Paul Gorman is…

Print @ ShowStudio: Lou Stoppard on the abiding allure of inspirational and off-the-map magazines

Jun 26th, 2015

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//Magazines from my archive (clockwise from top left): Creem, August 1974; Grand Royal #3, 1995; Club International, August 1973; Harpers & Queen, October 1976//

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//After Dark, September 1974; Ben Is Dead #26, 1996//

I’m one of the contributors to Print, writer Lou Stoppard’s forthcoming celebration of the great fashion and music magazines of the past and present.

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‘Accessorize at Target + master the Wildwood Flower even if it takes the rest of your life…’: Carlene Carter recalls June Carter Cash

Jun 25th, 2015
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//Poor Valley Girl: Valerie June Carter in the 50s. Photo: innocentwords.com//

Singer-songwriter Carlene Carter has posted a touching memoir of her mother, the country giant June Carter Cash who would have been 86 this week, at online music ‘zine Innocent Words.

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//With Johnny Cash in the early 70s. Photo: innocentwords.com//

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The Spice Girls: My part in their rise and my non-appearance in the Wannabe video

Jun 24th, 2015

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Just when boys with guitars threaten to rule pop life – Damon’s all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can’t move for tabloid frenzy – an all-girl, in-your-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst their rockist bubble.

From Music Week, April 1996

I see that next week marks the 19th anniversary of the release of Wannabe. Coincidentally I came across this cutting while ferreting around my magazine archive: the first published interview with the Spice Girls, when they launched the promotional campaign for the single and I was a contributing editor at industry publication Music Week.

I remember quite a lot about my encounter with the five of them at Virgin Records hq in Ladbroke Grove, not least that they afforded opportunities for digs at the full-of-itself British rock cabal which had grown out of the damp squib which was Britpop.

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//It wasn’t me. From Wannabe//

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Spare and unflinching: Scarlett Sabet’s Rocking Underground

Jun 24th, 2015

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Rocking Underground is the title of Scarlett Sabet’s beautifully presented poetry collection.

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Derek Boshier’s Reigning Apps And Blogs in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

Jun 23rd, 2015
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//Reigning Apps And Blogs, acrylic on canvas, 187 x 122 x 3cm, 2011//

Check out, if you have the chance, Derek Boshier’s giant 2011 work Reigning Apps And Blogs in the summer show curated by Michael Craig Martin at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.

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Long-awaited monograph Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-entry to be published by Thames & Hudson in October

Jun 19th, 2015
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//From Thames & Hudson’s July-December 2015 catalogue//

“As an artist Derek Boshier has never lost his sense of wonder at the world” – David Hockney

The publication date of Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-entry – the monograph of the great British artist I have edited – is confirmed as October 5.

Published by Thames & Hudson with a preface by David Hockney, Rethink/Re-entry contains 300-plus illustrations, from student exercises in the mid-50s to current works including the cover, a new portrait of Hockney and chapter openers especially designed by Boshier for the project.

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A slice of Bohemia in St Leonard’s-on-Sea

Jun 19th, 2015

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Tonight (June 19) witnesses a private view for the inaugural exhibition at Bohemia Club in the south coast town of St Leonard’s-on-Sea.

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Icteric’s influence on the Sex shop t-shirt You’re Gonna Wake Up One Morning And Know What Side Of The Bed You’ve Been Lying On!

Jun 18th, 2015
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//Explanatory text panel which appeared on the inside cover of Icteric No. 2 with 2004 note, from King Mob: A Critical Hidden History//

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//Extract of text on 1974 t-shirt by Bernie Rhodes, Malcolm McLaren and Gerry Goldstein//

A few years ago I attempted a dissection of the intriguing elements of the culture-shock t-shirt You’re Gonna Wake Up One Morning And Know What Side Of The Bed You’ve Been Lying On!, produced by Bernie Rhodes, Malcolm McLaren and Gerry Goldstein for sale in Sex at 430 King’s Road in the autumn of 1974.

In You’re Gonna Wake Up, the declamatory tone, aggressive punctuation, satirical bite and use of basic typographical emphases such as the repeated forward slash and random capitalised text combined to detonate a densely packed cultural device.

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In search of the entirely unexpected: Barney Bubbles among Print magazine’s Unsung Heroes Of Design

Jun 16th, 2015

 

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//From Print’s 75th anniversary issue, illustrations (clockwise from top left): A section of Bubbles’ design for the sleeve of 1979 LP Armed Forces lines up with work by Ruth Ansel, Andrew Loomis, Ladislaw Sutnar, Cipe Pineles and Paul Bacon//

For its 75th anniversary issue, US visual culture publication Print has selected Barney Bubbles as one of six “unsung heroes of design”.

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Barney Bubbles designs go regional at the National Museum Cardiff + Ludlow Fringe Art Trail

Jun 16th, 2015
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//A doozy: This point-of-sale design by Barney Bubbles for Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ 1980 LP Get Happy!! is among rare rock posters on show at Mod Lang in Ludlow. Photo: Paul Bradshaw//

The regions are where it’s at these days, so we are told, and naturally Barney Bubbles designs can be found in the thick of it.

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