//Front cover, The Harder They Come soundtrack, Mango Records, 1973. Design: CCS//
Perry Henzell’s 1972 film The Harder They Come and its accompanying soundtrack cast quite a shadow across popular culture.
Iggy Pop’s Wild Thing jacket: Not from Paradise Garage
Jul 22nd, 2013
//From The Look blog 2009//
A few years back I wrote a series of blogs about the so-called “Wild Thing” jacket worn by Iggy Pop on the cover of his and The Stooges’ album Raw Power; in 2008 I had brokered a deal for the jacket designers John and Molly Dove to reissue a t-shirt range – including a version bearing the Wild Thing’s panther head – via Topman.
Around that time I also hooked them up with the current owner of the jacket, US maverick pop culture entrepreneur and collector “Long Gone” John Mermis (who I’d met as far back as the mid-90s at his extraordinary Long Beach mansion).
Iggy Pop strolls around the Losaida, 1993
Jun 27th, 2013
Directed by Bram Van Splunteren, via openculture.com
The Man Whose Mind Exploded: Toby Amies’ envoi to his extraordinary friend Drako Oho Zarhazar
Jun 4th, 2013
I can’t wait to see documentarist Toby Amies’ envoi to his extraordinary friend Drako Oho Zarhazar.
Over the last year or so when we have bumped into each other socially, Amies has shown me snippets on his phone. Each tasty morsel has increased my hunger for this portrait of the late Brighton dweller Amies describes as “muse for Dali, actor for Jarman, dancer at Les Folies Bergère, outsider interior decorator, hero and legend”.
“Bring me your dented and bent out of shape”: Johnny Moped documentary is on the way
Jun 3rd, 2013
//Johnny Moped, Dave Berk, Fred Berk, Slimy Toad, 1977. Photo: Chiswick Records//
In an age clogged up with boil-in-the-bag popular music documentaries, I’m looking forward to Fred Burns’ Basically, Johnny Moped, about the unpredictable outsider who emerged via associations with The Damned and Chrissie Hynde during the post-punk period to strut and fret his hour upon the stage.
Moped and his band – Dave and Fred Berk and Slimy Toad – were out and about a lot in 1977 and 1978; I caught them a couple of times, once as part of a bigger bill at Camden Town’s Music Machine (now Koko) and another time in the West End (possibly The Marquee).
Their single Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby was (and remains 35 years later) a stand-out song of the period and Barney Bubbles’ artwork for that and other Moped releases and promotional material sealed the deal.
Documentaries: Up pops Tommy Roberts in Three Swings On A Pendulum (1967)
Jul 31st, 2012
//Roberts, right, tries on a military greatcoat at I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet//
Look out for an appearance by Tommy Roberts – subject of my new book – in the 1967 documentary Three Swings On A Pendulum, currently available for viewing (in the UK at least) on BBC iPlayer.
Mr Freedom + Kleptomania in Vogue and on the BBC as Tommy Roberts takes to the airwaves
Jun 19th, 2012
//Mr Freedom 1971 design in archive selection, Vogue UK, June 2012.//
Ahead of Tommy Roberts’ appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek and London Live 94.9’s Robert Elms Show tomorrow, there has been a flurry of media mentions of the mould-breaking boutiques with which he was involved.
Television: ARTE’s London Calling
Jun 14th, 2012
Continental Europe appears to have gone bananas for British popular culture this Jubilympics* summer, hence Franco-German arts channel ARTE’s new four-part series London Calling.
The programme was made by seasoned documentarist Simon Witter and looks to be a treat (particularly the intelligent use of archive material; great to see rare footage of John Stephen striding along Carnaby Street).
Television: Don Letts’ Subculture
May 31st, 2012
I’m among the interviewees featured in Subculture, Don Letts’ Channel 4 documentary about post-War British street style, the first part of which aired for the first time last night.
Amber Butchart talking Mary Quant + Bazaar at 138a King’s Road
May 19th, 2012
//Frederique Cifuentes photographs Amber Butchart in Chelsea.//
Yesterday we had fun in Chelsea filming fashion historian/DJ Amber Butchart for this summer’s King’s Road Fashion & Music Trail, which is is being launched to visitors to west London’s historic thoroughfare as part of Kensington & Chelsea Council’s InTransit festival in July.
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