Rico Bell (born Eric John Bellis[1]) is a UK and California based artist and musician best known for his work as a member of the British punk rock band the Mekons which he joined in 1983.

In addition, he performed with the rest of the band in Vito Acconci’s Theater Project for a Rock Band as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival in 1995 and collaborated with Kathy Acker on her lesbian pirate operetta Pussy, King of the Pirates at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, in 1997, a production for which he also created and constructed the stage design and in which the characters were performed by the Mekons.

His themes are often rooted in nature, work and community and have featured the rural milieus of his native England, while much of his recent work features imagery from his adopted home of California and the American West and portray subjects such as farm workers, cattle herders and farm animals.

Another regular performer there was a young musician from nearby Birkenhead named Declan MacManus who later found fame as Elvis Costello.

Like Costello and many other British musicians at the time, Bell’s music changed as the 1970s progressed and the punk revolution exploded.