the 7 posters designed by the fool for apple

This is a translation of the article mentioned before. Sorry if the grammar is not correct everywhere.

"Sgt Pepper became an icon of its time later"
Thursday May 31 2007

The innovative masterpiece Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released forty years ago. The cover became an icon. But the first design -beautiful, said Paul McCartney- was made by Simon Posthuma and Marijke Koger.

Simon is working on his autobiography for several years now. "When I look at the whole scope, I have to conclude that I have lived in dynamic times. And whenever such a period was over, there was always a continuation. That was also because I could leave things behind.

Big crazy times. He lived in Los Angeles for fifteen years and had a life with 'nice girls and parties'. He owned a house in Beverly Hills and sometimes spoke to his neighbour Igor, who was dressed warmly on hot days. An East-European type of man, who told Simon he was also into the music business. Much later Simon found out it was Strawinsky.
He met Andy Warhol in New York and had a wild night with Jimi Hendrix, whom he had met before in Londen. "He said: 'Come with me to my place, we can have some sleep.' We arrived at a small room in the Bronx. There was no bed. Jimi laid down under the table with his girlfriend, so I could sleep on the couch with his cousin."
Ibiza, 1961. A Beatnik sanctuary. Simon met writer-artist Jan Cremer, who moved in with him for several weeks. "Jan had nothing. I had some money and bought him shoes." And then London in the sixties, where he lived in the neighbourhood of the Beatles. Posthuma always seemed to be at the right time at the right place.

Simon Posthuma was born in the city of Zaandam (just north of Amsterdam) in 1939. He wanted to be a painter ever since he had helped his cousin with a painting in a church. "An angel and snorting horses. I was allowed to put light stripes onto the horseshoes. One stripes put life in it. Pure magic." He worked in a parfum factory since he was fifteen en put corks on bottles till his fingers bled. The manager however saw that 'he was different' and send him to painting lessons. At home, his mother and father were both Christians, but in quite different churches. By joining the army, he tried to escape it all. There he had to type lists. He played he fell from his chair and simulated a wounded leg. Three months later he was condemned. He moved into a house near the Zeedijk in Amsterdam and joined the artists scene naar the Leidseplein in Amsterdam. On a rainy day in 1964 he met Marijke Koger, a talented illustrator. Together they went to Greece, Marocco, Spain and Ibiza and finally to Swinging London in 1966. Koger attacted attention with her posters of Bob Dylan and her work for the theatre of Brian Epstein.
"On a certain day the doorbell rang and there were Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They had heard of us." They got impressed by a work called 'Wonderwall', a colourfull composition of a bosom under arcades. "I want to live in it", said John Lennon.

Simon and Marijke were invited to visit the recording of Sgt Pepper at Abbey Road and they were there when the orchestra for A Day In The Life was recorded. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull and Patti Harrison were also there. Posthuma wore a green suit and can be seen in a split second on the film that was made that night. When the Beatles played All You Need Is Love worldwide, they did so in clothes and a decoration designed by Simon and Marijke.
For Magical Mystery Tour, Marijke and her friend Josje Leeger took care of the clothing. Simon and Marijke painted a wall in George Harrison's house and also painted John's piano, on which he composed I Am The Walrus. "The Beatles were extremely productive. You could hardly keep up.

According to the McCartney biography Many Years From Now, Posthuma used to be a tall man, well build, with dark curly hair and a Van Dyke-nose. He word silk shirts with long sleeves, golden chains, red boots up to his knee and printed Turkish trousers, covered by a long red overcoat. He was quoted by the Sunday Times about the spiritual revival that was going on: "People will have to develop their inner eye. They want to know about the supreme power: love!" 'We were always busy with a better world", says Posthuma now. "But, of course, we also just wanted to have a good time."

Together with Leeger and her latter partner Barry Finch, Simon and Marijke set up the artist company The Fool. "It is not correct that we named ourselves after The Fool On the Hill. It was the other way 'round. McCartney got inspired by us." McCartney's biography: 'Marijke read my fate in the tarot cards. I didn't fancy that because I was afraid to get the card called Death. Many times she got the card called The Fool. And I said: 'Oh dear!' But she answered: "No, it is a great card! Because he is the innocent one, the child. And I began to like the word, because I got to see the meaning behind it. And I wrote The Fool On The Hill with that experience with the tarot cards." Simon's comment: "They had something, Paul and Marijke."

Posthuma says he didn't join in on crazy things, but he used lsd to get into an ecstacy, just like the Indian magicians. Whenever he joined George and Patti they used some. 'Those were nice trips'. On their way to a party at Brian Epstein's, John played Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale in the car. "We were all on lsd, including the driver, who drove well but was crying at the same time. We got lost and suddenly a group of Japanese clammed the car. Like we were in a fish bowl."

Simon and Marijke were asked to design the cover for Sgt Pepper. The result was a dream landscape with mountain, birds, pigeons, stars and comets. Underneath the leaves you could see The Beatles. McCartney thought it was fabulous. But advisor Robert Fraser thought it was not timeless enough. Fraser used to have a gallery in Soho. McCartney told him that 'it was not his record and that The Beatles wanted to use it." But in the end Peter Blake was asked to make the now famous cover. Only the now rare inner sleeve of the original design of The Fool was used in the first print.

Posthuma: "We were called to come to the office. Ringo and John were there, but Paul wasn't. We were told that the design should not be used. In the elevator Ringo cursed and said 'Who does Robert Fraser think he is!' You know, it was no big deal to us. It was just the cover of an album and there would a next one. At that time we didn't know it would become an icon of its time."

The Beatles launched a boutique, the Apple Show. Wild clothings, painted furniture, everything was for sale, even the pay desk. Simon and Marijke painted the building in Baker Street in a colourful way. "The first psychedelic piece of art that showed a feeling that a lot of people had. There was nothing like that in a postwar, grey culture." Because there was no permit, the painting had to be removed. The shop itself was a financial disaster. In a lot of books The Fool gets to blame. "But 99 percent is nonsense. The Beatles were very happy with our works. They were no businessmen. It was badly managed, but they got a kick out of it." The project costed the Beatles about 100,000 pounds. "The labels in the clothings were woven of four colours silk. That made it rather expensive, but John thought it was okay. When the shop closed down, they gave away everything for free." The Fool left London after Mercury offered them 100,000 dollar to record an album in New York. "I told them we didn't play any instruments and could not sing, but that didn't matter."

They split up in 1978. "Marijke is still living in California and paints a lot". But Simon got homesick when he saw a painting of the Dutch master Van Ruysdael at the Los Angeles County Museum. "I ran to the toilet to cry." Two months later, he was back in Amsterdam.

He never had the feeling that something special was happening. "Not even during Sgt Pepper. It became valuable afterwards." And besides, he regards everything as an adventure. "I remember sitting on the bike with my father in 1944. He made candles. We brought light to the farmers and got butter or flower. I remember long rides, along the Dutch polders. That made more impression than swinging London."