Well done to vintage collector/dealer Sharon of Sweet Jane’s Pop Boutique blog for spotting this wowser on a Facebook group: a 1971 article in teen fashion and music magazine Jackie about the game-changing fashion outlet Paradise Garage run by Trevor Myles at 430 King’s Road.

Paradise Garage is important because it was the first shop in Britain to import and sell used denim in a meaningful way. Using the astounding environment created by Electric Colour Company, faded and worn denim, sometimes appliqued or patched, was stocked alongside an acutely compiled selection of soon-to-be-familiar dead-stock: Hawaiian shirts, baseball and souvenir jackets, Osh Kosh B’Gosh dungarees, bumper boots, cheongsams and so on.

Myles opened Paradise Garage in May 1971 as a reaction to the Pop Art flash he had engineered at Mr Freedom with his ex-partner Tommy Roberts. In the Jackie article he makes a point about fashion and environmental sustainability of pertinence today:

“There’s so much pollution in the world that we thought you should use the gear you already have – not buy something just because it’s fashionable. By throwing the old lot away you only add to the pollution problem. So that’s why we’re using it all up.”

Also interviewed and photographed is shop manager Bradley Mendelson, the New Yorker whose November 1971 encounter with Malcolm McLaren while Myles was absent overseas resulted in the establishment of Let It Rock at the same address.

The publication date of the issue of Jackie – December 4, 1971 – is poignant; by the time the feature appeared Paradise Garage was gone and McLaren and others, including his art-school student friend Patrick Casey and Vivienne Westwood, had taken over the outlet and were refurbishing it to match Mclaren’s radical British take on 50s retromania.

Read the Sweet Jane’s Pop Boutique blog here.

Tags: 1971, Bradley Mendelson, Electric Colour Company, Elton John, Jackie, Osh Kosh B'Gosh, Paradise Garage, Patrick Casey, Trevor myles, Vivienne Westwood

One day I’ll write a post justifying my view that Kicks #6 is the hands-down greatest music magazine of all time, but for now it’s worth recording that the folks behind Kicks  – namely Miriam Linna and Billy Miller – continue to, er, kick out the wildest music and related stuff via their Norton Records and Kicks Books imprints.

To coincide with the publication of the first volume of the trilogy Prophetika – which gathers together a trove of unpublished poetry and prose by the intergalactic visionary Sun Ra – Kicks Books (“The publisher, the parfumier”) has announced a fragrance of the same name which draws on an ancient formula “invoking a mirage of memories and mysteries and inciting a call to action”. Apparently there are hints of Cairo, Chicago…and Casseopia.

The perfume comes in a deluxe 0.5 oz Italian glass bottle in a presentation box and is just $13 – buy your’s here.

FB friend Joss Hutton nailed it with his response to the question as to what Prophetika smells like: “The Future”. Of course.

There’s a shindig to launch the book and niff at NYC’s St Mark’s Church next Friday. Details here.

Visit Kicks Books here and Norton Records here.

Sun Ra in performance with his Arkestra and in interview in Helsinki 1971:

Tags: 1971, Arkestra, Billy Miller, Cairo, Casseopia, Chicago, Helsinki, Joss Hutton, Kicks #7, Kicks Books, Miriam Linna, Norton Records, Propehtika, St Marks Church NYC, Sun Ra

Thanks to photographer David Reed for this portrait of Tommy Roberts and John  Paul in much satin finery in the office hallway above their Mr Freedom boutique at 20 Kensington Church Street in 1971.

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Tags: 1971, David Reed, John Paul, Kensington Church Street, Mr Freedom, Nova, Radio Times, Sunday Times Magazine

Australia’s Daddy Cool scored a big home hit in 1971 with sub-Stones strut Eagle Rock, which soon became a wedding party staple.

Four years later when they headlined The Australian Concert For Bangladesh at Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl Daddy Cool were about to be consigned to the oldies bin by the band which was sixth on the bill that day, AC/DC.

AC/DC had been propelled locally by teenage Sharpie fans, a group of whom are seen here stepping out with a mickey-taking version of the Eagle Rock boogie which mutates into their dance, The Melbourne Shuffle.

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Tags: 1971, 1975, Australian Concert For Bangladesh, Daddy Cool, eagle Rock, Greg Macainsh, Melbourne, Michell & Ferrett, Myers Bowl, Tadhg Taylor, Top Fellas

Manchester’s International Anthony Burgess Foundation is a must-visit; not only does it contain the great man’s archive with many gems available for inspection, but in the cafe/foyer there are Burgess’ own author’s copies of his books for sale. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 1962, 1971, 1977, A Clockwork Orange, Andrew Biswell, Barry Trengrove, Caedmon, Earthly Powers, Engine House, I'll Take Manhattan, International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Joe Tilson, Joysprick, Judith Krantz, Liana Burgess, MF, Monaco, Paolo Andrea Burgess, Shakespeare, The Malayan Trilogy, Will And Testament

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Tags: 1971, Andrew kerr, Billy Bragg, David Bowie, Dom Chambers, Glastonbury Fayre, Mick Farren, Nik Turner, Spirit Of 71 Cafe

This is Gore Vidal’s Olivetti Lettera, one of a series of photographs of the great man of American letters, as well as some of the artefacts in his study, by Hedi Slimane.

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Tags: 1971, Dick Cavett, Gore Vidal, Hedi Slimane, Janet Flanner, New Yorker, Norman Mailer, Olivetti, The Naked And The Dead