Melville Cooke, Gleaner Writer Published: Tuesday | June 24, 2014
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| Neville Garrick, contributor |
Neville Garrick is happily a part of the Jamaican support group for Brazilian football. Just before Mexico tackled Brazil last Tuesday, he told The Gleaner, "I have been cheering for Brazil since Pele days."
Having played as a defender for the University of Carolina, Los Angeles, the team reaching the 1971 and 1972 National Collegiate Athletic Association finals, Garrick is well qualified to speak about football matters. But there is a special link between artistry and football that he has been privy to - off the formal field of play.
Garrick is renowned for designing a number of covers for albums produced by Bob Marley and the Wailers in the 1970s, as well as more than 20 backdrops for the Reggae Sunsplash Festival, from 1981 to 1988.
His album art was not restricted to the Tuff Gong, as Garrick also did visuals for Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, The Wailers, Steel Pulse and the I-Threes. There was also the standout Haile Selassie I backdrop for Marley's tours. On those trips, the beautiful game was not left behind.
With Marley, Garrick said, "we never went on tour without a football". In the hotel rooms they played 'money ball' - what you broke you played for.
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| Ziggy Marley |
Garrick literally drew his way into reggae's history, honing an art skill which was nurtured at Kingston College and shaped at UCLA, where the 'Black Experience' mural he co-painted with six other students, has been recently restored.
On returning to Jamaica, initially, Garrick was art director at the Daily News. Then, he said, "I created my job with Bob Marley. Nobody was looking at the art."
At that time, Garrick said, there were artistes who would send their music to a company and the packaging would be done without their input.
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