Steve Averill

Steve Averill (born 1950) is an Irish graphic artist, art director, writer, musician, and former punk rock vocalist. He, along with his company, AMP Visual (previously Four5One Creative), has designed all the album covers for the Irish band U2. Averill also brainstormed the name "U2" that the group selected for themselves.

Life

Averill was educated at Mount Temple School in Clontarf, Dublin. His parents thought his interest in musical acts such as, The Tornados, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Shadows were all just noise. Even at the age of twelve he was interested in the album cover art.[1]

Averill had a short career as the singer Steve Rapid in Ireland's first punk band The Radiators from Space[2] who were not very highly thought of by the musical establishment. The Radiators developed from Averill's involvement with Pete Holidai in two earlier bands: Greta Garbage and the Trashcans.[1] Averill remained with the band from their inception in September 1976 until August of 1977 when the other members moved to London. His last gig (during this period of the Radiators) was at Ireland's first outdoor rock concert in Dalymount Park on August 21[3] with Thin Lizzy.[1]

He designed the band first single cover that helped them secure a record deal[4] with Chiswick Records.

Averill realized his vocal limitations and wanted to express himself through art and design. He considered himself a tone-deaf singer with no musical talent[1] so he returned to his graphic designer job at a Dublin advertising company Arrow Publishing and after their demise worked at The Creative Department.

U2 connection

It was Averill who suggested U2 as the name of the Irish group then known as "The Hype".[4] Adam Clayton would replace their former name

Later, Averill soon started his own company, Four5One Creative, now AMP Visuals,[4] and one of the first jobs was to design a cover for U2's debut album Boy. Since then his firm has been behind most of U2's visual media. During his design career, he worked for several of Ireland's musical acts, such as, The Dubliners, Hothouse Flowers, Aslan and Clannad; and international acts like Elvis Costello and Depeche Mode.[4]

Published to coincide with the February 2003 opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's U2 exhibition In The Name Of Love, a book Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show shows U2 collaboration in the design work by Averill and Shaughn McGrath from 1980 to 2003.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hayden, Jackie (16 September 2001). "The Hot Press Interview: Steve Averill". Hot Press. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Byrne, George (27 April 2012). "The Radiators From Space are putting the heat back into beat". Evening Herald. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Radiators from Space: History 77". The Radiators from Space. 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Steve Averill, Senior Art Director, AMP Visual". The U2 Conference. 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show". AMP Visual. Archived from the original on 2 October 2014. Retrieved 2013-11-23.

External links

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