A few years back I came across Malcolm McLaren’s annotated copy of Indian Rawhide, the anthropologist Mable Morrow’s study of the folk art produced by Native American tribes which inspired the late cultural iconoclast in the conceptualising with his partner Vivienne Westwood of their Spring/Summer 1982 fashion collection Savage.

//Frontispiece to Morrow’s book, published by University of Oklahoma Press in the Civilization Of The American Indian Series, 1975//

//From Indian Rawhide: design produced by the Apache Mescaleros in Taos, New Mexico, matched by McLaren and Westwood with book-end marbling on this Savage slip dress. No reproduction without permission//

//The Apache design as it appeared printed on the end of the train on a Worlds End jersey toga dress. No reproduction without permission//

McLaren obtained a copy of Morrow’s book during travels recording his debut solo album Duck Rock. Since the Pirate collection of March 1981 had established a post-Punk direction for himself and Westwood and their Worlds End shop and label, McLaren set about investigating the powerful ideas residing in pre-Christian ethnic cultures, selecting Indian Rawhide as the text with which to frame the next group of designs.

My McLaren biography, to be published in spring 2018, will reveal that research – particularly literary – was one of the life-long consistencies in his approach to creative acts.

The musician Robin Scott told me that McLaren was an avid attendee of art history lessons during their spell as students at Croydon Art School in the 60s, and a couple of years before his death in 2010 McLaren confirmed that he was inspired in part to open Teddy Boy revival emporium Let It Rock at 430 King’s Road in 1971 after reading Nik Cohn’s peerless post-WW2 youth cult history Today There Are No Gentlemen.

//This edition Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971//

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: A General History Of Pyrates, Assiniboin, Bow Wow Wow, Dakota, Duck Rock, Frederick's Of Hollywood, Giorgio Morandi, I Want Candy, Jean Kerboull, Judy Nylon, Mable Morrow, Mescaleros, Nik Cohn, Norah Waugh, parfleches, Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing The Flak-Catchers, The Cut Of Men’s Clothes 1600-1900, The Mass Psychology Of Fascism, The Strangeloves, Today There Are No Gentlemen, Voodoo And Magic Practices, Wilhelm Reich

//The image of the elongated photographers was created by Tim Stephens, one of the exhibition participants. Courtesy Mark Trompeteler. No reproduction without permission//

As a follow-up to my last post, here is the stunning poster for Eight Young Photographers, the third exhibition to be held at the Photographers Gallery (which opened at its original premises in central London’s Great Newport Street at the beginning of 1971).

The image has been provided by Mark Trompeteler, who was one of the participants along with talents such as the late David Parkinson then on the rise during the period when appreciation of photography as a form of artistic expression was beginning to take hold.

Says Trompeteler: “The silhouette of the photographers with the elongated legs was created by Tim Stephens, one of the exhibitors and one of my classmates back then at the London College of Printing (now the London College  of Communications).

“He tilted the back of a 5×4 camera in order to create the image. The Photographers Gallery organised the finished poster with the typography on top.”

Read about Mark’s work here.

Tags: Eight Young Photographers, Mark Trompeteler, Photographers Gallery, Tim Stephens

//David Parkinson in the Eight Young Photographers catalogue, 1971. Image courtesy Mark Trompeteler//

//Front, catalogue/fold-out poster, for the show which ran at the Photographers Gallery in Great Newport Street from April 6 to May 2, 1971. Courtesy Mark Trompeteler. No reproduction without permission//

Eight Young Photographers was the third exhibition to be held at the newly-opened Photographers Gallery at its original premises in Great Newport Street in London’s West End.

The gallery opened in January 1971 with a group show entitled The Concerned Photographer featuring, among others, Robert Capa, and followed that by simultaneously staging three exhibits, including a display of Polaroids taken by Andy Warhol.

Visitors to Eight Young Photographers, which ran during April and into early May that year, recall it as being an important staging post in the acceptance of photography as a subject worthy of artistic appreciation. Among the contributors was the late David Parkinson, about whom I have written often. He showed work alongside Mark Edwards, Meira Hand, Roger Birt, Sylvester Jacobs, Tim Stevens, Bob Mazzer and Mark Trompeteler (who has kindly retrieved the catalogue/poster for me from his archive).

//From the Photographers Gallery listings. The show was preceded by an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s Polaroids//

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Acme Attractions, Album, Andy Warhol, Belmacz, Bill Jay, Bob Mazzer, Bush Holyhead, City Lights Studio, Club International, Colin Watmough, Creative Camera, Eight Young Photographers, Great newport Street, Hag, Hipgnosis, Ian Hargreaves, John Krevine, Mark Edwards, Mark Trompeteler, Meira Hand, NTA Studios, Paul Raymond, Photographers Gallery, Polaroids, Robert Capa, Roger Birt, Steph Raynor, Steve Ridgeway, Sylvester Jacobs, Tim Stevens, Tommy Roberts, Vivienne Westwood, Willy Daly

//The Michael Joseph image which was to be central to the 1971 Fernet-Branca campaign was featured in Dave Saunders’ survey Sex In Advertising, published by Batsford Books in 1996//

//Front, Funk Spectrum, BBE Records, 1999. Photo: Michael Joseph//

//Back, Funk Spectrum, BBE, 1999. Photo: Michael Joseph//

In 1971 the great advertising director and photographer Michael Joseph was commissioned to shoot a billboard campaign for the Italian digestif Fernet-Branca.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BBE Records, Brent Sherwood, Dave Saunders, David "Piggy" Worth, Fernet-Branca, Funk Spectrum, Gala Pinion, Judy Nylon, Keb Darge, Lord Snowdon, Masters At Work, MIchael Joseph, Norman Parkinson, Pete Rock, Peter Lyster-Todd, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, RZA, Sex In Advertising, Syd Barrett

Martin Stone hopped, pre-dawn, through the Cheshire street market, scavenging books. Winklepickers, tourniquet trousers, mildewed beret, bulging swagbag: Blind Pew impersonated by Max Wall. Cigarette grafted to trembling, prehensile fingers, he was an anthology of retro fashion. And in his wake there shimmered a vortex of gossip and, amazingly, goodwill…  Iain Sinclair, The Independent, February 18, 1995

Sad to note the passing of Martin Stone, dapper devil and rock and rolling rare book dealer par excellence.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers, Head Heritage, Iain Sinclair, Jake Riviera, Julian Cope, Martin Stone, Mighty Baby, Pink Fairies, the 101'ers, William Burroughs

I’m really looking forward to visiting the forthcoming exhibition of the photography of Dave Hendley, who died this summer.

//Outer gatefold, Rebel Music, Trojan Records, 1979. Design: Uncredited//

Hendley is best known for the photos he took of the Jamaican music scene in the 70s, but he holds a special place for me as the man responsible for one of my favourite compilations, the double-LP Rebel Music, released by Trojan at the end of that decade.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Youth, Bobby Gillespie, Central Saint Martins, Creation Rockers, Dave Hendley, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, I-Roy, Junior Byles, Peter Tosh, Redbel Music, Sufferer's Rights, Trojan records

Tonight sees the opening of a group show featuring the work of one of my favourite contemporary figurative artists, Emma Hopkins.

//Uta. Mixed media on polyester, 125 x 57cm. Emma Hopkins 2016//

Hopkins’ work unflinchingly considers the raw beauty of the human anatomy and physiognomy. As she says: “I paint people from the inside out.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dellasposa, Emma Hopkins, Isabella Watling, Sabatino Cersosimo, Simon Davis, Wanda Bernardino

//Members of the audience from Edinburgh who preferred Australian support act Icehouse to Bowie//

Fittingly Britain’s most surprising rock star has found his way to Britain’s newest and most surprising city, where high tech meets ecologic, where concrete meets conservation, where the silicon chip meets the fibreglass rod…

Steve Taylor, South Of Watford, Summer 1983, London Weekend Television

While putting the finishing touches to my forthcoming book about The Face magazine, I followed a line of research which lead me to an excellent documentary about the late David Bowie which I hadn’t seen since it was screened in 1983.

Shown as part of London’s regional broadcaster LWT’s South Of Watford strand, the film focused on Bowie’s immersion in the mainstream with the Let’s Dance LP and companion Serious Moonlight tour (sponsored by Levi’s in a groundbreaking marketing deal, this inaugurated the era of corporate and branded live music events).

The doc’s point of entry was Bowie’s weekend of sold-out gigs that summer at Milton Keynes Bowl, the open-air arena in Britain’s newest city north of London in the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Alex Graham, David Bowie, Icehouse, Let's Dance, London Weekend Television, Melody Maker, Michael Watts, Milton Keynes Bowl, Nick Logan, Paul Tickell, Serious Moonlight, Sheryl Garratt, Steve Taylor

//Jordan Mooney and David “Piggy” Worth. From photo by Patrick Lichfield, 1976//

//As they appeared in the Parlophone full-page advert for The Beatles compilation Rock “n”Roll Muisc, New Musical Express, June 26, 1976//

“He was a man full of wit and charm who always had an eye for new and exciting things. His special characteristics were kindness and forethought”

Jordan Mooney, 2016 

Following my recent blogs on the life of the late fashion model David “Piggy” Worth, here is a gem: Sex and Seditionaries superstar Jordan Mooney recalls her friend and in particular the time Worth urged her to join him in a 50s photoshoot by royal photographer Patrick Lichfield.

This was used for an advert and poster promoting Rock ‘N’ Roll Music, a compilation of previously released cover versions recorded by The Beatles between 1962 and 1970.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 100 Club, David "Piggy" Worth, Jordan Mooney, New Musical Express, Patrick Lichfield, Rock 'N' Roll Music, Sex Pistols, the Beatles

I’m delighted to announce that my map The Look Of London – which teases out the intertwining of popular music and street style in our capital over five decades – has been reissued by groovy guide makers Herb Lester Associates.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: American Classics, Kornbluth, Lewis Leathers, Paul Smith, Soul II Soul, The 'Duffer' Of St George, The baron Of Brixton