We love to accentuate those small things that make our pastimes pleasurable. The little details that we take for granted make up the hidden highlights of the total experience. The inspection of your vinyl against the light or the sharp blow on the needle to remove unwanted dust. Before you have heard whatever you dug out of your crate, you want to hear the sound of the crackle on the old vinyl as the needle is eased into the groove.
Originally, this design was to be called Needle To The Groove after the Mantronix hit. I was pondering the almost finished artwork and listening to some early Hiphop through headphones and turned around to see the end of a comedy sketch on TV. All I caught was a soft focus picture of a teddy bear wrapped in ribbons and across the screen, in a handwrittern script was Always Use Clean Needles. I found out after the adverts it was The Adam and Joe Show. I have no idea if it was a funny sketch but I knew that my homage to Mantronix had to wait...
A large number of photos were taken to document the whole vinyl selection process thru to the final four steps featured in this joint.
Read on for the complete history on one of the most popular uchi designs...
The History
My initial brief back in 2003 was to show the simple process of placing the needle on the record. It was a follow up to the first four square design -Tobacco Seriously Damages Health.
The design would be subtle but still have a technical manual look to it. My friend Fingers aka Voodopunk.com owns an old record player complete with dust on the needle and crates of punk. We took rolls of film capturing the whole vinyl selection process thru to removing from the sleeve all the way to the final small motions here. I later used some of the shots for Natural Selection and Now We May Begin.
The original artwork was done as six squares and cut down to four for the purposes of the t shirt design. Over time the design has gone through a couple of facelifts. I removed a lot of detail to keep it styled like the Tobacco Seriously Damages Health. A year and a new screen printer later, after I completed Natural Selection, we'd worked out how thin a line would print before it was degraded. I went back and put some of the detail back in and replaced the typeface to the same one used for Natural Selection and Weapons of Mass Instruction.
Like all uchi t-shirts it's had it's share of different co lour combinations. From the original black on white tee through to the latest limited edition gold print urban hoodies. There's too many colourways in between to remember them all but the best looking ones always get a revisit. Always Use Clean Needles has been through tweaks and updates, there's been a Always Use Clean Needles - Extended Remix and a six square Limited Edition screen print to partner the Tobacco Seriously Damages Health canvas.
