//Box advert for the Beckenham Arts Lab run by David Bowie and Mary Finnigan in IT #59, July 1969//

//News story about the Goldsmiths Arts Festival organised by Malcolm Edwards and his fellow student Niall Martin in IT #59//

Researching my archive during lockdown for a project has given me the opportunity to thoroughly assess individual publications, none more so than the 59th issue of underground paper IT, which hit the streets in early July 1969.

This particular edition features a couple of small items which provide clues as to the countercultural activities at the time of two Londoners who would go on to define pop culture in the 1970s: David Bowie and Malcolm McLaren.

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Beckenham Arts Lab, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, David Bowie, Give Peace A Chance, Goldsmiths College of Art, Harold Pinter, IT, King Crimson, L. Ron Hubbard, Mary Finnigan, Mick Jagger, Plastic Ono Band, Pretty Things, RD Laing, Rolling Stones, Sun Ra, William Burroughs

//Jean Shrimpton in Mr Freedom Minnie Mouse top, Hans Feurer, Fancy Dressing, Nova, December 1970, with the original design on tracing paper by Refna. No reproduction without permission//

Exciting news: Elizabeth Hamey, who signs her work ‘Refna’, has granted me access to her amazing archive of work at the cross-hatches of art, design and fashion in the 1960s and 70s.

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Tags: Adrian Mann, Alkasura, Elizabeth Hamey, Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, English Boy, Goofy, Hans Feurer, Jean Shrimpton, Jimmy Page, John Lloyd, Kleptomania, Mick Jagger, Mick Rock, Mickey Mouse, Ossie Clark, Paul Reeves, Refna, Richard Burton, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, The Universal Witness, The Venus Of Urbino, The Yardbirds, Titian, Trevor myles, Twen, Walt Disney Co

//Top: Entrance to Ealing Club stairwell with jeweller’s to its right, early 1960s. Photo: ealingclub.com. Above: The entrance as it is today//

“Suburbia is the breeding ground for the richest and most innovative cultural production of the 20th and 21st centuries” Rupa Huq, writer and MP for Ealing Central & Acton, 2013

An advert in the New Musical Express for a “Rhythm & Blues Night” staged 55 years ago today – on St Patrick’s Night, March 17, 1962 – sparked the British musical revolution which soundtracked youth culture in the West for decades.

The ad proved a lure for suburban London teenage r&b fans including Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, while Eric Burdon, soon to be vocalist with The Animals, hitchhiked the 300 miles from Newcastle to join them in witnessing the main performance by Blues Incorporated (in fact he and Jagger traded verses on stage during a rendition of Billy Boy Arnold’s I Ain’t Got You).

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Tags: Alexis Korner, Art Wood, Billy Boy Arnold, Blues Incorporated, Charlie Watts, Cyril Davies, Ealing Club, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood, Rupa Huq, The Animals

//The four pairs of boots are classic examples of early 70s rock n roll style//

These rare and unusual boots are thought to have once belonged to Elton John; the current owner was told this when he acquired them.

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Tags: Annie Liebowitz, Caribou, Cecil Beaton, Elton John, Fashion An Anthology, Freddie Hornik, Gohil, Granny Takes A trip, Jim, Jim O'Connor, Joe Cocker, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Mr Freedom, Rolling Stone, V&A, Woodstock

//From Vacant by Nils Stevenson, photo: Ray Stevenson//

If you are of a London gig-goer of a certain (getting on to be advanced) age you will remember “Jesus”, an enthusiastic audience member at many musical events in the capital from the 60s to the late 70s.

//Detail: Hynde, Rotten, Matlock and Jesus. Photo: Ray Stevenson//

Jesus was notable because a) he was personable and b) would often discard his clothes as he energetically idiot-danced stage-front. Jesus liked to frolic with abandon, more often than not exposing much, or even all of his rail-thin body.

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Tags: Bachman turner Overdrive, Brian nevill, Chuck Berry, Clive Jellett, Glastonbury Fayre, Jeff Dexter, Jesus, Johnny Rotten, Magic Michael, Mick Jagger, Mr Fish, Nils Stevenson, Patti Smith, Ray Stevenson, Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, The Marque, The Nashville Rooms, The Rainbow, The Ramones, UFO, Vacant

//Mirabelle, May 2, 1970//

From the archive of the late Tommy Roberts, this image from British teen fashion magazine Mirabelle shows a particularly outré commission from fashion’s master of flamboyant retailing: a 7ft high rendition of a King Kong-style gorilla in blue fun fur created by the design team Sue and Simon Haynes.

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Tags: 1970, Chelsea FC, Chelsea School Of Art, Duggie Fields, Gerald Tilling, Leeds United, Mick Jagger, Simon Haynes, Sue Haynes, Susan Thomson, Tim Street-Porter

Tucked away at the back of an issue of British soft-porn magazine Club International was a fashion shoot featuring clothing elements which denoted the crystallisation of the new art-directed glam aesthetic inaugurated by the release of Roxy Music’s first album a couple of months previously.

The photographer was Karl Stoecker, the New Yorker who had been resident in the UK since the mid-60s and was coming into his own with important contributions to Roxy’s visual identity across that LP and its successors For Your Pleasure and Stranded.

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Tags: Antony Price, Che Guevara, Club International, For Your Pleasure, Gwenda Saar, Karl Stoecker, Manolo Bahnik, Mick Jagger, Norman B, Quincy, Roxy Music, STanley Adams, Stranded, The Squire Shop, Them, Village Gate, Zapata

I am beguiled by this photograph, which is entitled Pierre’s Breakfast and was taken by Willie Christie at David Hockney’s house in Notting Hill on May 18, 1974.

The identities of the two individuals on the left are a mystery*; with Clark (in the white jumpsuit) are make-up artist Pierre Laroche, Marianne Faithfull and Michael Roberts (then writer/photographer at The Sunday Times, now Vanity Fair’s fashion/style director). Behind the group are a selection of artist Mo McDermott’s signature painted wooden tree sculptures.

Laroche, who had worked at Elizabeth Arden for five years before taking up with rock & roll when he was recruited by Brian Duffy for the cover of David Bowie’s 1973 album Aladdin Sane, engaged Willie Christie for the May 74 session for a potential magazine feature.

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Tags: Aids, Aladdin Sane, Alkasura, Any Day Now, Brian Duffy, Charlton FC, Chelita Secunda, David Bowie, Elizabeth Arden, Henrietta Rous, Humble Pie, John Lloyd, Kevin Cann, Marianne Faithfull, Michael Roberts, Mick Jagger, Mo McDermott, Ossie Clark, Pierre Laroche, Rod Stewart, Roxy Music, Suzy Menkes, The Rocky Horror Show, The Who Lou Reed, Willie Christie

I haven’t had it confirmed – nor seen this in any music history – but I believe this line ad to have been placed by Jerry Nolan three years before he replaced Billy Murcia as the drummer in the New York Dolls.

It appeared in the June 14, 1969 edition of Rolling Stone, the “first British issue” of the magazine produced in collaboration with newly recruited staff in London.

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Tags: Billy Murcia, Charlie Watts, Frendz, Friends, George O'Dowd, Jack Bruce, Jann Wenner, Jerry Nolan, Mick Jagger, New York Dolls, Paul Tickell, Pete Townshend, Peter Green, Roy Harper

//Front cover photo by Harriet Crowther.//

A brown envelope I’m always glad to receive is that containing the latest BeatBooks catalogue.

Each quarter the arrival of the 8″ x 6″ booklet soon results in the tapping out of the url of the online order form for Andrew Sclanders’ site.

And the catalogues are treasurable in their own right.

Over the last decade or so Sclanders has carved out a niche for BeatBooks as collector central for all publications – literary, musical, graphic – springing from “beat” and moving through the counterculture and punk to the outer reaches of the avant-garde.

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Tags: Andy Warhol, Angus MacLise, BeatBooks, Charles Manson, David Felton, Gladys Brooks, Ira Cohen, Jack Smith, Jeff Nuttall, John Giorno, John Knight, L. Ron Hubbard, Marianne Faithfull, Mary Ann McClean, Mel Lyman, Mick Jagger, Mindfuckers, My Own Mag, Nova Express, Process, Robert De Grimston, Scientology, Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, Yugen