Unknown Pleasures, Brian Epstein, John Stephen, David Mancuso, Arthur Lee…
Sorry for break in transmission, have been very busy with Joy Division “Unknown Pleasures” show in Macclesfield. (See pic) Links to a gallery of photos and a video tour will be posted on this site shortly.
Other news is that the Arena “The Brian Epstein Story” is being shown again on BBC4 on the 24th August. (see pic of BE with his factotum Lonnie Trimble in 1965). In the meantime I’d like to mention a few pop culture books that have been recently published and that, given the shrunken review space almost everywhere, you might have missed. First up is Jeremy Reed’s “The King of Carnaby Street: The Life of John Stephen” – a fascinating biography of the young gay Glaswegian who revolutionised British youth fashions during the mid sixties. Researched with the full assent of Stephen’s long-time partner, Bill Franks, the book is full of fascinating detail about the fifties’ gay underground – in particular the ‘Vince’ shops and label run by pioneer Bill Green – and how that impacted upon the avant-garde of modernist fashion that went global in the mid sixties. Digressions include the importance of speed to the emerging mod movement and its philosophical implications, as well as the difficulties and pleasures of an underground gay subculture pre the partial legalisation of the 1967 SOA.
I’d also recommend the latest from Djhistory.com, Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s “The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries”: long interviews with 46 DJ’s, running from the 1940′s (Jimmy Savile) right into the 21st century. The cast includes Jeff Dexter, John Peel, Ian Levine, Tom Moulton, Nicky Siano, Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Frankie Knuckles….. Check out the interview with David Mancuso from the Loft – ‘I had certain things I wanted to do to send a message, and it had more to do with social progress’ – and his amazing ‘Loft 100″ playlist and then hope that the two double cd “David Mancuso Presents The Loft” comps are reissued so you don’t have to pay crazy prices for them. Finally John Einarson’s “Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love” is the most thorough and solid Love book extant: much new information in this somewhat overtold story, and plenty of detail about the recording of those classic three mid sixties albums and the more varied but rarely dull ones that followed. Einarson has a real scoop: an unpublished Arthur Lee memoir from 2003 and onwards, extracts of which are presented throughout the book. Here’s Lee on Love in 1966: ‘we had the perfect band. There was nothing like it in the world. We had the sound, the look, the crowds and the songs that the youth, and the Hollywood scene, wanted. We were so unique and sounded, and looked, so good, it didn’t seem to matter what colour we were; and that is as good as it gets in this life’.