PRESS RELEASE

CARNABY ECHOES; CELEBRATING 10 DECADES OF MUSIC IN CARNABY

In September 2013, Carnaby, London W1 will unveil hidden layers of music heritage via a series of plaques on key buildings in a new commission by artist Lucy Harrison. Carnaby Echoes will also include a walking tour app and an exhibition. It is the first time that London will have such a high number of commemorative plaques at one time in one area.

Carnaby Echoes traces the vibrant music history from the opening of Jazz club Murray’s on Beak Street in 1913 through to the present day. Lucy has bought people who worked in the music connected buildings where history was made, back to the places as they are now to talk about their memories. Contributors include Boy George, Pete Townshend, Mark Ellen, Lloyd Coxsone and Dynamo. These memories and stories can be accessed on carnabyechoes.com or by downloading the audio walking tour app which will guide visitors around the plaque locations.

Over the past century Carnaby has been the home and inspiration of many music styles, including jazz, reggae, rhythm and blues, rock and hip hop. From the nightclubs to the shops, and the record companies to the magazines, Carnaby has attracted generations of highly regarded musicians and their fans.

The innovative walking tour app bring these stories, sounds and performances vividly back to life for audiences as they activate the content whilst walking around Carnaby, treading the same footsteps as those trodden by a hundred years of music pioneers.

An exhibition at 20 Foubert’s Place will present the project in-depth and will show archive material related to many of the locations including original clothing from The Foundry store, club signs and vintage vinyl. Visitors will be able to pick up a free copy of a limited edition publication and listen to music relating to the project via two bespoke retro listening booths. Films will be screened on a daily basis.

No shopping street in the world can boast a real connection with music and popular culture quite like Carnaby Street. Music and fashion have walked hand in hand ever since the young entrepreneur John Stephen opened his first boutique called ‘His Clothes’ in 1958. It became a mecca for the new Mods, seriously into their sharp threads. By 1964 Lord John had opened, and owner Warren Gold found himself dressing the young John Lennon, Brian Jones and Mick Jagger. However, although many people associate Carnaby Street with this era, the project shows how vibrant the place was at other times through the century.

Carnaby Echoes reveals that along with the fashion scene in the 60s, a new sound was drawing musicians to the street. The Roaring Twenties club opened in a Carnaby Street basement (now Ben Sherman), playing R&B and reggae, records which were imported from America and Jamaica. In his interview with Lucy, legendary Jamaican DJ Count Suckle recounted ‘Georgie Fame was there, the Animals, the Who,… the Rolling Stones’. As The Who founder Pete Townshend, another famous Carnaby Street ‘face,’ has been quoted: “The place played Blue Beat stuff through huge speakers, and young men in desert boots and short macs with pork pie hats danced, rocking on their heels back and forth.” These huge speakers at the Roaring Twenties were among the first ever reggae sound systems set up in the UK, and Count Suckle - along with Duke Vin - has been credited with bringing ska to the UK.

In the 1980s, club nights included Batcave and Mud Club at The Foubert’s Club, and iconic magazines NME and Smash Hits opening their offices. More recently, there have been live performances on the streets such as Kanye West’s surprise appearance at one of the open mic nights in Deal Real record shop and street performances by Professor Green.

Carnaby today is London’s hippest shopping and dining destination – an intriguing mix of 13 streets where you can discover independent boutiques, heritage brands, flagship stores and new designer names on the block as well as a vast choice of restaurants, bars and pubs. Music and fashion still go hand in hand with many of the fashion stores having links with musicians including Liam Gallagher who chose Carnaby Street as the flagship home for his brand Pretty Green, at number 57. The Great Frog at 10 Ganton Street opened in 1972 and makes rock inspired jewellery for the likes of Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Kiss and Motorhead. Modern day customers include Pete Doherty, Lady Gaga and Arctic Monkeys. Dr. Marten’s, Drop Dead, Fred Perry, Ben Sherman, Lambretta and Superga are among the many brands that have a big music focus.

EXHIBITION – 20 Foubert’s Place, London W1. 5 September – 20 October 2013. Free entry and free headphones for each visitor. APP – Download the free app via carnabyechoes.com, the App Store or Google play for Android phones from 2 September. www.carnaby.co.uk @CarnabyLondon #CarnabyEchoes

For further information, images and interviews please contact Sister 020 7287 9601 Kay Copeland [email protected] Sarah Mole [email protected] Scarlett Engineer [email protected] Tweet @Sisteris

NOTES TO EDITORS

Lucy Harrison Biography Lucy Harrison is an artist based in London. Her recent work investigates the subjective nature of the experience of place and connections between memory, location and architecture. It takes the form of photographs, book works, video and various forms of printed and published material. Her projects often involve residents of a place in the work, such as Mapping Your Manor (2011), a commission for the Olympic Delivery Authority which culminated in a series of audio recordings made with people who live or work near to the edge of the Olympic Park.

Other recent projects include Hostings (2013) at Archway Library, London, a commission for Islington Council / Air Studio, and The Feelgood Collection (2012), an exhibition of home made tributes to Canvey Island band Dr Feelgood, shown as part of Thames Delta at Focal Point Gallery, Southend. She is also working on A Club Collection, a commission for the London Legacy Development Corporation which investigates clubs and societies in east London.

Lucy Harrison graduated from the Royal College of Art’s Printmaking MA in 1999. www.lucy-harrison.co.uk

Carnaby Echoes Contributors include: Pete Townshend, founder of The Who Boy George – worked in Street Theatre and The Foundry as a teenager Count Suckle – Jamaican born DJ who started the Roaring Twenties and went on to run the Cue Club in Paddington Lloyd Coxsone – leading Jamaican DJ and sound-system pioneer Mark Ellen – Former Editor of Smash Hits Magazine when it was based in Carnaby Street Keith and Hazel Albarn – Artists who were involved with Artists Own Gallery in the 1960s and parents of Blur frontman Damon Albarn

Miranda Sawyer Biography The series of films and audio app will be accompanied by a limited edition publication, introduced by music journalist Miranda Sawyer who started her career at Smash Hits, before moving on to Select Magazine where she won the PPA Magazine Writer of the Year Award in 1993.

Carnaby Echoes has been curated in collaboration with cultural consultancy Futurecity. www.futurecity.co.uk

CARNABY ECHOES – THE PLAQUE DESTINATIONS

1.Murray’s Club - Previously at 16-18 Beak Street Murray’s was a jazz and cabaret club on Beak Street which opened in 1913, whose displays and costumes became more extravagant and risqué in later years. The venue is known for its notorious hostesses, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, who were both implicated in the Profumo affair in the 1960s. Murray’s Club closed in 1975.

2 . The Cat’s Whisker – Previously at 1 Kingly Street The Cat’s Whisker was a coffee bar in the 1950s which played rock ‘n’ roll and skiffle, and which saw the invention of ‘hand jiving’, a form of dancing which was said to have been started due to the lack of space in the club. The bar was started by entrepreneur Peter Evans and was one of the first in London to have a juke box

3. The Bag O’ Nails - 9 Kingly Street The Bag O’ Nails has been a nightclub since the 1930s, when it was originally a jazz club. In the 1960s, it was owned by John and Rik Gunnell, who started out at the Flamingo in Wardour Street. A new incarnation for the club came in the 1970s when it became Miranda, owned by Felix Dennis, publishing magnate, poet and one of the founders of the underground magazine Oz. In 2013 it is once again named the Bag O’ Nails.

‘We were in the agency business, my brother and I. We had Georgie Fame and all those kinds of artists, Chris Farlowe, PJ Proby, Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart… They all played in bands of ours… I used to import a lot of the American acts, like Ben E. King for the Flamingo, and I got John Lee Hooker over’ John Gunnell, interviewed by Lucy Harrison, 2013

4. Kleptomania - Previously at 10 Kingly Street Kleptomania was a clothes shop run by Tommy Roberts and Charlie Simpson in the 1960s. It was first located in Kingly Street and then later moved to Carnaby Street.

5. The Nest Club - Previously at 23 Kingly Street In the 1930s there were six or seven mostly unlicensed jazz clubs in different basements along Kingly Street. These included the Nest, which was situated at number 23, between 1934 and 1939, and hosted some of the jazz greats of the era. The clubs became known as ‘basement bottle parties’ due to the practice of selling bottles of spirits from local shops as a way of getting around the licensing laws.

‘It was Nestwards that visiting black musicians, here to tour the music halls, or to fulfill such other engagements that were open to them, always gravitated at the end of their day’s work. There one might find, at one time or another, Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, members of the Duke Ellington band like Johnny Hodges, Sonny Greer and Barney Bigard, Garland Wilson and Fats Waller.’ From And the Bands Played On, 1977. An informal history of British dance bands by Sid Colin.

6. Artists’ Own Gallery - Previously at 26 Kingly Street Artists’ Own Gallery held exhibitions, events, happenings and gigs in the 1960s, when it was run by Keith Albarn and others.

7. Foubert’s Club - Previously at 18 Foubert’s Place Fouberts Club hosted a number of nights in the 1980s, including the Batcave, which was run by members of the bands Specimen and Sexbeat, and for a period of six months it was also home to Philip Sallon’s Mud Club.

8. Deal Real Records - Previously at 3 Marlborough Court Deal Real was a hip hop record shop in Marlborough Court from 2002 until 2007, hosting live events and open mic nights including performances from Mos Def, Amy Winehouse and Kanye West.

‘I remember Mos Def was over here and he came through and he became addicted, he brought Pharoahe Monch, and Kanye West, and then it just spread from there, the Black Eyed Peas, the Wu Tang Clan, Red Man, Slick Rick, it was unreal. I met all my heroes right here.’ Doc Brown, former rapper and MC, interviewed by Lucy Harrison 2013

9. Street Theatre - Previously at 12a Newburgh Street Street Theatre was a shop run by Peter Small in the 1980s, who also later ran the Foundry. Boy George worked there as a window dresser.

10. The Foundry - Previously at 12 Ganton Street The Foundry was a clothes shop that Peter Small opened to add to his Street Theatre shop in the early 1980s. Boy George worked as a window dresser and Sue Clowes sold her designs, which were worn by bands such as Culture Club, the Cure and Bananarama.

‘It’s an area where you can walk, which is perfect for show-offs… Carnaby Street was like a catwalk. Often people didn’t even buy anything, they just walked around looking amazing. It’s a perfect area, because you’ve got a really good space, lots of back streets, you go to Newburgh Street and then Ganton Street, and then do the whole of Carnaby Street, and everyone would see you.’ Boy George, interviewed by Lucy Harrison 2013

11. Lord John - Previously at 43 Carnaby Street Lord John was a shop that sold mainly mod-style clothes in the 1960s. Lord John was distinctive because of the mural by Binder, Edwards and Vaughan that was painted on the outside walls.

12. The Florence Mills Social Parlour, Club Eleven, the Roaring Twenties, and Columbo's, all previously at 50 Carnaby Street

The Florence Mills Social Parlour In the 1930s, 50 Carnaby Street was the home of the Florence Mills Social Parlour, run by Amy Ashwood Garvey, the former wife of Marcus Garvey, and the Trinidadian calypso singer Sam Manning.

Club Eleven In 1950, the Club Eleven jazz club moved to 50 Carnaby Street, but closed after only six months when it was raided by the police.

The Roaring Twenties The venue was called the Sunset Club in the 1950s, but in the early 1960s it was renamed the Roaring Twenties. The owner, Lennie Weston, had intended the club to attract a young Jewish crowd, but when this plan failed he invited the Jamaican DJ Count Suckle to play there. Suckle, real name Wilbert Campbell, had stowed away on a Danish banana boat in 1954 along with Duke Vin and another man called Lennie, a journey that took four weeks. Suckle and Vin were among the first in the UK to create ‘sound systems’ and Suckle ordered rare records all the way from shops in Tennessee to be played in the club, which he also managed and protected by acting as a bouncer. Initially playing American R&B, he then began to play ska reggae and the club became popular with a multi-racial crowd including well-known musicians, such as Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend.

It was a nightclub for everybody, if you want to stay out late and you want to dance and you want to mix, it was the only club in the Sixties. Georgie Fame was there, the Animals, the Who, all those boys used to come down, the Rolling Stones, it was that club that everyone wanted to come to. ‘All of those boys were young, in their teens, I knew the Stones when they were only 17 and 18 years of age and they liked the music we were playing, because some of them recorded that music that we played, especially the Stones and Georgie Fame, they used to borrow our records and rehearse and play the music’. Count Suckle, interviewed by Lucy Harrison 2013

13. New Musical Express - Previously on the third floor of 5-7 Carnaby Street Between 1976 and 1986, the offices of the legendary music publication New Musical Express were to be found at 5-7 Carnaby Street.

‘Being in Soho you had all the record companies nearby, and venues and studios, so it meant that anyone you wanted to meet, you could go and see them in person, or they would just drop in off the street, because there was no security or anything’. Paul du Noyer, Assistant Editor at NME, 1980, interviewed by Lucy Harrison 2013

14. Smash Hits - Previously at 52-55 Carnaby Street Smash Hits magazine was run from 52-55 Carnaby Street in the 1980s, and Nick Logan also started the Face from an office in the building. Smash Hits was a fortnightly pop music magazine, produced in colour and known for its irreverent humour and inclusion of song lyrics and imaginative photo shoots. The offices of Don Arden, who managed the Small Faces in the 1960s, were previously at this address and Kerrang! magazine followed Smash Hits.

‘In the middle of this huge pop music explosion, here was this publication that wanted to take pop music seriously… Smash Hits welcomed these people with open arms. They looked fantastic on the cover; the print had beautiful registration of colour. We ran the lyrics, which fans really liked. The readers might not ever see this group, but they were going to see them on Top of the Pops, and hear them on the radio, and Smash Hits was like linking up an electrical circuit, and all the fairy lights came on’. Mark Ellen, former editor of Smash Hits, interviewed by Lucy Harrison 2013

15. Tatty Bogle - Previously at 11 Kingly Court Tatty Bogle club was a private club in a Kingly Court basement. It was opened in 1917 in Frith Street by a group of Scottish officers. It then moved to Kingly Court and opened as an out-of-hours drinking club. It was used as a bomb shelter during World War II and the wartime membership book contains names such as Burgess, Maclean, Anthony Blunt and Buster Crabbe.

Fran McDevitt, who ran a night at the club in the 1990s, described the clientele as the “Soho underbelly”, consisting of “Lords, Ladies, hookers and boxers”. The pianist Michael Thorpe Jackson would play, and would personalise the tune he was playing for each person who walked in through the door.