Thanks are due to the indefatigable Brian McCloskey for turning up this little-known interview given by Barney Bubbles to journalist Johnny Black for an early 80s Smash Hits feature on the fledgling promo video industry. The quotes from Bubbles appeared exactly 30 years ago in the issue of the teen mag dated Jan 21- Feb 3, 1982 Continue reading
You don’t know how happy I am to be able to tell you that, after months and months of chipping away, the new redesigned revitalized Electrofunkroots website is now live and kicking, having undergone a complete overhaul, with loads of new content added. Continue reading
Despite my deeply felt reservations about Twitter – some of you may recall a rant I published here some months ago about Twitter – I am now twittering. Feel free to snigger. You can see what I’m doing by going … Continue reading
There are two (so far) linguistic idiosyncracies of social media that I don’t like. 1. I don’t like the ‘like’ button. I was reading something on Facebook about the death of a Canadian musician in grim circumstance and the grief … Continue reading
Sad to hear about the untimely passing of DJ Streets Ahead (Shem McCauley) one of the UK’s pioneering scratch & cut exponents, who’d re-invent himself in the mid-90’s as the successful dance music producer, Slacker. Continue reading
By Steven Rosen (This ran in Cincinnati CityBeat, 1-18-12) The AOL Music website describes Jimmy Webb as “that rarity in Rock music, a professional songwriter who achieved stardom in that capacity,” pointing out that almost all of Rock’s other great songwriters became well-known for their own versions of their material. The truth of that has long seemed self-evident Continue reading
A peacock couple (peafowl, technically) moved in behind my horse’s pipestall where he boards, and are seen here within same and giving me the evil eye, even though I give them extra horse feed and water them. Like Gaston in “Beauty and The Beast” who decorated with antlers in every room, I utilize peacock feathers in our abode, despite the supposed bad luck to theatre folks, because one doesn’t have to off any birds to obtain same. Continue reading
His name was Christopher, he had a winning smile, and he sang for a band called AZUR. That’s all she wrote (meaning my notes on the session…) Continue reading
We knew there was going to be a bit of a turn-out because the RSVPs ran way past the 100 mark on the day the invites were dispatched, but I don’t think any of us involved in Lloyd Johnson: The Modern Outfitter quite expected such a huge gathering for last night’s private view. With everyone on top form and splendidly attired, the party to launch the show was a testament to the widely-held respect and affection for Lloyd and his work Continue reading
Chanced on this great recent interview with Thom Bell, Philly soul genius behind the great Delfonics, the Stylistics and other hits… didn’t he blow my mind this time!
//Lloyd's lists.// Popular music and the surrounding culture has been the primary inspiration for Lloyd Johnson’s work, so it’s important that The Modern Outfitter – which opens today at London gallery Chelsea Space – reflects the guiding relationship between sounds and vision with an especially selected soundtrack. Continue reading
We The Animals by Justin Torres Granta £12.99 Reviewed by Leyla Sanai Justin Torres’s autobiographical debut consists of a series of scenes from his childhood. Growing up the youngest of three wild brothers,Torres was aware that his family was different … Continue reading
This Isn’t The Sort Of ThingThat Happens To Someone Like You by Jon McGregor Bloomsbury £14.99 Reviewed by Leyla Sanai Jon McGregor’s writing combines dreamy, ethereal poetry with a northern sensibility that isn’t afraid to confront devastating truths. His magical … Continue reading
NAMM_2012-Noe&Seymour_73•• , a photo by Doctor Noe on Flickr. Copyright © 2012 Noë Gold This is Seymour Duncan , a legend in his own right. After covering just about all the square footage at the NAMM show and imbibing of as many free hors d’oeuvres and shots as I could bear, I bumped into Seymour, the legendary maker of pickups and other sound-refracting devices for the likes of Jeff Beck, Yngwie Malmsteen and my beloved compadre Roy Buchanan .. Continue reading
Above, inventive, influential and now venerable British folk-rockers Fairport Convention, known for spawning guitar great Richard Thompson and the late, seminal singer Sandy Denny, underwent numerous personnel changes throughout their still continuing career. (Inception of same: a tragic band van crash claiming the lives of their original drummer and Thompson’s American girlfriend, a rock and roll stylist [see LINK ] in 1969.) The rarity of my photo draws from where at UCLA the band performed in May of 1973. Continue reading
Album sleeves, photography, magazines and a variety of press cuttings and ephemera underline the widespread recognition for Lloyd Johnson’s designs over the decades. Lloyd paid particular attention to them in the assemblage of the contents of the table-top vitrines and a wall collage on the fifth day of the exhibition installation just before the weekend Continue reading
Click to read the latest column from Jeffrey Morgan: JEFFREY MORGAN’S MEDIA BLACKOUT #299
By Larry Jaffee Since Run-DMC’s cover of/recording with Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” topped the charts in 1986, there has been a kinship between rap/hip hop and rock. (Personally, I preferred session player Eddie Martinez’s howling metal guitars on the rap … Continue reading
Los Angeles born Blues / Rhythm & Blues / Soul singer, Etta James, regarded as one of the great American vocalists, died yesterday, aged 73. Continue reading
Included in the Lloyd Johnson show are photographs of performers wearing Johnson’s apparel – above is a 1979 shot of Iggy Pop in one of the label’s jackets paired with a Johnson’s Bluebeat hat (if memory serves, Glen Matlock, who was working with Pop at the time on his album New Values, told me that Iggy half-inched it from him). Continue reading
Every Sixties recording artist seemed to have ‘em: There were the Beach Boys’ Hite Morgan tapes, the Stones’ IBC demos, the Byrds’ notorious Jet Set sessions, and even the Velvet Underground’s attempts at becoming East Coast studio stringers for Gary Lewis and the Playboys (…just kidding about that last one) (I think ). As a brand new collection called The Beatles with Tony Sheridan: First Recordings, 50th Anniversary Edition more than proves, even the almighty Fab Four were not immune to this pre-fame plague of skeletons-in-the-audio-closet. For you see, when not binging on Chuck Berry, Preludins and Schnaps in Hamburg’s red-light district throughout their, um, formative years, our heroes also served as in-studio back-up band to one of Britain’s then very biggest rock stars. Caveat emptor, however: The “studio” was in fact an orchestra hall situated within Harburg’s Friedrich Ebert School for Boys and Girls, and John, George, Pete and Paul on his brand new Hofner violin “guitar bass,” although they got to perform two songs themselves, were hired only to provide instrumental and vocal accompaniment behind Polydor Records’ first real rock ‘n’ roll signing, Tony Sheridan. Continue reading
//Boshier (right) with Hockney at the Royal College of Art, early 60s.// Here are some iPhone images from last night’s talk by Derek Boshier at Chelsea College Of Art & Design. Shifting between slides on a carousel, views of his most recent work on computer and screenings of his early 70s film works Change and Reel (both originally shot on 16mm), Derek covered the waterfront in his talk and then in conversation with me, from art education in England in the Fifties to The Clash, David Bowie and Barney Bubbles to dealing with hawkish American foreign policy in the Tweens Continue reading
Now the exhibition is getting to the nitty-gritty; yesterday Lloyd paid particular attention to the area dedicated to his businesses Cockell & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson, which produced peacock dandy and pop art fashion between 1968 and 1974 in Kensington Market. Above are the print shirts which will be displayed, below some of the detail – on the left a stockinged leg print designed by Jane Wentworth (then Wealleans), who has contributed to my Tommy Roberts book. Lloyd and his partner Jill also completed the tabel-top vitrines which display printed material including sketches, artwork, photographs and press coverage Continue reading
In the pre-digital Pleistocene, I made the above test strip in my darkroom, a maneuver we photographers did to guarantee a complex exposure would turn out as we’d planned. I imposed Dave Gahan onto the Anton Corbijn-designed special effects screens to simulate the stunning stagecraft of the performer fading in and out of his own image as seen during the Depeche Mode performance somewhere in America circa 1993. The resultant photo (with more of the singer and screens and better composition but otherwise the same) appeared in the magazine which had assigned me this gig to shoot. Continue reading
//Lloyd takes a break to chat to (from left): Chelsea Space director Donald Smith, Eve Ferrett + Mark Summerfield.// Among friends dropping in at Chelsea Space to check out the Lloyd Johnson show installation yesterday were performer Eve Ferrett and her other half Mark Summerfield. They told us they were knocked out by the way it is shaping up; a lot of progress has been made with the upper part of the space and the ramp is beginning to take shape, as is the area which reflects Lloyd’s retail manifestations Cockell & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson (1968-1974) Continue reading
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