English Settlement

This Iron Age horse was symbolic of the area where we lived. But they'd simply gone with the fact that it was a horse. And they'd got somebody to draw up this kind of Disney Land version of England in the background. You know, sort of like - herds of Dick Van Dyke grazing gracefully in front of you. ~ Andy Partridge

AP: Companies would try and interfere. Notably American companies, actually. When we did English Settlement there was a big complaint from - oh God, who had English Settlement? It wasn't Geffen. Who was it? Was it Epic?

WL: Probably Epic

AP: I think it was Epic. They complained to Virgin, saying that, "This doesn't make any sense." They didn't like the fact that it was just this kind of textured green with this Iron Age hill carving. [White Horse Hill, Uffington] And they sent back mockups, two mockups of how they wanted to see it. And I don't know why I didn't keep them because they were so comical.

WL: [laughs] What were they?

AP: I think one of them was - they'd obviously gone with this concept of the horse. But that wasn't strictly the concept. The concept was, it was a local kind of marker.

This Iron Age horse was symbolic of the area where we lived. But they'd simply gone with the fact that it was a horse. [laughter] And they'd got somebody to draw up this kind of Disney Land version of England in the background. You know, sort of like - herds of Dick Van Dyke grazing gracefully in front of you. [much laughter] It was all very Mary Poppins and Carnaby Street and "England swing like a pendulum do." [Roger Miller reference]

WL: [laughing] Wow.

AP: And it was this fucking merry-go-round horse. And it was just really ludicrous. And they sent another one as well, that just looked like a sort of a bad - girls drawing.

[laughter] And a kind of college girl - like some doodle on the front of her exercise book of a My Little Pony type thing. [laughter] You know, we said - "No, you're having this hill carving and liking it."

AP: Can we throw any more singles in here? 'Cause I really enjoy the singles.

WL:Yeah. Any singles you want to talk about.

AP: Well, I love bags that do things.

WL: [laughing]

AP: No, seriously.

WL: You mean - women?

AP: [laughing] Yeah. They've gotta be able to do things! You've gotta be able to fold them this way and that. [laughter] You know, roll 'em in flour and look for the wet spot.

WL: Origami women.

AP: [laughing] Yeah. But uh - No, I love packages that do stuff. You know, that you can open them out and fold them out, and bits fall out. Where you can move it here... Like for example, the "Senses Working Overtime" bag. The gray kind of lifeless features on this rather Easter

Island-ish kind of face. And then when you actually open the flap connected with that organ you get the taste with the lips. Or you get the sight - you know, the fantastic colored birds and stuff, with the eyes. Or was it the colored birds with the ears? You know, you can hear these things. I tried to make a sleeve that, as you opened it out, what you saw was indicative of the sort of overpowering multicolored sense of that organ. Or the "No Thugs In Our House" sleeve, which is a parody of a Pollock's paper theater. And you get the little characters and you cut them out, and sort of slide them on and act it out.

WL: Yeah - I love that sleeve.

Cerne Abbas Giant

Andy had considered using another chalk carving for the cover of English Settlement at one point, the image of the Cerne Abbas Giant. Also known as - for rather obvious reasons - The Rude Man. He dropped the idea though, as he decided it most likely wouldn't fly with Virgin Records.

WL: English Erection.

AP: [laughing] Erection Settlement.

CM: Well, if I tend to stick my nose in on that, Andy butts it out. He's very opinionated on artwork. If I stick my nose in, it's generally not wanted. [laughing]

WL: Even for your own singles?

CM: Less so, I suppose. He kind-of feels obliged to have input from myself but I think he wishes that I'd leave it to him.

WL: He wants the art to be his domain.

CM: Unless it's something that I'd really like to see. We'll kind of work round that.

WL: Can you think of any of the art that you had some say in, or that you wanted to change?

CM: We're talking probably a single bag, aren't we? I think the "Ball & Chain" thing; I had it in my head to have those houses on the front. It was around the time that there were a lot of house clearances in Swindon. A lot of things were being knocked down. There were these three houses standing and I thought, "Well, that sums it up. Why don't we photograph that?" It seemed to be the order of the day.