Next month British artists David Stephenson and Josh Stapleton’s music project Robert Fraser’s Groovy Arts Club Band releases a limited edition double vinyl album to coincide with the opening of the exhibition of the same name at London gallery Gazelli Art House.

The show, curated by Stephenson and Gazelli’s Mila Askarova, celebrates the life and work of the art dealer Robert Fraser, the “Groovy Bob” of pop culture legend who represented cutting edge artists from the 1960s to the 80s.

Housed in a handsome gatefold sleeve designed by the great British artist Derek Boshier, the limited edition record features tracks dedicated not just to Fraser but also the constellation of artists in his firmament, including Boshier himself (on the track An Englishman in LA), Jean-Michel Basquiat (Samo), Brian Clarke (Dangerous Visions Of Brian Clark), Keith Haring (Keith Haring’s Pop Shop) and Ed Ruscha (I Want To Hang Out With Ed Ruscha).

Robert Fraser’s Groovy Arts Club Band is available from January 10 from Gazelli Art House. Order copies here. 

The exhibition runs from January 11 to February 23, 2019. Details here.

Harriet Vyner’s must-read biography of Fraser is available here.

Tags: Brian Clarke, David Stephenson, Ed Ruscha, Gazelli Art House, Groovy Bob, Harriet Vyner, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Josh Stapleton, Keith Haring, Mila Askarova, Robert Fraser, Robert Fraser's Groovy Arts Club Band

//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