This is the sleeve designed by Barney Bubbles – would have been 71 today – for Screwed Up, the 1977 EP by the rabble-rousing writer and performer Mick Farren, who died at the weekend after collapsing onstage during a performance with his band The Deviants of their poem/song Cocaine & Gunpowder.
A few years back I wrote a series of blogs about the so-called “Wild Thing” jacket worn by Iggy Pop on the cover of his and The Stooges’ album Raw Power; in 2008 I had brokered a deal for the jacket designers John and Molly Dove to reissue a t-shirt range – including a version bearing the Wild Thing’s panther head – via Topman.
Around that time I also hooked them up with the current owner of the jacket, US maverick pop culture entrepreneur and collector “Long Gone” John Mermis (who I’d met as far back as the mid-90s at his extraordinary Long Beach mansion).
Continue reading Iggy Pop’s Wild Thing jacket: Not from Paradise Garage
The Emporium, the London clothing outlet which inaugurated London’s vintage fashion business, is to close after 27 years.
As London’s independent retail fashion scene took the swan-dive from which it never recovered in the mid-80s, so Jon Hale and Jacki Cook’s shop in Greenwich, south-east London, provided a haven of 20th Century style, handpicked with consummate taste from their carefully accumulated archive of thousands of garments from the 30s to the 70s.
Journalist Dermot Kavanagh’s project to celebrate the life and achievements of the late soul boy footballer Laurie Cunningham moves apace; if you have the opportunity, listen to Kavanagh talking to BBC London 94.9’s Robert Elms today.
Continue reading Steps Ahead: The Laurie Cunningham project moves apace
Here’s a selection of photographs from the family photo album of Johnny Deluxe, one of my favourite unpindownable Londoners. Deluxe is an artist, clothes-maker, performer, raconteur and all-round individualist.
I’ll let him tell the story behind each.
This was taken in March or April 1978. I was wearing a Seditionaries Destroy t-shirt and Boy zip trousers, not quite bondage ones, just zips on the pockets, but super drainpipe in bright canvas. I was just about to go to France and be chased by French teddy boys. I got my hair cut at Alphonso’s in Oxford Road, Reading, an old boy’s barber where I asked for an “Elvis” and then hacked into it at home (Alphonso was too old for the modern stuff).
I am now starting work on a new book.
Legacy: The Story Of The Face is to be published by Thames & Hudson in 2015 and has the support and involvement of Nick Logan, the owner and founder of what became one of the most important and influential publications of recent times.
Continue reading Starting work on my new book – Legacy: The Story Of The Face
Trevor Myles’ decision to incorporate a flocked and tiger-striped 1966 Ford Mustang as part of his retail space Paradise Garage naturally attracted a lot of attention during the brief existence of this unusual fashion outlet at 430 King’s Road in Chelsea’s World’s End in 1971.
Continue reading Flocked + tiger-striped: The Paradise Garage Ford Mustang
Ssion were great at Birthdays last night: exciting and euphoric. Been smiling ever since.
Visit the Ssion site.
I Always Remember A Face, Especially When I’ve Sat On It is the arresting title of a great 14-track vinyl-only compilation from artist of the fantastical, Maurizio Cattelan.
This is the tracklisting:
A Side
1 Bernard Herrmann – Brave New World (Excerpt)
2 The Cheers – Black Denim Trousers & Motorcycle Boots
3 Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Aux Chemins De Fer (Excerpt)
4 Judy Garland – The Trolley Song
5 Coldcut – Stop This Crazy Thing (Excerpt)
6 Malcolm McLaren – Miss Belle
7 Gene Vincent – Jezebel
B Side
1 Les Paul & Mary Ford – Bye Bye Blues
2 Hoosier Hot Shots – I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones
3 The Dorsey Brothers – Lullaby Of Broadway
4 F.T. Martinetti & A.Guintini – Sintesi Musicali Furutiste (Excerpt)
5 Malcolm McLaren – Ride A Fashion Horse Pt.2
6 Cornelius – Fantasma
7 Ozzie Nelson And His Orchestra – Dream A Little Dream Of Me
The LP – produced under the auspices of his online magazine Toilet Paper, marks Cattelan’s current show at Basel’s Fondation Beyeler. See here.
A collaboration with The Vinyl Factory, I Always Remember A Face, Especially When I’ve Sat On It has been produced in a limited edition of 1,000 copies and is available here.
Read Toilet Paper here.
Listen to the comp here:
