Paul Gorman is…

Talking Fashion and the King’s Road with design legend Sue Timney

Sep 29th, 2023

//From the presentation for tomorrow’s event//

Tomorrow I’ll be talking to interiors, homewares and textile designer Sue Timney about the fashion legacy of the King’s Road, the two-and-a-half mile thoroughfare in west London’s Chelsea where the late Mary Quant kicked off the boutique boom by opening her clothes shop Bazaar at 135a in 1955.

 

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A night of conversation, music + libation to celebrate Totally Wired at Reference Point

Jul 26th, 2023

Next Thursday (August 3) I’m going to be in conversation with the prominent writer and photographer Mark C. O’Flaherty at central London’s library/bookshop/bar Reference Point.

//Mark reminisces about his time at Boyz in Totally Wired//

We’ll be talking about the music press – the subject of my book Totally Wired, which is out now in paperback –  it’s history in relation to LGBTQ+ communities and Mark’s experiences working for such magazines as Melody Maker and Boyz.

Afterwards I’ll DJ a vinyl set of music-press-related sounds.

Bag your spot here.

//Totally Wired paperbacks in the Tate Britain bookshop//

Copies of Totally Wired are widely available, including from bookshop.org

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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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Taking part in Foyles’ Christmas evening tomorrow night

Nov 30th, 2022

I’m taking part in the the Christmas authors’ evening at central London’s Foyles bookshop tomorrow.

I’ll be signing copies of Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press, there’ll be readings and Jude Rogers is DJing an alternative Xmas set.

Come along, it will be fun.

Details here.

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Talking Totally Wired at the Write Idea Festival on Sunday

Nov 1st, 2022

I’m talking about my music press history Totally Wired at this weekend’s Write Idea Festival at east London’s venerated Bethnal Green Library.

The library is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and I’m lining up with such authors as crime writer Ajay Chowdhury, historian Panikos Panayi, writer and publisher Shahida Rahman, performer Vivi Lachs, architecture specialist John Grindrod, comedian Tez Ilyas, former BBC correspondent Nick Higham and journalist Siobhan MacGowan.

I’ll be in conversation with festival organiser Neal Smith about the rise and fall of the music press from 4pm on Sunday (November 6). Tickets are FREE here.

Full details of the Write Idea line-up here.

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Totally Wired x Ambit Pop x Disco Pogo x others = We Love Music! at Magculture on October 27

Oct 17th, 2022

I’ll be joining contemporary music magazines including Disco Pogo and Ambit Pop at a celebration of the music press then and now at London’s premier magazine outlet Magculture a week on Thursday (October 27).

Magculture currently stocks a dozen music magazines, so is the appropriate place to talk about the past, the present and the future of the media sector which has spawned so many exciting publications as well as writers, designers, photographers and editors.

Starting at 6.30pm, I’ll be discussing the themes raised in my book Totally Wired: The Rise and Fall of the Music Press with magCulture’s Jeremy Leslie,and then we’ll be joined by editors including Paul Benney of Disco Pogo (and also co-founder of 90s mag Jockey Slut) and Kirsty Allison of Ambit + Ambit Pop.

Details and tickets for the event are available here.

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Where’s Malcolm?! McLaren spotted with downtown punk royalty at the May 1975 Central Park peace rally

Oct 29th, 2021

//Malcolm McLaren between Patti Smith and David Johansen with Cyrinda Foxe and Lenny Kaye, Sheep Meadow, Central Park, May 11, 1975. Photo: Danny Fields//

//Close up: Malcolm McLaren refreshes himself behind Smith and Johansen//

46 years after music manager Danny Fields took the photograph of a group of New York’s 70s demi-monde at the top of this post I’ve spotted the previously unidentified person behind them: the subject of my latest book, Malcolm McLaren (who appears to be chugging a half-bottle of Smirnoff).

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When David Bowie + Malcolm McLaren simultaneously seeded the 70s by appearing in the same issue of underground paper IT

Jul 31st, 2020

//Box advert for the Beckenham Arts Lab run by David Bowie and Mary Finnigan in IT #59, July 1969//

//News story about the Goldsmiths Arts Festival organised by Malcolm Edwards and his fellow student Niall Martin in IT #59//

Researching my archive during lockdown for a project has given me the opportunity to thoroughly assess individual publications, none more so than the 59th issue of underground paper IT, which hit the streets in early July 1969.

This particular edition features a couple of small items which provide clues as to the countercultural activities at the time of two Londoners who would go on to define pop culture in the 1970s: David Bowie and Malcolm McLaren.

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Stories Of The Face at Sonos Greene Street on Thursday February 8

Feb 2nd, 2018

The Story Of The Face in Amsterdam

Dec 12th, 2017

//Athenaeum has done the book proud with this splendid window display. Photo: Athenaeum//

The Story Of The Face is coming to Amsterdam on Friday (December 15).

In an event at the city’s NewWerktheater organised by leading Netherlands bookshop Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum, I’ll be making a visual presentation about the magazine that changed culture.

Afterwards I’ll talk about the enduring influence of The Face and my new book The Story Of The Face with Gert Jonkers, founder of Butt and Fantastic Man and publisher of The Gentlewoman and COS Magazine.

If you’re in town please come along. Tickets from aanmelden@athenaeum.nl

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