// In George Cox creepers: Malcolm McLaren, 430 King’s Road, January 1972. Photo: David Parkinson / Slowthai, Northampton, 2018. Photo: Ewen Spencer for Arena Homme + //

“Those blue suede shoes had a magical association that seemed authentic. They represented an age of desperate romantic revolt to change your life.”

Malcolm McLaren, notes on his life in fashion, 1997

I’m celebrating the 70th anniversary of the introduction of George Cox & Co’s first creeper at the Port Eliot Festival next week with Adam Waterfield, the fourth generation owner of the great independent British brand, and his son Alistair, a Central Saint Martins student and model who is very much involved in the family business.

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Tags: Adam Waterfield, Alistair Waterfield, Andrew Greaves, Arena Homme +, Central Saint Martins, Comme des Garçons, David Parkinson, Ellie Grace Cumming, Ewen Spencer, Fred Perry, George Cox, Glastonbury Festival, Harold The Ted, Jonathan Baron, Le Kilt, Lewis Leathers, Northampton, Olly Alexander, Port Eliot Festival, Sam Rock, Slowthai, Years And Years

To mark the publication of my new book about The Face,  I will be in conversation at London’s Central Saint Martins on November 16 with Magculture’s Jeremy Leslie and the magazine’s founder/editor/publisher Nick Logan.

//Logan in Soho last week. In this area he ran The Face as a one-man band from offices in Carnaby Street (1980-81) and Broadwick Street (1981-82)//

This event represents a chance not just to hear from Leslie, whose shop is the country’s leading independent magazine hub, but also a rare opportunity to witness Logan – in my book (literally) the most important figure in post war British magazine publishing – talk about the magazine that changed culture.

Tickets are £10; all proceeds go to the Alzheimers Society.

Details and tickets from Magculture here.

The Story Of The Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture is published on the same day, November 16. You may order copies here.

Tags: Alzheimers Society, Central Saint Martins, Jeremy Leslie, Magculture, Nick Logan

I’m really looking forward to visiting the forthcoming exhibition of the photography of Dave Hendley, who died this summer.

//Outer gatefold, Rebel Music, Trojan Records, 1979. Design: Uncredited//

Hendley is best known for the photos he took of the Jamaican music scene in the 70s, but he holds a special place for me as the man responsible for one of my favourite compilations, the double-LP Rebel Music, released by Trojan at the end of that decade.

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Tags: Big Youth, Bobby Gillespie, Central Saint Martins, Creation Rockers, Dave Hendley, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, I-Roy, Junior Byles, Peter Tosh, Redbel Music, Sufferer's Rights, Trojan records

Apologies for not posting for a while; I am currently focusing energies on my book Legacy: The story of The Face, which is published by Thames & Hudson in autumn 2017.

Launched in 1980 by print publishing pioneer Nick Logan – the editor of the NME during its ’70s glory years, the man who also founded Smash Hits, Arena, Arena Homme Plus, Frank and Deluxe – The Face magazine brought the news on the dizzying developments of popular culture for two decades.

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Tags: Another, Arena, Arena Homme Plus, Central Saint Martins, Corinne Day, Deluxe, Emap, Frank, Gavin Hills, GQ, Julie Logan, Kimberley Leston, Love, Nick Logan, NME, Pop, Ray Petri, Smash Hits, The Gentlewoman, Wallpaper

//Warhol poses for photographer Jon Naar on the famous red couch in his studio on E. 47th Street in midtown Manhattan, 1965//

Designer Ben Kelly, chair of interior and spatial design at University of the Arts London, has chosen this photograph of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory for his exhibition 111 Inspirational Interiors.

Kelly has curated the show – which opens tomorrow at Windows Gallery 1 at Central Saint Martins  in Kings Cross, North London – after inviting 111 creatives to each select an image of an interior which is important to them.

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Tags: 111 Inspirational Interiors, Andy Warhol, Ben Kelly, Billy Name, Central Saint Martins, Jon Naar, Silver Factory

//Interior, 430 King’s Road, west London, designed by Patrick Casey and Malcolm McLaren for the retail outlet Let It Rock and photographed by David Parkinson in January 1972. No reproduction without permission//

I have elected the above image for inclusion in the exhibition 111 Inspirational Interiors, which opens tomorrow in the Windows Gallery 1 at Central Saint Martins in Kings Cross, north London.

The show is curated by designer Ben Kelly in his role as chair of interior and spatial design at University of the Arts London as part of his project Popular Culture And The Interior; the 1972 David Parkinson photograph stems from my participation in Kelly’s ICA symposium last year, Dead Or Alive – Interior Design.

For the exhibition, Kelly invited 111 people to contribute “an image of an interior that has been important and influential in their creative and intellectual development”. The image I chose was taken on the completion of the refurbishment of the ground floor of 430 King’s Road  from the premises of boutique Paradise Garage into Teddy Boy culture emporium Let It Rock in late 1971 by the late Malcolm McLaren and his fellow former Harrow Art School student Patrick Casey.

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Tags: 111 Inspirational Interiors, Alice Rawsthorn, Ben Kelly, Catherine Ince, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea College Of Art, David Toop, Dinah Casson, Gavin Turk, Harrow Art School, Jeremy Till, John Cooper Clarke, John hegarty, Lucy McKenzie, Million Dollar Quartet, Patrick Casey, Peter Saville, Peter York, Screaming Lord Sutch, Sun Records, University Of The ARts London

Last night I gave a talk to fine art students at Central Saint Martins as part of the London art and design college’s Monday Guest Lecture series.

The title – Malcolm McLaren: A New Type Of Artist – stemmed from the catalogue  introduction by the late Paul Taylor to Impresario, the 1988 New York New Museum show he curated about McLaren’s activities.

Taylor wrote:

Clearly, Malcolm McLaren is a “bad guy” of contemporary pop culture, a reputation that in these times makes him all the more appealing. To many in the worlds of art and social criticism, however, McLaren is like a new type of artist. A “producer” in more than one sense of the word, he has literally orchestrated new musical events and created provocative “cultural texts” within the mass-media. He has also shown that art in the post-avant-garde era is a matter of synthesis, of combining elements from radically different sources. . . . McLaren is a populariser, which is to say that he is a pioneer.

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Tags: Bernini, Central Saint Martins, Emil Nolde, Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges, Fred Vermorel, Godard, John Hansard Gallery, Le Mepris, Lionel Bovier, Massaccio, Musical Paintings, New Museum Of Contemporary Art, Paul Cézanne, Paul Taylor, Shri Jagannatha, The Living Theatre, Truffaut

//Students Lorna Ough, Kit Powell, Manon Parry and Kristen Bullivant selling the No Future t-shirts and copies of The Art School & The Culture Shed at Central Saint Martins last week. Photo: Matthew Cornford//

Matthew Cornford, co-designer of the Malcolm McLaren art school tour t-shirt with John Beck, has sent another shot of the shirts being sold at last Friday’s event Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible.

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Tags: Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible, Central Saint Martins, John Beck, Kit Powell, Kristen Bullivant, Lorna Ough, Manon Parry, Matthew Cornford, The Art School & The Culture Shed

//Central Saint Martins student poster feature college head Jeremy Till//

//Discussing the McLaren/Westwood fashion legacy with writers Lou Stoppard and Dean Mayo Davies//

//Neville Brody’s logo for the 2016 celebration was unveiled for the first time at our event on Friday//

Our event Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible on Friday night was an out-and-out success, attended by hundreds from all walks of life, including students of London’s Central Saint Martins for whom it was primarily organised.

We were honoured that the London Mayor’s Office selected Be Reasonable to unveil Punk London,  the year-long calendar of exhibitions, gigs and events in the capital in 2016.

More details will be forthcoming at the end of the month; the GLA’s ‘cultural partner’ Marcus Davey of Camden venue The Roundhouse gave a few hints and showed for the first time the logo designed by graphic artist Neville Brody.

//Brighton students sold Beck + Cornford’s No Future t-shirts//

//Page from McLaren’s mid-70s notebook shown as part of Paul Burgess’ presentation//

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Tags: Bazooka Joe, Caz Facey, Central Saint Martins, Claire Barrow, Danny Kleinman, Dean Mayo Davies, Ged Matthews, Glen Matlock, Jeremy Till, John Beck, Johnny Deluxe, Lou Stoppard, Matthew Cornford, Mike Clewley, Paul Burgess, Peter Culshaw, Phin Harper, Sebastian Conran, Sex Pistols, St Martin's School Of Art

//Front cover of Malcolm McLaren’s 1975/6 notebook. © Paul Burgess. No reproduction without permission//

Among the exciting exclusives at tomorrow’s event Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible will be a presentation providing a fascinating look inside Malcolm McLaren’s 1975/6 notebook, kept at the time when the Sex Pistols were starting out and he was running the boutique Sex at 430 King’s Road with partner Vivienne Westwood.

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Tags: Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible, Central Saint Martins, Chrissie Hynde, Johnny Thunders, Paul Burgess, Richard hell, Sex Pistols, University Of Brighton