Paul Gorman

At the Groovy Fayre signing and selling books, maps and Barney Bubbles jewellery next weekend

I’m really grateful to Lizzie Walker for inviting me to be part of her Gnostic Sonics presence at the Groovy Fayre being held next Saturday (November 14) at Stoke Newington’s Mildmay Club.

Lizzie is handling sales of my Granny Takes A Trip book and I’ll be signing and selling copies of The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren and The Wild World of Barney Bubbles as well as my Herb Lester guides The Look of London and the maps of the lives and careers of David Bowie, The Clash and the Rolling Stones in the capital.

We’ll also be making available for the first time in public the limited edition jewellery pieces based on Barney Bubbles designs.

The Mildmay is at 33-34 Newington Green, London N16 9PR. Doors open at 9am for early birds who have paid £10 for entry; after 10am it’s free.

Drinks and food will be available throughout the day and a music quiz starts at 7pm with dancing from 9pm.

More details here.

And… I’m back!

Well, it’s been a while but I’m posting here again with takes on the usual, unusual and out-there from the world of visual culture.

There’ll be some changes made over the coming months and also some exciting announcements in regard to new projects but meantime here are two events to which I’m contributing in the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 16 September) I’m taking part in Facade Charade, a conversation about the relationship between architecture and fashion with writer/curator Priya Kanchandani and architects Sheila O’Donnell, of Irish practice O’Donnell + Tuomey, and Zaha Hadid’s Melodie Leung.

And on Sunday 27 September I’ll be in conversation at the annual countercultural fest Convenanza with publisher Lee Brackstone, major domo of the towering White Rabbit Books imprint, about the Granny Takes A Trip book we produced together last year as well as my earlier book The Look, which was admired by Convenanza’s figurehead, the late Andrew Weatherall.

Details on the Activities + Events page.

What About Dancing? Three short films about grief at the Garden Cinema on May 14

I’m really looking forward to What About Dancing? at central London’s Garden Cinema on May 14.

The evening comprises screenings of three short films about grief made by artists/filmmakers/writers Tara Darby, Annie Frost Nicholson and Lara Haworth:

• Into Your Light (Darby and Frost Nicholson 2019)

• All The People I Hurt With My Wedding (Haworth 2019)

• Grief Is A Hungry Ghost (Haworth and Frost Nicholson 2023).

Afterwards I’ll be mediating an in-conversation and Q+A with the three filmmakers on their shared and individual approaches, as well as their current project The Triumphant Return of Harriet Frost.

Do come along. Details and tickets are available here.

Here’s the trailer for All The People I Hurt With My Wedding:

 

Japanese edition of The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren out this month

‘This book solves the mystery of a spell that was cast on a time that won’t fade away’

Hiroshi Fujiwara

2024 has got off to a good start with the news that the Japanese edition of The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren is going to be published by East Press on January 26, four days after what would have been the great provocateur’s 78th birthday.

This translation includes a new photo selection, the above cover quote from Japan’s style guru Hiroshi Fujiwara and updated text, including much new detail on the visit McLaren made with Vivienne Westwood and Gerry Goldstein to Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York in the summer of 1973.

The Life & Times Of Malcolm McLaren Japanese edition is available to order here.

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

//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.

 

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

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

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

My playlist for the Fandangoe Discoteca opening at Canary Wharf next week

//Annie Frost Nicholson with the Fandangoe Discoteca. Pic courtesy of anniefrostnicholson.com//

Next week sees the opening at London’s Canary Wharf of artist Annie Frost Nicholson’s Fandangoe Discoteca, the mini-disco installation where we can shake out our grief and help maintain daily mental health – the programme covers all intersections of grief from bereavement to climate angst to political rage to break-ups.

The design of the kiosk was inspired by De Stijl and Ettore Sottsass and holds up to eight dancers at a time.

Continue reading My playlist for the Fandangoe Discoteca opening at Canary Wharf next week

Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

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.

Continue reading Totally Wired: Music publications that made a difference

Totally Wired: Female music writers kicking against the pricks

//Ellen Willis, c. 1970. Photograph: Ellen Willis’s family//

One of the narrative threads of my book Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press – which is published in paperback next week – traces the ways in which women writers have been forced to fight long and hard against white male dominance of the field.

//Gloria Stavers photographs Jim Morrison 1967. Photographer: Unknown//

This process was kicked off in the 1950s by Gloria Stavers, who transformed the US teen scene as editor and photographer at the huge-selling 16 magazine and went on to champion the likes of the Beatles and others in the 60s on her own terms: while she recognised the charisma of The Doors’ Jim Morrison, she was also his equal and lover.

//Lillian Roxon, mid-1960s. Photo by unknown, Fairfax Archives//

Continue reading Totally Wired: Female music writers kicking against the pricks

When Angie Bowie was invited to Hogwarts for wankers by Craig Brown and Nicholas Coleridge

The September 1975 issue of US music/proto-lifestyle magazine Rock Scene contains an absolute curio in the form of a report on Angie Bowie’s visit to Eton College – ‘Hogwarts for wankers where you’re taught Latin and tax avoidance while wearing full evening dress’* – that year.

Continue reading When Angie Bowie was invited to Hogwarts for wankers by Craig Brown and Nicholas Coleridge