Paul Gorman

Music

Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

When he launched the small-format 32-page song sheet The Melody Maker in 1926, Tin Pan Alley music publisher Lawrence Wright sparked the media revolution that created the music press.

This multi-million pound business eventually straddled the Atlantic and simultaneously proved a fertile breeding ground for generations of writers, photographers, film-makers and performers who made their mark in the wider world.

Everyone from Bob Geldof, Chrissie Hynde and Neil Tennant to Danny Baker, Caroline Coon, Julie Burchill, Barbara Ellen, Caitlin Moran, Miranda Sawyer and movie directors Cameron Crowe and Anton Corbijn (and even Michael Winner) cut their teeth on music magazines such as Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Rolling Stone, ZigZag and Smash Hits.

Continue reading Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

Talking Barney Bubbles x Hipgnosis at Stroud’s Pop Up festival on March 26

I’m looking forward to appearing at Pop Up, the subcultures festival being held in the Gloucestershire town of Stroud next month.

I’ll be comparing and contrasting the work of Barney Bubbles with that of his rivals Hipgnosis in the 70s and 80s with Mark Blake, author of the new book about the British music design studio and Pop Up organiser and writer Ben Wardle.

//Front Cover, Peter Gabriel, Charisma Records, 1977. Design: Hipgnosis//

Continue reading Talking Barney Bubbles x Hipgnosis at Stroud’s Pop Up festival on March 26

‘Illuminating treatise… essential reading’ Electronic Sound on Totally Wired

The first review of my next book Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press is in the current issue of British monthly Electronic Sound, which receives a mention in the post-2000 epilogue:

Challenging my ‘rise & fall’ thesis, Electronic Sound‘s review is nevertheless complimentary, describing the book as an ‘illuminating treatise’ and ‘essential reading’.

Visit Electronic Sound and buy the latest issue here.

Order your copy of Totally Wired at all good booksellers, including bookshop.org.

 

 

DB Burkeman’s Art Sleeves: Album Covers By Artists avoids the usual suspects and contains many surprises

Among the many things the world doesn’t need now is another book of record covers, but DB Burkeman’s Art Sleeves, which is published today by Rizzoli, is something else entirely.

For once the publisher’s blurb is spot-on; this is “a tightly curated exploration” of record covers which challenge the distinctions between art and design, between object and product.

This means that there are many surprises in the book, and a minimum of the usual suspects.

Art Sleeves also contains a bonus in a series of artist spotlights and conversations featuring such exponents as Christian Marclay, INVADER, Ryan McGinley, Genieve Figgis  and Marilyn Minter.

And Barney Bubbles receives a mention as DB’s “personal design hero” in the introduction.

I recommend Art Sleeves highly. Order your copy here and follow Art Sleeves on Instagram here.

Experimental + inspirational: Wild Daughter

//Wild Daughter at the ICA last month. The gold phalus worn by James Jeanetta was
//Wild Daughter at the ICA last month. The gold phallus worn by James Jeanette was created by leathermakers Whitaker Malem//
//Still from Wild Daughter’s Mr G, directed by Douglas Hart and styled by Elie Grace Cumming//

I was flattered recently to receive an email from Jacob Shaw, bassist in art-rockers Wild Daughter, about the effect my work has had on certain visual elements of the group and in particular a performance during their recent ICA night The Moon Sextiles The Sun.

Continue reading Experimental + inspirational: Wild Daughter

Pungent + prolific with a million miles on the meter: Sayonara Mary Cigarettes

“I want to die with a million miles on my meter,

I want to die with well-used and worn tyres”

In The Land Of The Harley Davidson, Mary Cigarettes, 2011

It’s been a month or so since the death of the extraordinary singer-songwriter Mary Cigarettes; today I’m marking his passing with this selection from his Youtube channel.

Continue reading Pungent + prolific with a million miles on the meter: Sayonara Mary Cigarettes

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.

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

Dancing at the Tottenham Royal, driving across town for a decent spag bol, the hip young gunslingers NME ad, founding The Face and much, much more: Listen to Nick Logan talk about his London with Gary Crowley

 

For the ‘My London’ slot on his BBC Radio London programme, British broadcaster Gary Crowley has conducted an illuminating interview (with musical choices) with Nick Logan, editor, publisher and hands-down the greatest British magazine innovator of our time.

Continue reading Dancing at the Tottenham Royal, driving across town for a decent spag bol, the hip young gunslingers NME ad, founding The Face and much, much more: Listen to Nick Logan talk about his London with Gary Crowley

Judy Nylon in McLaren’s Smoking Boy shirt with Nick Kent in Granny’s and Brian James in leathers, inside The Roxy 1977

//From left: Kent, James and Nylon. Please advise if you are the photographer or know their identity. No reproduction without permission//

Artist/thinker Judy Nylon has sent me this great shot taken at London punk haven The Roxy in the spring of 1977.

Continue reading Judy Nylon in McLaren’s Smoking Boy shirt with Nick Kent in Granny’s and Brian James in leathers, inside The Roxy 1977