Tim Pope, one of the all-time great British music video directors, reaches a landmark birthday today, the 12th February 2016.

He is, of course, one of the most significant figures in the history of British music video. He started making them in a serious way at the beginning of the 1980s, and immediately threw the cat among the pigeons with the notorious video for Sex Dwarf by Soft Cell. This was just for starters. He basically set about creating his own language of the pop video, which was based around his dual passions for music and film.

In his music videos, the bond between him and his subjects comes through time and again. He makes the artists the stars of his films, and he gains their trust to make his wacky, wonderful, ingenious ideas fly. Held in high esteem by the people who really count - the musicians - he worked with lots of bands and artists on numerous occasions, including Siouxsie & The Banshees, Talk Talk, David Bowie, Neil Young, and, of course, The Cure - still probably the most important long running team-up of rock band and video director there has ever been (sorry, Dom & Nic and The Chems...). And I'm sure it's not finished yet. 

So Tim, very happy birthday on the event of becoming 60 years young. We salute you, big time.

Here's just a smattering of great Tim Pope videos - including his own immortal tilt at pop stardom...