I’m really jazzed about getting my hands on the first finished copy of Totally Wired, my history of the music press which is published by Thames & Hudson this autumn.

Designer Daniel Streat has done wonders with the day-the-world-turned-dayglo jacket concept and my choice of cover star Poly Styrene.

There are 60 or so illustrations, all magazines from my archive. The diversity reflects the content of the book, which covers the usual suspects – NME, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone – but will hopefully turn readers onto the unexpected and surprising, from Black Music and Collusion to WET, Ben Is Dead and Girlfrenzy.

Totally Wired is published in the UK and elsewhere on September 22 and in North America on November 29. It is available to order now from all good booksellers as well as my Bookshop page at uk.bookshop.org/shop/paulgorman or by clicking on this panel:

Tags: Ben Is Dead, Black Music, Collusion, Daniel Streat, Girlfrenzy, Melody Maker, NME, Rolling Stone, Thames & Hudson, WET

Tomorrow night (April 14) I was supposed to be appearing at London’s regular event Word In Your Ear, the live successor of the much-missed The Word magazine founded by publishing titans Mark Ellen and David Hepworth.

//Smash Hits, January 6-19, 1983//

In the era of social distancing Mark and David have come up with the online Word In Your Attic, the results of which are posted on Youtube. For the episode to coincide with the publication of my Malcolm McLaren biography they asked me talk about 10 objects relating to McLaren from my archive.

//Mayoral campaign materials, 2000//

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Tags: Billy Fury, Charles M. Young, David Hepworth, Harold Pinter, Ian Dury, Mark Ellen, Mayor Of London, Neil Tennant, New Musical Express, Nick Kent, Patrick Casey, Pennie Smith., Robin Maugham, Rolling Stone, Smash Hits, The Herd, The Kinks, The Politics Of Flash, The Servant, The Story of Oxford Street, The Word, The Zombies, Who KIlled Bambi?, Word In Your Attic, Word In Your Ear, Writers Guild Of America

//Above Taron Egerton as Elton John and Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin meet “Tommy Roberts” in Rocketman. Stills from Kii Arens promo video for Egerton and John’s new single (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again//

//The pair of Mr Freedom winged boots acquired by Cecil Beaton for the V&A 1971 exhibition: Fashion: An Anthology//

During the production of Elton John biopic Rocketman there were plans for a scene set in London’s groundbreaking pop-art boutique Mr Freedom in the early 70s.

This was to set up the central character’s visual transformation during visits to the store under the influence of its charismatic founder and frontman, the late, lamented Tommy Roberts.

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Tags: (I'm Gonna) Love Me Again, Annie Liebowitz, Bernie Taupin, Cecil Beaton, Electric Colour Company, Elton John, Fashion An Anthology, Jamie Bell, Jim O'Connor, Jon Wealleans, Kii Arens, Pamla Motown, Rocketman, Rolling Stone, Taron Egerton, V&A

//”Old clothes are a short cut to style”, Freddie Hornik quoted by Drusila Beyfus and photographed by John Patrick for Finding Your Style: Male, published in The Daily Telegraph Magazine, June 13, 1969//

The new issue of British GQ Style features an essay by me about the late Freddie Hornik, the man responsible for exporting Britain’s dandy peacock look around the world in the 70s.

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Tags: Alex Jarrett, Drusilla Beyfus, Elton John, Freddie Hornik, Gene Krell, John LiDonni, John Patrick, Marty Breslau, Miles Davis, Nigel Waymouth, Richie Onigbene, Rod Stewart, Rolling Stone, Sheila Cohen, The Daily Telegraph Magazine

//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

I am now starting work on a new book.

Legacy: The Story Of The Face is to be published by Thames & Hudson in 2015 and has the support and involvement of Nick Logan, the owner and founder of what became one of the most important and influential publications of recent times.

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Tags: Bauer, Emap, New York, Nick Logan, Playbopy, Rolling Stone, Saturday Review, Sunday Times Colour Supplement, Thames & Hudson, Twen

//Trixie Merkin, 1968. Photo: Baron Wolman.//

My appreciation for the visual culture surrounding popular music was given a leg-up at an early age by a Christmas 1973 gift: Rolling Stone‘s photography compendium Shooting Stars.

Edited by Annie Leibovitz, Shooting Stars lined up a number of the magazine’s photographic contributors who had recorded the American rock music scene in its pomp.

//Front cover, Shooting Stars, Straight Arrow Books, 1973.//

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Tags: Annie Leibovitz, Baron Wolman, Doug Sahm, John Fogerty, Rock Paper Photo, Rolling Stone, The GTOs, Trixie Merkin

I’m agnostic about Steve Nicks (though I have been to The Night Of 1,0000 Stevies), but this is mesmerising.

Mrs G turned me onto this. It seems Nicks was listening to a backing track of then-new composition Wild Heart as she was being made-up for a Rolling Stone photoshoot.

The title song of her first solo album, it was hit in 1983. Don’t bother with that version – it’s buffed and polished into formulaic AoR.

This is something else; Nicks and a backing singer/friend launch into the chorus again and again like there’s no tomorrow. The make-up artist eventually gives up her job and looks on in awe. As do we decades later.

Tags: Fleetwood Mac, Night Of 1000 Stevies, Rolling Stone, Stevie Nicks, Wild heart