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Stamp of approval for Norfolk 'Ziggy' album designer

ELAINE MASLIN

04 January 2010

Terry Pastor, formerly of Swanton Morley, who designed the album cover for David Bowie
Terry Pastor, formerly of Swanton Morley, who designed the album cover for David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.
They are some of the most iconic album covers of the last four centuries, making their mark in vinyl or CD in many a record collection.

Now they are to be given the First Class approval of Royal Mail after being picked to feature in their first special edition stamp collection of 2010, to be issued on Thursday.

One, the legendary 1970s album cover of David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was designed by a Norfolk-based illustrator.

It was the album which propelled the flamboyant musician to fame in the early 1970s and marked a turning point in the career of designer Terry Pastor.

Mr Pastor, who lived and did much of his work in a studio on Gooseberry Hill in Swanton Morley, also designed Bowie's earlier Hunky Dory album cover.

He said the effect of the Ziggy Stardust album on Bowie's career meant the days of meeting out in public in the West End of London, Soho or a pub near his studio were over.

“David used to go completely unrecognised,” he said. “But, following the release of Ziggy Stardust he became a mega-star and would get mobbed if he appeared anywhere in public.”

Mr Pastor had left school aged 15 to work as a commercial artist and it was losing his job in a studio in Fleet Street that meant he landed the work on the Hunky Dory album.

“I was sacked from the art studio in 1964 basically for having long hair and looking like a Rolling Stones clone,” he said.

Royal Mail stamp of Mike Oldfield
Royal Mail stamp of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells album cover
“The company was very much stuck in the past. It was more like 1954 than 1964.”

The Hunky Dory cover was based on a black-and-white photograph airbrushed with transparent inks and Letraset.

Bowie was so pleased he commissioned the Ziggy Stardust cover using the same techniques.

Mr Pastor went on to design book covers for author's including sci-fi writer Arthur C Clark, Jeffrey Archer, Mickey Spillane, Michael Crichton and more.

After moving into digital design he has now gone back to painting and print-making from his home at Long Melford near Sudbury, where he recently moved with his wife Carol Pastor. He still has family who live near Dereham.

The other albums in the Classic Album Covers set, which covers four decades from the 1960s, are: The Division Bell by Pink Floyd; A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay; Parklife by Blur; Power, Corruption and Lies by New Order; Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones; Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield; Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin; Screamadelica by Primal Scream.

They were picked for the album cover design, not the music, by the editors of three of the UK's most influential music publications and a number of graphic designer and design writers.

Last month Norfolk also featured in the special Christmas stamps issued by Royal Mail.

A 19th century stained glass window in the 13th century Ormesby St Michael Church featuring the Madonna and Child adorned thousands of Christmas cards.

Other special issues to be released later this year include a set celebrating the 100th birthday of the Girlguiding movement and another marking 350 years since the foundation of The Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and Great British Railways will also feature throughout the year.