Regeneration City Blues – A big thank you to everyone: Part 2

By Jane Palm-Gold on 16th October 2015

TALKS, BBC, VISITORS & CLOSING PARTY! Of all the Regeneration City Blues highlights, some of the most memorable for me were the evening talks – firstly with the creators of legendary punk club The Roxy, with the wonderful Susan Carrington and Andrew Czezowski… A great evening with some fantastic stories recounted! The venue was such hallowed ground that an audience member, Rowland Evans, turned up with some of the exterior mosaic and the numbered sign from outside the old club! This was followed up on another evening by a talk from lovely Fiona Cartledge on the infamous Sign of the Times shop in Kensington Market. Everyone really enjoyed this and there was lots of interaction with the audience. Next we all spent a fantastic evening with LLoyd Johnson, talking about his legendary shop Johnson’s the Modern Outfitters in Kensington Market and the King’s Road, Chelsea. The gallery was full to bursting with a rapt and attentive audience pretty much spellbound, as Lloyd covered the history of his La Rocka! label and a 30 year career span in an hour and a half…  BBC RADIO LONDON – Robert Elms Show Prior to the private view, there was the visit to BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms Show with Andrew Czezowski, Susan Carrington and Gary Taylor… It all went really well and Andrew and I really enjoyed our chat with Robert that lunchtime! EXHIBITION VISITORS We had a lot of exhibition visitors and here are two memorable occasions that stood out for me… EXHIBITION CLOSING PARTY… This was initially unplanned but the PV was so good and uproarious, we decided to have a closing party too…. And that brought the proceedings in Neal Street to an end I’m afraid. But it was a complete blast for me and thanks to everyone who came down to see it!  

Regeneration City Blues, London – a big thank you to everyone! Part 1

By Jane Palm-Gold on 15th October 2015

In 1989 I worked with Nigel Mairs on a pop promo for Rough Trade, in a room at Bob Godfrey’s studio overlooking Neal Street, Covent Garden. We only did 5 days there, working 18 hours a day to get it done. It opened The Chart Show on a Friday night a few weeks later on ITV. I remember the day Nigel and I got there – we had to make our way through Luck & Flaw’s (Spitting Image) dark and dingy studio space on the ground floor to get to upstairs. The building was a hive of industry… A few years later I was told about the legendary Spitting Image head of Thatcher, overhanging the street for a while on a pole from these Neal Street offices. This brushed against the heads of passersby, who looked back and laughed. Life comes full circle and I find myself back at Neal Street in August, 2015. How very odd. Of all the streets in London, I thought. So imagine my surprise when a neighbour, Roy Moxon, from over the street brings across a photo of the same Neal Street premises my exhibition is now in, with a life size figure of Thatcher hanging from an overhead pole outside from years ago. The exhibition was in the very same place as the studio was in 1989… I will look back on this London show with great pleasure. It was wonderful to be able to present it to a London audience and great that the show and especially the talks had their own fan club(!) with many of the same people coming back again and again. The people who made this show happen and who I would most like to thank are Tom Welton and Emma Steele from Shaftesbury PLC, Seven Dials, Jessica Skippon and family, Chris Raeburn and Alistair Choat, proprietor of Norman’s Coach & Horses in Soho. I couldn’t have done it without you: thanks so much. I would also like to thank my wonderful speakers, Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington, Fiona Cartledge and Lloyd Johnson for so generously giving their time and for bringing their memories to life for an engaged audience. I am also grateful to Robert Elms, Henry Scott-Irvine, Michael Ryley, Rory O’Callaghan, Jim Griffin, Ted Polhemus, Sid Bishop, Phil Ashcroft, Christopher Somerville and photographer Barney Newman. Some final highlights from London….Part 1 PRIVATE VIEW NIGHT – LONDON