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.
Fashion: An Anthology – the brilliance of Cecil Beaton x Vern Lambert at the V&A in 1971
Rocketman: Mr Freedom, Tommy Roberts and Jim O’Connor’s winged boots
//Above Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin meet “Tommy Roberts” in Rocketman. Stills from Kii Arens promo video for Egerton and John’s new single (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again//
During the production of Elton John biopic Rocketman there were plans for a scene set in London’s groundbreaking pop-art boutique Mr Freedom in the early 70s.
This was to set up the central character’s visual transformation during visits to the store under the influence of its charismatic founder and frontman, the late, lamented Tommy Roberts.
‘Cheap bottle red wine (£1.20p)’: Life on the margins in Marble Arch in 1978 with Pat Booth, Roddy Llewellyn and Joe Strummer
I left school and home when I was 17 and, on the dole in 1978, supplemented my income working for a woman in her late 30s whose sugar daddy had put her up in a flat in a mansion block off Edgware Road. He rarely visited, and in fact died while I was in her employ. The family forbade her from attending the funeral and I realise now her tenancy was likely quite shaky.
My essay on the Malcolm For Mayor campaign in DB Burkeman’s Stickers Vol 2: More Stuck-Up Crap
“The sticker may be the most efficient art form ever invented”
Jeffrey Deitch, 2019
I have an essay in DB Burkeman’s just-published follow-up to his 2010 survey of the use of audacious and eye-catching stickers in art, design, fashion, music and social activism.
Recent journalism: Baggies with attitude for MacGuffin + the colour black in street style for Fred Perry Quarterly
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.
Pungent + prolific with a million miles on the meter: Sayonara Mary Cigarettes
“I want to die with a million miles on my meter,
I want to die with well-used and worn tyres”
In The Land Of The Harley Davidson, Mary Cigarettes, 2011
It’s been a month or so since the death of the extraordinary singer-songwriter Mary Cigarettes; today I’m marking his passing with this selection from his Youtube channel.
Recent Comments