...well, here's a pile of whims, obsessions and things I'm curious about... Ms Christine Keeler, 'cause she sums up so much about Englishness and a certain era... fine photography from Mr Steve Gullick and the hyper-real glam of David Lachapelle...
...a certain kind of slightly twisted, achingly beautiful imagery that crosses over sometimes into the classy arty end of fetish and fashion, so Amanda Lepore, Ellen Von Unwerth, Lithium Picnic, Perou, Erwin Olaf, Mathew Barney's Cremaster, a dash of Torture Garden - esqueness, Nadya Lev, P.U.R.E. magazine (especially James and Michelle Olley's darkly beautiful vision and imagery). I like subversive, hidden, transgressive culture when it wasn't all so acceptable, the likes of Weimar republic decadance and I find good old British buggary much more interesting when it wasn't a homogenised, hand-holding, lycra wearing, consumer exercise on Old Compton Street.
Mr Michael Clark took my breath away again when I saw him this year, noir -ish things, proper old greasy caffs, that don't make you feel like dying, a good polka dot shirt, Vault 49 and Kenzo Minamis graphics, Raf Simons, Pierre et Gilles, Bruce La Bruce, Leigh Bowery, Party Monster / Project X / Club Kid culture and not-so weekend warrior types, Propaganda Magazine, some of the not so obvious end of so called lowbrow art things, John John Jesse, Dave Cooper and Niagara are particular favourites.
It's not so much like to meet as people I admire and am rather interested in... some of my general interests are people I'd like to meet or people I'd like to that I've met. Meeting people you genuinely admire creatively is always a tricky one. Most people are just people and they're not necessarily going to want to hang out and be best mates. You know that but you'll probably still half want to...
...Mind you, the people that I find really fascinating nowadays are people like the old chap Trevor who was the electrician for our factory. He's a proper old chap who'd been doing that for years and knew everything about what milliamp capacitor was needed to complete this obscure circuit or the old chaps who used to cut my hair on Camden High Street who'd been cutting hair in a rather smart and suave barbers style since at least the 50s and were proper craftsmen...
It may be a bit not in fashion at the mo' but a phrase that keeps on cropping up in my life is one a bearded chap said a while ago "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs". Be a gent, have some integrity. This basically means sod off with your fancy new mobile phone every three months lifestyle. You're stealing from somebody in the world you know. This doesn't mean I want to wear hairshirts though and I like my peanut cookies.
Is that last paragraph people I'd like to meet? Kinda...
Below are my "Top Friends". The way this is often used and the politics of the playground that it has are a bit crap I think: this odd need to say to the world "this is my best friend, this is my second best friend, this is my third best friend and if you give me some of your sweets every day you can be my fourth best friend". Somebody paid 580 million dollars or whatever so that people can express that to the world. Sigh.
So basically, they're not really "top friends". Some of them I know, some of them I don't, some of them are just things that I like/admire/find inspirational, they're not in a particular order of importance.
(Actually, somebody is giving me some of their sweets every day for their higher position but saying who would be ungallant... mind, I don't even eat sweets.)
For a fair few years I've had a fascination with a kind of afterhours sleaze and dignity in music, the sort of thing you'd prop up a modern day Soho speakyeasy-esque bar listening to, way after you should have gone home, with your hair slicked back and a good vintage pinstripe suit on... this has been coupled with more Medway garage punk leanings... some of my favourite culprits are Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk, The Flaming Stars, Tom Waits, Uncle John and Whitelock, my one Soul Bossa 7", Bone-Box, Menlo Park, Madrugada, Mr Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Morphine, Michael J Sheehy, Mr Terry Edwards.
...and another flyer, this time for our first Sex and Horror night...
...the various incarnations of Billy Childish : Thee Headcoats, Thee Mighty Caesars etc and Holly Golightly, The Sonics, Singing Loins, Thee Headcoatees, Fire Dept, Sexton Ming
The more mondo voodoo rock'n'roll side of things such as The Cramps, Born Bad, Rockabilly Psychosis and Las Vegas Grind compilations, Hasil Adkins, The Phantom, The Novas, The Trashwomen (anything but bobby socks rockabilly!).
... and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster (where do they fit in? Not quite sure but they do. Saw them again in July 2007, a fine, great band, they make the hair stand on end on my arms. Psychobilly-but-not, a bit gothic-but-not, a bit metal-but not, in fact how to take all those things and mix 'em up and do something new and of your own with it all), lost bands like Inca Babies... Make Up, Sons and Daughters, Sandy Dillon, The Kinks, Country Teasers, ...bender and Les Negresses Vertes.
... and a dash of crooning blues and a sort of alt.country without the whinging: Micah P. Hinson, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Jolie Holland, Nina Nastasia, 16 Horsepower, Lilium, Woven Hand.
Every time I scan my shelves there seems to be an inordinate amount of Marc Almond in one form another, so Soft Cell, Marc and the Mambas and the like.
...and there's a dignity, dark edge and something that just really moves me to Michael Gira and his work: Angels of Light, Swans...
...which some how or other leads me to Cocorosie and Antony and the Johnsons (more before the secret of them/him was kind of ruined), saw them both together before the big media push and it was quite simply fantastic... saw Antony without knowing who he was in about 1996 as part of a performance evening in New York and that's always stayed with me.
...one of the big old variety of graphics and tshirts I did for Sheep on Drugs (with collaborative advice/joint misbehaviour from Mister X)...
I've always had a bit of a fondness for some aspects of things a bit more dark and sometimes arty (goth ? I know, I know, I can't help it, it's what I grew up with)... so Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Creatures, Sheep on Drugs, Joy Division, Danielle Dax, This Mortal Coil, The Sisters of Mercy, Suicide, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Holger Hiller, 4AD things, His Name is Alive, Cocteau Twins, Diamanda Galas, Big Black, Big Stick, Coil, Throbbing Gristle and a dash of industrial such as Front 242, Nitzer Ebb and Digital Hardcore...
...and some things that I do like but don't necessarily listen to every day anymore but have been very passionate about and played a lot when I was djing: new electro and arch fashion-y things along the lines of Peaches, Miss Kittin, DJ Hell, earlier LCD Soundsystem, Tiga, Felix da Housecat, Readers Wifes, Adult. Client, WIT, Readers Wifes, Relaxed Muscle, Solvent, Tommie Sunshine, Minty, Hiem, Fat Truckers, Campag Velocets Bon Chic Bon Genre song, Yello, White Trash, Zeigenbock Kopf, Vitalic, Sonovac, Black Moustache, Punx Soundcheck, Kings Have Long Arms, Larry Tee, Atomizer, Crossover, Linda Lamb, International Deejay Gigolo, Ersatz Audio, Cabaret Voltaire's NagNagNag, Black Strobe's remixes, ARE Weapons, Christopher Just and Gravy Train...
A couple of posters for our nights of dj-ing and assisting promoting. Peaches was a rather lovely lady who did some fine tiny thin balcony walking way up above the crowd during her act. The Adult. poster was a very fine thing I screenprinted for the gig. Nicola and Adam of Ersatz Audio/Adult. were also v'lovely and some of the most decent people I've met in my years of work'n'culture...
...all the new electro things mix in neatly with my slightly guilty love of things like Man 2 Man Meet Man Parrish's Male Stripper and Divine.
...and somehow or other I get to Two Lone Swordsmen, Earl Brutus (and various related things such as Jesus and Mary Chain, Freeheat, World of Twist and If?).
Once upon a time I turned my ear to a fair bit of Unkle -esque and offbeat electronic things, such as DJ Shadow, Agent Provocateur, Bridge and Tunnel, Tricky, Sin, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Ruby, Orbital's Wasted song (the version with the vocals, gets me every time), Glamourous Hooligan, Bedlam Ago Go, Dan the Automator, Handsome Boy Modelling School and Futura 2000.
I have a fondness for things lost to time or that you can gather up in dusty remaindered basements, piles of 12"s by forgotten people like Scarlet Fantastic, Emperor Julian, Age of Chance, Boys Wonder, I Ludicrous, King of the Slums, Kitchens of Distinction... and the like.
Does anybody remember El records and the fantastic world they created with King of Luxembourg, Shock Headed Peters, Bad Dream Fancy Dress and the like? Well worth seeking out.
...and finally a few things that I just like or would recommend a listen to like Gogol Bordello, Michael Nyman, Denim, Fatima Mansions, Blood Sausage, Huggy Bear (I remember accidentally stumbling on a secret afternoon gig of theirs before the media pounced on them and it felt v'special and inspirational), Pulp, Vincent Gallo, Ed Alleyne Johnson, Bongwater, the occasional Sparks song, some Public Image Limited, Racine, Primal Scream when they're not being all rock'n'roll, The The, Transvision Vamp, James Chance and the Contortions, Clinic, Whitey and pre-Stereolab McCarthy (a great leftwing jangly indie band).
...but for a while, to be honest I've been finding it hard to be all that inspired by much new music. I think it's the overabundance of music everywhere, what was once an oddball, hard to find secret has become just another niche product to sell. Maybe it's that and not wanting to sit at the feet of twenty year olds anymore while they sing at me about love. Who knows. I think books, my own imagination, situations, people have been much more of an inspiration in recent times.
...a photo from one of my clothing ranges that was featured in Skin Two: the model is Ms Pigalle (designer of extraordinarily fine'n'pretty latex designs), Ray Yates (Photography) and Photoshop-ness by my good self.
Oh yep, films... 16 Years of Alcohol, Blue Velvet, Down By Law, Bartleby and Mr Crispin Glover in general, David Cronenberg, Videodrome, The Raspberry Reich, Villain, Last of England, Party Monster, Naked, Life is Sweet, Paris Texas, Straight Story and in fact a fair bit of David Lynch (I'm that age)
There's a lot of stuff I've enjoyed but isn't necessarily life changing, things I've watched of late along those lines are... Sin City, Gosford Park, Lilya 4 Ever, Nathalie, Palindromes, The Unbelievable Truth, In The Mood for Love, Christie Malry's Own Double Entry, Everything is Illuminated, Carry on Cabbie, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, My Name is Joe, Drugstore Cowboy, 2046, The Saddest Music in the World
Film's a funny medium though isn't it? We worship people who pretend to be somebody they're not in made up versions of places that cost more than, oh I don't know, probably more than the health and education budgets of a lot of small countries.
Kinda fun but kinda wierd.
Next thing you know, we'll be saying that graphic designers are talented. You're a sign writer, mate. You might be skilled but talented? You can put some text neatly into a box with a picture next to it. Well done. That's not a job, that's part of a job. Go out and get your hands dirty, you ponce.
Edge of Darkness, The Long Firm, Happiness and sometimes I'll just get into something just entertaining that's a guilty pleasure like No Angels
...the flyer/poster design for the Coop exhibition at our shop...
The Not Knowing - Cathi Unsworth, GB 84, The Cutting Room, Niagara - Beyond The Pale, The Real Bettie Page, London Blue, 45 - Bill Drummond, Overbite, Barbara Krueger - Love For Sale, Donna Trope - Beauty Shots, Lachapelleland, Jim Jocoy - We're Desparate, Mark Manning - Crucify Me Again, Haircults, Motel Fetish - Chas Kryder and that Mr Derek Raymond. An absolute gent, though he was a bit of a one no doubt. There's a virility to what he wrote, not in a macho way but in a very dignified and decent way. Difficult to put into word's right now as I'm a bit tired. Hat's off to you sir.
...one of the tshirt designs for a range I did about semi-lost British activisim, the Miner's Strike, Thatcher and the like. See my site www.culturaltreachery.com for a bit more about that.
I can't really put anything here. I admire people, find them inspirational even but heroes?
Now there's a few more images down here...
...a page from a catalogue of one of my clothing ranges...
...and another tshirt design, from a range based around the theme of "my belief system has been systematically destroyed/media overloading"...
...and finally (how many things can you fit on a Myspace page?), another flyer, just 'cause I like this one.