//In conversation with (from top left) RBP’s Mark Pringle, Jasper Murison-Bowie and Barney Hoskyns//

I’m the featured guest on this week’s podcast from the world’s premier music journalism site rocksbackpages.com.

I go way back with RBP founder and author Barney Hoskyns; he commissioned pieces from me when he was Mojo editor in the early 90s and we launched my music press book In Their Own Write, RBP and photographer Jill Furmanovsky’s rockarchive.com on the same night at a Shoreditch gallery nearly 20 years ago.

I had fun talking to Barney and his confreres Mark Pringle and Jasper Murison-Bowie. The chat ranged from my background in trade journalism to, of course, the new Malcolm McLaren biography. Listen to the podcast here.

//David Harrison in customised Sex t-shirt, 1975//

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Tags: Barney HOskyns, Ben Is Dead, David Harrison, Forced Exposure, Grand Royal, In Their Own Write, Jasper Murison-Bowie, Jill Furmanovsky, John Lydon, Mark Pringle, Maximum Rock'n'Roll, Rock's Back Pages, Sex Pistols, Spice Girls, Toby Amies

//John Lydon. From The Face issue 8, December 1980. Photo: Sheila Rock//

//Grace Jones. From The Face issue 6, October 1980. Main photo: Jill Furmanovsky//

//Divine. From The Face issue 9, January 1981. Photo: Sheila Rock//

Here’s a selection of articles for early issues of The Face by veteran music journalist/author (and my old mucker) Chris Salewicz to mark the fact that he and I will be in conversation about my new book The Story Of The Face at leading south London independent bookshop Bookseller Crow on Tuesday evening (November 28).

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Tags: Anton Corbijn, Bookseller Crow, Carlo Manzi, Chris Salewicz, Debbie Harry, Divine, Grace Jones, Jah Wobble, Jill Furmanovsky, Joe Strummer, John Lydon, Kensington Market, Mike Laye, NME, Sheila Rock

I’m the featured writer this week in the Almost Famous slot on Rock’s Back Pages, the world’s leading resource of music-related journalism.

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Tags: Barney HOskyns, Jill Furmanovsky, John Stephen, Rock Archive, Rock's Back Pages, Rodney Bingenheimer

This is nice; pal and fellow Chelsea Arts Club member John Wardle talks about the importance of the immediate neighbourhood, its artistic tradition going back to the likes of Whistler, the licentiousness of the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens in Victorian times, the Bohemian atmosphere engendered by the 70s slums around the Lots Road Power Station and how all of this combined to create the breeding ground for punk.

John also talks about his love for Hawkwind, Sid Vicious, how he sold the bass he played on Metal Box to the Jesus & Mary Chain for a drink and why he should really have done the interview topless…

Tags: Aswad, Chelsea, Chelsea Arts Club, Cremorne Pleasure Gardens, Hawkwind, Jah Wobble, Jesus & Mary Chain, Jill Furmanovsky, John Wardle, Metal Box, Public Image Ltd, Sid Vicious, Under The Bridge

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

//TV crew sets up in the basement.//

Yesterday I was visited by a camera crew for an interview about the behind-the-scenes individuals who have made the difference to British popular music over the years.

The team, from Kobalt Productions in Berlin, are producing the documentary for Franco-German arts channel ARTE. The director is Simon Witter, who has a fine pedigree in journalism and broadcasting.

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Tags: Andrew Loog Oldham, ARTE, Blur, Boy George, Charles Shaar Murray, Colin Newman, David Bowie, Gered Mankowitz, Graham Coxon, Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, Heaven 17, Jill Furmanovsky, Jon Savage, Kevin Rowland, Kobalt Productions, Lloyd Johnson, Malcolm McLaren, Mark Powell, Martyn Ware, Miles Copeland, Paul Morley, Pennie Smith., Peter Blake, Simon Napier-Bell, Simon Reynolds, Simon Witter, Storm Thorgerson, Wire