[al mcdowell - or alex as he prefers to be known these days - tim pope met through a mutual friend/accountant, simon nixon, from the drinking days of carnaby street, during the late seventies. alex was a very cool dude. he could stick colours together, like no-one else could, ever. the duo immediately struck up a creative relationship and talked about making videos before that's what they were even really called. there were no real outlets for this stuff, apart from the odd top of the pops, or saturday morning shows - certainly, this was years before m.t.v. pope says: "so, we set out to make as much trouble as we could." pope would migrate from neal street, covent garden, where he worked as a runner/camera operator for a company training politicians for t.v. appearances, and head down to alex's office, above a sex joint, in berwick street, soho. this was rocking russian - a happening, boutique-style record sleeve design company, with a specific leaning towards russian revolutionary art. whenever pope managed to procure a tape for a potential video, he would brainstorm with alex, who would always challenge and push the boudaries. "of the two of us, i looked like the real trouble, but, in fact, it was alex. always alex." as the videos slowly took off the couple worked together on many projects: the cure's inbetween days and close to me; the creatures' miss the girl, etc. they probably completed over a hundred videos together and although there was no discussiom about ending their time together alex moved to america to continue his work - and the rest is history. alex is now one of the major hollywood production desginers, working on movies with terry gilliam, steven spielberg and tim burton. pope and he hooked up again, years later, on the follow-up to the crow with brandon lee, that alex had orginally designed so amazingly.]