History Hapshash and the Coloured Coat

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat were a British graphics team consisting of Michael English and Nigel Waymouth in the 1960s, producing psychedelic posters.

They designed usually brightly coloured images with a strong art nouveau influence from Alfons Mucha of swirling lines and curving shapes. Posters were used to promote appearances by major bands of the time such as the Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band, as well as singers such as Julie Felix, mainly for the underground UFO Club.

English and Waymouth met in late 1966. Waymouth had just opened London's first psychedelic boutique, Granny Takes a Trip, in the Kings Road, Chelsea. They worked together initially and very briefly under the name Cosmic Colors (producing only one poster) and then Jacob and the Coloured Coat (producing two posters), before settling on Hapshash and the Coloured Coat. Their posters were printed and distributed by Osiris Visions, a division of the underground press publication International Times. The duo also provided illutrations and posters for several editions of London Oz.

They also released an album, titled Hapshash and the Coloured Coat Featuring the Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids in 1967, and a second one, Western Flier, in 1969. By this time English had left, and Waymouth strangely is mentioned in the liner notes as having decided to "record" the album, but not listed as one of the musicians.

The track "Blue Narcissus" appears on the United Artists Records 2004 sampler All Good Clean Fun CD re-package (Liberty 8660902), but was not on the original 1971 LP

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