Ever one to blur the boundaries, Bishi Bhattacharya’s new song Albion Voice simultaneously embraces Jubilee year multicultural Britain and the time-honoured English folk tradition just as Matthew Hardem’s video captures this national treasure’s ability to shift between performance art and music performance.
It’s fab – visit Bishi’s site here.
And read about the day I met her with one of Barney Bubbles’ collaborators here.
//Left: Living Legend: Modern English by Diane Solway, W magazine, May 2012. Right screen-grab of spread from Husk, Spring/Summer 2012.//
My new book MR FREEDOM – Tommy Roberts: British Design Genius is featured in the new editions of US fashion monthly W magazine and European quarterly Husk.
With a foreword by Paul Smith and contributions from the designers who created the work sold in Roberts’ shops as well as friends, family and design authorities, MR FREEDOM is published in June by Adelita and distributed in the US by DAP.
Peter Golding has very kindly supplied this shot of the facade of his glam Chelsea shop Ace, which ran for a decade from 1975 (for the first couple of years from 185 King’s Road) as a “purveyor of funky elegance” to well-heeled celebrities and pop and rock stars.
The Scottish Sunday Herald’s Teddy Jamieson has sent me this piece about the late graphic artist David Band, who is probably best known for his work for such 80s groups as Spandau Ballet and Altered Images but established a strong reputation in Australia before succumbing to cancer at the age of 51 last year.
//Stetson, embroidered shirt and hand-tooled leather belt from The Emperor Of Wyoming. Photo: David Parkinson for Club International, February 1974.//
Billy Murphy’s boutique The Emperor Of Wyoming was an extremely important staging post not just in the story of British rock and roll fashion but also the development of the vintage scene in this country.
Opened by Murphy at 404 King’s Road in 1972, TEOW specialised in selected items of Westernwear and American clothing at a time when the pickings were slim for such garments in London.
//Kiss Kiss, Go To Work On An Egg, Christopher Logue + Tom Salter, 1968.//
//Go To Work On An Egg, Mather & Crowther, 1964.//
“People do love huge pieces of paper”.
So runs the quote heading up a section in V&A curator Catherine Flood’s excellent overview British Posters: Advertising Art & Activism, published by the museum to coincide with its multifarious design celebrations this Olympic year.
And it’s true. We do.
Or we all did, when this vital form was simultaneously a mass-medium and a highly personal communications device, when huge promotional budgets and lack of urban controls resulted in the accretive papering of our street-scapes. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, we gave posters pride of place on the walls of our bedrooms, bedsits and sitting rooms.
//Top left: Your Britain, Fight For It Now, Abram Games, 1942. Right: Keep Death Off The Road, Carelessness Kills, William Little, 1949.//
//Holding foldout sleeve for the 1972 album Revelations: A Musical Anthology For The Glastonbury Fayre, designed by Barney Bubbles and released in 1972. Photo: Sophie Demay//
Artist/curator Sophie Demay and I are continuing to sort through potential materials for this summer’s exhibition White Noise, which Demay is creating with Etienne Hervy as part of this year’s International Poster & Graphic Design Festival in Chaumont, France.
See more images from the selection process on the Barney Bubbles blog.
| Paul Gorman is a writer. This is his blog: art, books, conversation, cults, dancing, design, encounters, environments, events, film, galleries, groups, individuals, invitations, magazines, music, opinions, performance, photography, places, press, privacy, spaces, style, thoughts + views. |
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