Alien

Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome 40th anniversary

FGTH boxset
This has been a long time coming, I’ve been working on this as part of a great team for over a year now and it’s finally up for pre-order. The 40th anniversay set of Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ across 8 discs, inc. 33 unreleased tracks, with full co-operation of the band, a new 5.1 Atmos mix by Steven Wilson over multiple formats.

FGTH SW LP
Eight discs: 1: Demos + Sessions 2: Relax + B-sides 3: Two Tribes + B-sides 4: Rarities and outtakes 5: The Power of Love + B-sides 6: Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (the single) + B-sides 7: Welcome To The Pleasuredome (the original album) 8: Welcome To The Pleasuredome (the new Steven Wilson 5.1 mix + more). All housed in a 10″ 38 pg book with intro by SDE’s Paul Sinclair and full historial band timeline by myself plus plenty of photos wrapped up in a Philip Marshall design.

FGTH BluRay
Formats: 8 discs + book / 2xLP (Steven Wilson album mix) / 2xCD (original album + box set highlights) / Blu Ray (original album mix + Steven Wilson 5.1 + Atmos + Stereo mixes) + Welcome To The Pleasure Dome (Supernova) exclusive. The 30 minute ‘Supernova’ version of ‘Welcome To The Pleasure Dome’ (the title track) by Steven Wilson on the SDE Blu-Ray is, in my opinion, the best Frankie remix done since the 80s.

Myriad versions available here

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Bleep mix #308 – O Is For Orange 2025 (version 3)

DJ Food Bleep Mix 308
Today sees the premiere of a new mix I’ve done for Bleep in support of the Telepathic Fish compilation which is currently their album of the month. A version of this mix first appeared in 2013 at a night to celebrate the release of Boards of Canada’s ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’ LP. It then morphed into an Audio Visual DJ set that I toured around the UK in 2019, playing the Bluedot festival to a packed tent that year. The idea was to thread Boards of Canada’s music with original sample sources, tracks they’d remixed, fan remixes or songs that fitted their sonic blueprint.
O Is For Orange 2025 Bleep Mix Rectangle web2

To listen go here: DJ Food Bleep Mix

By coincidence I recently resurrected and refined the mix for a gig booking, updating it into a new version. Tracks were removed, new ones added and remaining ones re-edited, videos were upscaled or replaced entirely. This happened to be a week before I was due to deliver my guest mix to Bleep and it seemed to be too good an opportunity to pass up, given that it also featured a host of other Warp acts too. I abandoned the mix I was going to deliver and put down the first hour of the 90 minute DJ set, including this video mix to go with it. I used stem splitting apps to deconstruct some of the tracks into unique versions before video mixing it all on turntables using Serato then editing the recording in Premiere. Enjoy and spot the recurring themes.

Full audio and video tracklist:

Sesame Street – ‘Oh! Orange’ (Sesame Workshop)
Video: as above

Galt MacDermot – Aquarius (RCA Victor)
Video: ‘Conquest of Light’ – dir. Paul Cohen / ‘Hair’ – dir. Milos Forman / Wobass – ‘Aquarius’ bass solo

Sesame Street – ‘1-10 count’ (Sesame Workshop)
Video: as above

Sesame Street – ‘Slot Machine (legs)’ (Sesame Workshop)
Video: as above

Boards of Canada – Aquarius (Warp)
Video: ‘Moog’ advert – dir. Julian House, / ‘Opening Flowers’ – dir. Bjorn Svin / ‘Yellow Submarine’ number sequence – dir. George Dunning

Girl with Orange dialogue
Video: ‘Everyman – The Beyond Within’ (BBC documentary, 1986)

Ken Nordine – Orange (Philips)
Video: as above – dir. Jada Lewis, ‘Orange Bird’ – Food & Fun (Disney), ‘Kia Ora Orange’ 70s advert,

Sesame Street – Alphaquest: S (Sesame Workshop)
Video: as above

Boards of Canada – ROYGBIV (Warp)
Video: as above – dir. Triff (fan video)

Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange – The Dreams: Colour (ROYGBIV re-edit) (Silva Screen)
Video: ‘ROYGBIV’ (PBS Kids)

Yosi Horikawa – Wandering (First Word)
Video: Yeasayer ‘Henrietta’ (Official Vignette) – dir. Yoshi Sodeoka

Broadcast & The Focus Group – The Be Colony (Warp)
Video: Broadcast – ‘Witch Cults’ #1 & 2’ promo films, – both dir. Julian House

Nevermen – Treat ‘Em Right (Boards of Canada remix) (Lex)
Video: iloobia – ‘Films To Break Projectors’ – dir. iloobia

Boards of Canada – Everything You Do Is A Balloon (Skam)
Video: as above (fan video – dir. Nonameno5), taken from ‘One Got Fat’ (1963) – dir. Dale Jennings

Bomb The Bass – One To One Religion (Skankapella) (Stoned Heights)

Jan Hammer Group – Don’t You Know (Nemperor Records)
Video: Andy Shauf – ‘The Magician’ – dir. Winston Hacking / ‘Outer Space / Collage Animation’ – dir. Sabrina Ashleigh Tan

Sesame Street – ‘Valentine I Love You’ (Sesame Workshop)
Video: as above

Clocolan – Humantime (Bandcamp)
Video: Sculpture – ‘Plastic Infinite’ – dir. Reuben Sutherland

The Books – Group Autogenics I (Temporary Residence)
Video: ‘Terminal Self’ – dir. John Whitney Jr.

No-Man – Heaven Taste (Beats)
Video: Noel Gallagher – ‘It’s A Beautiful World / Holy Mountain’ (edits) – dir. Julian House

Boards of Canada – Happy Cycling (Warp)
Video: as above – dir. Framewall (fan video)/ ‘A Bicycle Trip’ – dir. Lorenzo Veracini, Nandini Nambiar & Marco Avoletta

Boards of Canada – Just An Illusion (Societas x NTS mix)
Video: ‘Phase 4’ – original lost ending – dir. Saul Bass / Imagination – ‘It’s Just An illusion’ video / ‘Bees Hexagons’ – dir. unknown

Boards of Canada – The Colour of the Fire (Warp)
Video: Sesame Street ‘I Love You’ (Sesame Workshop) / ‘Der Phantastische Film’ – dir: Heinz Edelmann

Meat Beat Manifesto – Prime Audio Soup (Boards of Canada remix) (PIAS)
Video: ‘Series 4′ – dir. Normand Grégoire (Nation Film Board of Canada)

Boards of Canada – Dandelion (acappella re-edit) (Warp)
Video: ‘Dive To The Edge of Creation’ (National Geographic)

Autechre – Teartear (Warp)
Video: ‘The Public Voice’ – dir. Lejf Marcussen

The Human League – Being Boiled (Fast)
Video: as above What’s On Granada TV live appearance 1978 / ‘Beyond The Black Rainbow’ – dir. Panos Comastos

Boards of Canada – The Devil Is In The Details (St.Vitus Dance Remix / DJ Food re-edit) (fan mix)
Video: Puttyrubber video feedback / BBC title sequences edit

Datashat – Stop The Message (DJ Food edit)
Video: Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – The Message (Sugar Hill Records)

Boards of Canada – Nlogax (Skam)
Video: ‘Bridget Riley – Painting The Line’ (BBC)

Indeed – Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (a cappella) (Sound of New York)
Video: as above

Boards of Canada – Olson (Midland re-edit) (mp3)
Video: ‘The Hello Machine’ (AT&T) – dir. Carroll Ballard

Jamie Lidell – Multiply The Voices
Video: Multiply multi-layered – dir. Pablo Fiasco

Boards of Canada – Telepath (Warp)
Video: as above, dir. Faastwalker (fan video)

Spooky – Orange Coloured Liquid (Guerilla)
Video: ‘Tonespor’ – dir. Lejf Marcussen, / Plastic Flowers – ‘Open Space part II’ – dir. Karina Logotheti

Dream 2 Science – My Love Turns To Liquid (Padappela) (Confusion Records)

Sesame Street – Many Me’s (Sesame Workshop)
Video: as above

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As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade

Banksy Removal
The irony of the removal of Banksy‘s latest piece on the Royal Courts of Justice in London is that it’s only strengthened his message. Instead of rushing to protect the image as has been the case with many of his public works in recent years, the ghost image that remains only serves to further illustrate our fading right to free speech and protest. A reminder also that placement and context can enhance a message. Although Banksy rarely repeats a work like this I hope more of these start appearing and are preserved by whoever owns the buildings they’re on.

Banksy MuralBanksy mural detail

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Buy Music Club September

BMC September
It’s finally out, today sees the official release of the Telepathic Fish album that I co-compiled with original housemates Mario Aguera and David Vallade to showcase tracks that we regularly played at the ambient parties we held with Chantal Passamonte back in the early 90s. Released on Doug Shipton‘s Fundamental Frequencies label, the double album comes with a 20pg booklet in a spot-varnished gatefold sleeve and early bird pre-orders got a bundle with a new Mindfood fanzine, mystery mixtape and enamel badge. It’s time for it to swim off into the ether and of course, today is Bandcamp Friday so you know what to do…

Currently Moonbuilding mag’s album of the week and Bleep‘s album of the month (more of that soon), there are articles out in Crack magazine, Electronic Sound and The Guardian with more to come. Also check out my longform interviews with Tales From A Disappearing City podcast with Controlled Weirdness and the Do!!You!!! Breakfast show with Charlie Bones.

Of course I’m going to big it up on my monthly recommends but there’s also tons of goodness out this month too including the new Group Modular 7″ which is so good I had to play it twice last Sunday. Consisting of two cuts previously available on very limited releases, it’s a more ambient release than before. Tom Jenkinson‘s first release under the alias Stereotype gets a repress from Warp as does DJ Format‘s in a new 7″ edit from Delic Records. For the sample-heads there’s a new Wagon Christ album coming from De:tuned and Yo Cisco Kidd‘s ‘Smoke Signal’ mines a Madlib-like vein on Cheeba Cheeba Records. For the chilled side there’s a Radx 12″ out at the end of the month on 12th Isle and an oldie but new discovery for me, Joshua Abrams‘ ‘Magnetoception’, he of Natural Information Society. JG Thirlwell releases the third of his Venture Brothers soundtrack collections – check the CD for loads more tracks – and Funki Porcini appears out of nowhere with another fully formed album. Also note the new Drumetrics release of four 5″ records in an etched box – for some reason Buy Music Club wouldn’t recognise the URL so I’ve added it here.

0040885274_10

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Autumn Exhibitions in London

The summer holidays are over and so now we can expect a raft of new exhibitions opening in London – here’s six that I’m looking forward to. Please post of any you know of that would fit in with these.

Ralph Steadman ‘Once Upon a Line’ Private View - Tomorrow!!!- 4th September 5-9pm The Muse galle
Ralph Steadman: Once Upon A Line
28 Aug – 21 Sept
The Muse Gallery, Portobello Road, London
Thurs-Sun 12–6pm | Free entry

the All Good Bookshop on Turnpike Lan
Mark Stafford & David Hine
08 Sept – 03 Oct
All Good Bookshop
35 Turnpike Lane, Wood Green, N8 0EP

Open daily 10am-6pm | Free entry

RRPL 2
Rock & Roll Public Library 2
13th-18th Sept

The Art Pavilion, Mile End Park, Clinton Road, E3 4QY
Open daily 11am-8pm | Free entry



Heroes2025_BellyBandtDM_27_copy_2048x2048-topaz-text-shapes-2x-faceai v2
Blitz: The Club That Shaped The 80s
20th Sept – 29 March 2026

The Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High St, W8 6AG

Open daily 10am-6/10pm – Tickets

vna_east_22nd_oct_announce_1080sq
David Bowie Centre
‘September’
 ongoing
V&A East Storehouse
Parkes Street, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, E20 3AX

Open daily 10am-5/6pm – Tickets

Cartoon Museum
The Future Was Then

4th Oct – 21 Mar 2026
The Cartoon Museum, 63 Wells St, W1A 3AE

Tues-Sat 10.30-5.30 / Sun 12-4pm – Tickets

and also a plug for Stephen Coates’ month-long celebration of all things spooky
London Month of the Dead

1st Oct – 31st Oct
Various locations around London
Check website for details

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Telepathic pics

The Telepathic Fish party last Sunday was a proper fishing trip down memory lane. Not only for the tunes we played and the old decor we dug up but the people who came from far and wide, some of who we’d not seen in decades. The CDJs and Matt Black‘s AV set up may have been state of the art but the projectors were classic old school with liquid wheels, rotating prisms and op-art FX. The floor was covered with matting, rugs and cushions and our original inflatable ‘amoeba’ was revived, pulsating away in a high corner all night. There were reflective fish hanging from the tunnel walls, David‘s badge-making corner under UV lights that illuminated the flourescent paint of some of our original banners and a jar of free fish sweets to take.

Mario played his first public gig in years, Doug Shipton ably followed with a blend of deep digs into the German end of his collection and I spun multiple decks with a retro set drawing mainly from the early 90s. KiF Productions arrived as doors opened and performed a live soundtrack to their ‘Still Out’ ambient road trip film homage to the KLF and Mixmaster Morris closed with two hours of his usual eclectic brilliance. Below are just some of the highlights – thanks to photographers Mike Sumpter, Nancy Brown, Mario and Larissa Aguera, Chiara Acanfora and Simon Wright for pooling their photos. My short sweep of the room above gives you an example of the every-moving nature of the space.

Telepathic Fish Panorama - ph. Simon Wright
Doug Shipton - Telepathic Fish - ph. Chiara Acanfora
Doug Shipton 2 - Telepathic Fish - ph. Nancy Brown
IMG_6893
Telepathic Fish - ph.Kevin Foakes
David Vallade - Telepathic Fish - ph. Nancy Brown

TF_Launch_Party_MA-6
TF_Launch_Party_MA-9
TF_Launch_Party_MA-11
TF_Launch_Party_MA-61
TF_Launch_Party_MA-12
TF_Launch_Party_MA-15
TF_Launch_Party_MA-41

TF_Launch_Party_MA-72
TF_Launch_Party_MA-76
TF_Launch_Party_MA-83
TF_Launch_Party_MA-84
TF_Launch_Party_MA-112
TF_Launch_Party_MA-119
TF_Launch_Party_MA-123
TF_Launch_Party_MA-135
TF_Launch_Party_MA-170
TF_Launch_Party_MA-204
The amoeba - Telepathic Fish - ph. Nancy Brown
Dedicated Telepathic Fish - Mike Sumpter

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Telepathic Fish LPs arrive

Bundle front 2
LP inside
Bundle back
LP+booklet
The LPs are here at last, over a year in the making, gatefold double album with silk smooth finish, spot varnish details and 20 page full colour booklet. Also Mindfood #5 fanzine, 1 hour mystery mix ‘Float III’ cassette and enamel pin badge.

Badge
Float front
Float A
Float B
Float back
Float inside
These all form the deluxe bundle that sold out very quickly on the FF Bandcamp pre-order page. The LP is very much still available but if you missed out on the bundle then we will have a limited number for sale at the launch party next Sunday, August 31st in Brixton at Arch555 – ticket link here.

MF5 cover
MF5 inside 1
MF5 inside 2
MF5 inside 3
MF5 inside 4

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Telepathic Fish in Electronic Sound

ES mag 1 web
The current issue of Electronic Sound has a six page feature on Telepathic Fish by Ben Willmott, someone who was around when we did these parties and certainly came to several. Aside from interviewing the three of us, he’s pulled in quotes from Matt Black, Robin Rimbaud and Daniel Pemberton – all people in our orbit back in the day who have first hand experience of the Fish too. I’ve not included the text of course, you’ll have to buy the mag but later in the issue is a review of the forthcoming compilation by Ben Murphy and nestling next to it is none other than the guvnor, Brian Eno.
If you can’t get the mag or don’t do physical then you can read the feature online if you become a premium member.

ES cover web
ES mag 4 web
ES mag 5 web
ES mag review web

It’s just two weeks away from the launch party in Brixton on August 31st and there’s still much to do, the LPs are in the UK, the cassettes are made although we now have to assemble 150 acetate inlays, the badges and fanzines are delivered and a very special liquid wheel has been custom made by Bubblevision for the night. There’s more press to come and several guest mixes which I’ll post about in the coming weeks, lots in the pipeline still and new things bubbling to the surface daily it seems… Launch party tickets: https://ra.co/events/2218194

Telepathic Fish front
Telepathic Fish - Star Fish back2

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45 Live mix for 2025

DJ Food 45 Live Mix 12th 2025 web
It’s that time again, my annual 45 Live mix over on Dublab for the fortnightly 45 Live show, hosted as ever by the mighty Greg Belson (whose unreleased 1995 album with Nick Faber under their The Hightower Set monikor finally came out last month). As ever I’ve been stockpiling those electronic 7″s from the acid house and rave era and this is a mostly techno and bleep-orientated mix, only occasionally straying into rave territory (believe me though, I have enough to make a stonking piano-led pop house set and probably two full-on rave/hardcore sets).

Kev’s 12th mix – House / Techno / Bleep ’88-92 – Aug 2025

Unknown – The Cimex Invasion promo advert
LFO – We Are Back (intro)
808 State – Cobra Bora (7” edit)
A Guy Called Gerald – Rhythm of Life
The Style Council – Can You Still Love Me?
A Guy Called Gerald – Hot Lemonade (Radio Edit)
Emmanuel – We Shall Overcome (Technogizer Instrumental edit)
Friends of Matthew – Out There (Technomix)
K-Klass – Rhythm Is A Mystery (Percussion mix)
Kraftwerk – The Robots (Single edit)
D-Shake – My Heart, The Beat
Rickster – Rickster Twister (Radio Mix)
Bassomatic – Attack Of The 50 Foot Drum Demon (Psycho Biker Mix)
Rhythmatic – Take Me Back (Robert Gordon Radio edit)
Kenny Larkin – Colony
GTO – The Bullfrog
Kid Unknown – Mayhem
Unique 3 – Rhythm Takes Control (Original Style mix)
Rhythmatic – Frequency
808 State – Open Your Mind
GTO – Listen to the Rhythm Flow
LFO – We Are Back
G.T.O. – Pure
Underground Posse – Hold Back
LFO – Nurture
Kid Unknown – Nightmare
Papillon – The Bully (Original Mix)
Orbital – Halcyon (Edit)
The Shamen – Phorever People (Shamen Dub)
Inner City – Unity

DJ Food 45 Live Mix 12th 2025 2 web

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Buy Music Club August

DJ Food Faith in Strangers MargatePhoto by Jude Greenaway
It’s been a very busy month, revitalising my O is For Orange audio visual set for the gig at Faith in Strangers in Margate last week and doing promo for the Telepathic Fish album which is out in just under a month. There’s so much going on that I can scarcely keep up at the moment. I’m just finishing my annual 45 Live mix which airs a week today and starting on a guest mix for Bleep next whilst making final tweaks to the video files for last week’s gig. My longtime friend David Vallade had the premiere of a project he’d done with Great Ormond Street Hospital this Thursday at Outernet, the huge corner video screen at Tottenham Court Road station. He’d provided illustrations that had then been animated for the campaign which aims to raise money to build a children’s hospital. It’s on all month on a half hour loop for all to see free.

DV at Outernet
Doug Shipton‘s monthly night at the Tate Modern corner bar continues with Malcolm Catto and Paul Sinclair dropping fuzz funk bombs last Thursday, there’s no August one as we’ll be gearing up for the album launch party but it’s back in September. The Mindfood 5 fanzines are back from the printers, the badges arrive any day and the LPs are currently in customs with the mixtapes being made this week, just the cover inlays to make for those. I’ve ordered a special liquid wheel for the party and will be foraging in the loft for original banners this weekend, David has already found two from 30 years ago which will be making an appearance at the party. Tickets can be found here

BMC Aug 2025
I’m posting a slightly depleted Buy Music Club Recommends this month and it’s a week late, mainly because I’ve also been doing a lot of mixes over the month of July and didn’t have much time to listen to new music outside what I was wrangling into a new form for the Telepathic Fish mystery mix cassette, and a guest mixes for Dublab alongside Doug Shipton – forthcoming soon. Also dropping this month are features in The Guardian and Electronic Sound magazine among others.

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Tales From A Disappearing City podcast


I had a chat with my friend Neil Keating aka Controlled Weirdness about my formative years in music; record buying, clubbing, graffiti and a fair bit about Telepathic Fish. This is an indepth chat, probably the deepest I’ve gone about some subjects and I provided Neil with a load of vintage photos to illustrate the chat on the YouTube stream.
Glad to be a subject on this excellent podcast, if you like it, check some of the older episodes, the Jerome Hill, Aaron Trinder and Ian St. Paul ones are particularly good. Thanks to Neil for having me and putting the work in with the picture editing.

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Exhibition at Upside Down Records, Deptford

Openmind at Upside DownIf you visit Upside Down Records over the summer you’ll be able to see a selection of my design work for Ninja Tune, De:tuned, Castles In Space and more as you browse the racks. The selection comes from some of the work I recently exhibited in Folkestone but concentrates mainly on record-related designs so there’s none of the collage work that I previewed there, I’ll save that for when that project is ready.

The shop deals exclusively in used vinyl with a few racks of CDs and a small selection of vintage cassettes, they also deal in vintage hi-fi so if you’re in the market for a turntable, speakers or an amp, then they might have something for you. If you’ve not visited the shop before then they’re one stop from London Bridge on the overground or a 15 min walk from the heart of Greenwich. They’re open Wednesday-Sunday, check times online. Thanks to shop owner and good friend, Philippe for hosting my work and for the speedy install today.

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Telepathic Fish – The Star Fish – Album launch party

Telepathic Fish front
It’s with great excitement that I can announce the launch party for the Telepathic Fish album in association with Fundamental Frequencies! It’s on August 31st, at a unique venue in Brixton, the home of some of the original parties and keeping a similar vibe.

Mixmaster Morris will of course be gracing the decks, as will Doug Shipton, and myself and original Openmind DJ partner Mario Aguera will also be doing sets. Special guests will be KiF Productions who will DJing the soundtrack to the film of their ‘Chill Out’ homage, ‘STiLL OUT’.

Matt Black will be back on visuals, digging out some period animations for the event and we’ll be dragging a few choice pieces of original Telepathic Fish decor out of storage to give it the feel of the old parties. You’ll have a chance to pick up the album five days early too along with other assorted merch.

Tickets available here:https://ra.co/events/2218194

Telepathic Fish - Star Fish back2

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Teen Romance comics get psychedelic – part 3

Teen In 2
For the last part of this feature I’m looking at comics aimed at a slightly younger audience, your lower end of teendom or maybe even younger. The scripts are light-hearted, full of terrible gags with no suggestion of sex or drugs but maybe a bit of rock ‘n’ roll if it means featuring some of the latest good-looking boy bands. Someone should have had a word with the designer of Teen-In below, that cover line reads, ‘Throw A Comic Swinging Strip Party’!

Teen InGo Go
Go Go 2
Rock Happening comic
I only managed to find the covers for these Harvey Comics but also came across what looks like the original colour guide art for Rock Happening, look at the difference with the colours!

Rock_Happening original_Harvey_Comics-topaz-text-shapes-4x
The Cowsills comic
DC getting in a few plugs for Batman on this Scooter cover below, I seem to remember he was a Beatle-y type from Britain and all the girls wanted him.

Scooter
Modnicks
Kookie below was more of a Mad magazine knock off, here showing the changing tastes of the youth. I also found an op-art poster ad I’d missed last time.

Kookie
Poster bust

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Teen Romance comics get psychedelic – part 2

Meet Jonny Love
For this post we go inside the comics for a few hilarious examples of the kind of quality script writing teenage girls were subjected to in the 60s and 70s. Jonnie Love, above, appeared a few times over the years (see him on the cover of another comic in the first post). A tidy beard, motorbike and guitar was all he needed as he roamed from town to town, girls flocking after him but never tying him down. Drugs and free love were the order of the day below and it’ll be no surprise to find out that the swinging wedding after that didn’t end well, within several pages actually.

Hannibal
Love Honor and Swing
Mad For Mod

The writer of ‘Mad for Mod’ seems to be getting the Brits mixed up with the Aussies, check out that patter daddio! It’s no surprise that amorous Troy gets the boot before the end of the story below either, ‘you chicks are all the same’, the bad boy characters too.

They Talk about me
Charlton Logos
Logos for the titles changed with the times too as the decades progressed, few titles survived more than a few years but some did occasionally get into the hundreds, issuewise. The west coast poster craze saw several logos bending and blossoming with flowers and the fabric patterns threaten to outshine the characters wearing them.

Buck's BagIn amongst the strips were also adverts and by the end of the 60s they were on message in some of the comics too. I’ve already posted one for the homemade ‘Love Lite‘ (invite boys to assemble love lites!) and here we go full ‘Woodstock’ with posters, headbands, pendants and more preaching peace and love. Black light and op-art were big and is that Frank Zappa or Charles Manson top right on the ‘Forgive him Dear God…’ poster? I’d really like a ‘Love Lamp’ but what’s a ‘strobe candle’? Sounds well ahead of its time. And what the hell is that advert for a life size inflatable doll doing in a girl’s comic? She looks very realistic nevertheless.

Merch 1
Merch 2
Merch 3
Woodstock ad
Inflatable Doll

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Teen Romance comics get psychedelic – part 1

Falling In Love 2
I love how sixties psychedelia made its mark on mainstream culture, from record sleeves to fashion, posters to TV ads, film to fiction, everyone flirted with the imagery to appear hip for a minute or two. Comics were no exception, with underground comix forming a good slice of the movement’s attitude. Mainstream comics weren’t immune either and the teen fashion and romance issues of the era show that the writers and artists were plugged into the fashions of the day. Hippies or beatniks were usually the bad boys though – along with, and sometimes interchangeable with – bikers and crimminals, not something nice girls got involved with. A common plot thread would have the female lead’s head turned, under the spell of a travelling hipster or ‘swinger’ and led down the wrong path to the point where a former, spurned love would step in and take her back to normality. Marriage was never far from the lead character’s mind and most of the bad boys wanted free love and not to be tied down by the ‘squares’ or the ‘straights’. Here’s the first of a collection of covers that showcase the styles and subject matter of the counterculture from a huge online archive of teen romance comics of the era.

Falling In Love
Just Married 2
Just Married
Love & Romance
My Only Love
Secret Romance
Teen Confessions 2
Teen Confessions 3
Time For Love
Teen Confesstions 4
Teen-Age Love
Occasionally the script would be flipped whereby the female lead would throw themselves whole-heartedly into the action, only to see the error of her ways later when things hot up and she’s shown the error of her ways by a ‘sensible’ man, the sexism of these stories unfortunately shines brightly from nearly every story.

Tender Love Scene
Teen Confessions

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The John Peel collection at Omega Auctions part 1

Beastie Boys shortsOmega Auctions have taken on the task of disposing of some of John Peel‘s incredible collection and I can’t think of anyone better. It’s odd seeing objects that I’ve actually held in my hands up for auction and fascinating to see some of the items that I’d not seen when I visited Peel Acres for the Dust & Grooves 2 book – I feel very lucky to have seen it before it was broken up. Here are just some of my favourties from the catalogue, the auction takes place on July 28th.

Flyers Antz
BWW poster
Human League poster
PF See Emily Play poster
PF Animals mobile
Duck Rock poster
Tangerine Dream poster
Underground Press
Friends of Oz presskit
Oz inside 3
Oz inside 2
Oz inside 1
Spinning Wheel

Posted in Event, Poster / flyer, Records. | No Comments |