ABOUT: Look Sharp  - from an interview with Brian Griffin by Terry Rawlings, POP 2017;

TR: Joe Jackson's Look Sharp album is, to my mind and many others, one of your most iconic cover shots. It's instantly recognisable even if like me you don't own the record. Which is an incredible achievement when you think about it?

BG: I hired a pale blue Ford Escort to pick up Joe. I remember we parked at Waterloo and went and munch on hamburgers at the Wimpy Bar at Waterloo Station. It's just a short walk to South Bank from there, so we headed off in that direction. When we got there, I saw in an instant a shaft of sunlight shining between the concrete I told Joe to quickly 'stand there'. Click with my Olympus OM1 and that was that, it was all over in five minutes.

Joe had on those now famous white winklerpicker shoes from Shelley's Shoes on Carnaby Street and that was the shot. Joe refused to ever work with me after that!

TR: Why on earth? That was a hit album and everybody knows that image!

BG: Joe hated that cover, hated the fact that his face wasn't on the sleeve and vowed never to work with me again, and he never did! Once the album was released and it was such a hot, I remember I had these girls come up and kiss me. They felt it was the greatest album cover ever. 

TR: You made the most of those shoes, didn't you? No wonder he didn't use you again! It could have been a mannequin.

BRIAN GRIFFIN - ARTIST PAGE