//Malcolm McLaren between Patti Smith and David Johansen with Cyrinda Foxe and Lenny Kaye, Sheep Meadow, Central Park, May 11, 1975. Photo: Danny Fields//

//Close up: Malcolm McLaren refreshes himself behind Smith and Johansen//

46 years after music manager Danny Fields took the photograph of a group of New York’s 70s demi-monde at the top of this post I’ve spotted the previously unidentified person behind them: the subject of my latest book, Malcolm McLaren (who appears to be chugging a half-bottle of Smirnoff).

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Barbara Dane, Bella Abzug, Bob Gruen, Central Park, Cyrinda Foxe, David Johansen, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Kutie Jones & his SEX PISTOLS, Lenny Kaye, New York Dolls, Odetta, Ossie Davis, Patti Smith, Paul Simon, Peter Yarrow, Phil Ochs, Richie Havens, Sheep Meadow, The War Is Over!, Tom Paxton

//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.

Tags: Buckingham Palace, Herb lester Associates, Il Duce, Ricardo Santos, Sex Pistols, Shepherds Bush, Steve Jones

I am the latest subject in the One Great Reader series published by Oakland CA’s Book/Shop.

/Wes Del Val’s introduction//

In the interview by Wes Del Val I talk about the importance of books, particularly second-hand books, in my life.

//I get to nominate the five books I’d keep in stock permanently in my fantasy bookshop//

Above is a selection of reading material mentioned in the chat plucked from the shelves, ranging from Myths & Legends given to me by an older sister when I was eight in the 1960s to Tabitha Lasley’s incredible Sea State published this year.

Read my One Great Reader chat with Wes here.

Tags: A Bit Off The Map, All The Devils Are Here, Angus Wilson, Anthony Burgess, Book/Shop, David Seabrook, FX Enderby, Hangover Square, Jane Bussman, Oakland, Once In A Lifetime, One Great Reader, Patrick Hamilton, Savage Pencil, Sea State, Tabitha Lasley, Wes Del Val

Among the many things the world doesn’t need now is another book of record covers, but DB Burkeman’s Art Sleeves, which is published today by Rizzoli, is something else entirely.

For once the publisher’s blurb is spot-on; this is “a tightly curated exploration” of record covers which challenge the distinctions between art and design, between object and product.

This means that there are many surprises in the book, and a minimum of the usual suspects.

Art Sleeves also contains a bonus in a series of artist spotlights and conversations featuring such exponents as Christian Marclay, INVADER, Ryan McGinley, Genieve Figgis  and Marilyn Minter.

And Barney Bubbles receives a mention as DB’s “personal design hero” in the introduction.

I recommend Art Sleeves highly. Order your copy here and follow Art Sleeves on Instagram here.

Tags: Art Sleeves, Christian Marclay, DB Burkeman, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, Genieve Figgis, Invader, Marilyn Minter, Richard Prince, Rizzoli, Ryan McGinley

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_ 

TAGS: None

//The postcard, which measures 230 x 150mm (6 x 9in), is printed in a numbered limited edition of 150//

“Fashion seemed to be the place where music and art came together. Creating my own clothes was like jumping into the musical end of painting. The shop became a natural extension of my studio.”
Malcolm McLaren. The Look, 2001.

Featuring a rare portrait of Malcolm McLaren displaying his wares inside the recently opened Let It Rock in January 1972, this limited edition large-size postcard is a companion to my biography of the man published earlier this year.

The photograph on the front of the card was taken by the late David Parkinson, who documented the refurb of  the premises at 430 King’s Road carried out by McLaren and his art school friend Patrick Casey; the address had previously housed Trevor Myles’ Americana boutique Paradise Garage.

//The postcard arrives clad in black, McLaren’s favourite anti-colour. “Black expressed the denunciation of the frill,” he wrote in the introduction to my book The Look//

The card shows McLaren revealing the detail on a flamboyant drape jacket made to his design by the East End tailor Sid Green, while he is surrounded by the accessories and ephemera which constituted Let It Rock’s environmental installation. Against the black walls, Day-glo socks from Whitechapel wholesaler Kornbluth vie with Frederick Starke red rockabilly shirts, Sun Records 45s, French rocksploitation movie posters and deadstock clothing.

It makes for a beguiling image: the 25-year-old – then still legally Malcolm Edwards – is caught making the leap from art school to fashion retailing by, as he later described it, “jumping into the musical end of painting”.

Limited edition numbered postcard hand-numbered and printed 4/1 col. offset on 350gsm single sided board stock, trimmed to size.

Printing: Something Else.

Price: £12.50 each or £20 for 2. P+P: £5 UK, £10 rest of the world. All postage with tracking and/or signature.

Payment via PayPal to this address.

I’m happy to sign cards on request.

Tags: David Parkinson, Frederick Starke, Patrick Casey, Something Else, Sun Records, Trevor myles

Excerpts from the annual summer music jamboree broadcast as part of UK TV station Channel 4 youth programme The Tube have been posted this week on Youtube.

//Jools Holland interviews McLaren about his “Duck Rocker”, one a number of customised boomboxes McLaren commissioned for promotional appearances//

One clip from the so-called Midsummer Night’s Tube of 1983 features an interview with Malcolm  McLaren about his recently released album Duck Rock and single Double Dutch.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Channel 4, Dave Walker, Double Dutch, Duck Rock, Duck Rocker, Jools Holland, Ruza "Kool Lady" Blue, The Midsummer Night's Tube, The Roxy, The Tube

I have an essay in the Stone Island monograph Storia which is published today by Rizzoli Books.

Edited by Eugene Rabkin of StyleZeitgeist and art-directed by the supreme Simon Foxton, Storia is an extremely handsome volume featuring texts by Angelo Flaccavento and Jian Deleon, as well as my piece, From The Streets To The Stadium, which traces the Italian label’s place in popular culture.

Storia is available from all good booksellers – a special edition has been published in a slipcase with a poster.

This is available from Stone Island stores around the world, but hurry; within a few hours of publication I’ve been hearing tales that it has sold out in certain territories.

Photos of book by Sabrina Tanzi.

Tags: Angelo Flaccavento, Eugene Rabkin, Jian Deleon, Sabrina Tanzi, Simon Foxton, Stone Island, StyleZeitgeist

To coincide with the US release of my book The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren I’m taking part in an online event hosted by Atlanta’s premier independent bookstore A Capella next Thursday (September 24).

From 6pm EST (11pm BST) I will be in conversation with US music journalist Chad Radford about McLaren and his creative legacy. Our chat will be followed by a q&a session.

I’ve already signed a bunch of personalised bookplates for those purchasing copies directly from A Cappella.

Look forward to digitally seeing you there – more details from A Cappella.

The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren is available to buy in the US from next week from all good booksellers as well as amazon.com.

Tags: A Cappella Books, Atlanta, Chad Radford, Georgia

//From The Times, July 29, 1966. Paul Gorman Archive. No reproduction without permission//

The late Malcolm McLaren made his first national media appearance in a 250-word item on the Law Report page of The Times in the summer of 1966.

This is an extract from my biography The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren:

In 1966 while he was attending a painting course at Chelsea College of Art, Malcolm McLaren – who had been forced to take his step-father’s surname Edwards a few years earlier – came under the influence of Stan, a fellow student whose last name is lost to memory.

“Stan was a Trotskyist who played a mean jazz saxophone and politicised Malcolm,” says Fred Vermorel, a friend of McLaren’s who had been at Harrow art school with him a couple of years previously.

For McLaren, radical politics opened up a world of possibilities when entwined with his investigations into art. Encouraged and initially accompanied by Stan, McLaren began attending rallies and demonstrations protesting on behalf of the causes célèbres of the day: against the war in Vietnam and South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Long gone were the polite CND parades peopled by earnest chaplains and fresh-faced Home Counties youth in duffel coats chanting Kumbaya. Taking their cue from the US uprisings such as that among the African American community on Chicago’s West Side, the British protestors of 1966 brought activism to new heights in direct confrontation with the authorities. A turning point was the July central London rally calling for the British government to disassociate itself from US military policy in south-east Asia.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Chelsea College Of Art, Fred Vermorel, Harrow school of art, Henry Adler, King Mob, Kumbaya, Malcolm Edwards, Mrs Gold, Stars & Stripes, The Times