The first review of my next book Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press is in the current issue of British monthly Electronic Sound, which receives a mention in the post-2000 epilogue:

Challenging my ‘rise & fall’ thesis, Electronic Sound‘s review is nevertheless complimentary, describing the book as an ‘illuminating treatise’ and ‘essential reading’.

Visit Electronic Sound and buy the latest issue here.

Order your copy of Totally Wired at all good booksellers, including bookshop.org.

TAGS: None

//Suit jacket + tie: Mark Powell; tab collared polka dot shirt Simon James Cathcart//

Get your Barney Bubbles Button badge set from the Barney Bubbles online shop.

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Tags: Generation X, John Cooper Clarke, Johnny Moped, Mark Powell, Punch The Clock, Simon James Cathcart, Vinyl Factory

//The opening spread of my piece, with images from In The Gutter. Left: Pleasant Gehman, right: Caroline Coon//

//The new issue of MacGuffin//

I’ve returned to the excellent MacGuffin magazine with a piece in their latest issue, which adopts the theme ‘The Chain’.

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Tags: Belmacz, Caroline Coon, Diana Pfammatter, Ernst van der Hoeven, IN The Gutter, Julia Muggenburg, Kirsten Algera, Pleasant Gehman

//George Hardie’s design for card announcing the opening of Universal Witness at 167 Fulham Road on November 17 1970//

Here’s another treasure from the trove of Design magazines given to me by the designer Paul Walters; the invitation for the opening of Paul Reeves’ west London boutique Universal Witness in November 1970.

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Tags: Alkasura, Design, George Hardie, Jimi Hendrix, John Lloyd, Keith Richards, Led Zeppelin, Mr Feed'Em, Paul McCartney, Paul Reeves, Paul Walters, Pink Floyd, Universal Witness, Wings

I’m currently featured with four stylish blokes who are also in their 60s talking about clothing choices on menswear hub Mr Porter.

//Lagos striped shirt Post-Imperial; trousers Acne Studios; shoes Bass Weejuns. Photography Tami Aftab; styling Catherine Hayward//

//Souvenir jacket Kapital; Chinos Alex Hill; monkey boots Denson; bag Mr Freedom 1970. Photography: Tami Aftab; styling Catherine Hayward//

The article is headed Experience Required: Style Lessons From Men In Their Sixties and for the accompanying shoot I wore pieces by brands Acne, Alex Hill, GH Bass, Denson, Kapital and Post-Imperial.

The other participants are fashion entrepreneur Charles Aboah, model and vintage upcycler Herbie Mensah, designer/director Patrick Kinmonth and illustrator Stewart Walton.

Writer Fedora Abu put the feature together and the talented team includes photographer Tami Aftab and stylist Catherine Hayward.

Read the full story here.

Tags: Acne, Alex Hill, Catherine Hayward, Charles Aboah, Denson, Fedora Abu, GH Bass, Herbie Mensah, Kapital, Mr Porter, Patrick Kinmonth, Post-Imperial, Stewart Walton, Tami Aftab

//Interior of the first Fiorucci boutique, Galleria Passerella, Milan, 1972//

I am extremely grateful to artist and designer Paul Walters for his gift of dozens of issues of Design magazine dating to the dawn of the 1970s.

These are being catalogued and added to the collection I already have of the title; some were donated by Paul’s fellow artist and designer Steve Thomas a few years ago.

Design was founded in the mid-60s by the Design Council precursor the Council of Industrial Design, and back issues are a goldmine of visuals and text about most aspects of the design world, from interiors, posters and packaging to product innovation, architecture and popular culture.

//The report on the store opening in Design, December 1972//

I’m going to post a selection of stories that have caught my eye over the coming months, starting with the image at the top of the post: a rarely seen view inside Elio Fiorucci’s first boutique, which he opened in Milan’s Galleria Passerella in late 1972.

Fiorucci was much inspired, to put it politely, by Trevor Myles and Tommy Roberts’ pop-art fashion outlet Mr Freedom – which had gone out of business in the spring of 1972 – and commissioned artist Stan Peskett, who had produced murals for Roberts, to create a space which engaged customers with a similar energy: the yellow and red colour scheme was extended to the exposed piping and venting with insignia of sunrays emanating from fluffy clouds hovering over the clothing racks.  Stan, who I interviewed  a couple of years ago for my Malcolm McLaren biography, has described his interior for Fiorucci as ‘an installation’.

//Advert in Design, December 1972//

//Spread from fashion shoot featuring Mr Freedom designs, Nova October 1971//

Coincidentally, an ad in the same issue of Design featured an image of a model in Mr Freedom clothes which had appeared in Nova magazine the previous year.  The advert was for the architecture and interiors publication Abitare, which continues to this day – see here.

Tags: Council of Industrial Design, D, Design Council, Elio Fiorucci, Fiorucci, Milan, Paul Walters, Stan Peskett, STeve Thomas

I’m really jazzed about getting my hands on the first finished copy of Totally Wired, my history of the music press which is published by Thames & Hudson this autumn.

Designer Daniel Streat has done wonders with the day-the-world-turned-dayglo jacket concept and my choice of cover star Poly Styrene.

There are 60 or so illustrations, all magazines from my archive. The diversity reflects the content of the book, which covers the usual suspects – NME, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone – but will hopefully turn readers onto the unexpected and surprising, from Black Music and Collusion to WET, Ben Is Dead and Girlfrenzy.

Totally Wired is published in the UK and elsewhere on September 22 and in North America on November 29. It is available to order now from all good booksellers as well as my Bookshop page at uk.bookshop.org/shop/paulgorman or by clicking on this panel:

Tags: Ben Is Dead, Black Music, Collusion, Daniel Streat, Girlfrenzy, Melody Maker, NME, Rolling Stone, Thames & Hudson, WET