Bruce Lacey (31 March 1927 – 18 February 2016) was a British artist, performer and eccentric. After completing his national service in the Navy he became established on the avant garde scene with his performance art and mechanical constructs. He has been closely associated with
The Alberts
The Alberts were a British music/comedy troupe of the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, featuring brothers Anthony "Tony" and Douglas "Dougie" Gray, along with Bruce Lacey. They were notable for their surreal performances.
Career
Educated at the Orator ...
performance group and ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September ...
''. He made the props and had an acting part in
Richard Lester
Richard Lester Liebman (born January 19, 1932) is an American retired film director, who spent the majority of his professional life in the United Kingdom. He is known for the fast-paced, flamboyant directing he brought to his comedy films, mo ...
's ''
The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film
''The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film'' is a 1959 British experimental sketch comedy short film directed by Richard Lester and Peter Sellers, in collaboration with Bruce Lacey.
It was filmed over two Sundays in 1959, at a cost of around ...
''.
Career
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...
made a fifteen-minute film about him called ''The Preservation Man'' (1962), which linked Lacey to
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to:
People
* Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director
* Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin
Films
* ''Unknown Chaplin'' (1983)
* Chaplin (film), ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992)
* Chaplin (2011 fi ...
(in a
Keystone Cops
The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
History
Hank Mann creat ...
-style sequence) and featured some of Lacey's nightclub act (knife-throwing/robots) and a lip-synched performance of "Sleepy Valley", which Lacey had recorded with The Alberts. Along with The Alberts, he starred in two short comedy films (''Uncles Tea Party'' and ''Defective Detectives''), directed by pinup photographer
George Harrison Marks
George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films.
Personal life
Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926 to a Jewish family, Marks was 17 when he mar ...
.
In ''
The Knack...and How to Get It'', he played the Surveyor's assistant. In the 1967 comedy film ''
Smashing Time
''Smashing Time'' is a 1967 British satirical comedy film directed by Desmond Davis starring Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave. It is a satire on the 1960s media-influenced phenomenon of Swinging London. It was written by George Melly.
Plot
B ...
'', a mad scientist. But his most famous appearance on film remains
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
's flute-playing gardener, in
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
' 1965 feature film, ''
Help!
''Help!'' is the fifth studio album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their Help! (film), film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965 by Parlophone. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the sin ...
''. He made and animated many of the props for
Michael Bentine
Michael Bentine (born Michael James Bentin; 26 January 1922General Register Office for England and Wales – Birth Register for the March Quarter of 1922, Watford Registration District, Reference 3a 1478, listed as "Michael J. Bentin", mother's ...
's ''
It's a Square World''. Lacey also made a notable appearance in the comedian
Dave Allen's BBC documentary film ''Dave Allen In Search Of The Great English Eccentric'' (1974)''.''
Lacey contributed to
Jasia Reichardt
Jasia Reichardt (born Janina Chaykin; 13 November 1933) is a British art critic, curator, art gallery director, teacher and prolific writer, specialist in the emergence of computer art. In 1968 she was curator of the landmark ''Cybernetic Serendi ...
's
Cybernetic Serendipity
Cybernetic Serendipity was an exhibition of cybernetic art curated by Jasia Reichardt, shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England, from 2 August to 20 October 1968, and then toured across the United States. Two stops in the Unit ...
exhibition in 1968 at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...
, exhibiting a robotic owl and actors: ''Rosa Bosom'' and ''Mate'' plus a sex-simulator. In the same year he also worked on developing Humanoid Structures with
Joan Littlewood
Joan Maud Littlewood (6 October 1914 – 20 September 2002) was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of M ...
for her Fun Palaces scheme called 'Bubble City' at the City of London Festival. He also exhibited his The British Landing on the Moon in
Simon Chapman's 1969 Cybervironment Plus, an experimental arts festival at
Aston University, Birmingham. Photographs of some of his mechanical devices can be found in Reichardt's book, ''Robots'' (Thames and Hudson, 1978).
He studied at
Hornsey College of Art
Hornsey College of Art, also known as HCA, founded in 1880 as the Hornsey School of Arts, was an art school in Crouch End, part of Hornsey, Middlesex, England. From 1965 it was in the London Borough of Haringey.
From 1955 to 1973, when it was me ...
from 1948 and then at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
in the early 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was a visiting professor at Art Colleges from St Ives to Leeds. His mechanical statue "The Womaniser" (1966) is one of two pieces of his bought by the Tate.
Lacey's robots appeared on the
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English British folk rock, folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson (musician), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Marti ...
L.P. ''
What We Did On Our Holidays
''What We Did on Our Holidays'' (released as ''Fairport Convention'' in the United States) is the second studio album by the English folk rock band Fairport Convention, released in December 1968. It was their first album to feature singer-songwr ...
'' in the song "Mr Lacey", written by
Ashley Hutchings
Ashley Stephen Hutchings (born 26 January 1945), MBE, sometimes known in early years as "Tyger" Hutchings, is an English bassist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founding member of three noteworthy Engli ...
. The song is about Lacey, and the noise of his robots (which he brought into the studio) contribute the "instrumental break". He toured England in the 1970s with his children's sci-fi theatre show and became involved in "Earth Magic" with his then wife, actress Jill Bruce, mounting a number of performance pieces and exhibitions.
They moved to
Wymondham
Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. It lies on the River Tiffey, south-west of Norwich and just off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The pari ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
and became part of a fair making network,
Albion Fairs
Albion Fairs was the general name for the second wave of East Anglian Fairs, running from 1978 until 1982. There were further fairs in the same tradition most years until the end of the 1980s.
The East Anglian Fairs began with the Barsham, Suffol ...
. Specifically, he was responsible for running the "Faerie Fair" at
Lyng, Norfolk
Lyng is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the River Wensum, some north-east of the town of East Dereham and north-west of the city of Norwich.
The civil parish has an area of and in the 2021 cens ...
in 1981-82. There was a major retrospective of his life and art at the
Glasgow Museum of Modern Art in 1996. A major survey of his work ran at the
Camden Arts Centre
Camden Art Centre (known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England. It hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects, with a prog ...
from 7 July to 16 September 2012.
He died on 18 February 2016 at the age of 88.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacey, Bruce
1927 births
Artists from London
Counterculture festivals activists
2016 deaths
People from Wymondham