The Prodigy Dirtchamber Sessions Vol 1
I worked as the Art Director at XL Recordings from 1995 until 2000. I was responsible for the entire printed visual creative output from the label, ranging from CD and vinyl releases through the marketing and advertising campaigns.
I wanted to become a record sleeve designer from a relatively young age and I got to live my dream. I used to love looking at the vinyl releases that my older brother owned for Joy Division and New Order. The graphic designers, Peter Saville and Vaughan Oliver where huge influences on me and I eventually became mates with Vaughan and Chris Bigg at V23.
I shot these images during a driving holiday around the west coast of Ireland in 1998 and took hundreds of photographs of the old rusting petrol pumps that are littered along the coastal roads and towns. This was pre-Instagram and I still have all my old imagery mostly on slide, some on negative.
One image in particular worked well for the cover of the Prodigy Dirthchamber Sessions album. The original images were black and white and I added the duotone colouring in Photoshop. The concept was to use a series of petrol pumps on subsequent releases but Dirtchamber Sessions Volume 2 never got released. (I heard recently that something may be in the pipeline from Liam Howlett…).
I created the scratchy graffiti typography by drawing out each letter or word in pencil and then added the scratchy effect by drawing over the letters in Photoshop.
I shot the original images on 35mm film with a Pentax K1000 and I still have the negatives somewhere in the attic. I also still have the camera which is pictured below.
