Hey Ho – Let’s Go. R.I.P. Arturo Vega

The Ramones Logo

Arturo Vega: 1948 – 2013

Arturo Vega has died, aged 65. Pretty much everyone with even a passing interest in punk knows of Arturo Vega’s work. He was the man who designed the iconic Ramones logo, and many of their album covers. As much as The Ramones were at the vanguard of full on live and loud three chord punk, so too was the logo, representative of the US presidential seal, with the American Eagle sporting an apple branch and a baseball bat.

In 2011, Carole, Keira and I, along with a few others were fortunate to spend a morning with Arturo Vega watching him work. He was screen printing a design of his for the art installation Never Records, which in turn was part of the Better Bankside festival that year. Only around 20 or so items were printed by him with the Never Records logo. Keira and I each have one and so too does Neil Usher, who at the time I thought would appreciate a t shirt as a gift.

Arturo Vega
Me and Arturo – him looking cool, me looking geeked

 

Keira's Never Records T Shirt
Keira’s Never Records T Shirt

This is not one of those cringing ‘What can HR learn from Vega’s artistic approach?’ or ‘How can HR be more like The Ramones?’ type posts. It’s simply an acknowledgment of the death of an artist.  I’ll leave you with – what else but The Ramones kicking the ass out of Blitzkrieg Bop at The Rainbow Theatre in 1977, with ‘that logo’ as the backdrop. Hey ho, let’s go.

Keira is a Punk Rocker

Marky Ramone

A week is a long time in parenthood. Last Saturday Carole and I and a packed house watched Keira and her fellow dance school pupils put on a great show. The school puts on a show only once every three years and boy do they prepare well. As a result, the performances were compelling. A mix of dance genres: ballet, tap, modern, street and musical theatre were shared with us. Graceful and entertaining.

This weekend I find out that Keira has a new drumming project. Her teacher has asked her to learn the classic Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, by punk trailblazers The Ramones. I love the way kids can flip and flop to learn all manner of different things, and seeing this in Keira is a constant reminder to me that experimental learning and doing is useful and fun.

In the summer of 2011 I was fortunate to meet Arturo Vega, artist and muse to The Ramones, and by way of a vaguely interesting coincidence, back in the early 80’s me and a bunch of journo mates recorded a version of this song as a birthday gift for the eminent photographer Tom Sheehan. It was unspeakably rude and it made number three in the Melody Maker playlist the week after we handed it to Tom (via everyone in the press office of course). And now, courtesy of my daughter and her drum teacher, It’s 1977 again – in a good way.

While I leave you to think about the new stuff you’re going to learn this week, here are The Ramones at their 1977 best. 1234……

Photo credit