//Flyer for Ludus performance at Cabaret Futura, London, 1981//

//One of two hand-painted t-shirts given to the author, depicting him and Linder’s sister Nettie in a lover’s embrace in 1983. No reproduction without permission//

On the eve of the opening of Linderism, a new exhibition by the great contemporary artist Linder, I’m publishing a guest post by a follower of this blog who, like many, was introduced to her work via the sleeve artwork for Buzzcocks’ 1977 single Orgasm Addict.

“To me, it was punk for the eyes rather than the ears,” writes the contributor, who has asked for anonymity and was a 17-year-old school-leaver living in south London at the time.

He went on to forge a connection with Linder by following her post-punk group Ludus and encountered many in her circle, including the pre-Smiths Steven Morrissey.

Here he tells his story and shows a selection of the artworks Linder gave him:

The message I received from the Orgasm Addict sleeve was: “Think A.N.Other way. See it as it is”. A few months later I purchased The Secret Public, Linder’s print collaboration with Jon Savage.  Again I’d never seen anything like it, hardcore pornographic imagery redirected into a cocktail of consumerist lust.

//Back page of The Secret Public, Linder + Jon Savage, 1978//

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Tags: 101 Club, Buzzcocks, Cabaret Futura, Cargo Studios, Charles Hawtrey, Christina Birrer, Clapham, Howard Devoto, Jon Savage, Kettle's Yard, Linder, Linder Sterling, Ludus, Magazine, Manchester, Orgasm Addict, Psychedelic Furs, Rafters, Real Life, Richard Strange, Rochdale, Secret Public, She/She, Steven Morrissey, The Hacienda, The Lyceum, The Secret Public, The Smiths, Whalley Range

NAME: Jeff Dexter

RESIDES: North London

OCCUPATION: Man about town

Trace the progress of popular culture over the last six decades and you’ll find Jeff Dexter at some of its crucial stages of development: demonstrating the twist to modernists at The Lyceum Ballroom and advising the Beatles on which boots to wear in the early 60s; DJing for the noonday underground at Tiles a few years later and then moving into London’s counter-cultural underground as a mainman at Middle Earth and The Roundhouse, where his Implosion nights set the scene for the rise of such friends as Marc Bolan and David Bowie.

There’s Jeff hanging out at Hung On You, booking bands for the first Glastonbury and Isle Of Wight festivals, managing chart-topping America, announcing The Clash at one of their early gigs and DJing for Paul Weller at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire a couple of years back as part of the Island 50 celebrations.

And now he’s answered the Blokes Of Britain questionnaire:

Hi Jeff. What’s with your look these days?

Eclectic and vintage. I mix anything from the past, from another culture, with the standard look which has been ingrained in me since childhood. I looked at some photos today and realised I’ve been doing this since 1968!

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Tags: Bunny Roger, David Bowie, Implosion, Jeff Dexter, John Steed, Middle Earth, Paul Weller, The Clash, The Lyceum, The Roundhouse, Tiles, Trachten