A giant screw art portrait of SAFC legend Kevin Phillips has taken pride of place at the recently refurbished and reopened 3 Stories pub with the hope that Super Kev can bring some good luck to customers who will be taking in Saturday’s playoff final on one of the bar’s many TV screens.

Last year (2024) screw artist Darren Timby recreated the famous photograph of Kevin Phillips receiving the European golden boot on the Stadium of Light pitch after scoring 30 goals in his debut Premier League season (1999/2000).

The Kevin Phillips screw art portrait now on display at the 3 Stories pub. | Darren Timby.

placeholder image — The Kevin Phillips screw art portrait now on display at the 3 Stories pub. | Darren Timby.

Darren, who uses individual screws to represent each pixel in an image, invited the Sunderland legend to fit the final screw using his trusty ‘Phillips’ screwdriver.

The giant portrait had been on display in The Bridges, but with the playoff final against Sheffield United due to take place on Saturday (May 24) the owners of the 3 Stories asked Darren if they could display the piece at the city centre venue.

Kevin Phillips adds the finishing touch | sn

Darren said: “I’ve already got a screw art pieces on display at the pub showing the Beatles, and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones and when the Fine Art Gallery in The Bridges closed and the pub got in touch, everything just fell into place.”

With tickets for the final already snapped up, many Black Cats fans will be heading into city centre bars such as the 3 Stories to watch the match.

Darren added: “Kevin is up there with the legends of the club and hopefully he can bring us good luck and we can get a winning result on the day.”

After fitting the final screw, Kevin said: “It's the first time I have even seen anything like this and it is very impressive."

Talented artist Darren has recently expanded his artistic repertoire and has now turned his hand to using prints to create illusionary art pieces, with his most recent creation showing both the current and old Sunderland AFC badges, depending on which angle you look at it from.

Darren Timby with his art piece which displays the current and old Sunderland badge depending on the angle you look at it from. | Darren Timby

Darren said: “The badge illusion was created using 46 panels with individual prints. Due to Sheffield United finishing one place higher than us, we are going to be wearing our away shirt, which is a retro strip which was worn in the 1992 FA Cup Final.

“It has the old badge which features the ship and with us about to wear the strip at Wembley it seemed like a good time to create this piece. Hopefully it will appeal to young and old fans.”

Darren has created an array of giant screw art designs including musical icons such as Elvis, Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie.

Hi creations have been sponsored by JT Dove Building Materials and Nordstrom Timbers who provided the materials. Darren’s future creations are going to be sponsored Timco, the manufacturers of the screws used in his designs.

The art pieces on display in the 3 Stories are available to buy. Anyone interested should contact Darren via his Facebook page.