Colin Fulcher aka Barney Bubbles (July 1942 - Nov 1983) was a radical English graphic artist, whose work primarily encompassed the disciplines of graphic design, painting and music video direction. He is most renowned for his distinctive contribution to the graphic design associated with the British independent music scene during the 1970s and early 1980s. His symbol-laden and riddle-laden record sleeves were his most visible output. He suffered from bipolar disorder[1][2] Born in Tranmere Road, Whitton, Middlesex in July 1942, he committed suicide in London in November 1983.
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Early life
Colin Fulcher attended Isleworth Grammar and from 1958 undertook a senior display course in a National Diploma in Design at Twickenham College of Art[3]. During his five years at the college Fulcher worked across all media, including cardboard design, display and packaging; this was exploited in his future record sleeve work. Music, short films and performances were regular events at the art college.
Upon leaving college in 1963, Colin Fulcher worked for a 'typographically Swiss' typographer, a period in his life which he said 'taught me everything about typography'. In 1965 he joined The Conran Group as senior graphic designer. He worked on a variety of projects at the company, including the Norman archer logo for Strongbow cider, and items for Habitat.
The Underground
Colin Fulcher was also involved in the counter-cultural underground scene in London and in 1967 renamed himself Barney Bubbles, operating a light show for bands such as The Gun and Quintessence at various underground events at venues such as The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, the Arts Lab, The Electric Cinema and Middle Earth.
He also organised happenings and private events under the name A1 Good Guyz with fellow Twickenham art college students Roy Burge and David Wills between 1965-67. With the latter he undertook design work for "Motor Racing" magazine and the English Egg Marketing Board, and with an extended group of friends as contributors, they created Oz magazine issue 12 The Tax Dodge Special in 1968. Barney Bubbles later worked on Oz 38 (within which he is credited) and other underground papers.
In the summer of 1968 Barney Bubbles visited the United States and experienced the hippie counter-culture on the West Coast. Here he met legendary poster artists Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelly, and worked on light shows at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom[4].
Teenburger Designs
In the spring of 1969 Barney Bubbles moved base to 307 Portobello Road, London, and working in association with Edward Moulton, set up the studio Teenburger Designs. Assisted by John Muggeridge whom he had met at Conran, they created designs for a variety of projects, including albums, the first of which was Quintessence's 1969 LP In Blissful Company, which contains a design credit for them both. This gatefold LP contains Barney Bubbles' multi-page die-cut book with geometrical arrangements typical of the forms with which he would later be associated.
More music industry work followed for Teenburger, notably for bands such as Brinsley Schwarz and Red Dirt, and Vertigo label artists Cressida, Gracious! and Dr Z (whose 'Three Parts To My Soul' LP is a collector's rarity, with its complex and colourful fold-out sleeve).
Barney Bubbles also worked as the designer of underground newspaper Friends (later re-named Frendz) [5]
Hawkwind (and other 1970s Rock)
Many of the area's bands called in at the Friends office, the most prominent of which was Hawkwind, with whom Barney Bubbles formed a close connection. Leaving behind the name Teenburger, he became Hawkwind's artistic collaborator. Responsible for their LP sleeves (including In Search of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido and Space Ritual) he also titled albums, created posters, adverts, stage decoration and performance plans, all of which were adorned with mystical and mock teutonic insignia. During this period, he also created LP designs and additional material for The Sutherland Brothers, Edgar Broughton Band, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Quiver, the Kursaal Flyers and Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix. In 1972 he produced the triple LP package Glastonbury Fayre based around a six panel fold-out sleeve, two poster inserts, a booklet, and a pyramid sheet; all housed in a clear plastic bag (complete with two sleeve variations and three label variations).
In the mid-70s Barney Bubbles' relationship with Hawkwind came to an end. It was rekindled briefly for the Hawklords project in 1978, though he continued working with Hawkwind's saxophonist Nik Turner.
From this point on he worked anonymously, or by use of pseudonym.
Stiff, Radar and F Beat (and other Punk and New Wave)
In June 1976, Stiff Records was set up, and employed Barney Bubbles' talents from early in 1977. With co-founder Jake Riviera, he generated a body of creative design work which helped secure Stiff's reputation as an exciting label. Barney Bubbles created sleeves for artists such as Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric, and often these were accompanied with quirky logos (like the Blockhead's 'face' logo), adverts and promotional items. The marketing activity for Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True is one such example; it included a collectible six-part poster delivered in three UK music papers and the Help Us Hype Elvis insert in the first 1000 copies of the album's first pressing.
When Jake Riviera subsequently left Stiff and went on to form Radar Records (and then F-Beat Records and then Demon Records) Barney went with him, continuing to work for some Stiff artists but more regularly for Radar Records and F-Beat artists such as Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Carlene Carter, Howard Werth and Clive Langer & The Boxes. There were also commissions from other labels, including Aura, Chiswick, Utility, Go! Discs, Epic, Charisma, CBS, Line Records, United Artists and Riddle Records. This resulted in work for Johnny Moped, Billy Bragg, Clover, The Sinceros, Roger Chapman, Phillip Goodhand-Tait, Dr Feelgood, Inner City Unit and the Psychedelic Furs.
Barney Bubbles' signature style was colourful, playful, loaded with geometry, shape, art-history and music-history reference, jokes, cryptograms and symbolism. The over-riding appetite was for going against the grain of accepted design standards. His work has duality in that it is simultaneously complex (loaded with meaning) but is simple and direct. Examples include:
- Elvis Costello - This Year's Model; which was designed to have a deliberate mis-cropping so the entire design was off-register.
- The Damned - Damned Damned Damned; a very limited number of which were deliberately printed with a photo of Eddie and the Hot Rods on the back of the album cover, rather than The Damned playing at The Roxy Club. An 'erratum' sticker was put on the back cover apologizing for this 'mistake', and on the front of the LP - on top of the original shrinkwrap - was a red 'food-fight' sticker that says 'Damned Damned', thus completing the LP title when read underneath the band's name.
- Elvis Costello - Armed Forces; with an extended back panel conisting of folding flaps, this included postcards which carried the instruction DON'T JOIN (advice against joining the armed forces, and simultaneously a message that these postcards had been die-cut away from the rest of the sleeve).
- Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Do It Yourself; which - based on an idea by Ian Dury - came in 28 different wallpaper sleeves, some of which also had blind embossed patterns applied to simulate textured wallpapers. [6]
Music promo videos
As a video director, Barney Bubbles directed several videos. These included The Specials' "Ghost Town", Squeeze's "Is That Love" and "Tempted", Elvis Costello's "Clubland" and "New Lace Sleeves" and Fun Boy Three's "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)". Two promos for punk act Johnny Moped - "Incendiary Device" and "Darling Let's Have Another Baby" - were never commercially released to broadcasters.
Other work
In 1978 Barney Bubbles was responsible for the redesign of weekly music paper the NME, including a new logo design. A contemporary re-worked version of the logo is still in use.[7]
In 1979, Derek Boshier curated an exhibition entitled Lives at the Hayward Gallery, London. He commissioned Barney Bubbles to design the catalogue and poster. Together with photographer Chris Gabrin, Barney Bubbles exhibited a video and mixed-media installation in the exhibition.
In the early 1980s Barney Bubbles created furniture designs, some of which were featured in The Face, November 1981, and in 1982 he recorded the album Ersatz with Nik Turner and other members of Inner City Unit, under the name The Imperial Pompadours.
Barney Bubbles had always painted privately, increasingly so in the early 1980s.
Notes and references
- ^ Carol Clerk. Saga of Hawkwind, p.94. Omnibus Press, 2004, ISBN 1844491013.
- ^ Ian Abrahams. Hawkwind: Sonic Assassins, p. 150. SAF Publishing Ltd, 2004, ISBN 0946719691
- ^ Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life & Work Of Barney Bubbles, Paul Gorman (Adelita 2008) ISBN 978-0955201738
- ^ The Face: November 1981
- ^ Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1961-1971, Jonathon Green (Pimlico 1998) ISBN 978-0712666657
- ^ No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution, Will Birch (Virgin Books 2000, 2003) ISBN 0-7535-0740-4
- ^ "NME The Inside Story". http://www.vinmag.com/online/gbu0-display/nme.html. Retrieved 16 November 2007.
External links
- Barney Bubbles: Artist and Designer. Career overview by graphic designer John Coulthart.
- Barney Bubbles: What A Laugh. Blog by old friend, fellow student and designer, David Wills.
- Philm Freax: Barney Bubbles: In Memoriam. A memorial page by friend and photographer Phil Franks.
- Philm Freax: Friends: Barney Bubbles Includes Phil Franks' photos and text extracts from "Days In The Life: Voices from the English Underground 1961-�71" by Jonathon Green.
- Philm Freax: Hawkwind X-In Search of Space.
- Brian Griffin on Barney Bubbles. Tribute by friend and photographer Brian Griffin.
- The Barney Bubbles Blog Blog of the book Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life & Work Of Barney Bubbles by Paul Gorman.
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