His unique dark fantasy science fiction art has adorned countless club flyers, comix, and appeared in video games, T-shirts and all manner of subculture paraphernalia since the early 1980s. His mad, weird and breathtaking illustrations set a precidence in the club scene, but very little is known about this talented artist. Take a deep dive into the legend of Fad with this exclusive interview for Electrowerkz.
EARLY DAYS
Fad was born in Nottingham in 1964. Growing up he was an avid fan of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ legendary ‘Watchmen’ comic series, DC comic’s ‘Swamp Thing’ during years it was under the reigns of Moore, and the groundbreaking cult French fantasy magazine, ‘Métal Hurlant.’
“As a child I was drawing since as far back as I can remember, mostly horror imagery, dinosaurs and spaceships thanks largely to Star Wars being released when I was 12. I loved the old EC horror comics from the 1950s (such as Tales from the Crypt) and was allowed to stay up late to watch classic horror movies from a very tender age. I would spend all my spare time drawing comics about flying prawns and a thing I called Star Warp (which I would like to think was parody but really wasn’t) and had a title font suspiciously reminiscent of a certain Mr Lucas' own, lesser-known work.”
“As a child I was drawing since as far back as I can remember, mostly horror imagery, dinosaurs and spaceships thanks largely to Star Wars being released when I was 12. I loved the old EC horror comics from the 1950s (such as Tales from the Crypt) and was allowed to stay up late to watch classic horror movies from a very tender age. I would spend all my spare time drawing comics about flying prawns and a thing I called Star Warp (which I would like to think was parody but really wasn’t) and had a title font suspiciously reminiscent of a certain Mr Lucas' own, lesser-known work.”
Comics, films and horror pop-culture inspired Fad and his became immersed in an exciting dark fantasy universe. Spending endless days and nights drawing from his imagination and honing his craft.
“In my teens a friend had a collection of art books by the likes of Roger Dean, Rodney Mathews, Chris Achilleos and H.R. Giger, the latter of which instigated a brief foray into air brush. I then settled into pen and ink with colour washes as my preferred medium, taking influence from the likes of Bernie Wrightson, Phillipe Druillet, Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, Brian Bolland, Bill Sienkiewicz and their ilk.”
Work in progress © Fad 2021
EXPLORING THE ALTERNATIVE
Music goes hand in hand with art, and the likes of early Human League, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk were on heavy rotation on his playlists. Anything with a strong emphasis on the synth, alongside the more goth driven sounds being played in the legendary Nottingham Rock City night club.
Art was his great passion and he began studying graphic design at Trent University. This new found freedom away from home was libertating. The connection to like-minded souls, gigs and nightlife enabled him to further experiment with his art and persona, through alternative clothing, hair dye and make up.
Art was his great passion and he began studying graphic design at Trent University. This new found freedom away from home was libertating. The connection to like-minded souls, gigs and nightlife enabled him to further experiment with his art and persona, through alternative clothing, hair dye and make up.
Fad, aged 19/20
“In my first year at Uni I met a guy who recognised me from a number of Fad Gadget gigs and the unwieldy nickname 'The guy who likes Fad Gadget' soon became simply Fad. Thinking it a more memorable name than that I was christened with I adopted it at age 19 and have rarely been called anything else since.”
His stay at Trent was short lived as he decided to move to Wolverhampton University to continue his studies. He became friends with a “Pete Burns-looking” Mancunian engineer and together the two went full on with making their own clothing and jewellery from scraps.
“Together we spent 3 years prowling the Birmingham alternative club scene like some sort of androgynous 'lounge lizards' (but in a nice way). I spent my summers as part of the Lochness and Morar investigation team, looking for monsters (spoiler, there aren't any...but I had to check).”
Whilst Fad was working on his degree show featuring illustrations for a fictitious book about the gothic subculture, he went out one night to Rock City. There met a “Debbie Harry lookalike called Kim” from London who became his muse and upon graduating he decided moved to North London to live with her.
BIRTH OF A SCENE
New in town, Fad decided the best way to get seen was to get a stall in Camden market and started selling his artwork. The manager of the Electric Ballroom bought a bunch of slides of his illustrations and started projecting them around the club. His gritty futuristic style immediately caught on and Fad started doing art work for various London clubs, quickly cornering the alternative club scene design market.
“In the late 80s there were plenty of alternative London venues to go to, Sunday night's being the one evening when nothing was on. Slimelight was primary amongst them though, the place where pretty much everyone would end up in the early hours of a Sunday morning. Back then it was a confusingly eclectic mix of punks, Goths, skinheads, Rastas, cross dressers...and Japanese girls wearing wedding dresses for some reason.
Fad and Mak
With the likes of Cyberdog still far in the future people were obliged to create their own outfits, which they did with abandon, or else wore virtually nothing at all. Back then the place was regularly akin to some satanic Mardi Gras as members sought to out-weird their peers. Trouble was thankfully rare though, despite the absence of any real security.”
Around then Fad was living on the floor of a club promoter when Mak and Dette first approached him about doing their artwork. “I had been a customer at Slimelight shortly before the venue moved to its current location, but didn’t know either Mak or Dette personally. One befuddled pub crawl along Upper Street with Dette later and we immediately became fast friends.”
“As the saying goes, if you can remember early Slimelight, you probably weren't there, but I do recall the tyre swing that hung just inside the club door, allowing those swinging on it to kick new arrivals in the face as they entered, the fact that there were literally no toilets, and the security was simply the regular customers and DJs. Oh, and that you could buy a fantastic chicken sandwich in the coffee bar.”
“Dette was a major motivator at that time, a patron if you will. It was the then head of Slimelight security who encouraged me to transition into pixel art and bought me my first serious home computer, the result of which was 12 years spent doing game graphics for various companies.”
CHANGING TIMES
In the 90s Fad moved to Dublin for a to work for a video game company called Funcom. However, over the next decade he grew disillusioned with the increasingly corporate nature of the games industry, and he turned his attention to writing. He picked up a relatively obscure novel by the name ‘Game of Thrones’ and started working on dark medieval novels of his own, with a view to illustrating them. He has written a series of 9 novels, so far currently unpublished.
Rust in Peace design tribute for Mak (Sold Out)
“Virtually all of my friends over the last 30 years have worked at the Electrowerkz in some capacity, several of whom I am still in contact with. Sadly, many eventually fell victim to the grungy hedonism and are no longer with us.”
Mak's untimely death earlier this year caused shockwaves across the community. “It brought me out of 'illustrative mothballs' – and I was asked to design a commemorative T-Shirt in his honour. That exercise rekindled my interest in illustration.”
RETURN TO ART
Fad, 2021
Fad was working on a series of zombie astrological signs when Allen (of Torture Garden) came calling about designing some art for the re-opening of Electrowerkz.
“As a devout anti-theist, Satanic religious imagery is a recurring theme in everything I create, tongue firmly in cheek (it really is a load of toxic nonsense). With my recent illustrations I'm endeavouring to invoke a timeless woodcut style while poking fun, at any and all antiquated belief systems be they Christianity, Wicca or whatever. They are all iterations of the same irrational desire to explain the, as yet, unexplainable…and the rest, as they say, is wallpaper.”
Fad’s new artworks are now immortalised adoring the walls of the Cake Room and on the menus of the new Bar & Restaurant at Electrowerkz.
“As to what the future holds for the future of Fad, watch this space.”
Fad’s new artworks are now immortalised adoring the walls of the Cake Room and on the menus of the new Bar & Restaurant at Electrowerkz.
“As to what the future holds for the future of Fad, watch this space.”
Interview by James Elphick, curator of Modern Panic art show.
