Dominic

There are a couple of good pieces about Peter Metro and DJ Dominic in the Jamaica Gleaner from last week:

Dominick moves from journalism to deejaying
Story of the song: "Cockney and Yardie" combines foreign speech

Dominic is a Ladbroke Grove local, if you don't know much about him the interview on ricenpeas.com is a good place to start- I especially like the comment about Super Cat and Early B:

How they DJ is how they live, they’d be singing, “A de kitchen mi de, mi de listen reggae.”  And they’d have a tape playing and be cooking fish and all of that in the kitchen.  It was wicked.

Dudley Edwards

This week my colleague Ismaa and I travelled to The North to visit with and interview the artist and renaissance man Dudley Edwards at his home in Yorkshire. After a very long coach ride and unappetising service station breakfast we arrived in sunny Leeds and then headed through the country side (chock full of sheep and daffodils) to his lovely home where we talked a bit about his work over the years and his involvement in the West London scene of the 1960's.

Back in the 1960's he created some of the most awe inspiring artworks with the pop art collective Binder Edwards & Vaughn. From chairs to cars their early psychedelic designs gave way to painting and conceiving design concepts for shops, most notably on the Kings Road in Chelsea and painting murals on Carnaby Street.

The relationship between visual art and music is long standing and Dudley's career encompasses the connections the two mediums hold, with designing album covers for the Kinks and painting murals for Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, as well as Sir Paul's famous Magic Piano.

Painting McCartney's piano

Dudley continues to make inspired and colour filled works with his most recent one man show at Crossley Gallery at Dean Clough in Halifax this past spring.

We will be showcasing a number of prints of Dudley's major works and presenting the filmed interview we conducted with him at the Groove Grove Graphics exhibition this summer.

Blur back on 45

Blur are set to release a surprise new single, their first for seven years.  They have already recorded the new material, two new songs, in between Albarn's commitments with his other group Gorillaz, and will release the 1000 limited issue single for Record Store Day on the 17th of April. 

Malcolm McLaren dies at age 64

The man most famous for his role in managing the Sex Pistols has died from cancer at the age of 64 in Switzerland . He was said to have been suffereing from Mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer since his diagnosis in late 2009 and died due to a sudden worsening of his condition.

Although McLaren was most well known for having solidified the role of the Sex Pistols in the punk rock history books, he managed ( and disbanded) several other groups before and after them, most notably the New York Dolls, Adam and the Ants and after disbanding them, with the musicians that made up the Ants, he put together and managed new wave one hit wonders Bow Wow Wow, best known for their cover of "I Want Candy".

His foray into music management flourished from opportunities he saw arise from running his own shop on the Kings Road with designer and former partner Vivienne Westwood beginning with Let it Rock, which led to Sex and then to Seditionaries - all influencing and changing the look of an entire sub culture.

McLaren himself was a musician, releasing the critically acclaimed Duck Rock in 1983 which featured a number of new wave musicians of the time, from Trevor Horn to Thomas Dolby. The album had two major hits, Double Dutch which featured African and South American inspired instrumentation and Buffalo Gals, of which parts are taken from an traditional folk song from the 19th century. He would continue to release albums until 2009, with Shallow- Musical Paintings.

Whether you call him the godfather of punk or an opportunistic capitalist, McLaren will be remembered for his enthusiasm for cutting edge entertainment and of always bringing something new to the forefront. McLaren's body is said to be returning to the United Kingdom very soon and he is to be buried at Highgate Cemetry in North London.