Finger lickin' good at Bar Vinyl

There's a goldfish inside the stereo speakers at Bar Vinyl in Camden. A real live one. It stares blissfully out as punters drop by to shuffle through the racks of the Vinyl Addiction record shop downstairs, call in at the offices of Finger Lickin' records upstairs, or simply drop by for a drink and a burger.

Bar Vinyl offers low-key cool rather than designer chic. But behind its Tardis-like front, this unassuming North London drinking hole offers a one-stop shop for pop-culture junkies. Ben Watt from Everything But The Girl has DJed here. MTV uses it as an interview backdrop. 'We were the first DJ bar in London,' say co-owners Abel Reynolds and Justin Rushmore.

As if that wasn't enough, Bar Vinyl is now an art gallery, too. Currently lining the walls are the exuberant sleeve designs of Finger Lickin' recording artist, designer, DJ and label boss Jem Panufnik.

Part of a touring exhibition that will adorn bars and clubs from Brighton to Edinburgh, Panufnik's designs combine hip-hop graphics with homages to Sixties West Coast poster design. Prices start at £130. Sadly, there is no price tag on the goldfish, which, apparently, is simply a goldfish rather than an 'installation'.

Bar Vinyl is one of a growing number of London venues where art and music are as integral as booze and conversation. Blue in Hoxton Square and Two Floors in the West End's Kingly Street have mounted similar exhibitions, but Bar Vinyl is more than just a showroom for the label upstairs. When Panufnik's exhibition ends in late November, Pete Hayward - best known for designing the Comfort Zone ambient compilations - will show his work, after which club photographer Daniel Newman will take over the space.

Early next year, Fred Deakin also plans to deck out Bar Vinyl in the sublime loops and swirls of the home-made sleeves for his band, Lemon Jelly. A co-director of acclaimed design company Airside, Deakin is another multimedia mini-mogul who straddles the lines between musician, visual artist and club DJ.

Deakin's work with Airside recently featured in the Jam exhibition at the Barbican, one of the first times that 'club' art - flyers, fanzines, posters ? has invaded a highbrow gallery. 'We're moving into traditional art spaces, as well as new places like Bar Vinyl,' says Deakin. 'Popular music has slowly come to be accepted as proper art, and sleeve design is a big part of that.'

But although Airside designed the website for Brit Art epicentre the White Cube gallery, Deakin is wary of linking his work with London's art-with-a-capital-A scene. 'The fine-art world is a good thing,' he says, 'but it is very removed. It doesn't appeal to people like me. I do like going to art exhibitions, but I get much more excited walking into a record shop, a bar or a club.'

Panufnik, a fellow graphic-design graduate, agrees: 'I was never interested in doing a fine-art degree because I found it too vague. I'm more interested in packaging, posters and record sleeves than exhibitions.'

Club music has had a profound effect on street art, and the 'sampling' techniques used in making it can be applied to visuals. 'It's very similar,' says Deakin. 'It's the same set of cut-and-paste skills. People are realising they can do it all themselves, the music and the sleeves.'