Plastic Dog Graphics was the sister company to the Plastic Dog Agency that booked and ran the Granary rock nights. The Graphics Studio began in 1971 and ran through to the mid 70’s when it split from Plastic Dog and moved to Park Row and was renamed Skyline Studios.

Terry Brace was the artist in the original Plastic Dog team and so, alongside the booking agency and the concert promotions, it was not surprising that a graphics studio grew up. From the humble beginnings of the monthly Dogpress (the magazine that was given away at the Granary to publicize the month’s events) to a separate company (Skyline Studios) designing album covers, posters and badges. Terry was also a fine bass player, though his singing could be a bit suspect at times, and he played in The Statesmen, Franklyn Big Six and East of Eden. In later years he was the Graphic Design tutor at Filton College. Terry died in 2006 when an emergency operation in Las Vegas went terribly wrong. The inquest concluded that he was unlawfully killed. We reproduce some of his work here in memory of a fun loving guy who is sadly missed by many Granary friends and fans.

Rodney Matthews was the drummer with the progressive rock band Squidd and their reincarnation Originn, both favourites at the Granary in early days. He was a masterful artist with a wicked sense of humour and the atmosphere in the Plastic Dog Graphics studio at 77, Park Street was always one of laughter, loud music and strange herbal aromas. Rodney’s fantasy art drew the attention of Big O posters who published a number of Rodney’s artworks which soon made him an international name. He designed covers for Thin Lizzy, Nazereth, Asia, Magnum and many other rock bands. He has had several books, calendars, jigsaws, and artworks published over the years and has had paintings purchased by the Monty Python team. The full extent of his work can be seen at his website www.rodneymatthews.com

Both Terry and Rodney we responsible for a number of logos for Plastic Dog.

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The Dogpress magazine, which was given away free at the Granary Club, ran for three years, starting with a typewritten sheet in 1969 through to a special bonus 32 page edition for Christmas 1973. The first Dogpress printed with a cover was number 12 for December 1969 though the inside pages were still type written sheets stapled in sideways.

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Dogpress 13 for January 1971 was the first one to include advertisements for trendy shops often frequented by the students and hippies who made the Granary their music home. A list of the forthcoming Granary attractions was on the front cover which was designed by Terry who naughtily sneaked in a phallic border to the figures. Also included was a poem by Bristolian Bob Pritchard, a big music fan and blues enthusiast, sadly no longer with us. His son is Luke Pritchard, the front man for the Kooks.

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February 1970 Dogpress was number 14 and still the type writer was in use to provide the text for the inside pages. Our bemused Clifton based printer ran off the covers for us.

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Number 15 for March 1970 advertised forthcoming gigs for both Black Sabbath and Chicago Climax Blues Band. During the month Sabbath contacted us to ask if they could postpone their date as a leap in their popularity had caused their record company to book them into the recording studios for a new album. We said okay ‘cos we were nice like that but their fame went on increasing and they never actually fulfilled the booking. One of the few the Granary missed. Chicago Climax went on to be the most booked  national band at the Granary. Now the whole magazine was professionally printed and the middle spread became a breakdown of the artists appearing during the month, a format we followed for the rest of the Dogpress run.

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The April 1970 Dogpress edition had a cover with Terry’s drawings of some rather weird little pottery objects he made called ‘Blutts’. They were two pottery squares with a pottery splodge oozing out. No two were the same and Terry hoped to become rich selling them. Good idea but few sales. First appearance in this one for ‘The Groupie of the month’. A picture in the ‘Page 3′ tradition purporting to be of a local girl (it was usually one lifted from Terry’s copy of  Continental Film Monthly) with a rude name invented by Al. The first was Nora Funbody.

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Number 17 for May 1970 told all that Plastic Dog had moved from back rooms to permanent office premises in Park Street, Bristol, a impressive address for a business that had started by accident less than eighteen months earlier. By now Granary Club members were looking forward to their free monthly magazine (must have been the groupie of the month).

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Dogpress number 18 for June 1970 included an article by Rodney Matthews about the regular Friday and Saturday night fight scenes in the centre of Bristol caused by the antics of “skinheads”. the article was accompanied by a classic Rodney cartoon (a life size version of the cartoon appeared on stage with Rodney’s band which was destroyed during the act by Rodney himself).

The June Dogpress cover was an odd distorted photograph from goodness knows where! Groupie of the month was “the daughter of a Russian countess called Betya Vadit”. There were full page pictures of Wishbone Ash and Heaven plus several poems and the month’s programme.

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The cover for Dogpress number 19 for July 1970 was a Terry cartoon in Marvel comic style. Inside were full page pictures of Stackridge and Alan Bown, our summer groupie “Ophelia Minn” and the month’s programme which included Skid Row with their teenage guitarist Gary Moore.

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Dogpress 20 for August 1970 had a cover picture of Eric Clapton as Plastic Dog had started promoting concerts at the Winter Gardens in Malvern with the first featuring one of the first UK gigs for DEREK & THE DOMINOES on Friday 14th Agust 1970. Admission was £1. Inside the mag were full page pictures of Yemene, Derek & the Dominoes, Raw Material and Originn.

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Dogpress 21 also featured our Malvern Winter Gardens promotion on the front cover with a picture of Keith Emerson as EMERSON LAKE and PALMER were our bill toppers in September. Granary bands for the month included ATOMIC ROOSTER and CLIFF BENNETT. Our groupie of the month was “Betty Putzit-Wellyn” and there were full page pics of Steamhammer and the Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra.

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Dogpress 22 for October 1970 once again had the acts appearing for us at Malvern on the front cover. Top of the bill were the KEEF HARTLEY BAND with YES as support. We were told by Yes that it was the last time they would ever do a support spot. It was. Full page picture this month was of KARAKORUM and the groupie of the month was named as “Donna Noddy”. The Granary programme included TRAPEZE, PATTO and MOTT THE HOOPLE.

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The cover for Dogpress 23, November 1970 featured a Terry cartoon of two Magic Roundabout characters, Zebedeee looking embarrassed by a somewhat pregnant Florence. Must have been Zebedee’s regular last line of “And so to bed”. Inside there was a fully illustrated page on nose-picking including a photo of John Lennon exploring his. A picture of MOGUL THRASH and the November programme with gigs by ARGENT, CHAMPION JACK DUPREE, BLODWYN PIG and the CLIMAX BLUES BAND. Our groupie of the month was “Lotta Arsentit”.

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An extra bumper edition (4 more pages) was given away for December 1970 with a naughty Santa cartoon on the front cover. Inside the highlight of the month’s entertainment was CURVED AIR (number 8 in the album charts on the day of their Granary gig). Our groupie of the month was “Sadia Wanton”. Advertisements included one for Bristol Polytechnic’s Xmas Ball for whom we had booked T-REX, OSIBISA, DOZY BEAKY NICK & TICH and WILD WALLY’S ROCK ‘n ROLL SHOW. Also an ad for Keith Floyd’s new bistro (he never paid us for the ad).

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The Dogpress magazine continued throughout 1971 always free to Granary Club members, punters at our Malvern Winter Gardens concerts and at various hip joints around the city. Number 25 for January 1970 had a picture of Terry and Al inside wishing one and all a happy new year. Bookings at the Granary for TRAPEZE, GROUNDHOGS, SAVOY BROWN and SKID ROW (Guitarist Gary Moore was now 18 and legally allowed in the club!) amongst others. Remember there are full listings of all the Granary groups in Al’s book “The Granary Club, The Rock Years” available on this web site from the shop - £10 only inc post and packaging.

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The cover of Dogpress 26 for February 1971 had a decidedly wintery blue picture on the front. The fact there was a naked lady kneeling in the snow leads on to presume Terry had a hand in choosing the picture.  First band in the month was BALLS (great line-up with Wings man Denny Laine, Trevor Burton from the Move, Mike Kelly from Spooky Tooth and Steve Gibbons). GENESIS also played at the club during Feb. Your probably tired of the groupie of the month names but here’s another, February’s was “Anne Dellis-Ardon”. Clever but rude. Our printer often had serious doubts about whether or not to print certain features in Dogpress but usually gave in to our persuasive ways.

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Dogpress number 27 for March 1971 included a newspaper article reprinted from the Telegraph which praised the Granary highly. Another clipping from the Sun said that member of Parliament Sir Gerald Nabarro had waved a magazine about in the Commons saying that he had complaints from that pornographic literature had been distributed in his home town of Malvern. It turned out that copies of Dogpress given away at our Malvern Winter Gardens concerts had found their way to Sir Nabarro. The Malvern police thought it was all a bit silly but said it would be best not to hand out anymore. We never had any complaints in Bristol over the three years of Dogpress though Sir Nabarro did run into a bit of trouble himself when he finished up in court after driving the wrong way around a roundabout, he claimed his secretary had been driving but…….etc. He was an old school right wing Tory not shy of making racist remarks who became the butt of many Monty Python jokes. Bands playing at the Granary during the month included LINDISFARNE, GRAHAM BOND and GENTLE GIANT.

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Dogpress 28 for April 1971 had a full page pic on the cover of Al and Terry (right and left) with Ian A. Anderson and his wife Maggie. This was to mark the joining of Plastic Dog (Agency and Management) with Village Thing (Agency and Management) which combined Bristol’s major rock music company with Bristol’s major folk music company. An excellent move which proved to be good for all. Artists appearing at the Granary during April included Barclay James Harvest and Da-Da with Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer.

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Skid Row had become great favourites at the Granary so their picture adorned the cover of Dogpress 29 for May 1971. The back cover had a full page picture of ragtime guitarist Stephan Grossman who was now under the Plastic Dog / Village Thing banner for UK bookings. We also presented Al Stewart at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol, Al had written the better part of his “Bedsitter Images” album whilst living in Clifton, Bristol. Thin Lizzy and Uriah Heep played at the Granary during May.

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The cover of the June 1971 Dogpress was an artwork by Rodney Matthews of a baby lizard type creature emerging from a broken egg shell which was also the planet Earth. This was a theme that Rodney returned to for his poster “The Last Armada” in 1974 where the Earth has broken open like an egg shell with creatures riding on butterflies streaming out into space. This poster was an international best seller.

“the Last Armada” Rodney Matthews 1974

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Dogpress 31 for July 1971 had a pretty picture of a little girl gathering flowers on the cover of our Fab Summer Issue! On the back cover we advertised our first (and last) Festival “Midsummer Merry Making at Pleasure Acre, Portbury”. Everything went wrong, problems with the Council caused a switch of venues a the last moment, we forgot to tell anyone that we’d moved it, the heavens opened and an electric storm drowned the bands whilst out doing the light shows. And we lost a lot of cash we didn’t have. However it gave a farmer from Pilton near Glastonbury an idea which he carried out and was rather more successful at festivals than we were.

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Dogpress number 32  for August 1971 pictured a loving couple on the cover who were snapped at  at an open air blues concert in Bath. A picture that was previously used for a 1969 Granary poster, see below.

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Dogpress 33 had a Rodney Matthews cartoon on the cover showing top hatted bounder nibbling a very magical mushroom whilst the back cover had another Rodney cartoon which had a groovy angel carrying a Dogpress. At this time Mrs. Whitehouse (who was about to visit the Pope) was leading the movement to ban and censor everything whilst we, of course, were opposed to censoring anything.

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The cover of Dogpress 34 for October 1971 had a picture of Terry Reid  on it as he was one of the month’s big acts at the Granary. Also appearing during October were Thin Lizzy, Graham Bond, Slade and Brinsley Schwartz.

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Rodney Matthews got carried with cartoon dogs on the cover of Dogpress 35 for November 1971. the mag contained a full page ad for the “Dog of Two Head” Status Quo album, 3 pages of album reviews and a month’s Granary programme with Andy Fraser’s TOBY, Southern Comfort and Climax Chicago.

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There was an extra large bumper edition of Dogpress for December 1971. An elephant adorned the cover and there was a special double return of the groupie of the month with a duo name “Frigga Little and Sheila Dooryew”. We said goodbye to DJ Super-Ed, the Granary’s first DJ who was off to London. He did return thankfully or we wouldn’t be still rocking now. Playing at the Granary during December were UFO and Heads, Hands and Feet. Record reviews covered 5 pages of Dogpress, it was a great way of getting a regular free influx of albums.

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We intended that to be the last Dogpress but a year later we relented and brought out a special bumper edition for December 1973. The Plastic Dog/Village Thing staff had increased with the addition of two secretaries. Some of Rodney’s cartoons from this edition can be found further down the page. There was a groupie of the month called”Sheila Rowsit” plus adverts for Sonet Records for whom we did many album cover designs, Mushroom Studios with another Rodney Matthews drawing of a creature sat on a mushroom smoking a hubble bubble pipe. John Sherry Agency, Revolver Records, Saydisc Records, Virgin Records, Expansion Records, Shades Disco, Chums Fashion, Head On Fashion, Heads Hairdressers, Speciality Records and the White on Black folk group all advertised in Dogpress 37.

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And that was the end of Dogpress, it took up too much time for a busy little entertainments company and, as it was given away free, it was costing money we didn’t have. We replaced it with a monthly card to tell the Granary goers what was on. Most of these were thrown away and not kept for archives but one did surface for June 1978 and what a good month it was.

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Some full sized posters advertising the Granary’s programme for the month were designed in the first few months of the Granary rock nights in 1969.

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Here’s a selection of artworks by Terry Brace.

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Here’s some of the work that Rodney Matthews produced during his time with Plastic Dog Graphics.

After the last Dogpress was published, the artists listing for the Granary was produced as a monthly flyer/card in many shapes and forms.

Guitarist Melvyn Taylor of rock band TONGE kept the August 1975  handout which has his band playing at the club on Thursday 28th.

There will be more additions to the graphics and artworks in the near future.