//Shinobu Kanai aka “Shinny” in a Seditionaries top in Episode 9 of the first series of The Return Of The Saint, broadcast November 1978?//

//Kanai  in The Great Rock N Roll Swindle, 1980//

// As “Japanese Woman” in the opening sequence of Insignificance, 1985//

Currently doing the rounds of the punk groups on various social networking sites is this clip from the cheesy 70s revival of classic 60s British television series The Saint.

Entitled The Arrangement, episode nine of The Return Of The Saint was broadcast on November 5, 1978 and starred such UK TV drama stalwarts as Carolyn Seymour, seen here looking glam in a car in Soho’s Wardour Street outside The Marquee where the great Aussie band The Saints are crashing through Swing For The Crime from their Eternally Yours album.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bobo Pheonix, Dead Fingers Talk, Eternally Yours, Groovy Bob, If It Ain't Stiff It Ain't Worth A Fuck, Insignificance, John Lydon, Julien Temple, Nicolas Roeg, Peter medak, Rob Eunson, Robert Fraser, Screen International, Seditionaries, Sex Pistols, Shinny, Sinobu Kanai, Steve Jones, Swing For The Crime, The Great Rock N Roll Swindle, The Internationals, The Marquee, The Saints, The Story Of Brian Epstein, Vivienne Westwood

//Vivienne Westwood quoted on p85 of her new book written with Ian Kelly and published by Picador this month. This is also spoken in Westwood’s accent by the actress Paula Wilcox in the audiobook which has been published here and in the US//

//Westwood’s former partner Malcolm McLaren said this to me during a 1999 interview. Subsequently I quoted him on page 22 of my book The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion, first published in 2001, second edition 2006//

Jenni Murray: You’ve said ‘clothes were politics long before fashion’. What did you mean by that?

Vivienne Westwood: I have no idea.

Jenni Murray: Was it something you said to Ian (Kelly) and now you’ve forgotten?

Vivienne Westwood: No…is that what it says in the book?

Jenni Murray: Yes

Vivienne Westwood: Well then, he might have got a misquote from somewhere.

Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, October 14, 2014

I respect Dame Vivienne Westwood’s achievements; she has been a significant figure in shaping our collective visual identity.

As someone who is driven to investigate and interpret visual culture, that is important to me. I dedicated a chapter and sections to Westwood’s contribution to fashion with and without Malcolm McLaren in the 2001 and 2006 editions of The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion.

But she is ill-served by the sloppy new book Vivienne Westwood, recently published by Picador and written by actor/author Ian Kelly. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alain Dister, Anarchy In The UK, Barry Plummer, Bob Gruen, David Connor, David Dagley, David Parkinson, Ian Dury, Ian Kelly, Jane Mulvagh, Jenni Murray, John Lydon, Ku Khanh, Mary Shelley, Masayoshi Sukita, Norma Moriceau, Picador, Private Eye, Robyn Beeche, Vivienne Westwood, Woman's Hour

//Top: Stacia Blake weaving her magic onstage at The Roundhouse in 1975. Photo: Paul Apperley. Above: Peter Lavery's photo of Russell Hunter from the insert in the Pink Fairies' 1973 album Kings Of Oblivion. Posted on the Facebook Portobello Shuffle group by Ian Nottnotw Edmondson//

Sad to witness Hawkwind, the great British musical force which has carved out a unique position outside of the mainstream music business over several decades, dragged into a tawdry row regarding ownership of the group’s name.

The dispute has been sparked by  saxophonist/flautist/sometime frontman Nik Turner. It seems he is trademarking the group’s name as a touring entity in the US, even though he hasn’t been a member for a long time.

Turner was in the line-up during Hawkwind’s greatest period, 1970-76, and returned sporadically until a parting of the ways with Dave Brock, generally acknowledged as Hawkwind’s founder and the band’s one constant, at the helm for all 44 years of its existence.

If scans of signed US documents circulated online prove to be authentic, Turner’s registration in the US – where he has just toured under the banner Nik Turner’s Hawkwind – denies the existence of any other entity of that name operating in the field of live performance. This undercuts his claims in the American press that he wants to spread peace and harmony by invoking Hawkwind’s name and has enraged a section of the fan base.

Brock meanwhile has cancelled his Hawkwind’s American tour on the basis that he – at 72, a year younger than Turner – is suffering from a stress-related illness as result of the dispute.

//Barney Bubbles poster for Sunday bill at The Roundhouse, 1975//

//I went with my friend Matthew Cang. He kept his ticket//

This is all a long way from the relative harmony in the ranks when I fell under their spell as a teenager. I saw Hawkwind a few times, at the Edmonton Sundown or the Dagenham Roundhouse in north-east London and at a free festival in Harlow New Town, Essex, but one particular concert in February 1975 when the ensemble played Camden Town’s Roundhouse with the Pink Fairies stays in the memory.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1975, Andy Dunkley, Andy Summers, Camden Town, Dave Brock, Duncan sanderson, Groupie, Hawkwind, Jah Wobble, John Lydon, Kings Of Olivion, Lady June, Larry Wallis, Lol Coxhill, Matthew Cang, Mick Jones, Nik Turner, Peter Lavery, Portobello Shuffle, Roundhouse, Russell Hunter, Shane Magowan, Stacia Blake, The Police, Twink

The new issue of The Word magazine includes a photo-spread on the exhibition Lloyd Johnson: The Modern Outfitter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Chelsea Space, Danny Baker, Don Grant, John Lydon, Kenny macDonald, Kensington & Chelsea Today, Kosmo Vinyl, Marx, Worlds End, Wreckless Eric

This is Tightrope by Psychic Life, the new project from Julie Campbell + Jah Wobble with contributions from the latter’s colleague in the first Public Image Ltd line-up, Keith Levene.

Campbell released an album last year as Lonelady.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Jah Wobble, John Lydon, Julie Campbell, Keith Levene, Lonelady, PiL, Poptones, Psychic Life, Theme, Tightrope

//Jah Wobble, 2009.//

NAME: Jah Wobble (real name: John Wardle)

RESIDES: Cheshire

OCCUPATION: Musician

It’s well documented that, in his teenage years, Jah Wobble was a member of the Four Johns, the gang of youths who gravitated to each other while at Kingsway College Of Further Education on the fringes of the City Of London in the mid-70s.

The other members included John Beverley, aka Sid Vicious, John Lydon – later Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols – and Lydon’s friend, John Gray.  Knocking around east and north London, the quartet followed football and voraciously consumed music from Bowie to Can to Hawkwind to Big Youth and beyond.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Acme Attractions, Daniel hechter, Dennis Morris, Don Letts, Jah Wobble, Jeanette lee, John Lydon, John Wardle, Kenny macDonald, Marx, Missoni, Public Image Ltd, Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, Terry Jones, versace