IT'S amazing what a few pints can do to the old grey matter.

When Pete Liptrot - technician at Bolton Aquarium - popped into his local one night, he left with one of the best ideas he'd ever had.

That idea is now a hugely successful art exhibition recently launched at Bolton Art Gallery.

Pete, 29, from Hunger Hill, explained: "You know how it is when you have a couple of drinks down the pub - you think you can put the world to rights. Only this time the idea wasn't so far fetched."

An avid reader of the Big Issue, Pete decided pictures and images used in previous issues of the magazine could be transformed into some kind of art exhibition.

Keen

He said: "I contacted the mag and and they were really keen on the idea - it just sort of went from there really."

The exhibition, which was curated by four vendors and Liverpool-based artist Alan Dunn - the magazine's first artist-in-residence - is rough, ready and yet professional at the same time.

Images of Manchester band New Order, Robbie Coltrane, Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol all appear in this surreal world of pop art.

Pete, who has worked in the museum's aquarium, modestly shrugs off any ideas that he made the exhibition happen. "It was just an idea that other people liked as much as me," he smiled.

"I'm just glad we were able to bring it to the gallery in Bolton - and especially before anywhere else."

The exhibition was put together in just 10 working days and is in Bolton until Saturday, May 28.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.