Paul Weller and The Jam's Sound Affects album cover phone box can be found in Gravesend
Published: 14:58, 10 February 2022
Updated: 18:54, 10 February 2022
A phone box which features on the cover of The Jam’s fifth album has been transformed as a tribute to the band.
The traditional red box in Gravesend was photographed for the Sound Affects album by art director Bill Smith, who was from the town.
Four decades later, the phone box – which stands outside the Old Town Hall – has been given a makeover by artist Duncan Grant.
It was revamped for the Winter Light Festival which took place a few weeks ago.
Duncan said: “Because the phone box was featured on the Sound Affects album, Gravesham council wanted my installation to be a tribute to The Jam.”
The Sound Affects cover was based on the design for a series of Sound Effects records by the BBC.
The band’s frontman Paul Weller asked Bill Smith to recreate it with pictures relating to songs on their album.
Bill created The Jam's famous spray-paint logo that lives on today and also created the covers for five of their albums and 16 of their singles.
The band had been working in the studio and using one of the Sound Effects records when Weller, who will play the Hop Farm at Paddock Wood in June, came up with the idea for the Sound Affects cover.
Writing in the book Paul Weller: Sounds from the Studio, Bill said: "Every one of the Sound Effects albums was numbered so I called it Sound Affects No.80 because the album was released in 1980.
"With Paul's idea in mind, I then set about pulling in the various images for the album sleeve.
"I took and sourced some of the shots and the photographer Martyn Goddard took the others."
Bill – who also worked with The Cure, Kate Bush, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Genesis and Queen – added: "The telephone box was in a street in Gravesend town centre. I took the photograph when I lived there.
"The pylon was in the countryside just outside Gravesend."
Sound Affects sold over 100,000 copies and spent 19 weeks in the UK albums chart, rising to number two in late 1980.
Weller has previously said Sound Affects was The Jam's best album and his favourite.
Duncan’s artwork, titled That's Entertainment, features two Mod figures speaking lyrics from Start!, one of the tracks on Sound Affects which was the group's second UK number one single, and his take on the photos from the album cover.
Although the Winter Light Festival is now over, Duncan's artwork will remain in the phone box.
The festival was organised by Gravesham council and aimed to help people see the town in a new light.
The council teamed up with artists and local businesses to create the circular trail around the Heritage Quarter.
They were supported by a professional architectural lighting company which repaired and installed new lighting around the town to complement the festival and draw out key features of some of the historic buildings.
There were installations and light projections at St George’s Church Gardens, Town Pier and St Andrew’s Art Centre among others.
Brigitte Orasinski, artistic director of Strange Cargo, the lead arts organisation for the event, said: “We were excited by the architecture of the town centre and its patchwork of buildings of all sizes and designs in the Heritage Quarter.
“Gravesend’s history is visible at every turn and as we navigated the arrangement of streets, we encountered narrow alleyways leading to charming green spaces with statues honouring the town’s past and present heroes in parks and churchyards; and of course, the magnificent River Thames.”
You can find the phone box outside the Old Town Hall in High Street, Gravesend.
More by this author
Jenni Horn