Fats Domino plays the Club International – David Parkinson was there

Fats Domino’s sell-out Hammersmith Odeon appearance in April 1973 was covered by Waxie Maxie in the July ‘73 issue of Club International (volume 2, number 7). As per his self-given remit, his lead into the story managed a sex scenario that featured rock n roll records and a little ultra violence between the day’s youth cults . . . Perfect Max in fact. Fats bought his own band, which must have disappointed the Allstars, but none of that matters much because we’re not here to celebrate Teddy Boy Rock ‘n’ Roll, Mr. Domino or even Mr. Needham. My purpose here is to give your peepers the chance to glance over David Parkinson’s photographs. The one above being all you will ever need to see in order to understand the appeal of rock ‘n’ roll in 1972–73.

I can’t let this post go by without also noting that this is all in the same issue that David Parkinson ran a spread on Malcolm McLaren’s Let It Rock clobber that ran for seven pages. Style and attitude never better displayed . . . visit Paul Gorman’s webpages for a fuller account of Parkinson, Mclaren and Club International, be warned you will get lost in there: https://www.paulgormanis.com/

For anyone looking to track down a copy of this issue of Club International here’s the cover, which features Iggy Pop on stage at the King Sound July 1972 gig, as photographed by Mick Rock

All Warholed Up with Suicide and the New York Dolls

Suicide: the life and soul of the party

Club International v.1 #4 (October 1972) Photographs by Dave Grey and Pete Miles

One of the more pleasing discoveries made while trawling through bound copies of Club International in the British Library reading room was the story told by Englishman Dick Masters of his first trip to Manhattan. He was there to take in ‘The Flowering of Freakiness and Finery, New York’s finest aggregation of freaks, fashions and friends ever assembled under one roof’. The 1972 ‘Everything is Everything Costume Ball’, organised by Tony and Laurita Cosmo, was being held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel . . . and everyone who was anyone was present. Musical entertainment was provided by Suicide and the New York Dolls. The latter, unfortunately not pictured, but Alan Vega was front and centre surrounded by partygoers, Warhol superstars and the City’s most beautiful.

Suicide were given top billing by Masters:

[They] created the most evil, menacing atmosphere I’ve ever felt at any sort of performance. He [singer Alan Vega] could only be for real . . .His moans and screams grew frantic as he lashed himself with the bicycle chain. Everyone watched in silence as he pulled out a knife and stabbed himself in the face and chest. . . he smashed the microphone into his teeth and leapt into the audience, lashing out at everyone who couldn’t move fast enough.

The shock effect of witnessing Vega in full attack mode was echoed that year by Roy Hollingworth in his report in Melody Maker (October 21, 1972) of Suicide at the Mercer Arts Centre:

It is a heady stark trip. The starkest trip I’ve ever seen . . . It was fascinating. How two people could create such a thick wall of sound and atmosphere was an unbelievable achievement. It roared, and groaned, and the singer smacked himself on the head with the mike a couple of times, and then fell in a heap in a corner –  and whimpered. Was this the end of music as we know it? Oooh it was creepy.

Who was Dick Masters? Is that a pseudonym? Was he the gay porn star you encounter when you search for him on-line? Or is that someone else? Did he write elsewhere about his New York adventures or on anything else for that matter? Questions . . .

More on the Dolls appearance in Pin-Ups 1972

Retro-cuties – airbrushing the 50s into the 1970s

A significant trend during the early 1970s in the cover design for reissued 1950s recordings was to wrap them in a vibrant cartoon sleeve featuring teenage girls slurping on overflowing sodas or sticking their butt in the air. 50s teen iconography – saddle back shoes, rolled cuffed Levis, over-rouged lips and pony tails are all there with jukebox and soda fountain used as backdrops. It’s a cute sell but one that is unequivacably sexualised. Teen innocence is but a masquerade for more prurient adult action.

Tipped off by Paul Gorman’s blog [here], I’ve been browsing through early editions of Paul Raymond’s Club International skin mag, circa 1972-75. Among the attractions on offer are some of the era’s best illustrators, many of whom worked on album designs, including Bowie and Bolan’s chum George Underwood. NTA Studio is prominently featured, as is photography from Hipgnosis who frequently collaborated with the Studio’s illustrators, eg. Be Bop Deluxe’s Futurama. NTA’s Bob Lawrie, George Hardie and Bush Hollyhead were used regularly by Club International, including this illustration that accompanied an article on cinema going

Hollyhead and Club International were clearly uninterested in any ambiguity in the cartoon’s depiction of 50s teen activities. When NTA dropped out, Mike Farrell’s illustrations were regularly featured in their stead. He’s the artist responsible for the Bo Diddley and Billy Stewart albums shown above. Farrell did some arresting photo montages for the magazine but here’s a fairly typical illustration. The girl might come straight from the pages of Eerie or Creepy horror comics.