The Plastic Jesus Tour

line drawing for a concert poster

ink & Letratone, 1989

"I don't care if it rains or freezes
As long as I've got my plastic Jesus
Hanging from the dashboard of my car..."

So goes the tongue-in-cheek country song made internationally famous by Paul Newman in the film Cool Hand Luke. The English sculptor and musician Peter McLean, who sang this as part of his cowboy repertoire, dreamed up the infamous Plastic Jesus Tour as a series of impromptu concerts with friends in London pubs.

The idea was very... um ... spontanious, and I found myself designing the poster on my employer's kitchen table during my lunchbreak. The crucifix hangs from the rear view mirror rather than the dashboard as it should, strictly-speaking. But that's showbiz.

I only recently discovered that the type of cactus shown in the picture is called a Joshua tree on hearing an interview with U2's Bono in which he explained how he came up with the name for one of their albums.

The drawing was based on a number of sketches I had made from life some years before while travelling in an ancient car with friends Mike Brady and Bärbel. The story of that particular journey would make a great road movie some day. Once, while bumping down a country road, a truck ahead of us spilled part of its load of potatoes over Bärbel's poor old jalopy.