistaken, the location of the shoe store is, or
was next to Brian's old Radiant Radish health food store.

I had just seen Bruno at an Indian restaurant only
four months ago...whatta bummer...he'll be missed.

~ ML ~

Can't say who your friend is, but this is coming directly from my conversation with
Frank when I flew to San Francisco to begin the "coming soon to a face near you"
announcement with him (the only actual SMilE work we did together: a T-shirt and
a now heavily bootlegged poster for the UK...thanks E-Bay!!)

P.S.
Your "do what thou wilt" quote by Aleister Crowley; Isn't that
taking the 'Rock & Roll is the Devil's Music" thing pretty deep?!

Keep up the good...er....work Andrew!

~ ML ~

Just to set this record straight, Frank was never paid by either Capitol or the band for all his work back in 1966/7, thus when approached to use the original artwork for BWPS, this was a factor influencing the sum he requested. Brian's management declined his offer.

Normally you do set the record straight Andrew.
But not this time.
As I recall, this subject came up when I began the project in 2004 and I told you then that Frank
was paid by Brian himself for the art and also has made a few $$ selling lithos of the the original
cover for years (I have one myself, it's awesome!) Your reply was "I stand corrected."
Also let me tell you how thrilled I was to be given due credit in Peter's book.....oh, whatya know,
not even a mention. Oh well, maybe if it was a historically higher profile gig....

~ Mark London