The Clash

The culture of fashion: Alex Michon, shy punk (Part 2)



Alex Michon

Did you enjoy yesterday’s post on Alex Michon and her punk style evolution? If so, there’s more. I asked her to unearth some photos for me and as well as the photos (apologies for the bad quality – they’re not scans, but hey, it’s punk innit), she emailed more commentary that I couldn’t resist adding.

So here is Part 2.

I hope you’ll find it as fascinating as I do. Alex was adamant she wanted photos that showed her as she really was – a ‘shy punk’ and not a poser. However, a lot of her photos do show her posing in her designs as a way of documenting the work. So I couldn’t really not include them – sorry Alex! (more…)

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The culture of fashion: Alex Michon, shy punk (part 1)



Alex Michon

In December 2020, I interviewed my friend, the artist, writer and a director of Transition Gallery, Alex Michon for an article for Bon Magazine called ‘Can what you wear change who you are?’ I could only feature a couple of her soundbites in the piece, but on recently rediscovering the transcript, I realised she had some incredible insights into a pivotal time for young women and their attitude to clothes and self-expression. I spoke to her about her years designing and making clothes (alongside her friend Krystyna Kolowska) for The Clash at the peak of their influence along with her own personal style metamorphosis as a reaction to living in 1970s Britain. (more…)

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Watch this: White Riot – the story of Rock Against Racism



White Riot film - photo by Syd Shelton

This documentary, White Riot – the story of Rock Against Racism sounds brilliant. Rock Against Racism, a music movement spawned by a march and mini-festival in 1978 was such an important part of British social and music history and I bet the archive live footage is fantastic.

A special digital screening of the doc will take place from tomorrow (Wednesday 29th April) until Sunday 3rd May on the Curzon Live site here (£9.99 on demand). And on Thursday 30th April at 8.30pm GMT there will be a free live-streamed panel talk with director Rubika Shah and host Mark Kermode on YouTube here.

For a taster, watch the trailer here. (more…)

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Win tickets to my talk with Gary Crowley



Gary Crowley with The Clash

In three weeks time, I’m going to be front and centre of the Cockpit Theatre, putting London radio legend, Gary Crowley in the hot seat. This irrepressible raconteur has gone from teenage punk fan to schoolboy fanzine editor to record plugger to NME receptionist, from whence he moved onto radio and TV during the magical years of 80s indie and pop.

He’s run a fanzine from a phone box, was the first to play Wham! on the radio (and became their tour compere), helped bring hip-hop and Brit pop to the masses and schmoozed with Soho’s fashion and music finest during the Wag Club heyday. (more…)

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