//Le Macabre, 23 Meard Street, London W1. Photo: Unknown//

“When I started working as the Saturday boy at Let It Rock (in 1973), Malcolm McLaren used to take me around these strange places which played a part in early rock & roll. One time we went to Le Macabre. I don’t know how he knew about it, but it was the real thing. The tables were coffin lids and the jukebox only had songs to do with death.”

Glen Matlock, interview transcript for The Look, 2000.

A chance encounter on eBay spurred artist Robert Rubbish into creating one of the key elements of his current exhibition Spiritus Soho Volume Zero.

Rubbish – who is one of many mourning the recent death of his friend and documentary subject, the poet Jock Scot – is known for deep associations with central London’s Soho, and has celebrated its sleazy past and uneasy present in his own work and with the other members of the art collective Le Gun.

//Dilly Boys, Robert Rubbish, 2016//

//The Sailor And The Mermaid, Robert Rubbish, 2016//

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Tags: Ancien, Dead In England, Glen Matlock, Jock Scot, Le Gun, Le Macabre, Look At Life, Robert Rubbish, Society Club

//Left: Among the contributors Ian Johns, Mark Wigan, Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky and Andrew Gallix. Right: Fred Butler 1995-2001 and Tracey Emin in 1995//

//Winston Milton and friends, Hackney 1993-8//

Into the over-worked field of ‘street style’ comes a breath of fresh air: What We Wore – A People’s History Of British Style.

Free of cliche and pretension, Nina Manandhar and Eva Dawoud’s book compiles the personal images and anecdotes of a hugely diverse set of contributors.

//Left: Caroline Milne, Ghetto, London, 1999; DJ Dazee and DJ Rap, Bristol, 1997. Right: Nancy Thornber, Essential Festival, London, 2001//

//Juliette Hedoin and friends clubbing in London and Ayia Napa 1995-2002//

//Gavin Watson and friends on the skinhead scene, 1982-5//

The book is not dominated by well-known people and the usual suspects who patronise this narrative (though I snuck in there) and so is true to the subtitle; What We Wore celebrates in a thoroughly egalitarian manner “the presentation of self” – Erving Goffman’s phrase as cited by Ted Polhemus in his excellent foreword.

//Don Letts with friends, London, 1971 (right) and 1973//

//Russel Coulthart and friends at Rockley Sands, Dorset, 1988//

//Left: Diane El Dabi, London, 1979. Right: Cassie Clarke, London, 2002//

//Left: Mimi Joshua-Olushoga, London, 1971. Right: John O’Connor, Leeds, 1982 and Teo Connor, London, 1994//

//Left: Michael Dipple and friend, London 1980. Right: Jock Scot and Anna Chancellor, London, 1986//

//Me, London 1973, Ibiza, 1986, Portugal, 1982//

What We Wore is a fitting testament to our collective visual invention. I recommend it highly.

Buy What We Wore here.

Tags: Andrew Gallix, Anna Chancellor, Caroline Milne, Cassie Clarke, Diane El Dabi, DJ Dazee, DJ Rap, Don Letts, Eva Dawoud, Fred Butler, Gavin Watson, Ghetto, Ian Johns, Jock Scot, John O'Connor, Juliette Hedoin, Mark Wigan, Michael Dipple, Mimi Joshua-Olushoga, Nancy Thornber, Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky, Nina Manandhar, Rockley Sands, Russel Coulthart, Teo Connor, Tracey Emin, What We Wore, Winston Milton