{"id":1760,"date":"2026-02-06T13:20:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:14:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:14:26","slug":"colin-self-the-sixties-robert-frasers-groovy-arts-club-band-david-g-a-stephenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/2026\/02\/06\/colin-self-the-sixties-robert-frasers-groovy-arts-club-band-david-g-a-stephenson\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Self, the Sixties &amp; Robert Fraser\u2019s Groovy Arts Club Band: David G.A. Stephenson\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br><br><br><em>Delivered 5th July 2025 Norwich Castle Museum &amp; Art Gallery, which is showing One Self: The Creative Life of Colin Self until 21st Sept 2025&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Playlist:<br><br><em>As Tears Go By <\/em>(June 1964)<br><em>Paint It Black <\/em>(May 1966)<br><em>Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band <\/em>(May 1967)<br><em>We Love You <\/em>(August\u00a01967)<br><em>I Want To Hang Out With Ed Ruscha <\/em>(2000)<br><em>Eve Of Destruction <\/em>(July 1965)<br><em>Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber (2019)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As&nbsp;a&nbsp;taster&nbsp;for&nbsp;this essay&nbsp;listen&nbsp;to&nbsp;Marianne&nbsp;Faithfull\u2019s \u2018As Tears Go&nbsp;By\u2019&nbsp;which&nbsp;was&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;pop&nbsp;charts&nbsp;in&nbsp;June&nbsp;1964&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;written by Mick Jagger &amp; Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones &amp; their manager Andrew Loog&nbsp;Oldham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Marianne Faithfull - As Tears Go By (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-efIjZ_1yQg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"409\" height=\"575\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1762\" style=\"width:300px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image.png 409w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-213x300.png 213w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-300x422.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 409px) 100vw, 409px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"568\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1763\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.774658137664228;width:300px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-1.png 440w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-1-232x300.png 232w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-1-300x387.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones would see Colin\u2019s work, especially his sculptural installations, which were often painted black. More on this later, but now you can see why I listed \u2018Paint It Black\u2019 (May 1966) in the playlist above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"465\" height=\"361\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-2.png 465w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-2-300x233.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 465px) 100vw, 465px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"283\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1765\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-3.png 283w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-3-236x300.png 236w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Rolling Stones - Paint It, Black (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O4irXQhgMqg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Marianne Faithfull had met John Dunbar in 1963 (&amp; would marry him in May 1965). Marianne &amp; John would become friends with Colin Self. I believe that both Faithfull &amp; Self are true artists, though obviously in different fields. They both have unfailingly pursued their own path &amp; both created powerful, lasting work, always staying relevant &#8211; staying true to Sixties ideals, but never stuck in that time. Marianne\u2019s last album (she died in January this year, 2025) was \u2018She Walks In Beauty\u2019 in 2021 &amp; she chose paintings by Colin to produce a wonderful sleeve &amp; booklet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"433\" height=\"418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-4.png 433w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-4-300x290.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"395\" height=\"419\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-5.png 395w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-5-283x300.png 283w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-5-300x318.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>John Dunbar in September 1965 would open an Art Gallery &amp; Bookshop with Barry Miles &amp; Peter Asher, combining their ideas into a company called Miles, Asher &amp; Dunbar Limited (M.A.D.) and naming the gallery Indica (after <em>Cannabis Indica<\/em>). Below on the left we see Asher, Miles &amp; Dunbar and on the right &#8211; at the opening of \u2018One Self\u2019 (on Friday 28<sup>th<\/sup> March) &#8211; myself, with Marco Livingstone [he wrote the Foreword for the \u2018One Self\u2019 catalogue and has written extensively about Colin] and John Dunbar, kindly taken by Giorgia Bottinelli (Curator of \u2018One Self\u2019 and the instigator of this talk). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"411\" height=\"339\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-6.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-6.png 411w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-6-300x247.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">M.A.D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"462\" height=\"335\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-7.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-7.png 462w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-7-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">S.L.D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colin did not become an Indica artist. Later he became part of Robert Fraser\u2019s gallery or what I like to call Robert Fraser\u2019s Groovy Arts Club Band. This is my pun on ( <em>Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em> ) two of Robert\u2019s artists were Peter Blake &amp; Jann Haworth. Robert Fraser persuaded The Beatles to discard the intended cover for <em>Sgt Pepper <\/em>&amp; commission Blake &amp; Haworth to produce their now famous cover.<br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"471\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-8.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-8.png 471w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-8-300x260.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 471px) 100vw, 471px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"404\" height=\"404\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-9.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-9.png 404w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-9-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-9-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Robert Fraser was arrested with Mick Jagger &amp; Keith Richards in February 1967. Sentencing happened in June. If you listen to \u2018We Love You\u2019, which the Stones released in August of 1967 it has sound effects of clanking prison doors and the official video shows the whole story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Rolling Stones - We Love You (Official Music Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lOf-0Mur7t4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And the next song we hear is \u2018I Want To Hang Out With Ed Ruscha\u2019, a slightly more modern recording, having come out in 2000. It is a recording by me and musician\/producer Richard Bell &amp; it was the first of my series of songs about visual artists. A few years later I discovered Harriet Vyner\u2019s 1999 book <em>Groovy Bob<\/em>, all about Robert Fraser &amp; his gallery (incidentally, Marianne Faithful said: \u2018Anyone interested in the Sixties should read this book\u2019). Through Vyner\u2019s book I realised that Ed Ruscha had shown at Fraser\u2019s gallery (Duke St, Mayfair, W1 not the Duke St, St James) &amp; then through meeting her, I heard much about Colin Self &amp; many other artists Fraser promoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Robert Fraser&#039;s Groovy Arts Club Band \u2013 I Want To Hang Out With Ed Ruscha (feat. Richard Bell)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JopeeAcqDYk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"381\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-10.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1773\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-10.png 381w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-10-238x300.png 238w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-10-300x378.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The photograph below is of me with Harriet in Sir Brian Clarke\u2019s studio in 2017, when my band The Groovy Arts Club Band filmed a video in his studio. Brian, who sadly died a few days ago on 1<sup>st<\/sup> July, was great friends with Fraser and would often be exhibited in his gallery. It was the seeds of an album, a double-vinyl album in fact, produced, recorded and mixed by Josh Stapleton, celebrating all these fantastic artists, not least, Colin Self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"378\" height=\"502\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-11.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1775\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-11.png 378w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-11-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-11-300x398.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 378px) 100vw, 378px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">D.S and H.V.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"501\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-12.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-12.png 501w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-12-297x300.png 297w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-12-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-12-300x303.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">G.A.C.B. Vinyl <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"565\" height=\"441\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1777\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-13.png 565w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-13-300x234.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-14.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-14.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-14-205x300.png 205w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colin seems to lead us out of the Fifties into the Sixties and then anticipates the 1970s. The historical period 1958-74 has been described by Arthur Marwick as \u2018the long sixties\u2019, a period which can be subdivided into a prelude which lasted until 1963, the stereotyped \u2018swinging sixties\u2019 or \u2018high sixties\u2019 which lasted until 1968, followed by an aftermath during which the cults and enthusiasms of the earlier periods were widely disseminated and accepted. The \u2018long sixties\u2019ends with the economic problems associated with the oil crisis and a widely perceived mood of disillusionment and entropy. I would describe Colin as something of a cool prophet. He certainly anticipates in his art and his statements this disillusionment and entropy. This wonderful retrospective exhibition in Colin\u2019s beloved county of Norfolk is especially pleasing as prophets are not always welcome in their own land! I will talk much more about Colin\u2019s nuclear anxiety and his part in the Swinging Sixties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Eve Of Destruction\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_38SWIIKITE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"494\" height=\"339\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-16.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1781\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-16.png 494w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-16-300x206.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Colin Self &#8211; Nuclear Bomber print <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The last song we heard was \u2018Eve Of Destruction\u2019 (Barry McQuire; written by singer-songwriter P.F. Sloan), but this record came out two years after Colin started producing his bomber prints &amp; sculptures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"482\" height=\"362\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-17.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1782\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-17.png 482w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-17-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"332\" height=\"339\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-18.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1783\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-18.png 332w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-18-294x300.png 294w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-18-300x306.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 332px) 100vw, 332px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber\u2019 [lyrics by me &amp; music by Derek Jones, who also created the wonderful trousers, which I have brought with me today] features on the album, along with \u2018I Want To Hang Out With Ed Ruscha\u2019 and \u2018An Englishman In L.A.\u2019, which celebrates artist Derek Boshier (who died 5<sup>th<\/sup> September 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"314\" height=\"418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-19.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1784\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-19.png 314w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-19-225x300.png 225w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-19-300x399.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Boshier created the sleeve for the double-vinyl album \u2018Robert Fraser\u2019s Groovy Arts Club Band\u2019, which was launched in January 2019 alongside an exhibition of the same name that I co-curated with Mila Askorova, at her Gazelli Art House in Dover Street, Mayfair, London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"578\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-20.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1785\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-20.png 864w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-20-300x201.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-20-768x514.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-20-850x569.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the memoir\/catalogue, I wrote of the show:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018the \u2018groovy\/funky lounge\u2019 section (with electronic wall-screen showing videos of five of the songs from the album <em>Robert Fraser\u2019s Groovy Arts Club Band<\/em>) drew you in with welcoming chairs, striking Keith Haring wallpaper and treasure trove cabinets (with Fraser ephemera, lent by Harriet Vyner; books signed by Ed Ruscha; the sleeve of <em>Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em>). On the \u2018coffee table\u2019 there were Pop Art and Music books to flick, trawl and wade through. On the surrounding walls, three striking silkscreens by Sir Peter Blake of Bridget Bardot, The Beatles and Kate Moss. Opposite these, Colin Self\u2019s funky and beautifully-realised (and almost edible!) series of mixed media <em>Hot Dogs<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the display cabinet, we also had one of Colin\u2019s <em>Fallout Shelter <\/em>artworks and I will be coming back to these as I believe they can also be seen as representing the fallout from the 1960s party\/explosion\/swinging times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"519\" height=\"437\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-21.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1787\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-21.png 519w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-21-300x253.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 519px) 100vw, 519px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"348\" height=\"451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-22.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-22.png 348w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-22-231x300.png 231w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-22-300x389.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In these next three slides we see the work of the artists who were in the show at Gazelli Art House: Bridget Riley; Derek Boshier; Jean Dubuffet; Brian Clarke; Clive Barker; Peter Blake; Jann Haworth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1013\" height=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-23.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1789\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-23.png 1013w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-23-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-23-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-23-850x567.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1013px) 100vw, 1013px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"990\" height=\"661\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-24.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1790\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-24.png 990w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-24-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-24-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-24-850x568.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1017\" height=\"679\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-25.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1791\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-25.png 1017w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-25-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-25-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-25-850x568.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1017px) 100vw, 1017px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"342\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-26.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-26.png 500w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-26-300x205.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"416\" height=\"336\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-27.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-27.png 416w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-27-300x242.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But in the Gazelli exhibition we didn\u2019t have Colin\u2019s wonderful 1965 <em>Hot Dog <\/em>(painted black, of course!) that graces this Norwich exhibition. And I am delighted that one of the fridge magnets for sale in the shop is Colin\u2019s 2009 <em>Hot Dog<\/em>, in more edible colours than black! This is what Colin says in Giorgia Bottinelli\u2019s excellent catalogue for this exhibition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018To me a hot-dog is as important a 20<sup>th<\/sup> century development as (say) a rocket. Both reflect a stage reached; products of our condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In the Sixties, I created a series of Hot-Dog drawings. Believing them to be a contemporary fast food\/junk food logical progression to the food still lives of Chardin. I thought such thoughts I had then were original. But, being bought a Warhol book as a 50<sup>th<\/sup> birthday present, I discovered therein a sketch watercolour of a Hot-Dog (circa 1957\/58)\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"556\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-28.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1794\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-28.png 400w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-28-216x300.png 216w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-28-300x417.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"417\" height=\"554\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-29.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-29.png 417w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-29-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-29-300x399.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 417px) 100vw, 417px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But when it comes to Atomic bombs &amp; bomber jets, Colin gets there first; Andy Warhol\u2019s Atomic Explosion is 1965. The catalogue for <em>ART <\/em><em>&amp; THE 60s: This Was Tomorrow \u2013 <\/em>Tate Britain\u2019s impressive 2004 exhibition &#8211; includes a section by Ben Tufnell entitled \u2018Colin Self And The Bomb\u2019. Tufnell sets the scene for us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201817<sup>th<\/sup> February 1958 saw the first meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) at Central Hall, Westminster. This was followed at Easter by the first of the annual peace marches to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermarston. CND grew quickly\u2026 at Easter 1960, 100,000 demonstrators gathered in Trafalgar Square. In 1962 the worst fears of the protestors were almost realised as the Cold War entered its most terrifying phase. On 22<sup>nd<\/sup> October, President Kennedy announced that Soviet nuclear missiles had been discovered on Cuba, just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, provoking a diplomatic crisis. After a tense face-off during which Cuba was blockaded, the situation was resolved by Soviet Union leader Khrushchev\u2019s undertaking to decommission the missiles, and a reciprocal agreement by the Americans to withdraw missiles from Turkey.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tufnell goes on the explain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018Given this context it is perhaps surprising how little nuclear imagery appears in the art of the period. Sexuality, civil rights, Cuba, the Vietnam War and other issues appear in work by Hockney, Hamilton, Kitaj &amp; Tilson, but the nuclear threat is conspicuous for its absence. One possible explanation is that the bomb was perceived asAmerican and many of the British artists aligned with Pop Art were engaged with a celebration of American culture. Richard Hamilton [&amp; we have seen his quote on Colin: \u2018the best draughtsman in England since William Blake\u2019] \u2013 (Hamilton) a committed protestor who was arrested at the CND Holy Loch \u2018sit down\u2019 protest in 1961, resolved this personal conflict of interests by reportedly marching with a life- size cut-out of Marilyn Monroe.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-30.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1796\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-30.png 750w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-30-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Monroe died in 1962 (the Sixties Prelude). If Colin has ever come close to presenting glamour models, it is always with dark forebodings [as in 1963\u2019s <em>Two Waiting Women and B-52 Nuclear Bomber <\/em>above], or models with Fall-Out Shelters, or as if just leaving an obliterated nuclear shadow behind [as in 1971\u2019s <em>Prelude to 1000 Temporary Objects of our Times No.7 (Nude Triptych) <\/em>and shades of Edvard Munch\u2019s <em>The Scream<\/em>] or as a charred, blackened corpse of a glamour model, 1966\u2019s <em>Beach Girl Nuclear Victim<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"439\" height=\"459\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-31.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-31.png 439w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-31-287x300.png 287w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-31-300x314.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 439px) 100vw, 439px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"282\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-32.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-32.png 282w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-32-186x300.png 186w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 282px) 100vw, 282px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>which Simon Martin expounds on in the \u2018Colin Self: Art In The Nuclear Age\u2019 catalogue, informing us that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018Although Self\u2019s Beach Girl has suggestions of Nevile Shute\u2019s 1959 novel On The Beach, which chronicled the extinction of the human race by radioactive fallout in the months following a massive nuclear war, his ideas for the sculpture are first recorded in the sketchbook of his trip to the U.S.A. in summer 1965. Self often noted down his ideas for artworks on which to work when he returned to Britain; his notes read: \u2018California girl on beach dead from fallout, with bikini on or part on. With rockets over the top or near figure\u2026. Revolving head (like in hairdresser windows). Head half normal and half like Hiroshima with expensive capitalist wig on.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> The figure was based on a sunbather that the artist saw when he was on the beach in Santa Monica, California, with David Hockney, Patrick Procktor and Norman Stevens. On seeing a heavily suntanned female, Colin exclaimed:<em> \u2018There\u2019s my victim!\u2019<\/em> and asked her if he could take some photographs for reference. These photographs, together with his drawings of Hiroshima victims, provided the source material for this sculpture, which was based on a shop-dresser\u2019s dummy. It was a controversial exhibit at the Robert Fraser Gallery in 1966. Long after this exhibition Colin sold it to his friends the artist Clive Barker and the model Jean Shrimpton, who later sold it to the Imperial War Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back to Ben Tufnell\u2019s section in the <em>ART &amp; THE 60s <\/em>catalogue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018[Colin] Self didn\u2019t read any of Bertrand Russell\u2019s texts that argued against the bomb, such as 1961\u2019s Has Man a Future? Colin was too scared. For the same reason he wasn\u2019t a member of CND and he didn\u2019t go on the marches: the issue seemed too vast to confront directly. Every time he watched television or opened a newspaper it seemed there was something about Russian nuclear tests or further deployments of American missiles. The nuclear threat appeared to be omnipresent. Self says: \u2018It was as if there was nowhere to hide\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unable to speak to anyone about his fears, he experienced what he calls \u2018a kind of psychological shut-down\u2019 that only lifted when Kennedy and Khrushchev exchanged peace documents after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Colin says this moment of hope \u2018acted like a drop of oil on a machine that was seized up\u2019, and afterwards he began to address the subject directly\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"397\" height=\"527\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-33.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1802\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-33.png 397w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-33-226x300.png 226w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-33-300x398.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"396\" height=\"539\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-34.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-34.png 396w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-34-220x300.png 220w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-34-300x408.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, in the catalogue \u2018Colin Self: Art In The Nuclear Age\u2019, which was for the 2008 exhibition at Pallant House, Chichester, its curator Simon Martin (who also wrote the catalogue essay \u2018Art on the Eve of Destruction: Colin Self and the Nuclear Age\u2019) delves deeply into Colin\u2019s <em>Guard Dogs On Missile Bases <\/em>in the \u2018Catalogue Entries\u2019 section. Martin points out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018From the late 1950s onwards, American nuclear missiles were deployed at a number of airbases in East Anglia, the first of which was in 1958 at Lakenheath in Suffolk. In the summer of 1959, Self was staying with friends on a farm next to the American base at Brandon in West Norfolk, where he was shocked to see a huge Thor Intercontinental Ballistic Missile pointing skywards, Colin describing it as \u2018like a nuclear Nelson\u2019s column\u2019. The farm bordered onto the perimeters of the base and at night, Colin was \u2018woken by the baying guard dogs, howling at the moon like wolves\u2019. This, and the memory of a traumatic childhood experience, when an Alsatian dog jumped up to sniff him while he was strapped into a pram, were married together to inspire a group of drawings of fearsome guard dogs on nuclear bases that conflated the aggression of the Cold War with animal savage power.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"930\" height=\"671\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-35.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1804\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-35.png 930w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-35-300x216.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-35-768x554.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-35-850x613.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 930px) 100vw, 930px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1966-67 Colin produced a diorama sculpture, <em>Guard Dog on a<\/em> <em>Nuclear Base<\/em>, which featured a stuffed dingo dog before an array of missiles that pointed out towards the viewer through a Perspex screen. It was shown at the Robert Fraser Gallery in 1967, where Colin says: \u2018it was much admired by Francis Bacon, who later took Frank Auerbach to see it. Bacon exclaiming: \u2018Each time I come back it gets better and better\u2019. Sadly, the artwork has since been destroyed. Brian Jones would have seen this diorama and in some notes that Colin &amp; his wife Jessica sent me the other day, Colin confirms that Brian Jones bought a <em>Guard Dog On A Missile Base <\/em>drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"273\" height=\"363\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-36.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1805\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-36.png 273w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-36-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"324\" height=\"361\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-37.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1806\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-37.png 324w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-37-269x300.png 269w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-37-300x334.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"273\" height=\"363\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-38.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1807\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-38.png 273w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-38-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Guard Dog on A Missile Base <\/em>[10<sup>th<\/sup> March 1966, Pencil, collage &amp; spray-paint on paper; now in the Imperial War Museum] was used very effectively for the sleeve of a 1982 album by USA hard rock band Riggs (led by lead guitarist Jerry Riggs); Colin is credited as \u2018Colin Self of Norwich\u2019. And while we are on album sleeves, perhaps the most famous album sleeve ever is <em>Sgt Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em>, which we have already mentioned earlier. The photographer who took the photographs of Blake &amp; Haworth\u2019s <em>Sgt Pepper <\/em>installation was Michael Cooper, who in 1966 superimposed Colin Self\u2019s head onto the Guard Dog, calling it <em>Bloodhound Missiles and Guard Dog<\/em>. I have now superimposed David Bailey\u2019s photograph of Michael Cooper on my slide!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-39.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1808\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-39.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-39-214x300.png 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"555\" height=\"417\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-40.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1809\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-40.png 555w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-40-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 555px) 100vw, 555px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With all this talk of missile bases and nuclear bombs, we have to turn our attention to director Stanley Kubrick\u2019s film (released January 1964) <em>Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb \u2013 <\/em>a painfully funny take on Cold War anxiety now known as one of the fiercest satires of human folly ever to come out of Hollywood. And like Colin Self\u2019s black sculptures, a black-and-white film; an appropriately black comedy. But we know that Colin has certainly not learned to love the bomb! <br><br>This film had a huge impact and influence on so many people; it has to be one of the defining films of the Sixties. Colin says that: the nuclear message in the film \u2013 was the world going to survive it? \u2013 was very much his inner thought and something he expressed in his art many times. Colin also notes that Terry Southern (scriptwriter on <em>Dr Strangelove<\/em>) bought Colin\u2019s Missile Painted Black sculpture from Robert Fraser; but it disappeared and never reached Terry Southern in the U.S.A! In his recent notes to me, John Dunbar says: \u2018I nearly worked on <em>Dr Strangelove<\/em>; it\u2019s a great movie\u2019. In fact, it is still as funny and razor- sharp today as it was in 1964. John Patterson in <em>The Guardian <\/em>has written: \u2019There had been nothing in comedy like <em>Dr Strangelove <\/em>ever before. All the gods before whom the America of the stolid, paranoid 50s had genuflected\u2014the Bomb, the Pentagon, the National Security State, the President himself, Texan masculinity and the alleged Commie menace of water-fluoridation\u2014went into the wood-chipper and never got the same respect ever again\u2019. The film starts with these words on the screen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018It is the stated position of the U.S. Air Force that their safeguards would prevent the occurrence of such events as are depicted in this film. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the characters portrayed in this film are meant to represent any real persons living or dead.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peter Sellers gives an incredible performance, playing no less than three characters: Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a British RAF exchange officer; Merkin Muffley, President of the U.S.A. and Dr Strangelove, a wheelchair-bound nuclear war expert and former<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"284\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-41.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1810\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nazi, who has alien hand syndrome. Steve Coogan recently starred in a National Theatre production of <em>Dr Strangelove<\/em>; Coogan playing not just three characters, but four!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"721\" height=\"508\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-42.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1811\" style=\"width:290px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-42.png 721w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-42-300x211.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"455\" height=\"680\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-43.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1812\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-43.png 455w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-43-201x300.png 201w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-43-300x448.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-44.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1813\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-44.png 438w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-44-197x300.png 197w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-44-300x457.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to also mention the film \u2018The War Game\u2019 (directed by Peter Watkins), a pseudo-documentary that depicts nuclear war and its aftermath. It was released into film theatres in April 1966. <em>The War Game <\/em>only saw its broadcast on television in the United Kingdom on BBC2 on 31st July 1985, as part of a special season of programming entitled <em>After the Bomb <\/em>(which had been Watkins&#8217;s original working title for <em>The War Game<\/em>). <em>After the<\/em> <em>Bomb <\/em>commemorated the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The broadcast was preceded by an introduction from Ludovic Kennedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was just a year after the Mick Jackson film \u2018Threads\u2019 was televised; a film which dramatizes the fall-out from a nuclear attack on Sheffield with harrowing realism. It was shown again in 2024 to celebrate its 40<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary. As well as despairing at the premise of these films, you cannot help thinking also of Colin Self\u2019s artworks inspired by the threat of nuclear war and the proliferation of nuclear missile bases. And this is still, unfortunately, very much a reality today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it is time for us to move away from the dark side and the noirish preoccupations of the Sixties and go for something more joyous. Let\u2019s consider another black-and-white film released (in July 1964) six months after \u2018Dr Strangelove\u2019. Yes, we are talking about the Fab Four. We are talking about \u2018A Hard Day\u2019s Night\u2019, directed by Richard Lester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"698\" height=\"536\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-45.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1815\" style=\"width:833px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-45.png 698w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-45-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A musical comedy film of 36 hours in the lives of The Beatles, along with the wonderful actor Wilfred Brambell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the best things from the Sixties, this film is timeless. <em>Rotten Tomatoes <\/em>says: \u2018<em>A Hard Day&#8217;s Night<\/em>, despite its age, is still a delight to watch and has proven itself to be a rock-and-roll movie classic.\u2019 It is a subtle satire on Beatlemania, the Beatles themselves, along with the world teenage exploitation and fashionable ad agencies. In fact, in this scene we glimpse a Colin Self artwork (Colin says it is \u2018a bomber\u2019 wing\u2019);<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"435\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-46.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1817\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3302979313075325;width:824px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-46.png 435w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-46-300x226.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 435px) 100vw, 435px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"431\" height=\"324\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-47.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1818\" style=\"width:825px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-47.png 431w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-47-300x226.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 431px) 100vw, 431px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently Colin explained to me: \u2019Slade friends Jo Keyes and Terry Atkinson went to Shepperton Studios with our artworks for the film. Jo took a photo from an upper window of George Harrison walking across to the studio. I have this photograph somewhere\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So after all the nuclear doom this is when we can cheer Colin and ourselves up! Because in 1965 Colin meets a flamboyant and exciting character called Robert Fraser, who knew the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who all frequented his remarkable art gallery. Let\u2019s have a closer look at this photograph:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"695\" height=\"522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-48.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1819\" style=\"width:834px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-48.png 695w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-48-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 695px) 100vw, 695px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why I asked for it to be included in the publicity for this talk and I am delighted it is part of this wonderful Colin Self exhibition. The photograph is of an exhibition launch at the Robert Fraser Gallery (most probably in 1966); we have Colin (with pen) on the left looking very groovy; next to him Fraser himself &#8211; \u2018Groovy Bob\u2019 looking impossibly cool in his shades and tie. Then we see Brian Jones who looks like he\u2019s on a mobile phone, but he is obviously not (must be fiddling with his hair). Perhaps he is looking at one of Colin\u2019s black sculptures. Colin has pointed out to me that: <em>\u2018Brian Jones was very shy; we only used to exchange a few sentences\u2019. <\/em>The Rolling Stones \u2018Paint It Black was recorded in March 1966 &amp; released in May. Brian was never a songwriter but I do feel he would have shared ideas for songs as well as his inventive musicianship with Jagger &amp; Richards. Thus \u2018Paint It Black\u2019 could very well be inspired by Colin\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then we have a couple dancing; looking like they might be doing the Twist. I am reminded of the 1962 BBC TV Programme <em>Pop Goes The Easel<\/em>, a documentary, directed by Ken Russell, about four \u2018Pop artists\u2019: Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, Derek Boshier &amp; Peter Phillips (who died just very recently on 23<sup>rd<\/sup> June 2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"466\" height=\"313\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-49.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1820\" style=\"width:768px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-49.png 466w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-49-300x202.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"439\" height=\"319\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-50.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-50.png 439w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-50-300x218.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 439px) 100vw, 439px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The photograph really does seem to sum up \u2018swinging sixties\u2019 or \u2018high sixties\u2019; and it is taken by a very important photographer Robert Freeman. And guess what, his photographs of the Beatles were used for \u2018A Hard\u2019s Days Night\u2019 film poster and the soundtrack album, the third Beatles album and the second Freeman photographed for &#8211; his photographs were also used for \u2018With The Beatles\u2019, \u2018Beatles For Sale\u2019, \u2018Help\u2019 (that other great rock and roll movie of the Sixties) and \u2018Rubber Soul\u2019. He wanted \u2018A Hard Day\u2019s Night\u2019 cover to suggest the idea of movement, by expressing a flow of a picture: four rows of four head shots, set up as though they were frames from a movie. The pictures of the four individual Beatles were taken in Freeman\u2019s studio. He first met The Beatles in the summer of 1963; he had already established a reputation through The Sunday Times magazine. He says: \u2018 I\u2019d recently been on assignment in Moscow to photograph Khrushchev in the Kremlin and earlier that year had shot the first Pirelli calendar.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"432\" height=\"526\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-51.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1822\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-51.png 432w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-51-246x300.png 246w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-51-300x365.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Freeman also liked to sometimes manipulate photographs, as we can see in this 1961 photograph (above): he has placed the art critic Lawrence Alloway between Kruschchev and Britain\u2019s Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, Harold Macmillan. By the way, Alloway (who died in 1990) is an important figure. He was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an influential writer and curator in the US. He first used the term &#8220;mass popular art&#8221; in the mid-1950s and used the term &#8220;Pop Art&#8221; in the 1960s to indicate that art has a basis in the popular culture of its day and takes from it a faith in the power of images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"413\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-52.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1823\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-52.png 413w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-52-236x300.png 236w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-52-300x381.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And it is Pop Art that Robert Fraser often promoted in his gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>American artist Jim Dine says of him:<em> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018Robert was the hippest person I ever met. Every night at 23 Mount Steet [Fraser\u2019s flat in Mayfair] there was some pop star, movie star, artist, whatever. You couldn\u2019t keep up with that. You just had to be yourself, because you couldn\u2019t make it up.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Harriet Vyner\u2019s book, Colin recounts meeting Fraser in 1965: \u2018The first time I ever met Robert was when he came to my house at 25 Tivoli Road in Hornsey. I was working on the Victor Valiant nuclear bomber, the Handley-Page Victor Bomber with missiles on, which Terry Southern [the writer who helped script <em>Dr Strangelove<\/em>] then later bought, and Robert took one look and said, \u2018I want that in my summer show\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He smelt quite nice, very presentable, in a pink shirt, stuttering a bit, a bit nervous, then the stuttering lessened as he got more comfy with us, and he wanted to represent me. I said, \u2018Well, yeah, I\u2019m interested, I\u2019ll put the sculpture in.\u2019 After that I switched from the Piccadilly Gallery to Robert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I must mention Robert\u2019s belief that I am a great artist. I really must confirm that. I think he really, really did think I was special. It\u2019s nice to have someone believing in you. He wasn\u2019t a good-time Charlie or a crook, he was such an entrepreneur, a bit like Diaghilev, who was a bit of a cheat and left people stranded, but put on great shows.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the foreword of the catalogue for the Mayor Gallery\u2019s <em>Colin Self: <\/em><em>Streetseen, Hearts and Glances <\/em>(25<sup>th<\/sup> Nov to 18<sup>th<\/sup> Dec 2015) exhibition, Colin expounds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018Being a keen footballer and left-handed I was put on the left wing and learned to use my left foot. So it all leads to awkward practical situations from which one develops an advanced skilled learning of how to innovate and compromise. One becomes an \u2018awkward individual\u2019 in the majority right-handed society\u2019s world. Or? Are we left handers out of touch with planetary movement itself? Robert Fraser was extreme left-handed too and thus we understood each other.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"426\" height=\"567\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-53.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-53.png 426w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-53-225x300.png 225w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-53-300x399.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 426px) 100vw, 426px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"408\" height=\"561\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-54.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1826\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-54.png 408w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-54-218x300.png 218w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-54-300x413.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 408px) 100vw, 408px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colin Self was, not surprisingly, included in the February\/March 2015 exhibition <em>A Strong Sweet Smell Of Incense: <\/em>A Portrait of Robert Fraser at Pace Gallery, Burlington Gardens, London W1. Works shown were <em>Oblique Head In A Sterile Landscape <\/em>(1964; Painted fibreglass and aluminium) and <em>Hot Dog <\/em>(1965; Pencil &amp; Watercolour on paper), which looks anything but edible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"315\" height=\"390\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-55.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1828\" style=\"width:812px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-55.png 315w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-55-242x300.png 242w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-55-300x371.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"308\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-56.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1829\" style=\"width:538px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-56.png 308w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-56-236x300.png 236w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-56-300x382.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the catalogue, curators of the show, artist Brian Clarke [<strong>BC<\/strong>; Brian, now Sir Brian Clarke, sadly died just four days ago on 1<sup>st<\/sup> July 2025] &amp; writer Harriet Vyner [<strong>HV<\/strong>] expand on Fraser and Colin\u2019s association and the groovy world of the Robert Fraser Gallery:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018<strong>HV<\/strong>: Richard [Hamilton] told me that Robert\u2019s gallery was the best of the post-war years \u2013 unique and marvellous. And it was he who suggested Robert look at Colin Self\u2019s works. [I must interject here with John Dunbar\u2019s recent words to me: \u2018When Colin came into Indica gallery, I suggested that Robert Fraser Gallery would be more appropriate and I introduced Colin to Robert, where he did show\u2019.] Robert visited Colin on the way back from seeing Richard and found him working on the <em>Victor Valiant Bomber <\/em>that Terry Southern later bought. He signed him up at once. Colin remembered that Robert smelled very nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn\u2019t know much about Colin when I went to interview him. But as soon as I met him, I was thrilled. I felt that there should be a book about him, working in this modest house in Norfolk filled with a jumble of his odd and diverse masterpieces. At one point, I told him that you [Brian Clarke] admired his work, and after the meeting he sent both you and me that lovely picture of Mickey and Minnie in bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BC<\/strong>: Which I truly treasure. Colin was a mysterious figure to me. He was not one of those people who was out there as a recognisable face. But he was always there as a very powerful artist. And anyone who knows anything about British Pop Art regards him as a genius. Robert certainly did. When he spoke about Colin, it was in a way that he didn\u2019t speak about other artists. He could make jokes about him, as he did about everyone, but as far as Robert was concerned \u2013 he knew. I think of Colin Self as an artist whom the world hasn\u2019t f-ed up or corrupted. The world has essentially ignored a luminous creative talent. And it will be sorted out eventually, no doubt about it. He\u2019s very special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HV<\/strong>: Derek Boshier told me about lying on a Malibu beach with David Hockney and Colin in the early 1960s, staring at the sky and trying not to feel too pasty and English, while all around them the beautiful Californian youth were leaping around and swimming. Suddenly they heard Colin announce: \u2018I\u2019ve got a great idea for a sculpture \u2013 it would be a life-sized female body charred black by a nuclear bomb blast.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BC<\/strong>: Makes you proud to be British!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HV<\/strong>: It does. And this very work features in David Bailey\u2019s photograph of Robert in the gallery. Dean Stockwell is one of those friends.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"894\" height=\"907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-57.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1830\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-57.png 894w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-57-296x300.png 296w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-57-768x779.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-57-300x304.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-57-850x862.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 894px) 100vw, 894px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I love this beautifully-composed and quite wonderful 1968 photograph by David Bailey. t seems to be so utterly \u2018Sixties\u2019. Would be great if Colin himself was in it, but his 1966 <em>Beach Girl Nuclear Victim <\/em>most certainly is, placed dramatically in the foreground. As well as Robert Fraser, who is in the centre we can recognise Jann Haworth in the white coat. We know that American actor Dean Stockwell is one of the other three \u2018living\u2019 figures and he is at the back to the left of Haworth. Further research has revealed that on the right is Tony Sanchez (\u2018Spanish Tony\u2019), drugs dealer for the Rolling Stones and author of <em>Up And Down With The Rolling Stones<\/em>. And sitting on the floor is jewellery maker David Courts, who attended the \u2018One Self\u2019 launch evening back in March this year (2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vyner\u2019s <em>Groovy Bob <\/em>has a Prologue by Mick Jagger; he writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018\u2026 so if you\u2019re talking about the sixties, Robert was in a way more like one of those fifties people you see in photographs who used to deal in art or dabble in it then. He was like one of those John Deakin people, with the pinstripes, nice ties, blue Turnbull and Asser shirts, his hair always perfectly combed, always well-shaved and so on, that sort of person. Public school; Eton, you know [Jagger is quite correct; Fraser did attend Eton]. Bit of money. Falls into another world. He wants to be on the edge of the demi-monde \u2013 but he\u2019s not happy with the demi-monde. He wants to be on the outside edge, where there\u2019s criminal activity\u2026. He\u2019s gay, but not with a nice hairdresser boyfriend more gay in the rent-boy way \u2013 doesn\u2019t want to show he\u2019s gay. He\u2019s a drug addict \u2013 doesn\u2019t want to show he\u2019s a drug addict\u2026. But what else is he doing? He\u2019s presenting this new kind of art. Who to?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, not so much to gay gentlemen living in the Albany [in Piccadilly, London] on family money, making good investments, but to young upstart people [Jagger is referring to himself &amp; his scene, of course] in this brash new world of England which hadn\u2019t really existed before.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it was through Mick Jagger that Fraser become much more widely known (for a little while anyway).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1004\" height=\"633\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-58.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1834\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-58.png 1004w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-58-300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-58-768x484.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-58-850x536.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1004px) 100vw, 1004px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is the famous artwork by Richard Hamilton; Fraser handcuffed to Jagger, as they leave Chichester Crown Court on 27<sup>th<\/sup> July 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arrests had been made on 12<sup>th<\/sup> February; newspapers reported:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of rock band the Rolling Stones have appeared before magistrates in Chichester, West Sussex, charged with drug offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The magistrates heard that after a tip-off, police raided Mr Richards&#8217;s mansion in Redlands Road, West Wittering on the evening of Sunday 12 February during a party. They searched the house, interviewed eight men and one woman [this woman is Marianne Faithfull, who was only wearing a rug, apparently] and found various tablets and substances that were later examined by the Metropolitan Police Laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the police raid, officers took away a number of items including Chinese joss sticks suspected of masking the sweet smell of cannabis resin and pudding basins holding cigarette ash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stones&#8217; lead singer Mr Jagger, 24, has been accused of illegally possessing four tablets containing amphetamine sulphate and methylamphetamine hydrochloride. Guitarist Mr Richards, also 24, is charged with allowing his house to be used for the purpose of smoking cannabis. Both Mr Jagger and Mr Richards pleaded not guilty and were released on bail to appear for trial at West Sussex Quarter Sessions on 22 June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside the court, a crowd of young fans were waiting to see the stars but the two men were driven away in a chauffeur-driven car from the back of the building. A third man, 29-year-old Robert Fraser, a gallery owner has been charged with possession of heroin and eight capsules of methylamphetamine hydrochloride.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On 29 June 1967, Jagger was sentenced a \u00a3200 fine and to three months&#8217; imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine tablets. Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison and a \u00a3500 fine. Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point: Jagger was taken to Brixton Prison in south London and Richards to Wormwood Scrubs <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wormwood_Scrubs_Prison\">Prison <\/a>in west London. Fraser received a year in Wormwood Scrubs and did not appeal. Both Jagger &amp; Richards were released on bail the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fraser comes off worse than anybody, but apparently he enjoyed his time in prison. And so for now, we will leave Fraser in Wormwood Scrubs. It seems that the Sixties \u2018party\u2019 or, indeed, the \u2018high sixties\u2019 is coming to an end, and perhaps needs some kind of metaphorical \u2018Fall-Out Shelter\u2019. Sadly, Brian Jones never found it; he became a victim of the Sixties; this is his letter to Fraser in prison:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Dear Robert<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How\u2019s everything \u2013 I hear you are really grooving behind jail. Sorry I haven\u2019t written earlier but I spent a month doing a nursing home scene then I spent a freaky month in Spain. We are busy right now laying down tracks for the LPs [from February to October 1967, they were recording for the album \u2018Their Satanic Majesties Request\u2019 (released in December with a sleeve \u2013 almost a pastiche of <em>Sgt Pepper <\/em>&amp; also photographed by <em>Sgt Pepper <\/em>photographer Michael Cooper) &amp; their single \u2018We Love You\u2019, released August 1967.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"424\" height=\"424\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-59.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-59.png 424w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-59-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-59-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Written as a message of gratitude to their fans for the public support towards them during the drug arrests of Jagger and Richards, the recording features guest backing vocals by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles. It is considered one of the Rolling Stones&#8217; most experimental songs, featuring sound effects, layers of vocal overdubs, and a prominent Mellotron part played by Brian Jones]-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian continues his letter: \u2018I\u2019m planning to leave on Friday for Tripoli, then dig some oases in the Libyan desert. I hope to be there for a couple of weeks. I hope to find a groovy scene there. Well, look forward to seeing you soon. Lots of love. Brian\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marianne Faithfull adds a line to Fraser at the bottom of the letter: \u2018I\u2019m sure you are well and Tantra is keeping you from all evil spirits. Love Marianne.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"439\" height=\"414\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-60.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-60.png 439w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-60-300x283.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 439px) 100vw, 439px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Marianne Faithfull nearly became a casualty of the Sixties, but fortunately she turned out a survivor (though her \u2018fallout shelter\u2019 was a wall in Soho for a couple of years from 1970, the year her relationship with Mick Jagger ended). And it was in the 70s that Colin got to know Marianne better, as she still kept in touch with Dunbar, and this was the time when Colin &amp; John Dunbar became good friends. In recent notes to me, Dunbar says: \u2018A childhood friend from Pinner had bought a few acres in a beautiful valley in the Scottish uplands. And I took Colin up there in the early 70s; this was after we had made some extraordinary trips to Germany and Norway\u2019. Since Marianne\u2019s remarkable 1979 comeback album \u2018Broken English\u2019 she has become, quite rightly, a very respected artiste, collaborating with people like Hal Willner, Steve Winwood, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Jarvis Cocker. Sleeve photographer for \u2018Broken English\u2019 is Dennis Morris (who photographed Bob Marley &amp; Sex Pistols &amp; is being exhibited at the Photographers\u2019 Gallery, London: June to September 2025 <em>Music + Life<\/em>). Marianne died in January this year; she always respected Colin and on her last album that Colin illustrated she wrote: \u2018Thanks and love to Colin Self\u2019. Colin had never tried to get into bed with Marianne. But in the 1960s particularly, Marianne would be pursued by men (and also women); in his notes to me, John Dunbar mentions a memorable Otis Redding concert, where \u2018Otis tried to get off with Marianne\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What did Colin Self make of it all? His own \u2018fallout shelter\u2019 was leaving London to live in Norfolk ( and undoubtedly, those later holidays with Dunbar). He continued to show with Robert Fraser until 1968; the gallery closed in 1969, though Fraser would open a new Gallery in Cork Street, London W1 in the early 1980s, but that is a whole other story \u2013 back to Colin, who says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u2018I\u2019ve somewhere got a pile of Robert\u2019s gallery stickers with the odd lettering. Also one of his bounced cheques. Looking back, I treated Robert like family when the setbacks came, as if he was my youngest uncle. If you got ripped off, it was like a family rip-off. I always thought Robert was special.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"292\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-61.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1839\" style=\"width:437px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-61.png 292w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-61-266x300.png 266w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>From 25<sup>th<\/sup> January to 30<sup>th<\/sup> March (1967; during the time period of the Redlands bust 12<sup>th<\/sup> February), Colin was showing with Clive Barker, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and Jann Haworth \u2013 esteemed company &#8211; at Fraser\u2019s gallery. Day-to-day running of the gallery was handled by Fraser\u2019s very capable assistant Susan Loppert, who wrote this to Fraser in prison:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Things at the gallery continue as before, a little more sluggishly perhaps, now that the novelty of the notoriety has worn off, as well as the usual August deadness. Clive [Barker] is getting set to go off to San Marino with Christopher Finch [artist &amp; author; in 1973 he wrote his first book about pop culture <em>The Art of Walt Disney<\/em>]; Derek [Boshier] is still waiting to hear about the proposed world trip; Jann [Haworth] is preparing madly for her show at Felix Valk [I need to research this name further], which is due to open on the 12<sup>th<\/sup> October; Peter [Blake; married to Jann Haworth at this time] is painting away industriously for the Carnegie show; Richard [Hamilton] has just delivered ten each of his <em>Toast Bing Crosby <\/em>&amp; <em>TIME Self Portrait <\/em>prints for us to sell; Colin [Self] has found a new method of doing dyelines so that they last.\u2019 <br><br>1969 saw Colin attend the Rolling Stones Hyde Park concert, exactly 56 years ago, because the concert was on 5<sup>th<\/sup> July (&amp; also a Saturday &#8211; date of this talk: Saturday 5<sup>th<\/sup> July 2025). Colin remembers the white butterflies being released to remember Brian Jones (who had died two days before on 3<sup>rd<\/sup> July); here is a photograph of Marianne Faithfull at the concert with her and Dunbar\u2019s son, Nicholas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1006\" height=\"567\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-62.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1840\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-62.png 1006w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-62-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-62-768x433.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-62-850x479.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1006px) 100vw, 1006px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Colin had also just signed with Marlborough Fine Arts in London, but soon after decided to represent himself and this is when he chose to settle near Thorpe St Andrew, on the outskirts of Norwich. So throughout the 60s Colin had dealings with some of the top galleries: Kasmin Gallery (David Hockney had introduced Colin to John Kasmin); Piccadilly Gallery; Indica Gallery (run by his good friend John Dunbar); Robert Fraser Gallery &amp; Marlborough Gallery (where Francis Bacon showed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Margo Livingstone writes (in his \u2018Racing Thoughts\u2019 in the 2008 <em>Art <\/em><em>In The Nuclear Age<\/em>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018The urge to label or contain a spirit as free and original as Self\u2019s led him to being regarded as part of the Pop Art movement. Though his attitude to consumer society was often critical rather than celebratory, in terms of his use of popular and contemporary imagery, it was certainly a field with which he felt affinities.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colin is very much a survivor, but more to the point \u2013 a commentator on and an influencer of the Sixties and since than he has never stopped producing fabulous artworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1021\" height=\"743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-63.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1841\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-63.png 1021w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-63-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-63-768x559.png 768w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-63-850x619.png 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1021px) 100vw, 1021px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A couple of years ago, Colin very kindly created a Leopardskin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nuclear Bomber for me; it seems to be very much a combination of his 1962 <em>That\u2019s the Trouble with the Bastards\u2019 <\/em>and his glorious (if I can really use that word in the context of nuclear bombers!) 1963 (purchased by the Tate in 1994) <em>Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber No.2<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"365\" height=\"486\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-64.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1842\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-64.png 365w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-64-225x300.png 225w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-64-300x399.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"460\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-65.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1843\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-65.png 460w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-65-300x232.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018<em>That\u2019s the Trouble with the Bastards <\/em>also relates to Colin Self\u2019s feelings about the nuclear stand-off between the U.S.A. and the<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soviet Union. The strange creature swooping through the skies is a hybrid of a modern F-4 nuclear bomber and a Pterodactyl, a flying reptile of the Mesozoic Era that hunted by swooping on fish. Its beaked mouth is open and its elongated neck bears the eponymous<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>angry message in red paint like a graffitied slogan. On one wing it has the insignia of the U.S. Air Force. The artist has explained: \u2018\u2019The<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>message could be construed as \u2018Watch it!\u2019 This thing could make us all extinct, but we won\u2019t become extinct in the same way that the dinosaurs did. We\u2019ll be masters of our own extinction.\u2019\u2019 Colin saw the Americans and the Soviets as equal aggressors at this time and therefore created a cross-breed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will end with a band new video for the song \u2018Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber\u2019 specifically created for us to experience as a culmination of this talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>David G. A. Stephenson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>With thanks to Colin &amp; Jessica Self<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"294\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-66.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1844\" style=\"width:595px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-66.png 294w, https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-66-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Robert Fraser&#039;s Groovy Arts Club Band \u2013 Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uU-9LvBMBko?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delivered 5th July 2025 Norwich Castle Museum &amp; Art Gallery, which is showing One Self: The Creative Life of Colin Self until 21st Sept 2025&nbsp; Playlist: As Tears Go By (June 1964)Paint&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/doggy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions\/1851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.openbook.org.uk\/tracks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}