Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been researching and writing a book on Peter Blake’s record cover art. In the course of that research I have been following the story of Blake’s most recent cover design — the watercolour of a toy monkey with miniature cymbals that adorns Hot Chip’s 2025 album “Joy in Repetition.”
The album’s title comes from “Over and Over,” a song by Prince, and so does the imagery. In a recent podcast interview with Bill Pearis of Brooklyn Vegan, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor explained how the commission came about: “He was immediately up for it and happened to own a toy monkey with miniature cymbals that he had had for years. We just thought, why not try a watercolor of that little monkey? It worked out well. It was fortuitous, but one of those things where it’s worth asking.”
Pearis noted that Taylor, who is friends with Blake’s daughter, “just decided he’d ask.” But which daughter? Blake has three: Liberty (born 1968) and Daisy (born around 1970), both daughters of his first marriage to the artist Jann Haworth; and Rose (born 1987), his daughter with his second wife, the artist Chrissy Wilson.
A little detective work reveals the answer. Rose Blake is herself an established illustrator and artist, based in London, who studied at Kingston University and the Royal College of Art. She has exhibited at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery and has completed commissions for publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Her work, she says, reflects growing up in the art world — which means, of course, growing up in Peter Blake’s world.
The connection between Rose and Alexis Taylor is documented in a transcript of a sold-out event at Spiritland in London in October 2024, where Rose hosted Taylor and Jarvis Cocker in conversation. In her introduction, Rose described meeting Alexis for the first time in the Arctic Circle, at the northernmost point of Norway, adding that she had known his music long before they met: Hot Chip’s “In Our Heads” was one of the albums she and her studio mates listened to every day for years.
So the story of how “Joy in Repetition” came to carry a Peter Blake watercolour is, at its heart, a story about two creative Londoners — the daughter of Britain’s greatest pop artist and one of Britain’s finest pop musicians — who became friends, and one of whom thought it worth asking a question. It is a reminder that in Blake’s world, as throughout his career, the connection between art and popular music has always been personal.
As a footnote, it is worth noting that “Joy in Repetition” is, by my count, Sir Peter Blake’s 38th record cover design — a remarkable testament to a career in music that has now spanned almost 58 years, from Sgt. Pepper’s in 1967 to this charming watercolour monkey in 2025. He is now in his 93rd year. Long may he continue.
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