Paul Gorman

1950s

‘What goes into a Continental Keyhole?’ How Malcolm McLaren conjured the name ‘Kutie Jones and his Sex Pistols’ from the seamy 50s and 60s Britporn mags strewn around 430 King’s Road

In October 1974 Malcolm McLaren conjured an unusual group name for four young musicians who congregated at his shop at 430 King’s Road.

//The group name as it appeared on the ‘right’ side of the You’re Gonna Wake Up t-shirt//

At the time the transition from the premises’ previous incarnation as Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die to Sex was nearing completion; in fact the teenagers Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock (who was also a sales assistant on Saturdays) and Wally Nightingale assisted McLaren in applying the finishing touch with the erection of the pink vinyl shop sign constructed at his direction by carpenter Vic Mead.

Continue reading ‘What goes into a Continental Keyhole?’ How Malcolm McLaren conjured the name ‘Kutie Jones and his Sex Pistols’ from the seamy 50s and 60s Britporn mags strewn around 430 King’s Road

Perfect Binding: A psychogeographic portrait of counter-cultural Leicester from the late 50s to the early 70s

//The premises of Jack English Snr’s lighting shop in Leicester’s Granby Street provide the book’s cover image//
//Will English (right) with Helen Robinson and Steph Raynor in a transport cafe c.1970. Photo by Rose Kendall//
//David Parkinson and his Messerschmitt bubble car, 1974. Photography: Will English//

Perfect Binding, the recently published book by British experimental filmmaker/broadcaster/bookseller William English, is a psychogeographic portrait of a particular strain of cultural activity in a particular place at a particular time: the Midlands city of Leicester from the 1950s to the 70s.

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Romantic revolt to change our lives: George Cox catwalk show and in-conversation celebrating 70 years of creepin’ at Port Eliot next week

// In George Cox creepers: Malcolm McLaren, 430 King’s Road, January 1972. Photo: David Parkinson / Slowthai, Northampton, 2018. Photo: Ewen Spencer for Arena Homme + //

“Those blue suede shoes had a magical association that seemed authentic. They represented an age of desperate romantic revolt to change your life.”

Malcolm McLaren, notes on his life in fashion, 1997

I’m celebrating the 70th anniversary of the introduction of George Cox & Co’s first creeper at the Port Eliot Festival next week with Adam Waterfield, the fourth generation owner of the great independent British brand, and his son Alistair, a Central Saint Martins student and model who is very much involved in the family business.

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What did it mean to have an art school in every town and what can we learn by discovering their fate?

Gate detail, Lancaster art school. Photo: Matthew Cornford

There were more 150 art schools in this country in the mid-1960s. Most of them are now closed or absorbed into other institutions and the buildings repurposed, remodelled or demolished. What did it mean to have an art school in every town and what can we learn by discovering their fate?

Exhibition notes for The Art Schools Of North West England, 2018

I’m playing catch-up, having been distracted by a big project, but wanted to plug this great exhibition which is on at Liverpool’s prestigious gallery Bluecoat until March next year.

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An unblinking look inside the squirrel cage: Duncan Hannah’s 20th Century Boy

When he was growing up in Minneapolis in the 1950s, the painter Duncan Hannah’s father advised him: “You never know what kind of squirrel cage a man goes home to at the end of the day.”

Hannah’s book 20th Century Boy allows the reader full access to the squirrel cage inhabited by this charming man in 1970s New York.

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‘The trouble-making and oppositional aspects of this show are what we do so well’: PRINT! Tearing It Up at Somerset House supported by Charles Russell Speechlys

British law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, which supports the exhibitions at Somerset House’s Terrace Rooms, has produced a short film about PRINT! Tearing It Up, the show which I have organised at the gallery with SH senior curator Claire Catterall.
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The PRINT! Mind Map: From A4 rough to 40 sq metre vinyl exhibit

//The PRINT! Mind Map currently in the Terrace Rooms of Somerset House. Photo: Doug Peters/PA Wire//

//First rough draft, February 2018//

One of the most popular elements of PRINT! Tearing It Up – the celebration of independent magazines currently at Somerset House – is the giant mind map of British publishing which occupies an entire wall in the Terrace Rooms gallery.

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George Cox: My essay on the great British brand and creator of the creeper

//Above and below: Screen grabs from the all-new George Cox website//

To mark the relaunch of the fifth-generation British rock’n’roll footwear brand George Cox, I have written an essay tracing the history of the company from the establishment by brewery worker George James Cox in 1906 to its welter of activities in the 21st century.

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“Because it’s so damn good!” Extracts from my exclusive interview with pioneering illustrator/photographer Jim French, who has died aged 84

//Jim French. Photo: SHOWStudio//

The American illustrator and photographer Jim French – best known for his pioneering endeavours in the field of homoerotic art – has died at home in Palm Springs at the age of 84.

Continue reading “Because it’s so damn good!” Extracts from my exclusive interview with pioneering illustrator/photographer Jim French, who has died aged 84