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  • davidwills 8:31 am on April 17, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , art graphic design, , bruce thomas, , , , elvis costello and the attractions, Gone In The Morning, LP Rock, psychedlia, , Spring, Stained Glass, Sutherland Brothers, , Tulips   

    Barney Bubbles Tulips – An Open and Shut Case 

    Well regarded Barney Bubbles historians RandM (or for those unfamiliar, Rebecca and Mike) have forwarded this seasonal contribution from their Barney symbolism files, for which we are truly thankful… thank you folks!

    Hi David,

    Well, it’s Spring-time, so we thought you might like us to make a Spring-related contribution to your blog.

    In 1972 Barney Bubbles designed the cover to Quiver’s LP ‘Gone In The Morning’ in a faux-marquetry style (although the stained glass in the centre of the design was on real glass, but sadly got accidentally smashed many years ago). We’ve commented before that the flowers on the front of this LP are tulips, but maybe now is a good time to dig a little deeper (if you’ll pardon the gardening pun) into the symbolism of them.

    Quiver Gone In The Morning LP 1972 - Designed by Barney Bubbles

    Tulips (spring-blooming perennials) grow from bulbs, and these bulbs can be seen towards the bottom of the design on the front and back of the LP. Tulips respond to the daily rhythm of light and dark, causing them to open and close, and so on the back of the LP Barney has shown the tulips closed (accompanied by a photo of a partially obscured sun, presumably a sunrise), and on the front of the LP has shown the tulips open (accompanied by the fully lit stained glass design). The tulips’ opening and closing  – or coming and going – with light and dark is a reference to the LP’s title ‘Gone In The Morning’. It doesn’t stop there though, the flowers and bulbs also represent arrows (the bulbs are the arrowheads and the flowers are the flights), a reference to the band’s name Quiver.
    Barney’s work is like a visual cryptic crossword, but a crossword that doesn’t help by letting you know how many letters are in the answer!
    The band’s bassist Bruce Thomas subsequently played with Elvis Costello and The Attractions, which regular readers of your blog will know Barney did a lot of work for too.
    Best wishes,
    RandM
     

  • davidwills 9:23 pm on March 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , alice in wonderland, , balloon race, , bear driver, , , crystal palace, , director, , film, footage, hookah, lewis carroll, mad hatters tea party, mask, michel parry, mod, monsters, mushroom, pop, psychedlia, , rosemary chester, , soho square, trippy, , , ,   

    Barney Bubbles – Alice In Wonderland film 

    The rare and much discussed Barney Bubbles ‘Alice In Wonderland’ film (made with Michel Parry and a bunch of our other friends) has been unearthed from the vaults and can be viewed here! Barney Bubbles (Colin Fulcher), who was my old pal back from those times can be seen on the film, as can Rosemary Chester who plays Alice.

    However, note that the music isn’t the originally intended soundtrack – it is a new song by Michel Parry’s daughter’s band ‘Bear Driver’ – and the footage has been re-edited by ‘Bear Driver’ band member Harry. Some of the locations are recognisable as Soho square and Crystal Palace Park, where the monsters are! Here are some stills:

    Barney Bubbles film still: The Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom smoking a hookah.

    Barney Bubbles film still

    Barney Bubbles film still: Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Barney is on the right, looking towards the camera.

    I’ll have many more words to add soon about this escapade, so as usual, check back for more…

     

    • R and M 9:59 pm on March 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      In the still that shows Barney Bubbles looking towards the camera, there is a masked figure next to him. This exact same mask can be seen in one of your photos from the Sounds Good Evening held at Leigh Court in 1967. Here is the direct link to the pic https://davidwills.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/rowdy-times-at-leigh-court-high-the-sounds-good-evening/

      • Crispin & Jennie Thomas 3:28 pm on June 25, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        David ..I reckon this film must have been a long on-going project of Barney’s…Jennie and i hitched to Matala Greece and Istanbul, via Paris ( i guess 67) and ended up making ( I guess a Super-8 ?) version of Alice In Wonderland with Jwennie paying an Alice type figure..in the gardeen of a house in Boulogne Billancourt /Paris..where Barney was staying….and here we are stil together x from Stroud .Werer you there too?

    • davidwills 10:50 pm on March 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Yup, sure is, it’s the fromer labour PM, Mr Wilson, the taxman of Beatles fame.

    • davidwills 12:24 am on March 6, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      At one pont in the tea party there a guy wearing a pointed hat that came from a street find on the North End Road, including someone’s complete Jordanian I.D. The top hats were from the old Peterborough Road days of Chris Higson and Mick Jackson when the hats were often worn to Trad-Jaz events.

      This reminds me so much of an Andy Warhol movie. From what I read of Edie Sedgewick’s adventures at the Factory in Manhattan I can see how much we owed to Andy Warhol in our various adventures. I was at the opening party of the new Factory, I think in August 67. Went with Brice Marden’s swoon, Helen Harrington the muse, I took off with Sandy Daley, said she was the daughter of the the late Mayor Daley and sibling of #2, a videographer of an intelligent (she thought I was smart) red crew-cut beauty in jeans. She filmed the piercing of Mapplethorpe’s nipple at the Factory about that time. Over coffee in a grease-bar she invited me back to the Chelsea Hotel, I said “Why?” in that anoying inner idiot voice i know so well. She looked like I came in from the moon, “Whadda y’ think?.”

      Reading Ciao Manhattan it’s easy to imagine what awaited. But Helen’s sage advice not to get hooked-up with the Factory crowd too much kicked in and I slouched off, early as usual, leaving the party, back to the pin factory on Grand Street. Thereby avoiding a disolute life of depravity, speed and an early death.

      Yes, the Warhol crowd were represented in 1967 at Leigh Court by Helen, who loved our set-up and compared it favorably with Andy’s doings, but without the death thing. She gave smart advice that has followed me through life, “An artist is one who does art, that which is done by an artist is art.” She also said that Brice had said that once you had worked in ad agency you could no longer be an artist. I expect he said that thinking of Andy W who had toiled in the art department at JWT or similar, I figured it didn’t apply to me ‘cos I’d only worked at DPB&T long enough to act as a catalyst on the boss and send him to New York..

    • R and M 8:41 am on March 6, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      In Will Birch’s book ‘No Sleep Till Canvey Island’ this film gets a mention. Here’s a quote from it:
      “‘Colin Fulcher was into fantasy’, says Stafford Cliff, another former colleague at Conran. ‘He made a film in Kensington Gardens, where everyone had to dress up as characters from Alice In Wonderland. He was drawn towards the pop scene and underground publications such as Oz, in which he desperately wanted to be involved’.”

    • LiveUnsigned 10:51 am on March 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Great to hear Bear Driver involved in something like this. A very creative band: http://www.liveunsigned.com/Bear_Driver/

      • davidwills 9:28 pm on March 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        … er, isn’t that comment from Bear Driver, about Bear Driver?
        ‘Tis so, very creative. I think perhaps they are not getting their money’s worth from LiveUnsigned.com

    • R and M 8:50 am on March 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      David, whilst we’re loosely on the theme of creative projects based on literary works, do you have any recollections of the Hobbit you and Barney Bubbles made, around 1968?

    • davidwills 8:54 pm on March 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Hi there good people one and both, no I can’t say as how I do, having little, nay no, memory of the occasion. Are you sure I was there?

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