42 years separate this pair of Muleskinners-inspired T-shirts
++ Left: New Barney Bubbles Muleskinners T; right: Julian Balme’s tribute for The Commuters, 1980 ++
42 years separate the designs in this great photo, which pairs the new official Barney Bubbles Muleskinners T-shirt on the left with the one-off tribute on the right designed in 1980 by Julian Balme for the UK post-punk R&B group The Commuters.
Both belong to Peter Stanfield, the group’s harmonica player who is these days a prominent pop culture academic and author, notably of the recently published Pin-Ups 1972.
Balme designed the sleeve and label for The Commuter’s self-released EP the previous year and worked alongside Barney Bubbles at Stiff Records; he went on to become a leading designer for music as Jules Vegas.
Created in 1964 for the award-winning poster for the Twickenham art school band whose line-up included the late Ian McLagan, the Muleskinners Knockout R+B Here Tonight design is available on regular and long sleeved Ts, sweatshirts, hoodies and even mugs from the Barney Bubbles online shop.
Check out Stanfield’s fascinating blog here.