Saturday, February 27, 2010...1:48 pm
Baby Snakes director Bruce Bickford in London
My first experience that claymation animation could be for grown-ups as well as children came in the late 1970s, when I discovered punk rock and alternative music.
As a young teenager I started watching the Old Grey Whistle Test on the BBC – a music show aimed at adult fans, rather than Top of the Pops teenies. One standout moment was seeing the music video for Frank Zappa’s Baby Snakes track.
It was hallucinatory, captivating and weird – everything you want when you’re 16. I’ve only seen it once, and it’s been three decades since then, but I still remember the effect it had.
So it’s 
very exciting news that the director – 62-year-old Seattle-based Bruce Bickford – is coming to London on Monday March 16 to show his work and take part in a Q&A on stage. It’s a special event run by the London International Animation Festival, held at The Horse Hospital, 30 Colonnade, London, WC1N 1JD on Monday March 15th at 7pm. (Nearest tube is Russell Square). The evening also includes a rare showing of Monster Road, a documentary about his work
LIAF oganiser Nag Vladermersky describes his work as a mix of of Peter Pan, Ray Harryhausen and The Wild Bunch. Worth making the journey for…
3 Comments
February 27th, 2010at 7:51 pm
It absolutely is worth meeting him I guess. I saw some of his films last autumn on a big screen and it was just great. He’s an amazing, weird and outstanding artist… I saw “The Comic That Frenches Your Mind” (drawn animation) and “Prometheus’ Garden” (claymation), both of them are still stunning and inspiring. – I wish I would be in London then…
March 2nd, 2010at 11:16 am
Didn’t he do City of Tiny Lights for Zappa as well? Like you, I remember seeing that on one of those all night Whistle Test freakouts where they used to put on the stuff that was too wired for normal transmission.
I couldn’t find it on YouTube, but here’s a nice clip of Jan Svankmajer’s Alice instead – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wHMgTPF-s. It’s in a similarly otherworldly vein.
March 2nd, 2010at 1:51 pm
Yes – I remember that too (in fact, I may be confusing the two – it’s been a long time…)
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