First of all, thanks to all of those who participated in my thread a few months ago and helped us to decide where my son should go to high school. The problem was that his main interest is guitar playing and he was accepted at a great arts high school, but not in the music track. He was accepted for visual art. We decided that he will go to that school and thanks again for the input.
During that thread it was mentioned that lots of musicians studied art in school and I believe one was mentioned. Some friends have made the same point but no one seems to remember any names. Lots of maybes, like David Byrne and other Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, Ray Davies, John Lennon, Jimmy Page.
As I’ve said before “I love this board!” Thanks for info so far. My son will love to see this before he goes to camp for the summer. Should definitely help him to be psyched for school.
Pink Floyd - Syd Barrett attended Camberwell Art School. Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason studied architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic.
Gang of Four - University of Leeds Arts
Travis - Glasgow School of Art
Joni Mitchell - attended art school in Calgary.
Franz Ferdinand - Glasgow School of Art
Devo - Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale Kent State art students
Brian Eno - Winchester Art School
Kanye West - International Academy of Art and Design and Technology, a local art school in Chicago
Talking Heads - met at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Years ago, Peter Noone hosted a TV show on VH1, and one time, he had Bill (King Crimson, Yes) Bruford, Roger (The WHo) Daltrey and Mick (the Clash) Jones on as guests.
Mick Jones talked about how he’d gone to art school solely because he wanted to start a rock band!
Pressed on that point, Jones said, “Well, I had no talent as an artist, no real interest in art. I really wanted to get into a band. And it seemed like all my favorite musicians (he mentioned Ray Davies, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend and John Lennon) had gone to art school. So, I went to art school. I just figured my first day, I’d walk into the toilet and there’d be a bunch of guys with guitars, and we’d be all set.”
“She wears the leather, I wear the make-up, we’ll never break up…”
Tons of British punk and new wave bands were art schoolers. Goldsmiths was mentioned earlier; the majority of Blur attended.
Mike Lindup of UK funk band Level 42 also attended a music school, though I can’t remember which. I think Dominic Miller was there - he was almost a member and now is probably best known for playing with Sting.
Mick Jones was mentioned, and I’m 99% sure Paul Simonon was also at art school - he’s an accomplished painter. I think Joe Strummer was there as well.
I’m also pretty sure that members of Coldplay went to art school as well.
IIRC, in a Guitar Player magazine interview ca. 1977, Keith Richards said that there were more good guitar players in art school than there were good artists.