Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

Jun 28th, 2023

When he launched the small-format 32-page song sheet The Melody Maker in 1926, Tin Pan Alley music publisher Lawrence Wright sparked the media revolution that created the music press.

This multi-million pound business eventually straddled the Atlantic and simultaneously proved a fertile breeding ground for generations of writers, photographers, film-makers and performers who made their mark in the wider world.

Everyone from Bob Geldof, Chrissie Hynde and Neil Tennant to Danny Baker, Caroline Coon, Julie Burchill, Barbara Ellen, Caitlin Moran, Miranda Sawyer and movie directors Cameron Crowe and Anton Corbijn (and even Michael Winner) cut their teeth on music magazines such as Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Rolling Stone, ZigZag and Smash Hits.

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Tags: Alan Lewis, Andy Warhol, Anton Corbijn, Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Barbara Ellen, Bob Geldof, Caitlin Moran, Cameron Crowe, Carl Gayle, Caroline Coon, Chelsea Clinton, Chrissie Hynde, Corinne Day, Danny Baker, Darby Romeo, David Salzman, Erica Smith, Grace Jones, Harry Styles, Jann Wenner, Jason Donovan, Julie Burchill, Kate Moss, Kerin Morayata, Lawrence Wright, Mat Snow, Max Jones, Micahel Winner, Miranda Sawyer, Neil Tennant, neville Brody, NIck Cave, Quincy Jones, Roisin Murphy, Stevie Wonder, Time Inc, Truman Capote, Tupac SHakur

Talking Barney Bubbles x Hipgnosis at Stroud’s Pop Up festival on March 26

Feb 28th, 2023

I’m looking forward to appearing at Pop Up, the subcultures festival being held in the Gloucestershire town of Stroud next month.

I’ll be comparing and contrasting the work of Barney Bubbles with that of his rivals Hipgnosis in the 70s and 80s with Mark Blake, author of the new book about the British music design studio and Pop Up organiser and writer Ben Wardle.

//Front Cover, Peter Gabriel, Charisma Records, 1977. Design: Hipgnosis//

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Tags: Ben Wardle, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Duggie Fields, Edgard Broughton Band, Fumble, Genesis Breyer P. Orridge, Hipgnosis, Mark Blake, Peter Gabriel, Sammy Hagar, UFO

‘Illuminating treatise… essential reading’ Electronic Sound on Totally Wired

Aug 24th, 2022

The first review of my next book Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press is in the current issue of British monthly Electronic Sound, which receives a mention in the post-2000 epilogue:

Challenging my ‘rise & fall’ thesis, Electronic Sound‘s review is nevertheless complimentary, describing the book as an ‘illuminating treatise’ and ‘essential reading’.

Visit Electronic Sound and buy the latest issue here.

Order your copy of Totally Wired at all good booksellers, including bookshop.org.

TAGS: None

DB Burkeman’s Art Sleeves: Album Covers By Artists avoids the usual suspects and contains many surprises

Mar 24th, 2021

Among the many things the world doesn’t need now is another book of record covers, but DB Burkeman’s Art Sleeves, which is published today by Rizzoli, is something else entirely.

For once the publisher’s blurb is spot-on; this is “a tightly curated exploration” of record covers which challenge the distinctions between art and design, between object and product.

This means that there are many surprises in the book, and a minimum of the usual suspects.

Art Sleeves also contains a bonus in a series of artist spotlights and conversations featuring such exponents as Christian Marclay, INVADER, Ryan McGinley, Genieve Figgis and Marilyn Minter.

And Barney Bubbles receives a mention as DB’s “personal design hero” in the introduction.

I recommend Art Sleeves highly. Order your copy here and follow Art Sleeves on Instagram here.

Tags: Art Sleeves, Christian Marclay, DB Burkeman, Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, Genieve Figgis, Invader, Marilyn Minter, Richard Prince, Rizzoli, Ryan McGinley

Experimental + inspirational: Wild Daughter

Jul 21st, 2019

//Wild Daughter at the ICA last month. The gold phalus worn by James Jeanetta was

//Wild Daughter at the ICA last month. The gold phallus worn by James Jeanette was created by leathermakers Whitaker Malem//

//Still from Wild Daughter’s Mr G, directed by Douglas Hart and styled by Elie Grace Cumming//

I was flattered recently to receive an email from Jacob Shaw, bassist in art-rockers Wild Daughter, about the effect my work has had on certain visual elements of the group and in particular a performance during their recent ICA night The Moon Sextiles The Sun.

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Tags: Antony Price, Breakaway, Bruce Conner, Dan Donovan, Dennis Hopper, Douglas Hart, Elie Grace Cumming, Jacob Shaw, James Jeanette, Mark Moore, Mr G, Stuart Mackenzie, The London Leatherman, The Moon Sextiles The Sun, Whitaker Malem, Wild Daughter

Pungent + prolific with a million miles on the meter: Sayonara Mary Cigarettes

Jun 3rd, 2019

“I want to die with a million miles on my meter,

I want to die with well-used and worn tyres”

In The Land Of The Harley Davidson, Mary Cigarettes, 2011

It’s been a month or so since the death of the extraordinary singer-songwriter Mary Cigarettes; today I’m marking his passing with this selection from his Youtube channel.

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Tags: Cork Street, Derek Boshier, Flowers Gallery, Gavin Martin, Gregory Gray, Mary CIgarettes, Paul Lerwill, Rosetta Stone, Tom Robinson

An unblinking look inside the squirrel cage: Duncan Hannah’s 20th Century Boy

Dec 2nd, 2018

When he was growing up in Minneapolis in the 1950s, the painter Duncan Hannah’s father advised him: “You never know what kind of squirrel cage a man goes home to at the end of the day.”

Hannah’s book 20th Century Boy allows the reader full access to the squirrel cage inhabited by this charming man in 1970s New York.

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Tags: 20th Century Boy, Amos Poe, Andy Warhol, Ashenden, Bryan Ferry, Claudine, Colette, David Bowie, Debbie Harry, Duncan Hannah, Gato Barbieri, Harlem, John Cale, Justine, Last Tango In Paris, Lawrence Durrell, Roxy Music, Somerset Maugham, Unmade Bed, Vintage Violence

Dancing at the Tottenham Royal, driving across town for a decent spag bol, the hip young gunslingers NME ad, founding The Face and much, much more: Listen to Nick Logan talk about his London with Gary Crowley

Jan 7th, 2018

For the ‘My London’ slot on his BBC Radio London programme, British broadcaster Gary Crowley has conducted an illuminating interview (with musical choices) with Nick Logan, editor, publisher and hands-down the greatest British magazine innovator of our time.

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Tags: BBC Radio London, Blitzkreig Bop, Gary Crowley, Gypsy Woman, James Brown, New Musical Express, Nick Logan, Parsons, Sam Cooke, Sandy Denny, The Great American Disaster, The Impressions, The Ramones, Who Knows Where The Time Goes

The Story Of The Face in British GQ

Oct 6th, 2017

Out today, the November 2017 issue of British GQ includes a 10-page feature on my forthcoming book The Story Of The Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture.