Author and designer, PAUL BURGESS, talks to Philjens about 'Satellite', and reveals the story behind the 'The Filth And The Fury!' film poster.

Phil: You're an avid collector of Sex Pistols memorabilia. When did you get bitten by the collecting bug and what is it's appeal?

Paul: The Pistols were very important to me when I was a kid, they were the first band that meant a lot more than just music. I was 14/15 at the time and I was thinking of going to art school, and their record sleeves and posters were the first things that I ever saw that I really liked. They made me really want to go to art college. There was a five year gap after the Pistols had finished when I was listening to other types of music. About 1985 I started collecting again, mainly badges and flyers. I've been collecting seriously for the last 10 years. My collection is mainly paperwork.

Phil: Was it the visual aspect of the band that cemented your interest and resulted in 'Satellite'?

Paul: Exactly. I felt some very good books had been written about the band, but there had never been a very good visual book. There have been some brilliant photography books, but I wanted the book to be a visual companion to John Savages' 'England's Dreaming'. I wanted it to have a lot of posters and flyers, and odd things that I hadn't seen in other books. It's an ongoing thing; since it's been published I've come across a hell of a lot of stuff, with which I could very easily do a second volume.

Phil: Is that likely at any point?

Paul: I think I will do one, but not straight away. I think a lot of the new stuff that will surface will have to come from people that were involved with the band. I don't know what John has got, I don't think Paul has got anything much, and Steve has not kept much because he's moved around a lot. Glen's got quite a lot of photographs. I think the best stuff comes from the likes of Helen Wellington-Lloyd, Nil's Stevenson, and Boogie who's got quite a lot.

Phil: Your photographs of the Filthy Lucre Tour, especially the British dates, provided some of the most memorable images of the tour. Was it a dream come true finding yourself photographing the Pistols in action?

Paul: Oh yes, it was the best thing! I got a job photographing them in Paris for Arena magazine. Through the magazine I managed to get photograph passes for Paris, Glasgow and Shepherd's Bush. Shepherd's Bush was by far the best. The excitement of it! You go into the pit, you're so close. My main memory is standing in front of Steve's amp and the power coming out almost knocks you over! Rotten got very fired up, he was like the old Rotten. I loved taking those photographs.

Phil: Is there any particular shot that sums up the excitement of the 96 Tour?

Paul: The full-page picture of Steve in 'Satellite' (page 153) I like a lot. There's a lot I've never published. I took about 40 at each gig. I've got some good ones at Glasgow where John is ripping his shirt off. It was great walking around photographing the people at every gig as well, there were lots of amazing people there. From old punks with their kids in pushchairs to old hippy crusty types!

Phil: More recently you provided the artwork for 'The Filth And The Fury!' film poster. There's a very interesting story behind this...

Paul: John had his Internet radio show (Rotten Radio), and a guy from Canada rang in and asked John if he'd seen the book. Initially John hadn't, and there was a lot of misinformation being talked about the book. I thought it would be more sensible for me to just ring in and have a chat with John myself. We hadn't approached him about doing the book, but we had sent a copy through his manager, Eric Gardner, which we learned later had just been sitting on his desk and hadn't been passed on to John.

So during the conversation which was live on his show, I asked him what was happening with the art work and he said he was really unhappy with it, and added "by the way I'm going to a meeting tomorrow and I might put your name forward!" He asked me to leave my phone number and a couple of days later there was a message on my answer phone from John asking if I'd like to have a go at designing the film poster, but I only had 2/3 days to do it because of the deadline! I called him back and we had a long chat about what he'd like to see on the poster and what the rest of the Pistols would like. It was quite vague. He basically left it open.... one idea he had was a black wall with text scrawled on it. Another was to have a 'music hall' feel, a bit like the opening credits to the film. I rang a few people; Julien Temple thought they were going to use a Union Jack design. Paul Cook had asked for an image of the band and Glen felt the same. So it was difficult to do.

Phil: In the end, did John have the final say?

Paul: Yes, it was very much done with John. He gave the impression that he was the main person that was interested in the artwork in relation to the Pistols. He asked me to do about five or six designs, and he chose the 'Pist' design. Initially I was quite surprised because others had images of all four members of the band on, and there was another poster with all five on.

Phil: That must have been your crowning achievement.

Paul: Yes, it was a fantastic thing to do. One other really nice thing was that I'd got to know Helen Wellington-Lloyd quite well over the last couple of years, and as you know the 'Pist' logo originally comes from one of Helen's early flyers from 1976. So it was like going full circle by using something from very early on in the Pistols career and modernising it for what will probably be the last Pistols project. It was good for Helen to get some recognition as well. We had to fight hard with Channel 4 to get that on the poster because they said that they never put credits on posters. The best thing was, because it was done through Sex Pistols Residuals, it was all done officially as a proper job. Everything you do design-wise for the Pistols they buy the whole copyright and it effectively becomes their property. Because they do that, they have to pay you a bit more for the lifetime rights to it, so I got a decent amount of money for it. I got more for doing the poster than I've got so far from doing the book! It's not just about the money, I would have done it for nothing!

I'm aware that not everyone likes the poster, but a lot of people do like it. The head of Film Four was very pleased with it, and thought it looked very modern.

Phil: It's in the tradition of the Pistols because in some ways it's a contrast to Never Mind The Bollocks, colour wise, but it's still a throwback to that minimalistic approach.

Paul: I totally agree. The first ever sleeve the Pistols brought out was plain black. The sleeves never had a picture of the band on. Also the word 'Pist' has two meanings. The word 'pissed' obviously means 'drunk' but it also means 'angry' in America. It's quite funny and eye-catching. You walk into a record shop and there's all these CDs that say 'Pist' on them!

It was just a really odd story, which really did come out of a phone call. It made me respect John for it as well. He was a real pleasure to work with, he was very intelligent and had some good ideas and he stuck his neck out for me.

Phil: What other Pistols related projects have you got lined up?

Paul: Sue (Catwoman) Lucas has been writing a book and I'm helping her out as a researcher. I've also been gathering together an enormous amount of visual information about the Pistols, enough to do another volume of Satellite, but I want to do it very thoroughly. If I did another one, it would have to be more in conjunction with John. I'd want to do it with the band. I will do it, but will leave it at least three or four years before I start thinking about it seriously.

Phil: Thanks very much Paul and best of luck.