Better Badges

1976 4 July, first punk badges sold at the Ramones and Flamin' Groovies show at The Roundhouse, London. The Better Badges stand went on to become a fixture.

1977 May, First mass-production of punk badges for sale at Mont de Marsan festival in France.{{cite news |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH6G5HPgKfo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308184400/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH6G5HPgKfo |archive-date=2016-03-08 |url-status=dead |title=Festival Punk de Mont de marsan 1977 |publisher=FR3 Aquitaine |accessdate=10 August 2013}}

Commenced weekly badge top ten ad in NME.{{cite web |url=http://www.vaguerants.org.uk/?page_id=104 |publisher=Vague |title=Vague 4 |year=1980 |last=Vague |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Vague |accessdate=20 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815110526/http://www.vaguerants.org.uk/?page_id=104 |archive-date=15 August 2011 |url-status=dead}}

1978

Better Badges expanded from its original location in a lock-up garage in St. Stephen's Mews into the top floor of 286 Portobello Road.

Better Badges published sets of badges for U2 - their first ever commercial product,{{cite web |url=http://www.atu2.com/news/she-is-regine.html |title=SHE IS REGINE... |publisher=Propaganda |date=1 October 1987 |work=Issue 7 |accessdate=11 August 2013}}{{Cite web |url=http://pinstand.com/pins/u2.html |title=WWWhatsup U2 Pins |website=Pinstand.com |accessdate=5 September 2020}} and Rob Gretton's first act as manager of Joy Division was to order a set of badges from BB.Time Travel: From the Sex Pistols to Nirvana: Pop, Media & Sexuality 1977-96, Jon Savage, Vintage 1997, p. 363{{cite book |url=http://www.1topclassmanager.co.uk/book/excerpt.php?eid=3 |title=1 Top Class Manager - The notebooks of Joy Division's manager 1978-1980 |accessdate=2010-02-15 |last=Gretton |first=Rob |authorlink=Rob Gretton |date=14 October 2008 |publisher=Anti-Archivists}}

Later, after discussions with Gretton, MacFie ended BB's unwieldy royalty system, moving to one where bands just got a flat donation of badges.{{cite web |url=http://nyls.mediasite.com/mediasite/Play/5ee76e28e6d4489895b04afd9b443b441d?playFrom=9013000 |title= Innovate/Activate |publisher=New York Law School |date=24 September 2010 |accessdate=10 August 2013}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20100314033552/http://homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/recordings/1981/81-10-18%20Lyceum/81-10-18%20Lyceum.html The Clash at Lyceum Ballroom 1981] scroll halfway

1979 MacFie purchased in-house printing equipment which, in addition to badges, was used to produce many fanzines which BB also distributed.{{cite book |title=Street style: British design in the 80s |author=Catherine McDermott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_dlQAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Rizzoli |year=1987 |isbn=9780847808038 |pages=66 |quote= the first – Sniffin' Glue – and by the end of the 70s hundreds had started up, many printed by Jolly of Better Badges.}} Titles included Jamming!,{{Cite web |url=http://www.ijamming.net/Jammingmagazine/Jamming!Magazine.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001210183200/http://www.ijamming.net/Jammingmagazine/Jamming%21Magazine.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=10 December 2000 |title=Jamming! Magazine Covers 1-12 |website=Ijamming.net |accessdate=5 September 2020}} No Cure and Panache[https://web.archive.org/web/20060630085418/http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/1/69 Scissors and Glue:: Punk Fanzines and the Creation of a DIY Aesthetic] Teal Triggs Oxford Journals Journal of Design History 2006 19(1):69-83. Promotional materials were also made for budding UK labels such as Mute Records and Rough Trade.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqQbgGhFCr8C |title=Document and Eyewitness: An Intimate History of Rough Trade |last=Taylor |first=Neil |year=2010 |publisher=Orion Books |isbn=9781409112211}}{{cite web |url=http://bigcitybooks.com/page4.htm |title=first editions & ephemera |publisher=Big City Books |work=Item #61, Rough Trade Distribution catalogue |accessdate=10 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130808110458/http://www.bigcitybooks.com/page4.htm |archive-date=8 August 2013 |url-status=dead}} Some artists, such as The Raincoats{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHP-r9-eqdAC&pg=PA578 |title=Alternative Rock |last=Thompson |first=Dave |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |year=2000 |isbn=9780879306076 |page=578}} and Young Marble Giants{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BsvpGwAACAAJ&q=%22Better+Badges%22 |title=Young Marble Giants |first=Stuart |last=Moxham |date=5 September 1980 |publisher=Better Badges |accessdate=5 September 2020 |via=Google Books}} used BB to publish small booklets.

MacFie bought an AM radio transmitter so that music could be broadcast from the top floor to the printers in the basement. These pirate radio broadcasts of mainly reggae eventually led to the formation of the Dread Broadcasting Corporation, which, under the leadership of Lepke, became the first major London urban pirate radio station,{{cite news |last1=Dennis |first1=Tony |title=Black Pirates in the Grove |url=https://archive.org/details/time-out_black_pirates_1981 |accessdate=24 August 2014 |publisher=Time Out |date=23 October 1981}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/05/04/miss_p_person_profile.shtml |publisher=BBC |title=Miss P |accessdate=20 August 2013 |date=4 May 2005}} for which Better Badges created merchandise and served as the official address.{{cite web |url=http://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/Dread_Broadcasting_Corporation_(DBC) |title=Dread Broadcasting Corporation (DBC) |publisher=HFUnderground |accessdate=10 August 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://www.vaguerants.org.uk/wp-content/pageflip/upload/TL/timelinechap16.pdf |title=Notting Hill Timeline |work=16 Notting Hill Babylon Early 80s |last=Vague |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Vague |accessdate=20 August 2013}}{{Dead link |date=September 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

1980 Fanzines published included i-D,{{cite web |title=Front Row; Chronicling 20 years of renegade fashion as captured through the defining lenses of i-D magazine. |last=Trebay |first=Guy |work=The New York Times |date=2001-05-21 |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40D16F63F590C718EDDAC0894D9404482 |accessdate=2007-03-25 }} Kill Your Pet Puppy,{{cite web |url=http://invisibleguy.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/interview-with-tony-drayton-of-kill-your-pet-puppy/ |title=Interview with Tony Drayton of Kill Your Pet Puppy! |publisher=Invisible Guy |date=22 July 2013 |accessdate=10 August 2013}} and Toxic Grafity, which included a flexi-single "Tribal Rival Rebel Revels" by Crass.{{cite web |url=http://i-donline.com/2013/01/a-better-badge/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512171202/http://i-donline.com/2013/01/a-better-badge/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 May 2013 |title=A Better Badge |date=18 January 2013 |publisher=i-D |author=Felicity Kinsella }}

MacFie bought a cassette tape-duplicator and started offering a cheap tape publishing service which was utilized by pioneering DIY labels such as Fuck Off Records.[http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1742844,00.html Birth of the uncool] Bob Stanley, The Guardian, 31 March 2006.

Many musicians, notable or otherwise, worked at Better Badges including Neneh Cherry{{cite web| date= 26 February 2014| title=Intervju: Neneh Cherry| url=http://rodeo.net/just-nu/2014/02/26/intervju-neneh-cherry/| accessdate=7 March 2015}} and Wayne Preston of minor band Youth in Asia.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSwJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Better+Badges%22| title=The Day the Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk 1980 to 1984| publisher= Cherry Red Books| year=2007| last=Glasper| first=Ian| isbn=9781901447705| page=161}} and Hamish Macdonald of Sex Beatles/Sexbeat. and the Frenchman Charles Hurbier aka Charlie H of Métal Urbain/Métal Boys/Doctor mix. Others included Duncan Sanderson of the Pink Fairies, Gabby Glaser of Luscious Jackson, Val Haller of The Electric Chairs, Eric Débris of Métal Urbain, Angela Jaeger of Pigbag, Nick Godwin of Zounds, and John Walker of Warsaw Pakt.

Designers included Megan Green, Slim Smith - recently with Artrocker, and Derek Harris.

MacFie sold the business and moved to the United States in 1983.{{cite news| last=Motia| first=Shahryar| title=Bootlegger's Banquet| url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2003-10-28/news/bootlegger-s-banquet/1/| accessdate=4 January 2013| newspaper=Village Voice| date=28 October 2003}}

In the early 2000s Better Badges produced over half a million anti-war badges as part of the UK campaign against the Iraq war.{{cite book| title=Stop the war: the story of Britain's biggest mass movement| author=Andrew Murray & Lindsey German| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCMXAQAAIAAJ| quote=Over half a million badges of various designs have been produced (by Better Badges – who are only still in business because of us)| publisher=Bookmarks Publications| year=2005| isbn=9781905192007}}

Later in the 2000s Better Badges was wound up. A new entity 'A Better Badge' took its place.

In his 2013 memoir A Boy About Town Tony Fletcher dedicates an entire chapter to how Jamming! came to be printed and published at Better Badges.{{cite book| title=Boy About Town| author=Fletcher,Tony| publisher= William Heinemann| location=London| date=4 July 2013| isbn=978-0434021673}}{{cite web| quote=The knock backs came... ...from the problems with printers, right up until I came across Joly at Better Badges.| url= http://louderthanwar.com/tony-fletcher-interview-not-to-be-published-till-4th-july/| title=Louder Than War Interviews Renowned Biographer Tony Fletcher| author=Jennings, Dave| date=4 July 2013| publisher=Louder Than War| accessdate=21 July 2013}}

An exhibit based on Better Badges - Image as Virus - ran 14 Dec 2016 - 5 Jan 2017 at New York University's Steinhardt School.{{cite web| last1=Scott| first1=Tim| title=ART Image As Virus Celebrates the History of the Punk Badge| url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/image-as-virus-celebrates-the-history-of-the-punk-badge/| website=Noisey| publisher=Vice| access-date=2 December 2016| date=30 November 2016}} To mark the opening some of the early badges were featured in The Guardian.{{cite news| title=Moving the needle: the punk badges that defined the 1970s music scene| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2016/dec/14/punk-pins-badges-1970s-music-patti-smith-clash| accessdate=16 December 2016| work=The Guardian| date=14 December 2016}}

In September 2018 the Image as Virus exhibit went on show at the Busy Beaver Button Museum in Chicago.{{cite web |title=Image As Virus: Better Badges in the Punk Era |url=https://www.buttonmuseum.org |website=Busy Beaver |accessdate=27 September 2018}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://pinstand.com pinstand.com] includes many of Better Badges original designs.
• [http://nyls.mediasite.com/mediasite/Play/5ee76e28e6d4489895b04afd9b443b441d?playFrom=9013000 Innovate/Activate] Joly MacFie talks about Better Badges' role as a P2P pioneer at New York Law School, 24 September 2010. (Silverlight)
• [http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/80wse/projectspace/2016/12/imageasvirus Image As Virus: Better Badges In The Punk Era] NYU Exhibit
• [https://www.buttonmuseum.org/exhibit/better-badges Image As Virus: Better Badges In The Punk Era] Chicago Exhibit
• [http://wwwhatsup.com/streamola/wp/?p=342 FlipsideLondon Radio Episode 38] Interview with Better Badges worker Michael Williams (Aug 2018) (mp3)

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Category:Publishing companies of the United Kingdom

Category:Punk

Category:1976 establishments in England