Paul Gorman

430 King’s Road

‘Because of the economic crisis, people are trying to consume as fast as possible. Ideas are dead; there aren’t any to express the mood. Fashion is irrelevant’: Malcolm McLaren + SEX, November 1975

//Sex assistant Jordan, Gallery International, Vol 1, no 4.//

It’s unlikely that cities will shake or nations start to rock under the impact of Malcolm McLaren’s sexual revolution. A few people might die though.

Malcolm McLaren, at 30, is a mixture of entrepreneurial cultist, sexual evangelist, businessman, artist, fetishist and political philosopher; a psychotic visionary in the ephemeral subculture of the fashion world.

David May, Gallery International Vol 1 no 4.

In November 1975 – by which time his charges the Sex Pistols had just embarked on live performances – Malcolm McLaren was interviewed by journalist David May at 430 King’s Road, then in full bloom as radical retail venture SEX.

Continue reading ‘Because of the economic crisis, people are trying to consume as fast as possible. Ideas are dead; there aren’t any to express the mood. Fashion is irrelevant’: Malcolm McLaren + SEX, November 1975

‘Pop culture’s one-man production line’ – Tommy Roberts book in new issue of GQ

Tommy Roberts book in GQ Sept 2012

The September 2012 issue of GQ features this David Parkinson photograph of the interior of Tommy Roberts and Trevor Myles’ Mr Freedom at 430 King’s Road.

One of a number of previously-unpublished photographs in Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero, this shot captures the extraordinary fit-out Myles and Roberts’ commissioned from pioneering East End design team Electric Colour Company.

Read my post about ECC’s achievements  – with interviews and many illustrations, still the only piece to be published anywhere about this important but sorely neglected group of British artist/designers – here.

Rough Kids, Sex Pistols + Art School Babies: Tommy Roberts in the final issue of The Word

//Pages 108-111, The Word, August 2012.//

Out later this week, the final issue of The Word marks a significant staging post in the story of magazine publishing in the digital age.

Champions of the written word and intelligent discourse about popular culture, the editorial team headed by veteran double-act Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have assembled a fine last edition in which I’m stoked to be included, with an extract from Mr Freedom about Tommy Roberts’ involvement in the mid-70s British music scene (including never-previously revealed details of Roberts’ loaning of rehearsal space to the nascent Sex Pistols, the burglary of his shop City Lights Studio by members of the group and Malcolm McLaren’s interest in managing Ian Dury).

Continue reading Rough Kids, Sex Pistols + Art School Babies: Tommy Roberts in the final issue of The Word

All satin, no tat, 1971: Kansai Yamamoto, Michael Chow, David Parkinson, Tommy Roberts, Barney Wan et al

//From The Sunday Times Magazine, November 28, 1971.//

The joy of writing about a subject as rich as Tommy Roberts is that research turns up an apparently limitless supply of fabulous material.

Even the tangential stuff – such as this from my archive, a spread from a 1971 Sunday Times Magazine  – gets me going.

Continue reading All satin, no tat, 1971: Kansai Yamamoto, Michael Chow, David Parkinson, Tommy Roberts, Barney Wan et al

Memories of Dandie Fashions + Paradise Garage + a return to Granny’s

Frederique Cifuentes takes photographs of Diana Crawshaw outside 430 King's Road. Diana Crawshaw was one of the team behind the shop's incarnation as Paradise Garage in 1971.
//Frederiques Cifuentes photographs Diana Crawshaw outside 430 King's Road.//

Filming continued yesterday for this summer’s King’s Road Fashion & Music Trail, which is is being launched to visitors to west London’s historic thoroughfare as part of Kensington & Chelsea’s InTransit festival in July.

We will be covering all the boutique manifestations at 430 King’s Road; for a start I plumped for its incarnation as Paradise Garage in 1971, operated by Trevor Myles with Chris Snow and Diana Crawshaw.

Continue reading Memories of Dandie Fashions + Paradise Garage + a return to Granny’s

Filming: Lloyd Johnson and Nigel Waymouth for the King’s Road Fashion + Music Trail

Lloyd Johnson in the doorway of 406 King's Road - site of his Johnson's The Modern Outfitter boutique 1978-2000
//Frederique Cifuentes captures Lloyd Johnson in the doorway at 406 King's Road. Lloyd installed the lamp above his head when he opened Johnson's at the premises in 1978.//

Yesterday filming started for this summer’s King’s Road Fashion & Music Trail, which is is being launched to visitors to west London’s historic thoroughfare as part of Kensington & Chelsea’s InTransit festival in July.

The films of sites which have housed important boutiques in the story of rock & roll fashion will be accessible for pedestrians via QR codes and also appear on the RBKC website and on Youtube.

IMG_5800
//Nigel Waymouth on the terrace at 488 King's Road.//

Continue reading Filming: Lloyd Johnson and Nigel Waymouth for the King’s Road Fashion + Music Trail

The Emperor Of Wyoming, 404 King’s Road

//Stetson, embroidered shirt and hand-tooled leather belt from The Emperor Of Wyoming. Photo: David Parkinson for Club International, February 1974.//

Billy Murphy’s boutique The Emperor Of Wyoming was an extremely important staging post not just in the story of British rock and roll fashion but also the development of the vintage scene in this country.

Opened by Murphy at 404 King’s Road in 1972, TEOW specialised in selected items of Westernwear and American clothing at a time when the pickings were slim for such garments in London.

Continue reading The Emperor Of Wyoming, 404 King’s Road

Monster V&A design book: Bubbles, Hirst, The Queen + Bowie get special treatment…but where’s Malcolm?

British Design from 1948: Innovation in the Modern Age

British Design From 1948: Innovation In The Modern Age – the new book accompanying the forthcoming show at the V+A – is a bumper edition: 400 pages weighing in at 5lbs.

It’s cheering to see Barney Bubbles’ design Ian Dury With Love granted upfront prominence; the poster is in select company given special treatment by the book’s designer, Barnbrook’s Daniel Streat. The others are: Cecil Beaton’s 1953 coronation portrait of The Queen, a shot of Damien Hirst’s Notting Hill restaurant Pharmacy and Brian Duffy’s Aladdin Sane portrait of David Bowie.

Barney Bubbles' Ian Dury poster treated by Jonathan Barnbrook

Continue reading Monster V&A design book: Bubbles, Hirst, The Queen + Bowie get special treatment…but where’s Malcolm?