Paul Gorman is…

The city as a weapon of sex, style and subversion: New maps celebrate the London of Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols

Jun 22nd, 2021

//The two maps are housed in handsome folders//

//The guide was designed by Ricardo Santos and includes photography of the band, quotes and a card for my Malcolm McLaren biography//

My new guide out with Herb Lester Associates is out now.

A celebration of the London lives of the Sex Pistols and their charismatic – some might say notorious – manager Malcolm McLaren, it comprises two fold-out maps with 100-plus addresses from birthplaces, schools, colleges, art schools, pubs, clubs, venues and boutiques to such diverse places as Buckingham Palace (where the Pistols signed to A&M Records), the Soho gay club Il Duce (frequented by McLaren after leaving art school in the early 70s) and the Shepherds Bush remand home where the teenage Steve Jones resided before being pulled up before various beaks on assorted burglary charges.

//There are nearly 60 entries charting the lives of the Pistols in London//

//The Pistols map shows how Punk Rock was at its dark heart a London thing//

The Pistols maps covers the group’s 29-month existence and the lives of the five members as they relate to the British capital, while McLaren’s shows how this fourth generation Scottish/Jewish provocateur used the city as a weapon of sex, style and subversion.

//Born in Stoke Newington, McLaren roamed the capital, from Lewisham and Clapham to Chelsea and Notting Hill to Fitzrovia and Oxford Street to Whitechapel and Rotherhithe//

//No coincidence that some of the major projects of McLaren’s life – a psychogeography of Oxford Street, the shop at 430 King’s Road and his campaign to become Mayor of London – were firmly rooted in the city//

SITUATION VACANT: Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren in London is available from Herb Lester Associates here.

 

 

 

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Representing the Barney Bubbles Estate

Mar 23rd, 2021

Today I’ve launched a page on this site for the Estate of the late radical graphic artist and designer Barney Bubbles.

//Ridiculous Roadshow mask, 1973. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

I represent the Estate and its hundreds of original artworks. We have some exciting activity coming up, including the loving recreation of one of Bubbles’ most striking designs for a very special reissue on Record Store Day this year.

Then there is a new enhanced edition of my monograph Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life & Work of Barney Bubbles, to be published by a leading international imprint. We are also planning a companion limited edition box of Bubblesiana, including high quality reproductions of his build-your-own paper and card designs.

In recent years the Estate has collaborated with a number of top-flight partners, including Universal Music, BMG Music, Paul Smith, Fred Perry and NOAH Clothing, and produced limited edition t-shirt, poster and postcard ranges with artist/dancer Stacia Blake and specialist printer Something Else.

//Johnny Moped Lightbulb 1977.© Barney Bubbles Estate//

//John Cooper Clarke, 1979. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

Read Barney Bubbles’ biography on the Estate page here.

//Still from Barney Bubbles-directed video for Ghost Town by The Specials, 1981//

//Letterhead for Teenburger Designs studio, 1969. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//4D Man, 1982.© Barney Bubbles Estate//

//I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass, 1978. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, 1978. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Cracking Up, 1979. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

For licensing and reproduction inquiries, contact paulgormanis@btinternet.com. PDFs of available artworks on request.

Follow the Estate’s Instagram account: @_barney_bubbles_estate_ 

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New Barney Bubbles t-shirt evokes the graphic genius’s wish for ‘a groovy scene… with lots of hard work and fun play’

Aug 16th, 2020


//Musician Sam Parkin sports the Teenburger Designs t-shirt//

Infused with the personal freedoms and camaraderie experienced on a trip to San Francisco, the graphic artist Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher 1942; died 1983) took occupation of the three-storey building at 307 Portobello Road in 1969 and transformed it into a creative commune at the heart of the Notting Hill counterculture.

With musicians rehearsing in the basement and a shifting set of unusual and interesting inhabitants and collaborators, Bubbles established his Teenburger Designs studio on the ground floor of 307 and set about servicing all manner of clients from livery for posh grocer Justin de Blank to record sleeves and posters for such rock, raga and prog groups as Brinsley Schwarz, Cressida, Gracious!, Quintessence and Red Dirt.

//Bubbles checks Justin de Blank artwork at Teenburger Designs, 1970//

//Teenburger Designs letterhead, March 1969//

Bubbles styled his Teenburger letterhead as a square wrapper with one side featuring a composition of Letraset fragments arranged in the form of a hamburger.

From today, this very limited edition shirt is available in S, M, L + XL and celebrates the brilliance of Barney Bubbles, evoking his wish for “a groovy scene… with lots of hard work and fun play”.

Order yours from daniel@somethingelse.gg

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A code for kicking against the pricks: THEM (Slight Return) with Peter York interview in Arena Homme +

Nov 17th, 2019

//Opening spread of my interview with Peter York, Arena Homme + Winter/Spring 2020. Portrait: David Sims//

//From the Them fashion story. Photography: Julien Martinez Leclerc; fashion: Tom Guinness//

The jury is out on this autumn’s relaunch of the print edition of venerated British style magazine The Face; as I suggested here it’s going to take more than one splashy issue to assess whether the proposition has legs as we enter the 2020s (next May will mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of The Face by Nick Logan).

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Fashion: An Anthology – the brilliance of Cecil Beaton x Vern Lambert at the V&A in 1971

Jun 21st, 2019

//Cover, Fashion: An Anthology catalogue, V&A, 1971//

//Frontispiece: a Beaton photograph of a model wearing a 1961 Balenciaga dress//

//Vern Lambert in Milan in the 80s. Photo: Alfa Castaldi//

My recent Rocketman post gave me cause to dig out my copy of the catalogue produced for the groundbreaking exhibition Fashion: An Anthology, staged by London’s V&A from October 1971 to January 1972.

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Recent journalism: Baggies with attitude for MacGuffin + the colour black in street style for Fred Perry Quarterly

Jun 4th, 2019

//MacGuffin No 7, spring 2019//

//Fred Perry Quarterly Issue 2, Spring 2019//

Here’s a couple of pieces of recently published journalism, one filed for the Netherlands-based biannual MacGuffin, the other for the second issue of Fred Perry Quarterly.

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Rarely seen images from the 1988 Malcolm McLaren exhibition Impresario with news that my MM bio will be published in April 2020

Apr 10th, 2019

//Window display for Impresario at the New Museum, Sept 16 – Nov 20, 1988. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

//Introduction to the show. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

My biography of the late Malcolm McLaren will now be published in April 2020, exactly 10 years after his premature death at the age of 64.

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Tribute to Ola Hudson: The Woman Who Fell To Earth

Dec 17th, 2018
Ola Hudson in the 1970s. Photo: Ola Hudson Archive, courtesy Ash Hudson. No reproduction without permission.
Fashion sketch and negatives. Ola Hudson Archive, courtesy Ash Hudson. No reproduction without permission.
Bowie in Ola Hudson suit on the set of The Man Who Fell To Earth, New Mexico. Photo: StudioCanal.

I’m extremely grateful to artist/designer/photographer Ash Hudson for sending precious photographs and design sketches from the archive of his late mother Ola Hudson, the super-talented fashion designer and costumier best known for providing David Bowie with the formal yet other-worldly collection of garments he wore in Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 film The Man Who Fell To Earth and as The Thin White Duke on the subsequent Isolar world tour.

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KRAŜO! 3: Nostalgio Por La Jeto-Aĝo estas skatolo de lertaĵoj *

Dec 6th, 2018

The third edition of Scott King and Matt Worley’s CRASH! has arrived. Entitled Nostalgia For The Jet Age, it is an “exhibition in a box” which coincides with an actual exhibition of the same name currently being held at Scotland’s Timespan.

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Cut it out: The astounding story behind Barney Bubbles’ Hawkwind Galactic Tarot

Dec 3rd, 2018

//Hawkwind’s Space cut-out-and-keep 21-card “Galactic Tarot” pack arranged in the shape of a hawk in IT 117, November 18 – December 2, 1971. Design: Barney Bubbles//

//The cards arranged in rows of seven as recommended by the instructions//

In November 1971, design legend Barney Bubbles produced a typically audacious promotional item for Hawkwind’s recently released album X In Search Of Space.

//Front page, IT 117//

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