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

//Cover, Fashion: An Anthology catalogue, V&A, 1971//

//Frontispiece: a Beaton photograph of a model wearing a 1961 Balenciaga dress//

//Vern Lambert in Milan in the 80s. Photo: Alfa Castaldi//

My recent Rocketman post gave me cause to dig out my copy of the catalogue produced for the groundbreaking exhibition Fashion: An Anthology, staged by London’s V&A from October 1971 to January 1972.

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Tags: Adrian Emmerton, Alfa Castaldi, Anna Piaggi, Balenciaga, Cecil Beaton, Chanel, Charles James, Courrèges, Diana Crawshaw, Diane Saunders, Dior, Jane Mulvagh, Jim O'Connor, Karl Lagerfeld, Madame Grès, Pamla Motown, V&A, Vern Lambert, Vionnet

//Window display for Impresario at the New Museum, Sept 16 – Nov 20, 1988. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

//Introduction to the show. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

My biography of the late Malcolm McLaren will now be published in April 2020, exactly 10 years after his premature death at the age of 64.

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Tags: Adam Ant, Art & Text, Catherine McGann, Impresario: Malcolm McLaren & The British New Wave, Keith Haring, Marcia Tucker, New Museum Of Contemporary Art, Paul Taylor, Vivienne Westwood, William Olander, Witches

//The first vitrine contains original copies of Blast 2 (1915), Crash! 1 (1997) and gal-dem 2 (2017). Photo: @hellenelleliang//

//Enjoying browsing the magazines on the PRINT! newsstand. Photo: @jasonthien//

//Contributor Alpa Depani talking about her zine Romp with members of the New Architecture Writers group. Photo: @paul_g0rm4n//

PRINT! Tearing It Up, the exhibition about the resurgence and history of independent progressive British magazines, has entered its final week at central London’s Somerset House.
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Tags: Alpa Depani, Black Dwarf, Black Echoes, Blitz, Claire Catterall, Crash!, Cyclops, Freakbeat, Gal-dem, i-D, Iain R. Webb, John May, Liv Siddall, Oz, P.i.X, Rhona Ezuma, Romp, Rough Trade, Sandie Shaw, Somerset House, Terry Jones, THIIIRD, Trench

//But Is It… ART, t-shirt design, Ian Harris for Jasper, 1979//

I’ve dug into collector and graphic artist Ian Harris’s rich archive again and turned up a brace of t-shirts he designed in the late 70s for Jasper, the eponymous London-based fashion label operated by entrepreneur Jasper Hamilton Holmes from showrooms in central London.

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Tags: Antony Price, Brown's, Crolla, Elvis Costello, Geoff Cooper, Georgina Godley, Hawkwind, Ian Dury, Ian Harris, Jane Whiteside, Jasper, Jasper Hamilton Holmes, Ronnie Stirling, Stiff Records, Stirling Cooper, The Damned, Whistles

//Front of folded flyer, 6.5 x 8″//

Graphic artist, musician, fashion and interiors designer and all-round all-rounder Ian Harris has granted me access to more items from his amazing archive; this is in the intriguing category –  a flyer for a most unusual art project he visited in the early 1970s.

Warhol Waking was staged over one day in the foyer of Kensington Town Hall in west London in the spring of 1971. This tumultuous period of creative experimentation in public and private spaces was later described as representing either “the immense variety and talent of the London arts scene or its condition of cultural confusion” by artist and art historian John A. Walker.

The installation/intervention proved challenging for visitors: it comprised a typical domestic bed with sheets and blanket drawn back to reveal excrement juxtaposed with a towering orchid which drooped as the day passed and flies gathered.

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Tags: Alexander Trocchi, Andy Warhol, Apple Boutique, Fitzrovia, Gosfield Street, John A. Walker, Karma-Sigma, Kensington Town Hall, Left Shift: Radical Art In 1970s, London Fillmore Foundation, Marijke Koger-Dunham, Pink Floyd, Studio International, the Beatles

Tomorrow I’m a guest of historian Amber Butchart at London’s National Film Theatre for a conversation and q&a about Punk fashion with her special invitee Jordan Mooney, SEX and Seditionaries superstar and inner member of the Sex Pistols circle.

I’ve put together a presentation from my archive to run during our chat, including images of Jordan’s striking series of visual personae and slides showing how the designs by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at 430 King’s Road were regularly featured in the fashion and national press from the early 70s to the time of Punk later in the decade.

//Selection of Let It Rock designs showcased in a May 1972 issue of The Sunday Times Magazine. Photos: Hans Feurer. Paul Gorman Archive//

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Tags: 19, Alasdair McLellan, Amber Butchart, Caroline Baker, Hans Feurer, Honey & Vanity Fair, Jordan Mooney, Julien Temple, Karl Stoecker, Man About Town, Michael Roberts, National Film Theatre, Nova, Olivier Rizzo, Sex Pistols, Sunday Times Magazine, The Filth & The Fury

//Cover, Man About Town SS16. Otto in Buffalo hat and Rigby & Peller bra (prototype for Nostalgia Of Mud, 1982). Photography: Alasdair McLellan. Styling: Olivier Rizzo//

//Above left: Frankie in Buffalo hat, white Nike socks and my George Cox Diano creepers. Right: Natalie in Malcolm McLaren’s Chico hat (Witches, 1983), Buffalo jacket (Nostalgia Of Mud, 1982) and Bondage Trousers (Seditionaries, 1976). Photography: Alasdair McLellan. Styling: Olivier Rizzo. Hair: Duffy: Make Up: Lynsey Alexander. Man About Town SS16//

On a warm London afternoon last July I enjoyed a meeting with Ben Reardon, editor-in-chief of the biannual Man About Town, the magazine’s senior fashion editor Danny Reed and Young Kim of the Malcolm McLaren Estate.

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Tags: Alasdair McLellan, Alexander Trocchi, Ben Reardon, Bravo, Buffalo Gals, Danny Reed, Diano, Gallery International, George Cox, Helen And Desire, Honey, Idea Books, Man About Town, Natalie Westley, Olivier Rizzo, Olympia Press, Sado sex For The Seventies, Smash Hits, Wally Wood, Young Kim

Specially selected posts from this blog’s archive are now featuring on Flashbak, the digital resource featuring images and stories from the past.

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Tags: Another Nickel In The Machine, Flashbak, ICA, London Rock N Roll Show, Rob Baker, Ten Sitting Rooms, Wembley Stadium

The catalogue for exhibition Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges: Joining The Dots From The Situationist International To Malcolm McLaren is published on Friday (November 13).

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Tags: Barry Martin, David Thorp, Fred Vermorel, God Save The Queen, I Groaned With Pain, Jane Tankard, John Hansard Gallery, Ros Carter, Stephen Foster