I’m a fiend for line ads in print media; more often than not all human life is there and intriguing stories are contained in just a few words. Leafing through the June 24, 1971 issue of British underground magazine Frendz … Continue reading
The Cocoa Song is from the cult British Film Institute-funded multicultural musical Moon Over The Alley, directed by Joseph Despins and William Dumaresq. Released in 1976 with a score by Galt McDermot, a fellow Canadian who is probably best known … Continue reading
//Signed bar menu. Courtesy: Jonathan Ross// //Signed back cover of So Alone, Johnny Thunders, Real Records,1978. Courtesy: Jonathan Ross// As demonstrated by my recent post, the west London house of collector/gallerist Jonathan Ross became a hive for the art/boho/punk crowd … Continue reading
//All photos (c) Jonathan Ross// Here are more previously unpublished images from London’s punk demi-monde. Coincident to receiving Joe Stevens’ photograph of the pre-Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and photographer Kate Simon in Malcolm McLaren’s Sex Pistols Nude Boy shirts, collector/gallerist/Londoner Jonathan … Continue reading
Dave Robinson, one of the British music business’s towering figures, has sent me this lovely pop-reggae tune from Madness man Lee Thompson’s project. It’s great for this sunny Bank Holiday; Bitty McLean is on top vocal form. Fair takes me … Continue reading
//Photographer Kate Simon and performer Chrissie Hynde (lifting the front of her mohair jumper from Sex), London, 1976. (c) Joe Stevens// This photograph – taken by Joe Stevens in early 1976 in Fulham, west London – is featured in the … Continue reading
//1968 print of Vor dem Vorhang// //Hipgnosis fashion shoot for Club International, 1972// An antiques restorer friend has pointed out that the early 70s fashion shoot by design studio Hipgnosis featured here recently calls to mind the preoccupations with the … Continue reading
Dazed Digital is featuring a précis of my investigation into the roots of the Anarchy Shirt as sold in Sex and Seditionaries at 430 King’s Road in 1976 and 1977. See here. Here is my series on the conceptualisation and realisation … Continue reading
//Simon Haynes' window display, early 80s: Geometrically arranged brightly coloured platforms and ladders// //Another Haynes' window display produced in the mid-80s in collaboration with Tommy Roberts: Giant “toy” portcullis// //Haynes' neo-classical backdrop for another mid-80s display// These photographs from the … Continue reading
I’m making a presentation on Bowie’s visual style and in particular his relationship with clothing designers as part of the V&A’s Sound & Vision event today. Among those I’m referencing will be the theatrical costume designer Peter J. Hall, who … Continue reading
//My father holding me, north London, 1960// Incredible to contemplate that today would have been my Dad’s 110th birthday. //Me, my old man with Charlie on holiday in Norfolk,1966// He was a good bloke, very dapper and understated, one of … Continue reading
//Photo: Tom Sheehan Collection// As an addendum to my recent post about the staging of the very special late night London concert given by Ian Dury’s art-rock ensemble Kilburn & The High Roads in 1974, here’s the badge commissioned by … Continue reading
“It isn’t so much what’s on the table that matters, as what’s on the chairs” Jonathan Swift from letter to Stella 1711 //Simon Haynes in his ICA sitting room, 1970. Source publication: Unknown// Ten Sitting Rooms was the title of … Continue reading
Fashion shoots were little known aspect of the practice of design studio Hipgnosis, whose co-founder Storm Thorgerson died on Thursday. In line with the approach Thorgerson and his partner Aubrey Powell took with their raft of album sleeve commissions, the … Continue reading
Read the story behind this obscure record sleeve design – for a single which failed to dent the Top 75 on release 30 years ago – over on the Barney Bubbles Blog. Taken from this post:The story behind a long-lost … Continue reading
//Front, 7″ and 12″ sleeve, Keep Us Together, Sad Café, Charisma, 1983// From the Barney Bubbles grab-bag comes this little-known sleeve for Charisma Records, commissioned by label chief Peter Jenner for Manchester soft-rock group Sad Café. Produced a matter of months … Continue reading
//Keith Lucas and Ian Dury onstage at the Kings Road Theatre, November 1974. Photo: Simon Haynes Collection// As these rarely seen photographs show, when the subject of my last book the late Tommy Roberts took over management of Kilburn & … Continue reading
Tonight I am hosting an event at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum: an ‘in conversation’ with Boy George about the importance and influence of popular culture’s greatest manipulator of visual identity, David Bowie. //George O'Dowd overlooked by Big Brother in … Continue reading
//Mirabelle, May 2, 1970// From the archive of the late Tommy Roberts, this image from British teen fashion magazine Mirabelle shows a particularly outré commission from fashion’s master of flamboyant retailing: a 7ft high rendition of a King Kong-style gorilla … Continue reading
Next month sees the opening of an exhibition of 53 collages tracking the fortunes of West Ham United FC over a season; they are all the product of expat football fan and music industry maverick Kosmo Vinyl. The show’s title, … Continue reading
//Nick Kent, London 1974. Photo: Joe Stevens// Overseen by Nick Logan (with Jann Wenner across the Atlantic, the key figure in the development of the music press) the NME was happily in thrall to The New Journalism, striking alliances with … Continue reading
//Swingtag, printed card, 4″ x 2″, 1972// Artist/designer Simon Haynes has allowed me access to some of the treasures in his archive. Over the next few weeks I’ll be dipping into it and presenting a selection of artworks, display items, stage … Continue reading
A couple of months back I was commissioned to review Andrew Loog Oldham’s latest book Stone Free for a website, but my copy was rejected on the basis of my use of ”criticism”; they prefer to keep things – in … Continue reading
This film by Rik and Jane Gadsby of the May 2006 London launch of the second edition of my book The Look has just been posted online; it really evokes the good time that everyone had that night. Pippa Brooks … Continue reading
//Robert Watts in front of Products by Implosions Inc. Photographer: unknown// Malcolm McLaren’s adaptation of the infamous Tits t-shirt is one of punk’s most familiar designs, as applied by he and Vivienne Westwood to shirts sold in SEX and Seditionaries, … Continue reading
