Nick Lowe

He befriended Nick Lowe, bassist for the pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz, who brought him to the attention of Jake Riviera, one of the heads of the independent label Stiff Records. About this time he adopted the performing name Elvis Costello, an homage to pioneering rocker Elvis…

…such as pub rock veterans Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, and Elvis Costello; Squeeze and XTC, whose songs were sophisticated and infectious; ska revivalists such as Madness and the Specials; genre-hopping Joe Jackson; synthesizer

…were mostly overseen by jack-of-all-trades Nick Lowe, its house style was formed not in the studio but in the marketing department, and Stiff’s look was the creation of accomplished graphic designer Barney Bubbles. An inspired series of singles by Madness in the early 1980s (all accompanied by witty videos directed…