The Motels
Hailing from London, David Allen arrived in Los Angeles in 1976 on what he describes as “an angry whim”. One day while at the newsstand checking for NME, he spotted a magazine with the word Slash written across the front, in a blood-splattered font. Intrigued, he read a story in it before heading to the magazine’s office, where he embarked upon a career in design. Suddenly he was an outsider on the inside of the emerging punk scene.
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It was while he was hanging out at the Masque, a nightclub just off Hollywood Boulevard, that Allen was approached by a young photographer named Jules Bates, who had seen a flyer Allen had designed and wanted to collaborate on the cover for Nick Gilders’ album featuring the hit, Hot Child in the City. One thing lead to another, and Bates proposed they start a company with his then-girlfriend Phyllis Cohen, a make-up artist from Vancouver.
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Allen named the crew Artrouble, and together they began creating album covers for emerging punk bands like the Dickies and Devo, New Wave bands like Oingo Boingo and the Motels, and pop stars like Shawn Cassidy and Peter Frampton. When Bates died in the early 1980s, Artrouble came to an end. Now, on the 40th anniversary of its launch, Allen looks back at the LA collective that defined an era.
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Canterbury Punks