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Rebel Rebel: How Mavericks Made the Modern World
By Chris Sullivan
Rebel Rebel: How Mavericks Made the Modern World
By Chris Sullivan
A riotous history of people and things that broke the mould
Fed up with blandness? Bored rigid by the dull clock-punchers you work with? Sick of towing the line?
If your answer is ‘yes’ to any of these questions, Rebel, Rebel is the book for you. It’s a compendium of 60 pieces on outsiders, intended to
remind us all that, in this age, where to kowtow is a pre-requisite, where doing what one is told is essential and turning up on time a must, that most of
the people/things of lasting significance didn’t play by the rules.
Like a really good party, it’s got musicians (Charlie Mingus, Fela Kuti, Joe Strummer), actors (Louise Brooks, Robert Mitchum, Daniel Day Lewis), artists
(Egon Schiele, Man Ray, Jackson Pollock), directors (Fritz Lang, Kenneth Anger, Wong Kar-wai), photographers (Horst, Weegee, David Bailey), DJs (Andrew
Weatherall) places (Paris in the Twenties, Muscle Shoals), and things (sunglasses, Levis, the pork pie hat) all of them turning up for one reason: they
want to do their own thing in their own way. Not all are heroes - James Brown was a wife-beating misogynist control freak with impossibly bad dress sense
after the age of thirty, but by breaking all the rules of music he created a brand new fresh form called funk, and went on to influence more musicians than
anyone on earth.
Some of the pieces are brand new, some have been published in magazines, but will appear here in their original form, with the life and energy previously
cut out by lily-livered editors now fully restored by yours truly.
With your help, Rebel Rebel will be a fat, handsome paperback manifesto to keep you amused and inspired for years to come. Keep it in the smallest
room.
It might help you achieve something, if only notoriety…
More information
Chris Sullivan
What makes me qualified to tell the story of rebels and mavericks?
Over the years, I’ve been a DJ, author, nightclub host, pop star, painter, style commentator, entrepreneur and fashion designer. In fact, I’ve always been proud of never having a ‘real job’.
As a teenager in Merthyr Tydfil in the early seventies, I was a ska-loving, moon-stomping suedehead, listening to David Bowie and Lou Reed or bowling up the motorway to catch the Northern soul sessions at the the Wigan Casino.
Then came the move to London and funk clubs, the punk explosion, studying art and fashion at St Martin’s. In the early 80s I was a regular at Billy’s and the Blitz and ran the club, Hell with Steve Strange and Rusty Egan. In 1981, I fronted the Latin funk band, Blue Rondo A La Turk. We were signed to Virgin and got a no 1 in Brazil.
I’m probably best known for opening The Wag Club in Wardour Street in 1983. I was founder, host, director and DJ for 18 years – a true home for outsiders and rebels – everyone from Prince to Lee Perry played live there. From the mid eighties onwards I’ve DJ’d in the best clubs and parties in London, Tokyo, New York, LA, Paris, Barcelona, Milan and Ibiza.
I’m also a journalist: first at The Face, then a columnist and stylist for Loaded and for four years from 2000, I was GQ’s style editor. Since then I’ve freelanced for The Times, Esquire, Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, and L’Uomo Vogue. I’ve written two books, the international best-seller, Punk (with Stephen Colegrave) and the definitive chronicle of club culture of the 80s, We Can Be Heroes (with Graham Smith), and a 9-part TV documentary series Gangs of Britain presented by my old chums Martin and Gary Kemp. My first film, Anarchy in the UK (a punk road movie) is in production with Hacienda films.
I still DJ weekly in London and pop up at parties and openings all over the world. When not gallivanting, I live in Maida Vale with my long suffering spouse Leah, ten year-old son Finbar and a cat called Tuesday.
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Here's the first of my audio chapters of my book Rebel Rebel . Few articles of clothing have caused riots that resulted in hundreds of arrests, scores of injuries and international headlines. And then again few have the history or social gravitas of the zoot suit- an item that, more than just a jacket and trousers, defined its wearer as part of a culture that, unafraid of the consequences, chose to…
In the summer of 1978 Bowie played Earls Court and attracted the full retinue of Bowie freaks, many of whom had switched to full Westwood kit a few years before but now reverted back to Bowie circa 1975-77. After the show we went to Billy’s, a seedy basement club run by a Jamaican pimp. It was underneath The Gargoyle Club in Meard Street, Soho, a hooker-infested back…
12th February 2019David Bowie (Part I)
When it comes to music and style, contemporary or otherwise, only one person has dominated both categories during their own lifetime and that is David Bowie.
Frank Sinatra was a contender, but then he didn’t write his own songs. Others, such as Miles Davis or James Brown, certainly had the music, but they lacked Bowie’s diversity ‒ and lost the style plot for decades.
Bowie…
22nd June 2018shaded- the curious life of the common or garden sun glass.
SUNGLASSES – A HISTORY
It never ceases to amaze me how sunglasses, a thoroughly practical item borne out of necessity, became so massively iconic.
By all accounts the first notable man to use them, albeit in a primitive form, was the Roman Emperor Nero, who used tinted glass to watch his gladiators chop bits out of each other. Subsequently, Chinese magistrates in the 12th century used…
13th March 2018Richard Pryor - 'Sprinkle my ashes in about two pounds of cocaine. Then snort me up!’
RICHARD PRYOR
‘Rumours of my death spread as far as New York newspapers,’ remembers Richard Pryor. ‘It’s a bitch to be watching the nightly news and see the motherfuckers talking ‘bout you in the past tense!’
News of the great comedian’s demise had at this point spread throughout the civilised world, even pervading the sanctity of the man’s own bedroom. He recalls his housekeeper walking…
6th February 2018Robert Capa- Perhaps the greatest war photographer that ever lived
ROBERT CAPA
In 1938 the UK’s Picture Post magazine described 25-year-old Robert Capa as ‘The Greatest War Photographer in the World.’ During his career he covered five armed conflicts in 10 countries, left 70,000 negatives and left behind an extraordinary record that told not only of the darkness of war but of the human condition.
‘I worked with Capa a lot,’ wrote writer and former…
27th September 2017Iggy
POP STAR
Prior to this interview, the last time I saw Iggy Pop was in October 1981 when he stayed at my flat in Kentish Town. He’d ended up there because he’d been having regular sex with a rather attractive New Yorker friend of my then American girlfriend, Holli, who was staying with us at the time. Iggy didn’t want to go to a hotel because he’d played a gig in Marseilles a few nights before…
3rd April 2017The Zoot Suit -More Than Just a Jacket and Trouser...
THE ZOOT SUIT
Few articles of clothing have caused riots that resulted in hundreds of arrests, scores of injuries and international headlines. But then again, few have the history or social gravitas of the zoot suit. More than just a jacket and trousers, it’s an item of clothing that defined its wearer as part of a culture that chose to stand outside of accepted society, unafraid of the consequences…
3rd January 2017Levi's 501 xx - the Rebel Yell.
The Levi's 501 XX jean is the most iconic garment ever produced. Never has an item of clothing inspired such adoration, commanded such high prices or been the chosen mufti for so many global arbiters of taste from Clark Gable to Marilyn Monroe to Johnny Depp. It is a totally unique product. It is a true style statement. It is one of the all time great sartorial classics.
But, even though the 501…
25th October 2016Allan Heyl .. South Africa's biggest bank robber
'The reason I am making this recording is to explain how we actually went about committing these robberies,’ says Allan Heyl, once South Africa's most wanted man. ‘There were rules: no shouting, no flashing guns, no planning and no designer violence. It was not Tarantino. In fact, the outstanding feature of all the robberies was that they went off so calmly that they were actually mundane…
27th September 2016Brilliant Chang : The first Celebrity Cocaine Dealer.
Brilliant Chang
“Chang dispensed Chinese delicacies and the drugs and vices of the Orient,” reported The Pictorial News in 1922. “He demanded payment for his drugs in kind.” The rag went on to further advise its women readers, “who retained sufficient decency and pride of race”, that they turn down “this fellow with lips thin and cruel, tightly drawn across even yellow teeth.”
…
31st May 2016Bootsy Collins....Master of Funk.
BOOTSY COLLINS: TOUCHING BASS WITH THE MASTER OF FUNK
by Chris Sullivan
Amiable, engaging and very much not full of shit, Bootsy Collins is all that and more. The psychedelic, Funkadelic legend played bass on such landmark James Brown cuts as Soul Power and Sex Machine and was a leading member of the P-Funk (Parliament and Funkadelic) collective.
Now he's bringing music to a new generation…
15th January 2016In memory of David Bowie - a radio show
In case you missed me on Soho Radio earlier this week, you can listen again to my 2 hour radio show dedicated to David Bowie here. There's interviews with Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) and Clive Langer (the producer of Absolute Beginners), plus lots of music from the great man himself.
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2nd December 2015LEMMY AND ME......
AND OF COURSE THERE IS THE LEMMY INTERVIEW OV ER TWO BOTTLES OF JACK AND A GRAM OR TWO OF BILLY WIZZ.
19th November 2015Jacques Mesrine- The Greatest Bank Robber that ever lived ?
At around mid day on November 2ND 1979, a BMW, driven by well dressed man pulled up behind a covered lorry at a set of traffic lights in Porte Clignancourt, a busy Parisian quarter. Within seconds the lorries tarpaulin was pulled up and a gang of men opened fire on the car, killing the driver and severely injuring his lady passenger, girlfriend, Sylvie Jeanjacquot. No gangland assassination,…
10th November 2015Here's a little taster...
I am finding new pieces all the time, lurking in some off file where they shouldn't be...this is one such example...
Here’s a sample :
The above photo taken at 5am after a 24 hour session shows Rhys in fine fettle, Charlie Breaker ex-gangster, bare-knuckle boxer and purveyor of parts, Howard Marks and yours truly.....
Howard Marks and Rhys Ifans in Alicante on the set of Mr. Nice
Before…
7th October 2015The Rebel Rebel pub crawl
The idea for this Soho pub-crawl emanated from those marvellous folk at Unbound, yours truly being rather reticent about such shenanigans, but in for a penny in for a hangover. This tour of the square miles hostelries will hopefully hit all my old haunts (basically Soho’s finest ale houses) and begin in The Coffee House on Beak St., move onto the Sun and 13 Cantons, whizz across to the Blue Posts…
22nd September 2015new additions
Just found some new chapters lurking in my hard drive including in depth interviews with Anita Pallenberg, Bruce Weber and Adam Ant ..........
Paul Spencer Denman asked:
Hey Chris
Its Paul Sade's Bassist, did you ever manage to interview Sade?, most people wouldn't know her well enough to consider her a rebel rebel but both you and i know different.
Hope your well mate and that life is treatin you good
Stay Punk!
Paul xx
Chris Sullivan replied:
Hello Paul , Always a pleasure to hear from you old friend. I asked when we did We Can Be Heroes but never got a reply. And I have been trying to get a quote from her and you guys re The Wag as I'm doing a Wag 33 Anniversary CD Box Set as suggested by Andrew but he hasn't replied to my texts. I would love to include her in the book if she'd be interviewed by me and she'd be in print alongside a fine crew of creative malcontents. Meanwhile , if you have a nice quote about the Wag I can include in the 60 page booklet fire away to chris@sullivan60.co.uk. I'd love to see you again soon.. All the very best, Chris
Chris Sullivan asked:
This is quite funny.......
http://www.voltcafe.com/blog/blue-rondo-la-turk-chewing-fat
Chris Sullivan replied:
Doing the p-ub crawl when the book is done and its weeks away.. am urging Unbound to get a move on wit the design right now as they have 50% of it ready to go..
Hey Chris Its Paul Sade's Bassist, did you ever manage to interview Sade?, most people wouldn't know her well enough to consider her a rebel rebel but both you and i know different. Hope your well mate and that life is treatin you good Stay Punk! Paul xx
Hello Paul , Always a pleasure to hear from you old friend. I asked when we did We Can Be Heroes but never got a reply. And I have been trying to get a quote from her and you guys re The Wag as I'm doing a Wag 33 Anniversary CD Box Set as suggested by Andrew but he hasn't replied to my texts. I would love to include her in the book if she'd be interviewed by me and she'd be in print alongside a fine crew of creative malcontents. Meanwhile , if you have a nice quote about the Wag I can include in the 60 page booklet fire away to chris@sullivan60.co.uk. I'd love to see you again soon.. All the very best, Chris
This is quite funny....... http://www.voltcafe.com/blog/blue-rondo-la-turk-chewing-fat
Doing the p-ub crawl when the book is done and its weeks away.. am urging Unbound to get a move on wit the design right now as they have 50% of it ready to go..