Paul Gorman

Blessed and Blasted

Blessed & Blasted: The 1980 Face Show. 01.1981


As explored in In Their Own Write, the most important creative in the development of British print media in the latter half of the 20th Century was Nick Logan. Arguably his greatest contribution was via the launch of The Face in 1980.

This year-end review – “123 things to remember 1980 by” – was featured in issue 9, published 30 years ago.

Adopting the technique applied at Harpers & Queen by the magazine’s poster boy Peter York – who appears in this issue in three separate articles due to the recent publication of his tone-setting Style Wars – The 1980 Face Show inaugurated the lifestyle list-culture which dominates global media to this day.

It’s as fascinating for who it promulgated – who can remember the name of Bad Manners’ lead singer now? – as for that which it found hard to define.

Continue reading Blessed & Blasted: The 1980 Face Show. 01.1981

Blessed & Blasted: Rock In Opposition 12.03.1978

//5 Silverthorne Road, London SW8, 1978.//

Alan Freeman (BBC DJ): “The popular music press always branded Henry Cow or Art Bears as ‘left wing’. “
Chris Cutler (drummer, Henry Cow/Art Bears/etc): ”Of course. Extremely. If you hate this government, and everything it stands for.”

I witnessed Henry Cow live for the first time at a “free” concert held one afternoon in a room at Finchley Town Hall in 1974 supporting The Global Village Trucking Co.

The culmination of the performance came when guitarist Fred Frith trod on a tatty and evidently useless acoustic and brought the hat around to “pay for repairs”. Recognising this as a piece of “show”, I was simultaneously bamboozled and excited by the incomprehension I felt at their improvisations.

I also appreciated the anti-rock/agit-prop stylings, particularly Frith’s beanie hat and cricket jumper, and the insistence on sitting down during even the most energetic extemporising (was Jah Wobble also taking note? I shall have to ask him).

Continue reading Blessed & Blasted: Rock In Opposition 12.03.1978

Blessed & Blasted: Group Hangman 07.07.1997

This was produced by Billy Childish and his associates before they formed The Stuckists.

I went along to a few Stuckist exhibitions and events, but preferred this manifesto to The Stuckists’; their’s seemed mere reaction when applied to artists of lesser stature than the soon-to-exit Childish.

Yet The Stuckists were worthwhile in their verbalisation of discontent at Britpop Blairite Britain’s rampant YBA smugness (and gave rise to the track with the ever-pertinent title Art Or Arse?).

Continue reading Blessed & Blasted: Group Hangman 07.07.1997