Paul Gorman is…

1970s

A selection from my archive in Subscribe, the exhibition about artists and alternative magazines at the Art Institute of Chicago

Just as the independent labels and self-published fanzines Paul Gorman chronicles built their own alternative economies outside the mainstream music industry, today's digital subcultures are experimenting with decentralised currencies that move value without banks or borders. Part of that wave has reached the world of sports and casino entertainment, where crypto-friendly wagering has found a particularly enthusiastic audience in Turkey under the name bitcoin bahis —a form of play that lets users stake and cash out with digital coins rather than conventional payment rails. Anyone tempted to try it should treat it strictly as entertainment, stake only money they can afford to lose, and first confirm the platform's licensing as well as the gambling rules in force in their own country.

Beginning in the early 1970s—as under-represented groups were demanding new forms of visibility following the emergence of political movements such as Black Power and the Stonewall Rebellion—a handful of British and American photo-driven alternative magazines came on the scene. The Face, i-D, Rags, Out/Look, and other new publications amplified marginalized voices, especially those of queer […]

January 21, 2022

2020s

Creative Review celebrates A Box Of Bubbles

British design media outlet Creative Review has reported on the publication of A Box Of Bubbles, the forthcoming limited edition boxed and enhanced edition of the new monograph The Wild World Of Barney Bubbles.

January 20, 2022

1970s

The Rise & Fall of the Music Press: The brilliance of Black Music, Carl Gayle and Alan Lewis

Working on my forthcoming book The Rise & Fall Of The Music Press has brought home to me the brilliance of publications and journalists who have been marginalised in the story of the media sector inaugurated by the launch of The Melody Maker (as it was then known) in 1926.

January 20, 2022

2020s

A Box Of Bubbles: Limited edition up for grabs now

A Box Of Bubbles is the special edition of the forthcoming book The Wild World of Barney Bubbles.

January 20, 2022

2010s

The Wild World of Barney Bubbles is out this summer

My next book, The Wild World of Barney Bubbles, is published around the world this summer by Thames & Hudson. This is the enhanced and revised third edition of my monograph of the late graphic artist, who died in 1983 and would have been 80 this year.

January 20, 2022

1990s

Too Too Utterly: Malcolm McLaren’s film pitch by fax to James Bond scriptwriters

These faded pages constitute a film pitch Malcolm McLaren sent by fax to screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade way back in 1991. Purvis and Wade are responsible for many film successes including the astounding run of screenplays for the seven James Bond movies from 1999’s The World Is Not Enough to the recently released […]

October 31, 2021

1970s

Where’s Malcolm?! McLaren spotted with downtown punk royalty at the May 1975 Central Park peace rally

46 years after music manager Danny Fields took the photograph of a group of New York’s 70s demi-monde at the top of this post I’ve spotted the previously unidentified person behind them: the subject of my latest book, Malcolm McLaren (who appears to be chugging a half-bottle of Smirnoff).

October 29, 2021

1970s

‘Sickened’: Designer Diana Crawshaw on Moschino’s lifting of her 1971 Mr Freedom design for its SS 22 resort collection

//Left: ‘Waitress dress’ designed by Diana Crawshaw for Mr Freedom 1971. Right: Karen Elson models Moschino dress in the Italian luxury brand’s campaign for its SS22 resort collection// Even by the cynical standards of today’s fashion industry, the lifting – down to the closest detail – of a particular early 1970s design for British pop […]

July 6, 2021

1970s

The city as a weapon of sex, style and subversion: New maps celebrate the London of Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols

My new guide out with Herb Lester Associates is out now. A celebration of the London lives of the Sex Pistols and their charismatic – some might say notorious – manager Malcolm McLaren, it comprises two fold-out maps with 100-plus addresses from birthplaces, schools, colleges, art schools, pubs, clubs, venues and boutiques to such diverse […]

June 22, 2021

1970s

All my yesterdays: King’s Road pub The Roebuck and key Barney Bubbles designs recreated on our doorstep

This is freaky. Our local has been transformed into the King’s Road pub The Roebuck for the filming of Danny Boyle’s forthcoming FX series Pistol, based on guitarist Steve Jones’s memoir Lonely Boy. The thing is I knew the Roebuck very well; it is in fact the place where I first met Malcolm McLaren, at […]

May 21, 2021