The Fool (design collective)

The Fool were a Dutch design collective and band in the

Their work includes:

• the colourful clothes worn by the Hollies on the cover of their 1967 album Evolution;^{[citation needed]}
• stage costumes and the front cover design for the self-titled 1968 debut LP
  Move by the Move;^{[citation needed}
  ]
• stage costumes for Procol Harum;^{[citation needed]}
• the cover of the
  Incredible String Band's 1967 LP The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion;^{[citation needed}
  ]
• cover art for
  Psych-folk LP Picknick (credited to Simon & Marijke);^{[citation needed}
  ]
• stage costumes and decoration to instruments used by Cream, including Eric Clapton's famed Gibson SG guitar (also named The Fool), Jack Bruce's Fender Bass VI bass,^[3] and Ginger Baker's drum kit, created for the group's 1967 tour of the US.^[4]
• several illustrations in the magazine Oz^{[citation needed]}

The Fool's best known artworks are those they created for the Beatles in 1966–67. They include:

• the clothes worn in the 1967 television broadcast of "All You Need Is Love";^{[citation needed]}
• the clothes worn in the "I Am the Walrus" segment of the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour television film;^{[citation needed]}
• the three-storey mural painted in psychedelic colours on the facade of the Beatles' Apple Boutique in London's Baker Street (which also stocked their creations; months later, the mural was painted over by civic order, due to protests from other local businesses, before the shop failed);^{[citation needed]}
• decoration to John Lennon's piano and one of his
  Gibson acoustic guitars;^[5]
• decoration to
  Fender Stratocaster known as "Rocky" which Harrison painted himself;^{[citation needed}
  ]
• the set design for Joe Massot's 1968 movie Wonderwall;^{[citation needed]}
• the graphics in the disc-inner sleeve of the 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP.^{[citation needed]}

After moving to Los Angeles, the Fool created the largest mural in the world at the time (1968) on the exterior of the Aquarius Theatre for a production of the Broadway musical Hair, by invitation of producer Michael Butler. Simon and Marijke went on to paint other theaters where Hair was playing, in San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago. Thereafter, The Fool split up, Simon, Barry and Josje eventually going back to Amsterdam while Marijke remained in Los Angeles to continue her artistic endeavors.^{[citation needed]}

Musical career

The Fool also released an eponymous album The Fool in 1968, in the psychedelic folk style, produced by Graham Nash. It was re-released in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

As Seemon & Marijke they released another album called Son of America on A & M records, also produced by Graham Nash, in collaboration with Booker T. Jones, in 1969.^[6] Backing vocals were provided by Joni Mitchell, Rita Coolidge, Morreen Thornton and Colleen Fortune. Their second single "I saw you" was a hit in the Netherlands in 1972.^[7]

Seemon & Marijke recorded a third album called Mediterranean Blues produced by Booker T. Jones in his Homegrown Studio in 1972. ^{[citation needed]}

• The Fool as The Fool (1968)
• Rainbow man (USA single), as The Fool (1969)
• Shining Light (USA single), as The Fool (1969)
• Son of America (album), as Seemon & Marijke (1971)
• I saw you (single), as Seemon & Marijke (1971)
• Keep on keepin' on (single), as Seemon & Marijke (1972)
• Vegetable Stew / Roselie (single), as Seemon & Marijke (1972)
• Dreamboat / I saw it in the street (single), as Seemon & Marijke (1974)

Personal life

Simon Posthuma's son, Douwe Bob, is a Dutch singer-songwriter who represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.^[8] Simon died on 28 February 2020, aged 81, having been suffering from Korsakoff syndrome for some years.^[9]

Notes