Better Badges was a London button-badge

Badge

A badge is a device or fashion accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath , a sign of legitimate employment or student status, or as a simple...

 manufacturer, started in 1976 by Joly MacFie. During the years 1977-1984 it became the leading publisher and merchandiser of 'punk badges' - exporting millions worldwide from their offices at 286 Portobello Road

Portobello Road

Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London, England. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of London's...

. Better Badges was a major player in the punk and postpunk scenes from 1976-1983 - a pioneer viral marketer, fueling the independent labels' fan-based promotional successes of the time.

History

1976 4 July, First punk badges sold at The Ramones and The Flamin Groovies

The Flamin Groovies

Flamin' Groovies were an American rock music band of the 1960s and 1970s. They began in San Francisco in 1965, founded by Ron Greco, Cyril Jordan and Roy Loney. They are perhaps best known for their song "Shake Some Action", which was later featured in the 1995 movie Clueless...

 show at The Roundhouse

The Roundhouse

The Roundhouse is a Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England, which has been converted into a performing arts and concert venue. It was originally built in 1847 as a roundhouse , a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was only used for railway...

, London. The Better Badges stand went on to become a fixture. Mail order service started. Slogan: "Image as virus, disease as cure"

1977 May, First mass-production of punk badges for sale at Mont de Marsan

Mont-de-Marsan

Mont-de-Marsan is a commune and capital of the Landes department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.Mont-de-Marsan airbase « Constantin Rozanoff » is a major installation of the French Air Force. The base includes CEAM , an air defense radar command reporting centre, and an air defence control...

 festival in France.

MacFie purchased a process camera

Process camera

A process camera is a specialised form of camera used for mass reproduction of graphic materials. The original document was photographed and the negatives produced were used to produce printing plates - usually via some kind of process where the negative was put on top of the printing plate and...

, which, apart from badges was used by various artists for record cover art including Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid is a British artist and anarchist with connections to the Situationists. His work, featuring letters cut from newspaper headlines in the style of a ransom note, came close to defining the image of punk rock, particularly in the UK...

 (Sex Pistols) and Stewart Copeland

Stewart Copeland

Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

 (Klark Kent). Commenced weekly badge top ten feature in NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

.

1978
Better Badges expanded from its original location in a lock-up garage in St. Stephen's Mews into the top floor of 286 Portobello Road.

Better Badges published sets of badges for both U2

U2

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

 - their first ever commercial product , and Rob Gretton

Rob Gretton

Rob Gretton was the manager of Joy Division and New Order. He was also a partner in Factory Records, proprietor of the Rob's Records label and a co-founder along with Tony Wilson of The Haçienda nightclub in Manchester, England. In 1977, Gretton became a leading figure in the Manchester punk...

's first act as manager of Joy Division

Joy Division

Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...

 was to order a set of badges from BB.

Later, after discussions with Gretton, MacFie ended BB's unwieldy royalty

Royalties

Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...

 system, moving to one where bands just got a flat donation of badges.

1979 MacFie purchased in-house printing equipment which, in addition to badges, was used to produce many fanzines which BB also distributed. Titles included Jamming!, and Panache Promotional materials were also made for budding UK labels such as Mute Records

Mute Records

Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...

 and Rough Trade

Rough Trade Records

Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...

. Some artists, such as The Raincoats

The Raincoats

The Raincoats are a British post-punk band. Ana da Silva and Gina Birch formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.-Career:...

 and Young Marble Giants

Young Marble Giants

Young Marble Giants were a post-punk band formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1978. A trio, their music was constructed around the powerful and minimal instrumentation of brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham along with the vocals of Alison Statton.-History:...

 used BB to publish small booklets.

MacFie bought an AM radio transmitter. Pirate radio broadcasts of mainly reggae eventually led to the formation of the Dread Broadcasting Corporation

Dread Broadcasting Corporation

Dread Broadcasting Corporation was a west London pirate radio station established in 1981.DBC has been credited as Britain's first black music radio station, and eventually featured DJs like Neneh Cherry, and Ranking Miss P. Joe Strummer of The Clash even made a guest appearance on the station,...

, which, under the leadership of Lepke, became the first major London urban pirate radio station.

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

 asked for, and received a practically complete set of the badges to date.

1980 Fanzines published included i-D

I-D

i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. i-D was founded by designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. The first issue was published in the form of a hand-stapled fanzine with text produced on a typewriter...

, Kill Your Pet Puppy

Kill Your Pet Puppy

Kill Your Pet Puppy was a UK punkzine that ran for six issues between 1979 and 1984. It was edited by Tony Drayton who had previously produced Ripped and Torn fanzine, which he started in October 1976 and for 18 issues until 1979....

, and Toxic Grafity, which included a flexi-single "Tribal Rival Rebel Revels" by Crass

Crass

Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...

MacFie bought a cassette tape-duplicator and started offering a cheap tape publishing service which was utilized by pioneering DIY

DIY ethic

The DIY ethic refers to the ethic of self-sufficiency through completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are more experienced or able complete them for one's behalf. It promotes the idea that an ordinary person can learn to do more than he or she thought was possible...

 labels such as Fuck Off Records

1981 Better Badges gained an agent, Nancy Breslow of Short Newz, in NYC and started distributing both fanzines and badges in the USA.

1982 Suffering cash flow problems, BB was forced to vacate Portobello Road and move to premises in Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

.

1983 MacFie sold the business to the staff and left for the USA.

1985 The staff, in turn, sold it to the current owners, who ceased publishing, restricting activity to manufacturing only.

Staff

Many musicians, notable or otherwise, worked at Better Badges including Duncan Sanderson of the Pink Fairies

Pink Fairies

Pink Fairies were an English rock band active in the London underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s. They promoted free music, drug taking and anarchy and often performed impromptu gigs and other agitprop stunts, such as playing for free outside the gates at the Bath and Isle of Wight...

, Neneh Cherry

Neneh Cherry

Neneh Mariann Cherry is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, and occasional DJ and broadcaster...

, Gabby Glaser of Luscious Jackson

Luscious Jackson

Luscious Jackson are an alternative rock group formed in 1991. The band's name was inspired by now-retired American basketball player Lucious Jackson....

, Wayne Preston of Youth In Asia, Hamish Macdonald of Sex Beatles/Sexbeat, Val Haller of The Electric Chairs

Wayne County & the Electric Chairs

Wayne County & the Electric Chairs were part of the first wave of punk bands from the 1970s. The band is headed by Georgia transgendered woman, Wayne County, who later changed her name to Jayne County.-Career:...

, Eric Débris of Métal Urbain

Métal Urbain

Métal Urbain was one of the first French punk groups, formed in 1976 in Paris.-Career:They were heavily influenced by The Clash and The Sex Pistols on one hand, and on the other by an electro approach related to "Metal Machine Music" by Lou Reed...

, Angela Jaeger of Pigbag

Pigbag

-Origin and formation:Pigbag were formed in Cheltenham in late 1980 by Chris Hamlin, a fashion student at Cheltenham Art College. Hamlin recruited multi-instrumentalist Roger Freeman, an old friend from his hometown of Birmingham, along with Chris Lee on trumpet and James Johnstone, a guitarist,...

, Nick Godwin of Zounds

Zounds

Zounds are an English anarchist band formed in 1977 from loose jamming sessions around the Reading area. Originally they were part of the cassette culture movement, releasing material on the F**k Off Records label, and were also involved in the squatting and free festival scene...

, and John Walker of Warsaw Pakt

Warsaw Pakt

Warsaw Pakt was a short-lived punk group which were active in the years of 1977-78, though some of its members had heritages linking them to the 1960s underground...

.

Designers included Megan Green, Slim Smith - recently with Artrocker

ArtRocker

Artrocker is a UK-based collective involved in music promotion and publishing. It was started by Paul Cox and Tom Fawcett who had been co-promoters of a London night called The Sausage Factory...

, and Derek Harris.

External links

• STATE OF INDEPENDENTS Chapter 7 (pages6/7) of Tom Vague's history of Notting Hill. ^pdf
• NOTTING HILL BABYLON Chapter 8 (page5) of Tom Vague's history of Notting Hill. ^pdf
• Veg Wedge Essay by Steven Wells
  Steven Wells
  Steven Wells was a British journalist, author, comedian and notable punk poet born in Swindon, Wiltshire. He is best remembered for ranting poetry and his provocative, unapologetic music journalism. In June 2006, he wrote in the Philadelphia Weekly about his treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma...
  
   in NME
  NME
  The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
  
  , 23 May 1987, references BB as punk establishment.
• pinstand.com includes many of Better Badges original designs.
• some old badges
• 1979 Better Badges Ad
• Better Badges office Marlene Zampelli's photo of Joly MacFie at work in 1982.