FEATURE: Vince Ray

You’ll know and love Vince Ray’s designs, even if you didn’t know his name. Ray’s art captures the spirit of our Rock n Roll scene, and we couldn’t wait to find out more about his life as a fan, musician, festival organiser and overall legend.

I got into rock and roll through first hearing it from my parents. But like a lot of folk back then, they didn’t really have a big collection of the cool stuff. So we had Bill Hayley, Elvis, big band stuff like Glenn Miller and my mum liked Red Nichols and his Five Pennies which was a name that amused me. Then I got bitten by the guitar playing bug and was lucky enough to have been there as a teenager when glam rock started, alongside the rock and roll revival in the 70s. I remember crossing the road to avoid the Teds. When punk came along, i got swept up in that. It was a great time to be a kid. But it was in the 80s that I got to see bands like Crazy Cavan and the Cramps. You took your heart in your hands going to see Cavan, there were always fights. The first one I went to was with a pal in the Croydon Leisure centre I think. We walked in and he said ‘wow, some nice birds here’….I remember saying for fuck sake, don’t look at the girls! There were half a dozen fights that night and the band played on. As usual for Cavan.

The Cramps were a massive influence and I got into them in the 70s, it was like a typical teenage rock n roll story. A pal lent us a couple of records and we played them on my girlfriend’s Dansette. We both looked at each other and grinned when Human Fly came on. That was the beginning of me discovering the likes of the Sonics, Link Wray, Johnny Burnette and all that stuff. I think a lot of people came to the rocking scene that way, or maybe indirectly as their mates had found those records through the Cramps. I saw them dozens of times, it always looked like Lux had dropped out of the bottom of a UFO onto the stage. ‘Where am I by the way?’. An all the weird kinky stuff and B Movie influences were so cool. Betty Page, shitty low budget horror films, weird old records…it all came filtered through the Cramps for many of us.

I’m lucky to have met and played with some of my big heroes. The Stray Cats were great to work for, I get on well with Lee and Jim. Brian is a bit far off due to his success. But I chat with the other two a lot and enjoy working with them on record covers and T shirts. The Reverend Horton Heat is great too, he’s a real southern gent, very warm and considerate person. And a bit weird and twisted which is good! He gets us to support whenever possible and always stands close to the stage and listens to the band. We’ve done a lot of work together over the years and he’s one of the few guys who’s stayed pretty much the same through the years. I like bands who work out what they’re good at and stay within their remit of ideas. Crazy Cavan were like that, you alway know when its a Cavan track and they have a way of keeping it fresh. I’ve done around a dozen T shirts with them, mainly through Dave Bradbury at Geronimo Clothing, he’s a good pal. I’ve been able to work for a lot of bands, like Demented Are Go, The Meteors a little, bands from all over due to the ease of internet communication. Viva Las Vegas is the big one for me, that goes back to the very first events, and Hemsby before that when Tom Ingram was involved. So I must have done hundreds of T shirt designs and posters each year. Nearly 30th year anniversary too,

With the evolution of my artwork, I think I’m better behaved! Times have changed. I started out working on adult comics and worked as part of a team making sex comics in the 80s and 90s. We did loads, two a month for three years, and to be honest, this was where I learned to draw in my style. The ‘adult’ scenes were quite restrictive, there’s only a few angles you can draw that kinda thing from! So I added stories about bike gangs, hot rods in the graveyards, private detective stories, Mexican wrestler characters all mixed in with the kinky stuff. Loads of fun! I know there’s a lineage that goes back to that stuff but its a different world now and we change with the times.

For creating new stuff, I guess there’s a library of ideas in my head and I go through them looking for something that will fit a job. A lots of my work does include old music instruments, pin up girls, hot rod cars etc,. But I do enjoy all kind of illustration challenges and it’s a little frustrating when people ask if I mind drawing something different…I say please do, make me draw something else!

I started with music as a kid and was playing guitar back in the dark ages and oddly, the first book I found that was useful was teaching the basics of blues music. And that’s what I’ve kind of gone back to. Blues is very wide ranging style and I generally stay away from the slow, moody or miserable stuff. I’ve found a lot of humour in old blues records and I prefer the uptempo energetic style of early R&B, Jump Blues and rock and roll. The main influences for me are John Lee Hooker, Dr Ross and Joe Hill Louis. Loads of others of course, but the one man band thing fascinates me. There’s a lot of people doing that now but TBH, there were hardly any examples of that back in the day. We create the impression that there were loads of bass drum and guitar beaters then. Its a bit like the rockabilly scene, we kind of recreate it in an imaginary way. But that’s ok, the scene has to evolve and develop. But as regards authenticity, there weren’t many tattooed hot rod guys with flames and graphics all over their guitars, clothes and rides. That’s something we’ve developed since the 80s.

Hastings Hot Rod and Roll will be back in 2026 in June, same setup as before. Its a free event, that’s partly due to the way it started and the location. The Angling Club we use is a great venue but there’s no way we can organise an entry that facilitates payments, either on the day or in advance. Plus we want to keep it free, it’s just a big boozy party with bands and cars, for fans of the music. If there were payments involved, peoples expectations change and you are required to put on an event that reflects that. Ha, and when things go wrong, we just say sorry about that, it is a free event and we just want you to enjoy yourselves. It began in Covid in a car park behind our rehearsal studios. So playing outside was the only option, and the bands involved just plugged in and played to whoever was there. I liked the idea of inviting car and bike owners to come, but the only guy who turned up was Neil Williams with his famous 49 Mercury. I have a photo standing in front of it from 2019, the only car there! Now we get around 100 cars, and the show is organised by Past and Curious who run a lot of car shows in the south east. Neil past us on to them and I was pleased to hear them say ‘no money!’ It just changes everything and the event turns into a different scene. Neil is sadly gone, we had last ride together to play the Hotrod Hayride and he passed away suddenly after that. We had a lot of fun…and fights with him!

Previously we’ve had Darrel Higham, Sonny West, The Caezars, Lobo Jones, King Salami, Lady Luck Lexy, LP and his Dirty White Bucks and loads of other great acts. This year we’ll put on a similar show of top artists. We have DJ sets from Simon Preacher, Chris Russel, Eddie Hardwick, Sonny Rocket. The event is still a bit underground but we like it that way, the venue is a hideaway location, overlooking the beach with a balcony, big bar and all the craziness of Hastings surrounding it. Eddie Hardwick, Dan Childs and myself all get to play at some point but we stepped back a little from that as we’re busy running the show too.

We have new stuff on the website with old tin style designs and a new range of prints. Plus I have a couple of albums that I’m working on as One Man Band projects. One album is made up of covers of songs that I like including some odd choices like Rocket USA and Ghost Rider by Suicide. Its weird that they fit in the style of old Mississippi Hill Country Blues music like RL Burnside with that relentless groove and no chord change. And some tootin harmonica. I love playing it live. I’m setting up a shack in my backyard to play live and film stuff there. As I’m getting older and there’s fewer places to play, I like the idea of going back to the beginning and creating things from scratch. Its met with a good reaction and folks are saying it works just because it looks genuine. Just a guitar, a drum and vocals. And a bottle of rum!

i’v got some good gigs coming up next year in London, Brighton, Italy and Canada. So I’m keeping busy and finding a new angle on the twisted old rocking blues that I love.

My website is www.vinceray.com and for facebook it’s https://www.facebook.com/vincerayartandmusic/ There’s lots of merchandise coming out for Christmas so I’d appreciate it is folks can take a look and see if anything blows their skirt up!