Regeneration City Blues - Lloyd Johnson talk on Johnson's the Modern Outfitters and La Rocka!

A great evening.

The packed out gallery was filled with an enthralled audience listening to Lloyd talking about his long and amazing career. This encompassed from when he first arrived in London from Hastings and pre-Ken Mkt days, when he worked at Cecil Gee’s in the Charing Cross Road. This shop was more pop culture orientated than other branches being just down the road from Denmark Street and the famous Tin Pan Alley. It immediately brought him into contact with the music business, the source of many of his future Johnson’s customers.

We talked about his beginnings at Kensington Market and of course his many different shops, including Heavy Metal Kids (1967), Cockell & Johnson est. 1968, and Johnson and Johnson (1973 and onwards) which sold vintage menswear from the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Lloyd spoke about the launch of his celebrated shop Johnson’s the Modern Outfitters in the King’s Road, Chelsea (1978) and how La Rocka! began the following year, promoted heavily in the media by the hot new band from the USA, The Stray Cats. We talked about the cult status of Johnson’s in the mid 80s, the covers of iconic editions of The Face and his infamous customised BSA leather jacket featured worldwide in George Michael’s ‘Faith’ video…

I would like to thank Lloyd for a fantastically engaging and informative evening, which everyone enjoyed immensely. After many great questions from the audience there were calls from the floor asking when his book is coming out…

Lloyd has written a timeline to his career (and a summary of all the musicians and artists he worked with) on this website – Ted Polhemus.com This has an introduction by Ted and you can find here some of his historic Johnson’s and La Rocka! photos from the 80s…