Another icon turns 60

From The Guardian:

When Ringo Starr popped into a shop in Birkenhead in 1963, little did he know that his visit would help change the future of what was to become a celebrated British brand.

The Beatles’ drummer had stopped off to buy a lava lamp, the brightly coloured interior piece that has hypnotised millions over the years with its slow-moving exchange of liquid and warmed wax inside a glass cylinder. After the Birkenhead shop announced its celebrity visit, sales of the lamp rocketed.

Then came lava lamp appearances on episodes of Doctor Who in the Patrick Troughton era and in the 1965 film Dr Who and the Daleks starring Peter Cushing. It also featured in the 1960s/70s TV hit The Prisoner, and soon its role as a cultural mainstay was established.

Now the brand is turning 60, and, against all the challenges of a changing audience, economic downturns, the rise of online shopping and Brexit, sales are still going strong.

To celebrate, Mathmos, the company behind the lamp, is launching a series of new designs throughout this month in collaboration with artists and designers and well-known names including the pop group Duran Duran and the celebrity photographer Rankin...

...“The lava lamp is such a simple idea but that is quite magical,”says Rankin. “And when you’re a photographer, the idea of light being magical is such an exciting thing. Just to be a small part of something that is ingrained in the fabric of British society and culture feels quite special.”

By way of a celebration - a song dedicated to those psychedelic bubbles...

Jonah Tolchin - Lava Lamp

When I watch my lava lamp
I don’t want to feel a fucking thing
No!

Indeed.

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Footnote:
Remarkably, lava lamps play an important part in the encryption of the internet!