Issue 6 print edition now available!
Plectrum issue 6 brings you a tantalising summer line-up, mixing millinery, Rockabilly, and the literary, with the legendary Stephen Jones reflecting on 30 inspirational years in hats, Max Décharné, writer, rock musician, and righteous lounge lizard, defining the music that puts a rocket in your pocket, and Simon Prosser celebrating his passion for books as founder of Five Dials, and co-founder of the Port Eliot Festival. To which The Power of Surprise is brought by regular Plectrum columnists, Delisia Howard, writer and former in-house model and head of cosmetics and household for Biba, and her husband, the writer and illustrator, Chris Price. Whilst Plectrum continues to step out in style with the stories behind the shoes of Jeffery~West and Terry de Havilland, new flash fiction by Abi Curtis, new poetry by Paul Lyalls, guest reviewers, Pamflet. Plus a summer film special Pick Up review section. This summer, The Cultural Pick is straight from the fridge and more revitalising than a mint frappé! Though don’t hold back on either score, they do go wonderfully well together!
Issue 6
£2.50
(plus £1 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Issue 6
£2.50
(plus £2 p&p AirMail)
(NB: from issue 3 onwards the print and webzine editions of Plectrum have had entirely different contents; articles, reviews, and interviews from issue 6 print edition will not be available online or archived online)
From an exclusive centrefold poster and poem by French stencil artist, Christian Guémy (aka C215), reflections on Brighton with legendary designer and Biba founder, Barbara Hulanicki, author Travis Elborough, and poet Abi Curtis, to first publications of new short fiction by songwriter, music producer, and novelist, Lois Walden, and new poetry by Benedict Newbery, the new issue of Plectrum - The Cultural Pick features the work of an highly exciting and diverse range of contributors. To this fascinating mix is also added the first of a regular new column for Plectrum by the writer and former in-house model and head of cosmetics and household for Biba, Delisia Howard, and her husband, the illustrator Chris Price, and music, film, books, comics, and podcast reviews guest edited by the pop culture blog, Planet Mondo. All in all it’s essential reading!
Issue 5
£2.50
(plus £1 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Issue 5
£2.50
(plus £2 p&p AirMail)
Alternatively for details of stockists, please keep scrolling down
(NB: From issue 3 onwards the print and webzine editions of Plectrum have had entirely different contents; articles, reviews, and interviews from the print editions will not be available online or archived online)
About the contributors to Plectrum - The Cultural Pick issue 5:
Christian Guémy aka C215
The highly influential, prolific and proactive French stencil artist, Christian Guémy (aka C215), has become a key part of an equally influential lineage of French street artists, including Blek le Rat, Jeff Aérosol, and Miss.Tic, which whilst making France the spiritual home of street art, has also had a major impact on, and provided a predominant inspiraton for, stencil and street art worldwide. Guémy maintains a phenomenal schedule painting works both in the street and for galleries worldwide (last year alone his itinerary included Britain, Senegal, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Norway, and Canada), whilst also generating community art projects and events in his home town. In 2008 Guémy was invited by Banksy to take part in The Cans Festival in London, and last year by the band, Green Day, and the New York based stencil artist, Logan Hicks, to create work for The Art of Rock exhibition accompanying the release of the album 21st Century Breakdown. Also last year, the Galerie Pierre Cardin, Paris, staged a retrospective of his work.
Barbara Hulanicki
In 1964, Barbara Hulanicki founded a shop that was to change the face of fashion in the 1960s and 1970s, Biba. A shop which left an indellible mark on the minds and the wardrobes of all those who ventured through its doors. Since when her impact on design has continued apace. From the 1980s onwards she has been at the forefront of the cultural regeneration of Miami Beach, whilst her collection for Topshop last spring sold out in a matter of days. Recent additions to the myriad of projects she has worked on include four new beach houses at Coral Sands Hotel, Bahamas, a new range of bags for Coccinelle, and new wall art and Flocked wallpaper collections for Graham and Brown.
Travis Elborough
Travis Elborough is the author of The Bus We Loved; London’s Affair with the Routemaster (Granta), and The Long Player Goodbye: The Album from Vinyl to iPod and Back Again (Sceptre). His next book, Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, a cultural history of the English seaside will be published by Sceptre in July 2010.
Abi Curtis
Abi Curtis lives in Brighton and lectures at Sussex University. Her poetry collection, Unexpected Weather, won Salt Publishing’s Crashaw Prize 2009. She also won an Eric Gregory Award in 2004.
Lois Walden
Lois Walden has worked with major artists such as Dionne Warwick and Jane Fonda, and, as part of the singing group The Sisters of Glory, performed with Chaka Khan at the Vatican for the Pope. She co-produced the group’s critically-acclaimed album, Good News in Hard Times, for Warner Bros, and was the lyricist for American Dreams Lost and Found, based on the book by Studs Terkel. Her life and music have been profiled on the CBS shows, Good Morning America and Sunday Morning. Her first novel, One More Stop, was recently published by Bliss, an imprint of Arcadia Books.
Benedict Newbery
Benedict Newbery is a poet and journalist, in addition to being an occasional poetry reviewer and copy editor for Nude magazine. The film of his poem, Cul de Sac, which he storyboarded and co-directed with animator, Sandra Salter, was shortlisted for the 2008 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Berlin.
Delisia Howard & Chris Price
Writer Delisia Howard, was not only in charge of cosmetics and household for Biba from 1968 to the closing of Big Biba in 1975, but she was also the in-house model on whom Barbara Hulanicki would fit and refine all her sample clothing designs for the highly influential fashion label and shops. With her husband, the illustrator Chris Price, Howard has created the imprint Hazard Books, and they create fabulous limited edition and handmade books, two of which, InBiba, and SinBiba, have continued their creative collaboration with Barbara Hulanicki, as they also feature her illustrations in addition to Price’s.
Planet Mondo
Edited by Dave Collins, Planet Mondo is a pop culture blog which is home to ‘punk rarities, funky nuggets, bootleg remixes, alt-takes, outtakes, and new tunes’, plus Q&As with musicians and authors, and the Podrophenia podcasts. planetmondo.blogspot.com
Signed Biba & I / Bibaology posters designed and illustrated by Delisia Howard and Chris Price for the Plectrum Live Edition events are now available for £5 plus p&p.
Posters are A3 (297mm x 420mm) and are printed in black and white on 120gsm silk paper.
Each poster is signed on the image side in metallic ink pen by Delisia Howard and Chris Price
About the artists:
Writer Delisia Howard, was not only in charge of cosmetics and household for Biba from 1968 to the closing of Big Biba in 1975, but she was also the in-house model on whom Barbara Hulanicki would fit and refine all her sample clothing designs for the highly influential fashion label and shops. With her husband, the illustrator Chris Price, Howard has created the imprint Hazard Books, and they create fabulous limited edition and handmade books, two of which, InBiba, and SinBiba, have continued their creative collaboration with Barbara Hulanicki, as they also feature her illustrations.
Biba & I/Bibaology poster
£5
(plus £2.50 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Biba & I/Bibaology poster
£5
(plus £3.50 p&p Airmail)
Issue 4
£2.50
(plus £1 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Issue 4
£2.50
(plus £2 p&p Airmail)
With issue 4 Plectrum has undergone a revolution… of ninety-five degrees. The landscape cover may have gone portrait but within you will still find features, interviews, reviews, and previews from the widest horizon of books and film, music and fashion,
art and performance.
John Stephen, King of Carnaby Street
Jeremy Reed explores the role John Stephen played in transforming not only Carnaby Street into an internationally famous street name and byword for Swinging London, but also in so doing radically changing men’s fashion and shop design. Little more than a backwater when he opened his first shop there in the late 1950s, John Stephen’s dominion would, by the end of the 1960s extended to eleven shops in Carnaby Street alone.
Max Décharné Talks Hipster Slang
With the publication of a new edition of his dictionary of hipster slang, Straight from the Fridge, Dad, Max Décharné, writer (Kings Road - The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World), rock musician (Gallon Drunk, Earls of Suave, Nikki Sudden, The Flaming Stars), and righteous lounge lizard, tells tales from 20 years of combining the writing of short fiction, non fiction, and music journalism, with singing, song writing, recording, and world tours.
Delisia Howard & Chris Price: From Biba to Hazard Books
Writer Delisia Howard, was not only in charge of cosmetics and household for Biba from 1968 to the closing of Big Biba in 1975, but she was also the in-house model on whom Barbara Hulanicki would fit and refine all her sample clothing designs for the highly influential fashion label and shops. With her husband, the illustrator Chris Price, Howard has created the imprint Hazard Books, and they create fabulous limited edition and handmade books, two of which, InBiba, and SinBiba, have continued their creative collaboration with Barbara Hulanicki, as they also feature her illustrations in addition to Price’s.
New Poetry by Jeremy Reed
Jeremy Reed has also contributed four poems to Plectrum, which are being published for the first time in this issue. Fans of his work include J.G Ballard, who says of him “Jeremy Reed’s talent is almost extraterrestrial in its brilliance”, Bjork who has called his work ” the most beautiful, outrageously brilliant poetry in the world,” and Pete Doherty who states simply “Jeremy Reed is a legend. What more can you fucking ask?”
Centrefold Illustration by Chris Price
Another new development for this issue of Plectrum, which will be a regular part of the magazine, is a fold-out, exclusive, centrefold illustration. To complement the feature on Delisia Howard and Chris Price this has been contributed by Chris Price.
Reviews
Plus an host of reviews and previews including, artist, illustrator, and Biba Baby, Daisy de Villeneuve on the documentary Beyond Biba.
Issue 3
£2.50
(plus £1 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Issue 2
£2.50
(plus £1 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Issue 1
£2.50
(plus £1 p&p Surface Mail to any address)
Issue 1
£2.50
(plus £2 p&p AirMail)
Equally, Plectrum is also available from some wonderful independent stockists which we heartily recommend you visit:
STOCKISTS
Online
Since its inception in 2003, Nude magazine has consistently gone ‘beyond the counter culture’ to champion the best in arts, culture, music, film, graphics and general oddity from an indie perspective. In November 2009 they unveiled their new website which is not only home to the online edition of the magazine with its plethora of great articles, reviews, opinion, visuals and lots of competitions, but also to the wonderful Nude shop where one can buy books, zines, prints, jewellery, clothing, accessories, and homewares from the likes of Jamie Reid, Angelique Houtkamp, and Vince Ray.
www.nudemagazine.co.uk
In Person
LONDON
Jeffery~West’s ‘Infamous English shoes’ and accessories for men combine all the traditional craftsmanship inherent in being manufactured in Northampton factories with hundreds of years of experience with a welter of inspirations from Regency dandies, fin de siecle decadence, and twentieth century pop culture to create fantastic and highly indiosyncratic styles in rich and dramatic colours. The five Jeffery~West shops are also imbued with the same elegance, stylistic references, and drama aided and abetted by the fantastic architecture of their locations.
16 Piccadilly Arcade, London SW1Y 6NH
+44 (0) 20 7499 3360
16 Cullum Street, Leadenhall, London EC3M7JJ
+44 (0) 20 7626 4699
Lewis Leathers, founded in 1892 as D. Lewis Ltd, is Britain’s oldest motorcyle clothing company and in its long history has clad riders and rockers, pioneer aviators and early motor racers, punks and the police, rockstars and models. Their iconic jackets have inspired generations and are now available along with their footwear and clothing lines, accessories and books at their new shop which opened in December 2009 at:
3-5 Whitfield Street, London. W1T 2SA
+44 (0)20 7636 4314
www.lewisleathers.com
Pages of Hackney is a fantastic independent bookshop which stocks an eclectic selection of contemporary and classic fiction, childrens books, politics, environment, art, cookery, second-hand books and much more. There is also a gallery space in the basement and Pages hosts a regular programme of readings, discussions, debates, screenings, art exhibitions, performances and parties.
Opening times:
Monday to Friday: 11am-7pm
Saturday: 11am-6pm
Sunday: 12pm-6pm
Established in London in 1995 Two Columbia Road is a gallery specialising in a broad range of collectable furniture, associated design, works of art and photography. Designers include Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, Arne Vodder, Joe Colombo, Ettore Sottsass, Charles Eames, Poul Kjaerholm and Cees Braakman. Artists vary, but in recent months have included Patrick Caulfield, Marc Quinn, Joe Tilson, Ed Ruscha, Wolfgang Tillmans, Peter Blake, and Sarah Lucas.
Opening times:
Tuesday till Friday 12 - 7pm
(closed Monday)
Saturday 12 - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 3pm
2 Columbia Road, Shoreditch, London E2 7NN
+44 (0) 20 7729 9933
www.twocolumbiaroad.co.uk
The brainchild of Pippa Brooks and Nathaniel Lee Jones, M.Goldstein is part shop and part showroom; customers range from the inquisitive passer-by to private and corporate clients for whom M.Goldstein source particular objects and pieces to a brief. The treasure trove of inspirations includes decorative antiques, interior showpieces, furniture, ethnographic antiquities as well as small pieces such as jewelry, curios and utilitarian objects. Original art works range from outsider art, home crafts and commonplace objects to modern esoteric curiosities and Jurassic Art. In addition to unusual second-hand and antique clothing they have also developed their in-house labels Goldstein Attire and Youths Style.
Opening times:
Friday to Sunday 10am till 5.30pm
67 Hackney Road
London E2 8ET
Founded in the late 1960s, Sherry’s and its sister shop, The Face, are now Carnaby Street landmarks, having dressed and been a focal point for generations of mods and skinheads, and a whole plethora of bands and rockstars from Ian ‘Mac’ McLagen to The Jam, Madness, The Specials, and on to Ocean Colour Scene and Oasis. Stocking menswear and womenswear from their own label in addition to Ben Sherman, Fred Perry, Lonsdale, and John Smedley.
Opening times:
Monday to Saturday 10am - 6.30pm
Sunday 12 - 5pm
Sherry’s
24 Ganton Street
off Carnaby Street
LONDON W1F 7QY
&
The Face
1 Marlborough Court
LONDON W1V 1PJ
LEEDS
21 County Arcade, Victoria Quarter. Leeds LS1 6BW
+44 (0) 113 244 3588
www.jeffery-west.co.uk
MANCHESTER
1 Barton Arcade, Deansgate. Manchester M3 2BB
+44 (0) 161 835 9284
www.jeffery-west.co.uk
EAST SUSSEX
A beautiful and wonderfully welcoming bookshop in the equally beautiful village of Alfriston, atop the South Downs, close to Charleston - haven of the Blomsbury Group - and the town of Lewes. Much Ado stocks new, old, rare, and out of print books, plus fine press editions, and their fabulous ranges of recovered notebooks, and note cards. It is no surprise that The Independent proclaimed Much Ado Independent Bookshop of the Year 2007.
Opening times
Monday to Saturday: 9:30-5:30
Sunday: 10:30-5
Closed: “Any day when more than a centimeter of snow falls”
High Street
Alfriston
East Sussex
BN26 5TYmuchadobooks.com
NORTHAMPTON
City House, 43 Cliftonville Road, Northampton NN1 5HQ
+44 (0) 1604 637 971
www.jeffery-west.co.uk
- Watch Nigel Waymouth interviewed by Guy Sangster Adams on the Plectrum Broadcast player. Read Reverberation: The Iconic History of Nigel Waymouth in Plectrum Webzine.
