To thousands upon thousands of children who grew up in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Tony Hart was a huge artistic influence. I was lucky enough to see Vision On as a child, where each week Tony would open up a non stop world of simple creativity that you would often wonder at, and then possibly try yourself at home. Cutting card, spray can art with scraps of paper as masks, chalk madness, drawing with salt, cutting up polystyrene and making strange sculptures with it, printing with ink and thumbs, every week more artistic invention was demonstrated by the great man - it really seemed endless and was hugely inspiring.

So obsessed had I become with the memory of Vision On I decided to try and produce a compilation of the music used throughout the many episodes. This proved impossible as rights are all over the place, and one library that owned key tracks halted all exterior licensing. But as part of the early investigations into album production I realised that key to it all would be a cover using the infamous grasshopper / frog logo thing - basically the scripted Vision On logo cunningly mirrored on itself. After some protracted investigation I discovered that the logo was actually owned by Tony Hart, and within a week or so I'd exclusively licensed it worldwide, and official Vision On tee shirt production got under way. I produced about 20 of them, gave some away and then put them up for sale on this website. It was odd how people found out about them, and really came as no surprise that graphic artists originally inspired by Tony to pursue a career in graphics and art were buying the tee shirts.

If you want one of these great nostalgic and graphically fabulous tee shirts you can go straight to ye olde trunk shoppe and see what I have in stock. I only make about ten at at time, and they go quick. All of them come with the specially made Tony hard embroidered tag and really are very super indeed - and a fittingly groovy tribute to the great man. They are also printed on the classic 1970s "ringer" style tee shirts, but you can see that when you go to ye olde trunk shoppe. If I haven't got what you want email me, Jonny Trunk, and I'll see what I can do.

VISION ON TEE SHIRTS

The classic Vision On grasshopper logo drawn by Tony Hart in the late 1960s has been exclusively licensed by Trunk Records for tee shirts and that.

Phillip Crymble contacted Jonny. Phillip wrote:

Delighted to hear you've acquired the marketing rights to Tony Hart's iconic Vision On grasshopper logo. I'm very much interested in purchasing one or possibly two t-shirts and was hoping you could write back with a list of available colour combinations and a shipping estimate to the US. Much like yourself, I'm a library music enthusiast with an obsessive/nostalgic interest in media texts and artifacts from the last half of the 20th century. I'm also a published poet (Wide Boy, my debut collection, was released by Lapwing Publications, Belfast in April). The poem I've pasted below entitled "Library Scene" is a celebration of 'library culture" that references many of the still uncollected backing sequences from Vision On. Just thought you'd be interested in seeing it, and if you feel it might be something you'd like to post on the Trunk Records site (in conjunction with the T-shirt promotion or elsewhere) I'd be thrilled as I can't think of a more appropriate venue for it.

Here is Phillip's poem:

Library Scene by Phillip Crymble

Cavatina's best remembered as a melody for strings -
Stanley Myers' signature recording made its debut

in The Walking Stick, won an Ivor, climbed the pop
charts as a single. Some mileage for the rewrite

of a failed John Williams' piano piece. For those
obsessed with incidental music, "p-as-b" sheets,

Ampex film stock, and the move to colour broadcasts
on the BBC, it's from Vision On. A treasure trove,

of lounge sound and a bugger to collect, the backing
sequence analogue recordings for the programme's

short vignettes are held by Chappell, Standard Music,
Studio G, and KPM. The opening's Sylvester's,

Guerney Slade's an old Fontana track, Cavatina's
on Amphonic - De Wolfe supplied the flute score

used for Humphrey and Suzanne. They turn up now
and then on bootleg compilation discs: the cocktails

from It's Prof Again, Wayne Hill's Gallery Theme
and Merry Ocarina sandwiched in between new

masters of the interludes and countdowns played
on ITV, background music captured from source

acetates of adverts, British transport films and Schools.
Clean originals of dealer list LPs like London Life

and Beat Industrial change hands for loads of money.
Take your time. Dig through the boot fair crates -

for pence, a jazz-funk fusion Watch with Mother theme
or string-drenched Test Card masterpiece awaits.