| Pete McKee |
 Counterfeit Magazine accompanies artist Pete McKee - one of our favourite illustrators
and one of Sheffield’s most treasured son’s - on a trip over those dark and misty mountains to Manchester. Tonight sees the official unveiling of his new exhibition: Great Moments in Manchester Music. The coach departs from outside Sheffield’s Bowery Bar, which has also played as host to a McKee exhibition in the past, and just as the bus begins to head up Broomhill’s Manchester Road, McKee chats to Counterfeit about his work. McKee’s talents were first spotted in an old and now defunct Sheffield Wednesday fanzine called A View From the East Bank. His drawings of ‘Tricky’ Trev Francis’ Owls squad during the early nineties will be unforgettable to readers of the football fanzine. It was from this publication that McKee was scouted by the Sheffield Telegraph, the City’s weekly high brow rag, which only last month celebrated its 20th birthday. In fact, McKee designed the cover for the birthday-special pull out and was also interviewed by James Whitworth; the son of one of McKee’s first heroes- illustrator Ralph Whitworth. Pete looks back. “[Telegraph reporter] Peter Markie spotted one of my cartoons from the fanzine and used it, so I phoned him up, said thanks a lot, asked whether or not I’d get paid and whether there was a chance I could do more.” “When I started off drawing cartoons, I began drawing my heroes, but also my school teachers and people you just used to see around”“He said, ‘you should come in next week and give me what you’ve got,” remembers Pete. “I didn’t know what he was expecting so I was up all night for a while, frantically drawing- I came back with far too many, but the rest is history!” Pete still works on his weekly cartoons at the Telegraph’s offices and finds it rewarding for a number of reasons. It was the home of his inspiration Ralph Whitworth, a regular cartoonist for the Telegraph, whose wit was a Sheffield institution. It also represents the culmination of his work so far. “For fifteen years drawing was always going be the thing to help stop me working in a factory, working in a shop, or being a postman,” declares Pete. Working at the Telegraph also keeps McKee in touch with his true passions and after all, inspiration is crucial for any artist. “When I started off drawing cartoons, I began drawing my heroes, but also my school teachers and people you just used to see around” explains McKee. “Comics like The Beano were a big inspiration. I used to draw characters all the time. One hero was Leo Baxendale, who created all the crazy characters like Bash Street Kids.” But as McKee the kid turned into Pete the teenager, inspirations soon became aspirations. “Chris Turner, the ex-Wednesday ‘keeper, was a big hero of mine. So then I wanted to be a goalkeeper, but my only two outings were disastrous- I played in a 6-0 and 5-0 defeat!” Pete adds, “Music was also a great inspiration and my dream was to be in a band, which I was for five or six years.” Luckily Pete turned his love of music and football into something more productive and returned to what he knew best- drawing. Following a few cartoons in the local student mags and footy fanzines, Pete’s work began to be regularly featured in Sheffield’s local newspapers and he swiftly picked up quite a following. One of the key factors in his success is his ability to connect with the average punter on the street. In a recent interview, McKee revealed, “If I could achieve one thing with any of my cartoons, it would be that they were cut out and stuck on a locker at someone’s work.” One of the ways McKee manages to do this is by relying on his humour. “I always knew that I could draw cartoons, but the key is the gag. You can get away with a good gag if you’re not such a good cartoonist, but it doesn’t really work the other way around. The gag is king.” Another reason for McKee’s success is his homage to the City of Sheffield. Sheffielders never miss an opportunity to celebrate the Steel City and McKee is certainly no exception to the rule; using his creative talents to draw upon life in England’s fourth largest City. “I’ve been very fortunate to be born in Sheffield and, in a way, to be brought up in a city that’s pretty cool and not a nowhere town. Me, my artwork and Sheffield are at one really,” declares Pete. 
       “I knew I needed to branch out and get involved in other cities,” admits Pete, “A lot of my work’s quite universal and the musical history of Manchester is so significant. Bands like The Smiths are a significant part of my life.” Counterfeit asks Pete about how he sees the relationship between the two cities, “I think we share the same DNA. We’re both northern, we’re both savvy, we know what we’re about and we’re both enriched with musical history.” McKee’s love for Manchester music turned out to be mutual, when one day he received a phone call from a certain Noel Gallagher. “I sent him a painting and since then we’ve just become text buddies really. He rang me up and it was just insane. I started of quite nonchalantly and blasé, but then my mouth started flapping as soon as I realised. I think I managed to avoid looking like a knob though!” laughs Pete. McKee even made the NME following the praise he received from Noel- a dream come true which I’m sure he would never have realised illustration could have taken him. But, hold the front page! McKee may be in the NME again yet, as his band, The Everly Pregnant Brothers have also been making quite a few appearances here and there across Sheffield and will be making their Manchester debut tonight.  The ukulele band covers well-known songs in a steepened Sheffield accent. Ditties such as I’m on Neets (a cover of Radiohead’s Creep) and Tainted Pub feature on the set-list. The band goes down well on the Sheffield-filled coach, but how will Manchester’s art scene take them? We’ll soon see. This is Pete’s first such exhibition outside of Sheffield. Paintings unveiled tonight will feature Manchester greats such as Ian Brown, Tony Wilson, Ian Curtis, Morrissey, the Gallaghers and Shaun Ryder. Pete describes the importance of exhibitions, ”Being an artist is a bit like being in a band. If paintings are your singles, then exhibitions are your albums- it keeps the people coming back!” McKee’s paintings differ to his newspaper cartoons. Unlike his sketches in the Sheffield Telegraph, characters in his artwork do not have any mouths. This is only used in cartoons so the reader knows which character is talking. However what do remain similar are the everyday situations that fans of McKee will be used to. In one scene, Manchester music legends huddle around a table enjoying a nice cup of tea and in another, Ian Curtis sparks a cig in a café. Pete comments on his Curtis painting, called IC Café, “It’s a strange painting,” remarks Pete, “It’s not celebrating anything about Ian Curtis, and it’s just how I see him. He was still a regular bloke.” It’s paintings like this that make Pete McKee such a celebrated artist. He spots things that are blindingly obvious, the plain and simple everyday moments in life, that for some reason others often fail to see. His Manchester exhibition was welcomed and complemented upon by locals on the first night- including those who knew his work and those that didn’t. As well as the round of applause he received on unveiling his artwork, a further and even more rapturous round of applause was in responded to a small set by The Everly Pregnant Brothers, whose music provided the icing on the cake for what was a successful launch night for McKee’s first out-of-town exhibition. Pete McKee’s Manchester Music Exhibition is currently at Odd Bar, Northern Quarter, Manchester. For more information on Pete McKee, visit: www.therealmckee.co.uk Photos: Mark Tighe Words: Liam Ronan |
