Yesterday I met Lloyd Johnson to discuss next spring’s exhibition celebrating his career as Pop’s Pontiff Of Cool (a title I shamefully bestowed upon him in a Mojo feature a decade or so ago).
Continue reading Lloyd Johnson exhibition: The wheels start turning
MY SPECULATION HERE SPARKED A TRAIL TO THE TRUE SOURCE OF THE MAIN IMAGE: THE ARTIST/PHOTOGRAPHER JIM FRENCH, WHO DREW THE COWBOYS FOR A SERIES CALLED LONGHORNS IN 1969 (SEE LINK AT END OF THIS POST).
The late Malcolm McLaren said he could never remember the origins of one of the most potent designs to emanate from 430 King’s Road in its six-decade history as a fashion emporium: the Cowboys t-shirt.
In these 70s shots Dennis Hopper and Iggy Pop are both wearing the so-called “tits tee” – the design which started out as an art-school project in the late 60s, became a novelty item, then a punk classic and more recently was a Haiti disaster fundraiser.
I investigated the story of the tits tee here.
I bought this beauty at a second-hand bookshop at Willesden Green underground station in 1983.
I see from the pencil marking on the back it cost £2. Measuring 39″ x 20″, it turns out it is quite the rarity.
Continue reading Posters: The withdrawn Carry On Cleo by Tom Chantrell (1964)
Two “manifesto” designs which emanated from 430 King’s Road – the You’re Gonna Wake Up t-shirt and the Anarchy Shirt – share a reference to “The Black Hand Gang”.
I had long assumed that both referred to Spanish anarchists La Mano Negra, since the group’s name was listed with that of their fellow countryman and revolutionary Buenaventura Durruti.
But on the t-shirt, the absence of an “and” or connecting device had me pondering the possibility this was another Black Hand Gang; maybe the secret society dedicated to Serbian unity (linked to one of the events which triggered the First World War, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914)?
Continue reading Blessed & Blasted: Roots of the Anarchy Shirt part 2
My investigation into the multifarious strands which fed into the creation of the 1974 t-shirt You’re Gonna Wake Up has, in turn, ignited a convincing set of new theories about the genesis of another “manifesto” design, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s so-called Anarchy Shirt.
Continue reading Blessed & Blasted: Roots of the Anarchy Shirt part 1
Little Feat records were something else, but then again Little Feat were something else.
Continue reading Sleevenotes: Lowell George (The Last Record Album,1975)
The piece underscoring this trailer for the Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey 1972 production Heat is John Cale’s Days Of Steam, from his album The Academy In Peril.
I heartily (groan…) recommend Alistair Sooke’s half-hour radio documentary on Milton Glaser’s I ♥ NY logo.
Glaser is interviewed, as are Seymour Chwast and Steven Heller among others.
According to Letterheady.com’s Shaun Usher, the adjective “letterheady” describes the feeling of being overcome by emotion at a strong letterhead design.
