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Books

Books: Penguin’s Gormenghast trilogy

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.

A recent conversation with artist John Frankland about the work of Mervyn Peake has brought me back to one of my most treasured possessions: the 1970 Penguin edition of Peake’s masterpiece Gormenghast. Designed by Robert Hollingsworth, the three illustrated paperbacks Titus Groan (first published in 1946) Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959) were housed in […]

May 14, 2011
London

I like a bit of a cavort: Let It Rock

Can’t beat a bit of Chuck for a frolic. Watch him move. I saw him live a year or so later at The Rainbow. He played a 35-minute set and brought on his daughter for the lovey-dovey finale. It may have been South Of The Border. When the Teds realised he had vamoosed rather than […]

May 13, 2011
430 King's Road

The Cowboys came from Colt Studio

My theorising over the roots of the Cowboys t-shirt has uncovered the true source of the main image: a 1969 drawing by the artist Jim French reproduced in a 1974 issue of his magazine Manpower!. French has an international following for his gay-themed photographic + illustrative work, via his Colt Studio image-bank and work as […]

May 11, 2011
Catalogues

Beatbooks 57: Patti Smith

Patti Smith is the focus of the latest Beatbooks sale, which is accompanied by a printed catalogue up to the usual high standards of the archive’s curator Andrew Sclanders.

May 11, 2011
Dancing

I like a bit of a cavort: The Heptones – Party Time 2

This is Lee Perry really mixing up the medicine with his dub of The Heptones’ 1976 song. It’s billed as Party Time 2 on the great Arkology 3-CD set from quite a few years back. I was given my now tattered, battered, partied + cherished copy by the much missed Rob Partridge. Wherever you are: […]

May 6, 2011
1970s

Roots of the Cowboys t-shirt

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 […]

May 5, 2011
Books

Books: I’ll Take You There

A chat with photographer/Men’s File publisher Nick Clements at the opening of his show Revival –  which looks at the re-enactment of the styles surrounding American bike culture of the 50s for his Royal College Of Art research project – put me in mind of original black motorcycle clubs the Atomic Angels and the Gypsy […]

May 4, 2011