//Back of turquoise space suit.//

Following yesterday’s post about the exhibition of Michael Hochong’s incredible clothes, the Horse Hospital’s Roger Burton has given an account of how he came by the collection and his personal connection to this “very beautiful man”.

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Tags: Andy Warhol, Cutler & Gross, David Bowie, Horse Hospital, Jermyn Street, Knightsbridge, Michael Hochong, Michael's, Mr Chow, Peter Sellers, Roger Burton, Tramp, Vincent Price

//Hochong (right) with friends at a party in London, late 60s.//

Every Beautiful Thing… is the title of the forthcoming exhibition of extraordinary garments from the wardrobe of the late Michael Hochong, the French/Hawaiian/Chinese exquisite who, in the 70s, ran the Knightsbridge restaurant Michael’s (opposite the more famous establishment run by another Michael, Mr Chow).

Hochong also lived in some style in Tangier with John Koon (said to have been the instigator of the Chinese takeaway in the west).  It seems the house they shared was an exact replica of Tara, Scarlet O’ Hara’s spiritual home in Gone With The Wind.

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Tags: Fitzgerald Blackman, Germinal Rangel, Gone With The Wind, Horse Hospital, Knightsbridge, Michael Hochong, Mr Chow, Port Of Spain, Roger Burton, Savile Row, Scarlett O'Hara, Tara, The Darjeeling Ltd, Trinidad

The exclusion of designer James Tormey  – and in particular his early 70s covers for a series of Raymond Chandler books – from Phil Baines’ history Penguin By Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 has long rankled with me.

I was expecting to find out more about the man whose remixes of Hollywood classic stills led me to Chandler in my early teens. But there is no mention of Tormey or these covers, which hummed at the time with the revival of interest in 40s cinema, and film noir in particular.

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Tags: 1973, Brian De Palma, Dennis Quaid, Elliot Gould, Fictional Film Club, Germano Facetti, Howard Hawks, James Tormey, Los Angeles, National Film Theatre, Philip Marlowe, Playback, Raymond Chandler, Robert Altman, Terry Lennox, The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, Todd Rundgren

Clandestine London – the latest guide from Herb Lester Associates – is launched this week at a suitably discreet address in the capital.
Above is the invitation postcard. And here is the badge which guarantees entry.

Check out HLA’s online journal here.

Tags: Clandestine London, Herb lester Associates

//Nowhere Buses print on Jamie Reid's website.//

David Jacobs – the US activist who says that his Situationist group Point-Blank!, not Jamie Reid, created the infamous “Nowhere Buses” punk graphic (see yesterday’s post) – is calling on the Sex Pistols art director to donate income from sales of the artwork to the Occupy movement.

//Back + front cover of Point-Blank! pamphlet, 1973.//

“Neither I nor anyone in P-B! ever wanted any commercialization of what we had done; that was the antithesis of commerce,” says Jacobs.

“But if Jamie Reid were up for contributing the gains from this artwork to a good cause such as Occupy – in which we are very much engaged – we would be cheered.”

Tags: David Jacobs, Jamie Reid, Nowhere Buses, Occupy, Point-Blank!

//Back + front cover, Point-Blank! pamphlet 1973.//

//Top: Page 3, Space Travel, Point-Blank!, 1973. Bottom: Sleeve back cover, Pretty Vacant/No Fun, Sex Pistols, 1977.//

In the week of the opening of Jamie Reid’s exhibition Peace Is Tough, the founder of the 70s American Situationist group Point-Blank! is challenging claims that Reid originated one of the key graphics of the punk aesthetic: the so-called “Nowhere buses”.

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Tags: Anarchy In The UK, David Jacobs, Isis Gallery, Jamie Reid, Nowhere Buses, Peace Is Tough, Point-Blank!, Pretty Vacant, San Francisco, Sex Pistols

The evening of my first encounter with Yuki Yoshioka – who performs and records as Control Freak!! – in April 2006 in Tokyo’s Red Bar sparked a cherished friendship but turned out to be more momentous for a member of our party, Meri.

Introduced that night, these days Meri and Yuki are married and live in London with their gorgeous daughter, Marika.

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Tags: 2006, Agnes B, Control Freak!!, Granny Takes A trip, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Leroy"Horsemouth"Wallace, Pokit, Red Bar, Tokyo, Yuki Yoshioka

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.

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

Pippa Brooks has captured a section of Kate Moross’s video installation at the current Mindful Of Art exhibition.

I commissioned Kate to come up with a visual accompaniment to my DJ set at Glastonbury this summer, and am blown away by her achievement in manipulating and activating artwork by Barney Bubbles.

Read Pippa’s report from the show here.

Mindful Of Art is at the Old Vic Tunnels until Tuesday (September 27). Details here. Catch it if you can

Tags: Kate Moross, Mindful Of Art, Old Vic Tunnels, Pippa Brooks

This is just damn exciting; Damo Suzuki kicks off his suitably frenzied performance with some amazing free-form legwork.

It’s got the lot: Suzuki’s pink crushed velvet sleeveless pant-suit and, at one point, a middle-aged bloke in a penguin suit juggling pots and pans. All the while Can blaze their trail through the 70s.

All together now: “Monte Cazazza, Monte Cazazza…”

Tags: Can, Damo Suzuki, Monte Cazazza, Spoon