//A Prayer For Madonna, The Face, September 1983. Photography: Kate Simon, text: James Truman. This was the superstar’s first substantial UK press appearance, five months ahead of her British live debut//

Of the many talented photographers who provided The Face with its visual verve, Kate Simon was uniquely positioned to chronicle the cutting edge cultural developments in New York in the 1980s.

Simon had spent much of the previous decade in London, photographing musicians and performers from Bob Marley and David Bowie to the Sex Pistols and The Clash (whose debut album features her striking portrait of Strummer, Jones and Simonon). Crucially, Simon’s work also appeared in the New Musical Express during The Face founder Nick Logan’s editorship of the music paper.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bob Marley, Carl Apfelschnitt, Cookie Mueller, Debi Mazar, Halston, James Chance, James Truman, Jellybean Benitez, John Giorno, Kate Simon, Keith Haring, Madonna, Nick Logan, Pierre Clementi, Radio City Music Hall, Riochard Sohl, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sonos, Stephen Sprouse

//Front cover photo by Harriet Crowther.//

A brown envelope I’m always glad to receive is that containing the latest BeatBooks catalogue.

Each quarter the arrival of the 8″ x 6″ booklet soon results in the tapping out of the url of the online order form for Andrew Sclanders’ site.

And the catalogues are treasurable in their own right.

Over the last decade or so Sclanders has carved out a niche for BeatBooks as collector central for all publications – literary, musical, graphic – springing from “beat” and moving through the counterculture and punk to the outer reaches of the avant-garde.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Andy Warhol, Angus MacLise, BeatBooks, Charles Manson, David Felton, Gladys Brooks, Ira Cohen, Jack Smith, Jeff Nuttall, John Giorno, John Knight, L. Ron Hubbard, Marianne Faithfull, Mary Ann McClean, Mel Lyman, Mick Jagger, Mindfuckers, My Own Mag, Nova Express, Process, Robert De Grimston, Scientology, Velvet Underground, William Burroughs, Yugen