A Belated Transmitting Andy Warhol

Well first of all apologies for my tardiness in getting this blog post up, two months in fact, that's quite good for me really.  Now if you have forgiven me can I wish you all a happy, prosperous and stylish new year?  OK now that's out the way shall we have a little look at what Tate Liverpool currently have on show until the 8th February?  It's only the first major solo exhibition in the North of England of the master of popular culture himself Andy Warhol!

You would be hard pressed to find anyone in Britain who has not heard of Andy Warhol, recognises his screen prints or uses the quote 'In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes'.  It was his belief that art should be for everyone, and from my way of thinking this was his greatest achievement.  He was instrumental in finding new ways to spread art, via his paintings, film, Interview magazine and most intriguingly lifestyle.  The Factory was one of the most iconic hangouts of not just the 1960s but the 20th Century.  Frequented by a vast array of people from all backgrounds, it gave birth to the Warhol Superstars and one of the most influential bands of all time, The Velvet Underground.  All were ways in which he democratized art.  Using easily recognisable images, and serial repetition 'transmitted' his ideas into the public consciousness.

The exhibition is not just a display of these well known paintings, there is a vast array of the other media which shows the breadth of his work.  The most special for me is the recreation of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.  As a youngster I wanted to be Edie Sedgwick, all leotards and big earrings.  I devoured anything I could get my hands on which related to her and the Factory, which was not easy in those pre internet days.  I would have given several digits to have experienced the 'total art' environment, to have seen the Velvets live and to have lived that debauched glamorous lifestyle.  Now on a November evening down at the Albert Dock I got my chance, and it was boss.

I will leave you with some of the great man's quotes which I hope will leave you both smiling and thinking.

"My fascination with letting images repeat and repeat, or in films case 'run on', manifests my belief that we spend much of our lives seeing without observing".

"I think everybody should like everybody".

"Art is what you can get away with".

"Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves".

"I have Social Disease.  I have to go out every night.  If I stay home one night I start spreading rumours to my dogs".

Transmitting Andy Warhol is on till 8th February 2015 at The Tate Liverpool, go you won't regret it.

Factory Settings

Edie, Nico, Baby Jane Holzer, Candy Darling:  Warhol Superstars all of them.  The Factory in all it's seedy silver glory was one of the most iconic fashion periods of all time.  Black leather jackets, denim, striped tops and metallic dresses are a goldmine of inspiration and are classics which have never been bettered than when they were worn here.

With the launch of Transmitting Andy Warhol at Tate Liverpool last week, for which I will be treating you all to a full blog post, I thought I would get you all in the mood by having a look back at this gloriously chic time.

Edie Sedgwick

The ultimate 1960's screwed up fashion icon.  I wonder what she could have become had she lived.

Paula Yates

Back in the mid 1980's Liverpool was a grey and sad place.  Ravaged by a chronic lack of post war investment and with Margaret Thatcher trying her best to bury us, there was little on the cultural landscape to inspire a fashion mad teenager like myself.  Then on Friday nights The Tube came along.  Not only was it one of the few places where we could see the bands we loved (unsurprisingly not many of them made it onto Top of the Pops) but more importantly it was where Paula Yates burst into my consciousness.  Here was a woman who knew her music, looked amazing and was as cheeky as hell.  I fell wholly and completely under her spell.

We all know the lurid details of the tragedy that became her life but I prefer not to dwell on those.  Paula to me was colour and life, strength and beauty in the drab landscape that was my teenage years.  Not usually recognised as a style icon, I am now on a one woman mission to put her on the style map where she belongs.

Up Yours Geoff and Maggie

Today, something which I had long suspected but had dismissed as paranoia and my intense dislike of the tory party was proved to be true. Papers had been released from the early eighties where Sir Geoffrey Howe had suggested to Margaret Thatcher that Liverpool, my beloved city, be left to managed decline.  It seems we were not considered worthy by the government of any financial support  during those dark days in our history.  Although officially the government did not take this path, in reality the country abandoned us.  Jobs were non existent and as people struggled to survive the media turned on us.  Scousers were now figures of fun, a stereotype which very tiredly still exists to this day.  We were all scroungers (how do you scrounge when there are no jobs I'll never know) and thieves.  Honesty was a stranger and you should check your pockets if you had the misfortune to come into contact with one of the shell suited bubble haired scallywags.

I of course knew this was all nonsense, I am a Scouser and my pride in this beautiful city and it's people knows no bounds.  There were times when it felt it could not get any worse, Heysel, Hiilsborough (now if the campaign by the families for justice is not evidence of a noble commitment to the truth, I give up), Jamie Bulger, Rhys Jones, the list of horrors goes on.  But through all these nightmares and neglect the city has thrived.  Despite all that has been thrown at us, the city has grown physically, culturally and spiritually, try keeping a good Scouser down?  It is impossible.

I started to have a think of what has been achieved since those discussions in the Cabinet Office thirty years ago, and with the help of the lovely people of Twitter this is what we came up with.  Please feel free to add your own ideas of what this city has accomplished in the last thirty years in the comments.  You don't have to be a scouser to take part, just to have an appreciation of our wonderful city.  If you have never been here, what do you dream of seeing?  Lets celebrate this fantastic and special please and Geoff and Maggie, UP YOURS!

The Garden Festival

Larks in  the Park

Beatles Festival

Capital of Culture 2008

Liverpool Pride

Africa Oye

Liverpool Lantern Parade

Hope Street Feast

Banksy's Rat

The Biennial

Superlambananas

Penguins

La Princess, the giant spider

The Tate

FACT

Revamp of the Walker Art Gallery

Revamp of the World Museum

The new Museum of Liverpool Life

The Maritime Museum

The refurbishment of the whole dock area including the Albert Dock

Cavern Walks

Clayton Square Shopping Centre

Queens Square

Liverpool One

Echo Arena

Walton Neurological Centre

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 

Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation

Liverpool Women's Hospital

Alder Hey Hospital

The University of Liverpool, world class research and teaching

Liverpool John Moore's University

Hope University

LIPA

The restoration of the Palm House in Sefton Park and the Gladstone Pavillion in Stanley Park

The Unity Theatre

The rebuilding of the Everyman Theatre

Reopening of the Neptune Theatre

Phil Redmond

Jimmy McGovern

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Mal Young

Willy Russell

Alan Bleasdale

The city is the most filmed city outside of the capital and has the most listed building of any city outside of the capital.

Echo and the Bunnymen

The Zutons

The Coral

Atomic Kitten

Black

The Boo Radleys

The LAs

The Farm

The Christians

Dead or Alive

Frankie goes to Hollywood

Gomez

The Lightening Seeds

Ladytron

Miles Kane

Sonia

Wah!

The Wombats

And a million other bands creating brilliant, good, average and dodgy music.

Never mind, two cathedrals, two premiership football teams even though only one of them is good.  A veritable pantheon of actors and writers and other creatives.

And now for my personal favourite past and present:

The Hangout

Planet X

The State

Cream

Macmillans

Bold Street Coffee

Salt House Tapas

The Bluecoat

Probe Records

The Walking Seeds

Benny Profane

Brookside

Bold Street

Hope Street

Sefton Park

Top Chef

The Quarter

The grounds of the Anglican Cathedral

69A

Deja Vu

El Kilos

News From Nowhere

Victoria Gallery and Museum

The Double Negative

Ye Cracke

The Grapes on Roscoe Street

The refurbishment of St Georges Hall

The refurbishment of Lime Street Station

And the beautiful stylish people who let me photograph them.

Loulou de la Falaise

One for the big fashion fans here, but sadly Loulou de la Falaise died yesterday.  Loulou was muse to Yves San Laurent and was reputed to have inspired Le smoking and his use of see through blouses in the late 1960s.  She later went on to design jewellery and accessories for his label.  She is probably most noted for being a leading light in the 1970's Studio 54 scene and she embodied for may people including myself louche French style.  Rest in peace beautiful stylish lady.

Daphne's Window

Daphne Guinness is one of the most influential figures in fashion, not only through her unique and sometimes startling personal style but her championing of new and innovative designers.  She may not be wearing the sort of outfits you can throw on for a quick visit to Sainsburys, but she will always take your breath away.  This short film by Brennan Stasiewicz is eight minutes of exquisite beauty.  Enjoy.

Tilda at Cannes

No one does style quite like Tilda Swinton.  While all the other stars are busy exposing all God gave them or draping themselves in gaudy shimmer for a bit of attention, Tilda comes along wearing a bit of understated quirkiness and steals the show.  An absolute heroine of mine.

Picture is by AP

Beauty

Well what to say?  Elizabeth Taylor was a beautiful flawed woman who has left an amazing legacy not only her films, and her work with AIDs fundraising, she worked tirelessly to raise funds and to lower the stigma of that disease, but also the legacy of images such as this.  For years she personified beauty for me. The fact that her life was not so gilded, her broken relationships, weight issues and drug abuse just made me love her even more.  She was one of us was Liz, just way prettier.  Rest in Peace lady!

The photo is by Richard Avedon