Hats off to barnstorming Barney Hoskyns for compiling new Joni Mitchell anthology Reckless Daughter, which is published in November.

I fell under Mitchell’s spell in my early teens at the behest of an older brother and was lucky enough to see her live in the gig-crowded year of 1974 at London’s New Victoria Theatre.

Even while punk raged I kept the faith; 1975’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns and the following year’s Hejira are stone classics to which I constantly return, and not just for the peerless music. The designs by her own hand (Mitchell is an accomplished visual artist) and the fashion-sheen photography of Norman Seeff add to the allure.

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Tags: Barney HOskyns, Court & Spark, Free Man In Paris, Joni Mitchell, Leonore Fleischer, New Victoria Theatre, Norman Seeff, Reckless Daughter, Rock's Back Pages, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Read my piece on the stylistic changes rung by David Bowie during the early 70s on The Guardian’s men’s fashion pages here.

I discuss his fashion collaborations with Freddie Burretti, Daniella Parmar and Kansai Yamamoto and talk about the Pin-Ups suit from City Lights Studio designed by Derek Morton. Hope you enjoy.

Tags: City Lights Studio, Daniella Parmar, David Bowie, Derek Morton, FReddie Burretti, Kansai Yamamoto, The Guardian, Ziggy Stardust

What is Metamodernism?

In the 90s and the early 2000s it’s fair to say we grew up with a particular outlook on life, one of irony, of deconstruction and cynicism. This was noticeable in the music of Nirvana and Radiohead, in the books of Michel Houellebecq and Bret Easton Ellis, and we saw it in the arts with the YBAs and Jeff Koons. This is very much a sensibility that spoke to us, that we embraced.

That time was summed up by a sense of boredom in culture. This is it? And what now?

Throughout the 2000s we began noticing – as many people did and many have written about this – slight changes. First you get the complete reappraisal of writers such as David Foster Wallace, who started in the 90s but suddenly became big in the early 2000s. And you had sincere movies by Wes Anderson and Michel Gondry. This was all very different from the kind of stuff we grew up with. Something was changing. The irony of Nirvana, the desperation of Radiohead, the cynicism of Michel Houellebecq were replaced by something that was at once still cynical, still ironic and had an acknowledgement of how the world worked, but at the same time seemed to want more.

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Tags: Bret Easton Ellis, David Foster Wallace, Fredric Jameson, Guido van der Werve, Miche Gondry, Nirvana, Postmodernism: Or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Radiohead, Robin van den Akker, Seinfeld, Stedelijk, The Simpsons, Timotheus Vermeulen, Wes Anderson

//Drumhead painted by Barney Bubbles in 1972. Photo: (c)//

//From left: Nik Turner, Stacia Blake, Simon King and Lemmy during Hawkwind’s set at the Windsor Free Festival on August 25, 1973. Note the drumhead on the left. Photographer: Unknown//

A rare design by the late graphics master Barney Bubbles has come to light after four decades; the psychedelic sci-fi drumhead was painted for Hawkwind when the space rocking Sonic Assassins undertook tours around the world following their success with the Silver Machine single in 1972.

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Tags: Barrie Wentzell, Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers, Dave Walkling, Doremi Fasol Latido, Glen Colson, Hawkwind, Kursaal Flyers, Lemmy, Michael Moorcock, Nik Turner, Robert Calvert, Silver Machine, Simon KIng, Stacia Blake, The Attractions, The Records, Will Birch, Windsor Free Festival

//SERO, Pigalle, Paris, 2014. Sunny Suits//

I’m intrigued by the photography of Sunny Suits, the American who, like so many illustrious others, flourishes in Paris, so am delighted to present this selection of recent work complete with her descriptions and background text.

Joujouka

//Village boys dressed as Aisha Kandisha, Joujouka, 2013. Sunny Suits//

//Master Musician pipers playing under the tent, Joujouka, 2013. Sunny Suits//

//Master Musicians in the Madras before playing, Joujouka, 2013. Sunny Suits//

//Mohamed Hamri’s grave, Joujouka, 2013. Sunny Suits//

//Cafe Boujeloud, Joujouka, 2013. Sunny Suits//

The Joujouka festival happens once a year in Morocco, a few hours from Tangier. It’s an incredible experience, to live on the farm with the villagers, to share their lives for a few days. Each night around midnight the musicians play and are excellent!

The folklore of the village is something special and I feel really lucky to have experienced it. Brian Jones and the Beats are to be thanked for sharing the discovery with us I’d say but it’s the music and also the painter Mohamed Hamri that I connect with most.

Champagne Bars and Sex Shops

//SERO, sex shop sign, Paris 2014. Sunny Suits//

My first memories of Paris include Pigalle. I used to live in the area and I have wanted to document the champagne bars and the women who work in them for years but before, my French wasn’t good enough and now the bars have almost disappeared. It’s also not exactly my world so I don’t think I have the right to intrude even though it’s only with respect that I see them.

Some of them have become sheesha bars, which I don’t mind because it’s part of the quartier, but red light districts are dying worlds. I see it as them as endangered species, something exotic and necessary. It’s a shame to see them disappear. There should be a smut preservation society.

The photograph ‘Sero’ is of the largest sex shop in Pigalle called Sexodrome. The lights had burned out leaving the sign to read Sero. Ironic for a sex shop sign.

Vince Aletti

Vince is a journalist and photo critic who was close to Peter Hujar. He knew David Wojnarowicz and many, if not all of the great artists from the Lower East Side that I admire so much. His voice is one of experience as that was his peer group. My friend the artist Paul P and Vince are friends and Paul took me to meet him one day at his place, which is like a shrine! He’s smart and generous and it was a lovely afternoon.

Ariel Kenig

My friend Ariel is a writer here in France, novels and plays. He’s young and accomplished. He’s singing now and I think he’ll be just as successful. His groupies are already in line. He’s got something no doubt. His style is sort of what I call ‘Nu-Française’. He respects the lineage, of literature and now singing, and is a contemporary of it.

Lamine Badian Kouyaté

//Lamine Badian Kouyaté (Xuly Bët), Le Comptoir General, Paris, 2014. Sunny Suits//

Lamine is the designer of the French brand Xuly Bët. He’s half Malian half Senegalese and for me totally Parisien. Xuly Bët has its well earned place in fashion history. I don’t think of fashion without thinking of Xuly Bët. His proposition is a mix of street, couture and Africa and I love it. It’s the 25th anniversary of Xuly Bët this year and I’m really honoured to have been able to take his picture. You can see a great Xuly Bët show in the Robert Altman film Prêt-à-Porter.

Read more about the Master Musicians Of Joujouka here and the story of Aïsha Kandisha here.

For French-speakers there is an interview with Ariel Kenig about his book Le Miracle here.

DJHistory has a great interview with Vince Aletti here.

Here is the Xuly Bët site.

Visit Sunny Suits’ site here.

Tags: Aisha Kandisha, Ariel Kenig, Cafe Boujeloud, David Wojnarowicz, djhistory, Joujouka, Lamine Badian Kouyaté, Le Miracle, Master Musicians Of Joujouka, Mohamed Hamri, Morocco, Paul P, Peter Hujar, Pigalle, Prêt-à-Porter, Robert Altman, Sexodrome, Sunny Suits, Tangier, Vince Aletti, Xuly Bët

//At The Wallace Collection last month//

Lovely to see the gorgeous Eve Ferret out and about this spring with a series of live dates to celebrate the long-overdue release of her first album.

I fell under Eve’s spell in the summer of 1978, witnessing performances at Covent Garden’s pre-New Romantic Blitz club with her-then partner James “Biddie” Biddlecombe. More recently we connected via the late Tommy Roberts, at whose memorial she sang a version of Rawhide which rocked ’em in the aisles and nearly blew the roof off St Giles in the Fields.

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Tags: Absolute Beginners, Biddie & Eeve, Blitz, Brasserie Zédel, David Bowie, Django Reinhardt, Eve Ferret, Fran Landesman, Hot Club de France, James Biddlecombe, Jazzin' For Blue Jean, Julien Temple, Pierre "Baro" Ferret, Pimlico, Roddy Matthews, Scars, Simon Wallace, The Wallace Collection