The Special's bassist turned acclaimed pop artist, Horace Panter, is to design an exclusive piece of art for music lovers for HMV's Vinyl Week in 2017. Commissioned by GPO Retro in partnership with Harrogate's RedHouse Originals Gallery, Panter will design a skin for GPO's 12" vinyl case to be launched in June 2017.
One of the founding members of The Specials, providing the bass lines for songs like Ghost Town and Too Much Too Young, Horace Panter, aka Sir Horace Gentleman, studied art in Coventry and rediscovered his love of pop art when teaching. Much of his artwork taps into music and pop culture references, like the cassette artwork originally produced for the Cancer Trust. His artwork is now regularly exhibited across the UK and internationally.
GPO Retro makes some of the UK's most popular record players and retro items, including Bluetooth speakers, radio and GPO telephones. From the suitcase style Attache to the sixties inspired Bermuda, GPO Retro produced record players combining a retro style and feel but with features the modern music fan needs, like USB, SD card and digital outputs.
Wanting to do something special for HMV's Vinyl Week, GPO began talking to RedHouse Originals Gallery, who represents Horace Panter, about creating an exclusive, limited edition artwork for one of their products. The vinyl case, designed to hold 30-35 LPs will initially be sold exclusively through HMV.
Gary Basso is Director at GPO Retro
"We've wanted to do something special for Vinyl Week for a while now as it's becoming an important date in our calendar, certainly, as well as for music lovers. We wanted to do something quite fun and limited edition and our vinyl cases have proved really popular, especially with HMV customers, so we're really delighted Horace has agreed to this".
RedHouse Originals Gallery is run by Richard McTague. It has welcomed artists like Peter Blake, The Coral and the late Howard Marks to the gallery on Cheltenham Mount in Harrogate.
Richard "We are thrilled to be working with Horace and GPO on this exciting new project. As admirers of the GPO Retro range, we feel it's a perfect fit and can't wait to see the record box on the shelves."
Horace Panter says,
"Obviously, I was delighted to be asked to design a cover for a GPO record box (I happen to own one of their plain ones)… something akin to a busman's holiday for me; that combination of art and music that informs most of my work. The design is under way… it will be colourful is all I can say at this point. Thanks to Richard at RedHouse Gallery and to GPO for having faith in my artistic ability!"
