//George O'Dowd in Street Theatre, 12 Ganton Street, central London, 1978. Photo (c): Boy George Collection//

I’ve been acting as a consultant to artist Lucy Harrison on her latest site specific project Carnaby Echoes, which focuses on the culturally fertile area of central London adjacent to Soho.

With the starting point of the opening of Murray’s Club in Beak Street in 1913, Harrison is mounting her artistic response to 100 years of musical history with archival material and fresh interviews with some of the area’s leading lights.

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Tags: Axiom, Beak Street, Boy George, Carnaby Street, Culture Club, Fans, George O'Dowd, Jon Baker, Lucy Harrison, malcolm Garrett, Mark Lebon, Murray's Club, New Sounds New Styles, Old Compton Street, Peter Small, Roaring Twenties, Street Theatre, Sue Clowes, The Foundry, The Regal

“One day, ‘Carnaby Street’ could rank with ‘Bauhaus’ as a descriptive phrase for a design style and design legend.”

Ken and Kate Baynes, Design, August 1966.

Today is the seventh anniversary of Westminster Council’s dedication of a plaque in Carnaby Street to the late fashion retailer John Stephen, the 60s media darling dubbed “The £1m Mod” for his entrepreneurial success and flamboyant lifestyle (houses in Cannes and Milan, a white Alsatian named Prince who dined with him at his regular table at Mirabelle).

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Tags: 1966, Anthony Little, Biba, Bill Franks, Carnaby Street, David Cripps, Design, Ernest Satow, Foale & Tuffin, Henry Grossman, John Stephen, Ken and Kate Baynes, Mary Quant, Maureen Roffey, Michael Wolff, Myles Anthony, Phil May, Terence Spencer, The Pretty Things, Tom Wolsey, Vespa, Westminster Council

//Roberts, right, tries on a military greatcoat at I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet//

Look out for an appearance by Tommy Roberts – subject of my new book – in the 1967 documentary Three Swings On A Pendulum, currently available for viewing (in the UK at least) on BBC iPlayer.

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Tags: Arnold Wesker, BBC, Ben Olins, Biba, Carnaby Street, Charlie Simpson, Gear, Geraldine Chaplin, Granny Takes A trip, I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, John Paul, John Pearse, King's Road, Lewis Nkosi, Male W1, Olivier Todd, Oz, Portobello Road, Robert Hughes, Three Swings On A Pendulum

Continental Europe appears to have gone bananas for British popular culture this Jubilympics* summer, hence Franco-German arts channel ARTE’s new four-part series London Calling.

The programme was made by seasoned documentarist Simon Witter and looks to be a treat (particularly the intelligent use of archive material; great to see rare footage of John Stephen striding along Carnaby Street).

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Tags: Andrew Loog Oldham, ARTE, Boy George, Carnaby Street, Central Saint Martins, Fred Deakin, Jill Furmanovsky, John Stephen, Jon Savage, London Calling, Paul Morley, Simon Napier-Bell, Simon Witter

This postcard’s over-amped application of colour (despite the “natural” tag on the back) contrasts deeply with the dowdiness of the buildings and the appearances of the inhabitants of the Swinging London über strasse on a summer’s day in 1966.

The disconnect – between projected lifestyle and everyday reality – sums up the 60s.

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Tags: 1966, Carnaby Street, CE Fudge, David Vaughan, Douglas Binder, Dudley Edwards, Lord John, Warren Gold

//Kleptomania in Rave magazine, October 1967.//

Tommy Roberts reminisces about the look of 1967:

By 1967 Haight Ashbury hippie culture had taken off in London.

At Kleptomania – my boutique around the corner from Carnaby Street at 10 Kingly Street – it was embraced with gusto.

Out went red guardsman’s tunics, Union Jack kipper ties, Victorian-style lacy mini dresses, soul music and anything to do with “Swinging London”.

In came trumpet-sleeved kaftans, Gypsy fringed shawls, psychedelic posters, joss sticks, peace ‘n’ love badges, Frank Zappa and Jefferson Airplane.

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Tags: Carnaby Street, Frank Zappa, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Halliday, Kingly Street, Kleptomania, Sylvie Vartan