Paul Simonon "Two Years: London and Mallorca" & Caroline Coon "Love of Place" Art Exhibitions

Caroline Coon at Paul Simonon's exhibition 

We went along to two Clash-related Art exhibitions on one afternoon in London recently. Firstly, it was to the John Martin Gallery to see "Two Years: London and Mallorca" which bought together an excellent collection of oil-colours painted by Paul Simonon during the pandemic from two very contrasting locations. There's the area around Paul's Paddington studio which is dimly lit by street lamps and exudes an almost Victorian-era atmosphere and then S'Estaca, a remote fishing village on the island of Mallorca which Paul has painted not only as the sun-kissed idyll you might expect but also grey and overcast, or bathed in moonlight. Both sets of pantings in their different ways, perfectly capture a slightly ominous sense of solitude and isolation felt during the various lockdowns. There's also a selection of wood carvings, something I've never seen at any of Paul's exhibitions before. By chance I noticed that former Clash manager, Melody Maker journalist, author and artist Caroline Coon was at the gallery too so I said hello and had a brief and pleasant chat. I mentioned that the first book I ever bought about Punk (and still one of my favourites) was her excellent "1988 The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion" although I forgot to ask her just what 1988 had to do with it, given that the book was published in 1982 and most of the action was from 1976 and 1977, anyway, that's a mystery that remains unsolved! Caroline mentioned that she also had a exhibition of her own art at the Stephen Friedman Gallery  just round the corner so we popped in to check that out too. In complete contrast to Paul's paintings of isolation, Caroline's "Love of Place" exhibition is full of huge canvasses packed with people. The paintings are a joyous celebration of the multi-cultural community of Ladbroke Grove in West London, a place also of course synonymous with The Clash and are bursting with vibrant colour. 

For more information, please check out the links below:

John Martin Gallery

Paul Simonon Art 

The Clash official web-site

Stephen Friedman Gallery

Caroline Coon

Paul Simonon with my Retro Man Blog colleague and Clash photographer,
Paul Slattery at the Black Market Clash Exhibition

Caroline's "Love of Place" exhibition runs until November 5th. Paul's exhibition has now ended.

SuperSizeArt & Tunetables - SuperSize Soho Exhibition

Morgan Howell & Rob Chappelhow - Photo Retro Man Blog

It's hard to believe that it's ten years ago since I first encountered Morgan Howell's fantastic SuperSizeArt thanks to a feature in Mark Ellen and David Hepworth's much-missed Word Magazine. I did a small feature in Retro Man Blog here back in 2011 and then also reported on Morgan's exhibition at Snap Gallery Piccadilly in 2013 which you can also still check out in our archive here. Ever since then I've followed his career with interest and of course, his reputation has gone from strength-to-strength with famous musicians, radio stations and celebrities among Morgan's many happy customers. The extra special thing about Morgan's bespoke commissioned artwork is that they are not purely copies of the cover art of 45rpm singles but faithful reproductions of the actual record itself, creases, price labels, stains, rips and all. For example, if I had my very first single immortalised by Morgan it would be (rather embarrassingly) "Crazy Horses" by The Osmonds complete with my juvenile handwriting of the band's line-up scrawled in biro on the blue and gold MGM sleeve. It's these bespoke touches that make the artwork so evocative and personal. Of course there are various other options - I have a set of four small size versions of The Clash's "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais" in different coloured sleeves and there have been postcards and prints available too. In the gallery I saw a guitar case which was adorned with a familiar signature so I asked Morgan about it and he explained that Johnny Marr swapped his guitar for one of his SuperSize singles. Morgan has also released a beautiful book "Morgan Howell at 45rpm" which features explanations and images of one hundred of his pieces and this is available for sale at the exhibition with Morgan more than happy to sign a copy for you. Of course, you can also order the book on-line at the SuperSizeArt web-site or all the usual on-line retailers and in all good bookshops too. I just wish I'd invested in a large SuperSizeArt 45 rpm ten years ago!

Morgan Howell of SuperSizeArt - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Rob Chappelhow of Tunetables - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Sharing the exhibition space was Rob Chappelhow from Tunetables, another great idea for music lovers who also appreciate great design. If like me, you once ditched your CD's following the resurgence of vinyl and were left with crates of the unloved discs in your loft - well you can now turn them into an artistic centrepiece which also serves equally as good as a practical storage solution. I spoke to designer Rob Chappelhow and told him that his work reminded me of the wonderful display of Joe Strummer's cassette tape collection at the "Joe Strummer 001" box-set exhibition back in 2018 - where Joe's lovingly hand-written and coloured covers were on show in a display case. They were visually stunning even before you took the time to see how Joe had individually tailor-made each cover to reflect on the content and genre of these unique compilation tapes. I was pleasantly surprised when Rob told me that was actually one of the inspirations behind the idea of Tunetables, and even more so when he took out his mobile phone to show me a folder of photos of the very same Joe Strummer cassette display. 

Joe Strummer's Tapes - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Rob Chappelhow of Tunetables - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Of course, like any like-minded music fan would do...I couldn't resist taking a good look at the CD's that were in the mightily impressive flight-case coffee table and Rob's collection was packed full of a great selection of Retro Man Blog favourites such as The Specials, The Beat, The Charlatans, The Jam, Pixies, The Smiths and - as the case holds 500 CD's - many, many more! Tunetables also have options for vinyl LP's and Cassettes and are available as classic flight-cases (designed to also satisfy your inner Roadie...) or in a wooden finish and can even be personalised with your initials and date of birth. The exhibition itself is located in a pop-up gallery at 45 Beak Street in Soho close by to Carnaby Street and the Third Man Records London store recently opened by Jack White himself, which is also well worth a visit. The exhibition runs until November 21st so there's still time to visit, enjoy the stunning artwork and design on display and of course, buy a stylish Xmas present or two.

Please click on the highlighted links below for further information.

SuperSizeArt - Official Web-site, Facebook, Instagram

Tunetables - Official Web-site, Facebook, Instagram

Vic Godard & Subway Sect at Green Door Store & ABC Art Exhibition with Gaye Black, Billy Chainsaw & David Apps

Vic Godard & Subway Sect - Photo by Retro Man Blog

I haven’t been to Brighton for years but always fancied a return visit, so when I saw that the closing party for the ABC Art Exhibition at Gallery 40 was being held on a day that coincided with Oh! Gunquit playing at Stay Sick, I didn’t need any convincing to get the train tickets booked, grab my bucket and spade and head on down to the seaside. The exhibition featured a selection of artwork from three Punk inspired artists, Billy Chainsaw, David Apps and Gaye Black, or Gaye Advert as she might be remembered from the legendary early Punk band The Adverts. There was a really good turn-out and a last chance to see an impressive cross section of all three Artist’s work. Billy Chainsaw’s bold red and white ceramics and prints featuring Mexican wrestlers and superheroes really caught my eye. Regular Blog readers will know we are already big fans of David Apps and Gaye’s artwork and have reported on Gaye’s excellent Beyond Punk Art exhibitions and have even released a Retrosonic Podcast where we talk to David about his art and photography. 

Gaye Black, Billy Chainsaw & David Apps - Photo by Retro Man Blog

As Stay Sick is more of a nightclub with a live band it wasn’t due to open until 11pm which meant we had time to go along to see Vic Godard & Subway Sect who were playing at The Green Door Store by the station. We walked past the Prince Albert with its impressive and colourful mural of various music, movie and sports icons from John Peel, Jimi Hendrix and Ian Dury to George Best, Keith Moon and Oliver Reed. We got into the venue as Vic was just starting the set and bumped into ATV’s guitarist Lee McFadden. He told us that we had missed both support acts, Asbo Derek and then his own performance with The Unreliable Witnesses. Subway Sect have had a change of line-up since I last saw them, bassist Paul Myers and drummer Paul Cook have departed, rumour has it that this was due to a possible re-forming of The Professionals with Steve Jones. Ian Holford has taken over on drums and from the last line-up I recognized Kevin Younger on keyboards and guitar and Mark Braby, who has switched from guitar to bass. There’s a slightly chaotic feel to proceedings, some songs have to be re-started in a different key and there’s quite a bit of re-tuning.

Vic Godard & Subway Sect - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Vic Godard & Subway Sect - Photo by Retro Man Blog

At one point I was reminded of the classic Eric Morecambe line “I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order…” but to be honest it doesn’t really matter, it’s all part of the charm. Vic is an engaging and self-deprecating front-man who chats away to the good natured crowd between songs. Anyway, when they do get going there’s something irresistible about their unique brand of fractured angular guitar allied to the Northern Soul beats of songs such as “You Bring Out The Demon In Me” and “Holiday Hymn”. We get treated to a cross section of tracks from all throughout his long and varied career with songs such as “Best Album” from my favourite album “We Come As Aliens” and the superb “Caught In Midstream” from their latest release, the rather excellent “1979 Now!” Of course there are also the frantic, and much underrated, early Subway Sect Punk classics “Nobody’s Scared” and “Ambition” which go down a storm. Unfortunately, it’s a rather short set which was a shame, but that gave us plenty of time to walk down to the Stay Sick Club to see Oh! Gunquit which you can read all about in the previous Blog feature here.

Vic Godard & Subway Sect - Photo by Retro Man Blog

Vic Godard & Subway Sect - Photo by Retro Man Blog

For more photographs of the ABC exhibition, Vic Godard & Subway Sect at the Green Door and Oh! Gunquit at Stay Sick then please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and, if you are not already following, hit “Like” for access to the photo album. There are also videos of Subway Sect and Oh! Gunquit filmed up on the Retro Man Blog YouTube channel now. Also, please do check out the excellent official Vic Godard web-site which features a stunningly comprehensive archive.