This issue features the late great Shawn Mortensen before he passed away. We interviewed him briefly at the Iconoclast pop-up store right before his book signing of Out Of Mind and photographed him at his house.
Could Jonah Hill be the new king of pop? The scene stealing actor from flicks like Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall is taking 2009 by storm—he stars in America’s current #1 movie (Night At The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian), as well as Judd Apatow’s upcoming dramedy Funny People, and he’s even co-writing and producing Sacha Baron Cohen’s eagerly anticipated Brüno flick. To celebrate Jonah’s new superstar status, we photographed him in various Michael Jackson-themed scenarios for our off-the-wall June/July 2009 cover story. Shamon!
The band was formed by former Fatal Microbes Pete Fender (Dan Sansom, guitar), Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom, bass) and It (Quentin North, also bass), with vocalists Annie Anxiety and Womble, and drummer Sid Ation (born Sid Truelove, 18 April 1960, Sutton Coldfield, a former chef, later also the drummer with Flux of Pink Indians). Annie, Womble and It were involved only initially, left and were replaced by vocalist Zillah Minx (born Zillah Elaine Ashworth, 31 March 1961, Birkenhead). Fender and Stone were the son and daughter of Poison Girls singer Vi Subversa. The band used Poison Girls equipment to jam and write songs and their first performance was when they took to the stage at a Crass/Poison Girls concert. They had originally been called Rubella Babies. The band’s first proper gig was a fundraiser for the Theatre Royal in Stratford, which ended in a riot, and the band played frequently, often asking audience members to put them up after gigs.
The new line-up were soon known for wearing brightly coloured dayglo clothes on stage, to differentiate themselves from the anarcho-punk bands who tended to wear black, ‘army-surplus’ style clothing. Pete Fender left at the end of 1982 and soon afterwards joined Omega Tribe as a full-time member, having been their early mentor and record producer.
RUBELLA.BALLET.
FALSE.PROMISES.
The band released one album on cassette tape, entitled Ballet Bag (1981) and a 4 track 7″ EP, Ballet Dance (1982), both for Poison Girls’ XNTRIX Records, after rejecting the opportunity to put out a record on the Crass label. Adrian Thrills, reviewing the single in the NME stated “the Ballet have an appealing sharp edge to their claustrophobic punk thrash, a poppy surge and even a discernable funk readjustment…of course, they could always just be taking the piss”. After releasing the 42f single on Jungle Records (with Sean replacing Fender) the band started their own Ubiquitous label. Rubella Ballet toured extensively with Poison Girls and Crass, and recorded two John Peel sessions for BBC Radio. In 1984 they embarked on an ill-fated tour of Italy to promote 42F. The band had only been given single airline tickets and after a week of playing without getting paid, they returned to England by train.
The band’s line-up underwent several changes before their next release, “Money Talks” (1985); Sean and Gem had left, to be replaced by Adam and Rachel Minx (Zillah’s younger sister Rachel Irene Jane Ashworth), and Adam himself has replaced by Steve Cachman prior to the recording of the debut album At Last, It’s Playtime, the same year, an album that has been described as “chugging mid-paced stuff, many of the tracks dominated by Zillah’s steamroller-flat vox”. The line-up stabilized over the next few years, the band recording a second album, If… in 1986.
Take a look at the photo above that pictures myself and some of my brethren last year. Besides the disgusting over abundance of plaid that prompted us all to cease wearing any sort of flannel there is one other common thread. Labels. On every surface of the clothing, on every available place, the brand name is present. It may be a little hard to spot because of the angle but each hat is either adorned with Award Tour or Supreme, each jean has its particular brand, and all the shirts are plastered with their respective companies logo.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this, As you can see, I am a participant in the system, but observe how obvious the brands placement is. Regardless of what coast you are from, or what city you reside in, if you are a member of the “streetwear omniverse” than you focus on your labels. Its a running joke around the Hypebeast community that the standard uniform is Supreme, APC, and Vans. I wish god’s blessing on the poor ill informed souls that somehow end up on the Hypebeast forums and attempt to post “WDYWT” fits that are outside of the accepted norm. The backlash they receive although frequently comical is nothing short of ridiculous.
The Supreme, APC, Vans quip is not far from the truth, individuals are consumed with presenting themselves within the definition of what a few members of the community have decided is the definition of streetwear “cool.” Visit a line up in front of any boutique for a release and you will see an endless line of the same brands over and over again.
I’m not here to say that every label should reconsider, rather I’d like to highlight the contradiction in this scenario. Streetwear derives it’s inspirations from two style generation in which labels were not of immediate importance. The number one influence on all of these labels comes from a subculture and a time in which labels largely couldn’t be afforded, the skate and surf culture of the 1970’s-90’s.
Take a look at this photo and realize the separation between it and the picture from last year above. The subjects in both pictures are younger kids, caught in a subculture, only a few decades apart, and as far as the style is concerned it’s not entirely changed but there is one distinct difference: the absence of labels in the photo directly above. The kids above are wearing the clothes they have in complete confidence, with complete “swagger” (Hate the word.), and assurance of themselves without the inclusion of labels pasted across their clothes.
To some extent, given the background we know about kids in this era, more expensive “labeled clothing” was probably not largely available. In the rundown areas of Venice Beach where the culture was birthed, extra money was definitely not being given out for new clothes at the beginning of every school year. These kids were coming from relatively poor backgrounds and what was received was what was worn. The clothing they wore was for function, they turned what they had available to them into an original style that than came to define them.
The clothes did not define the style, how they were worn and who embodied the clothes defined the style. These kids didn’t need a Supreme, Hundreds, or even an Award Tour pasted across their t-shirt to have themselves defined as members of their sub-culture, they merely were the culture themselves. There is an enormous departure from today in which in order to be a purveyor of the essential streetwear “cool,” one must be draped head to toe in the correct brands.
Granted of course there were labels at this time, Vans were still worn by skaters and they without a doubt had preference to what labels they would wear if they could, but that was not what was important. It all rotated around how you embodied what you wore. The labels came secondary. You could walk down the street in the most ratty of threads and still be jocked by every third follower and female because you yourself were the culture, style, and subject of the attention, not your labels.
Today, you recognize someone as a part of the culture based on the label. When you see someone walking down the street in a Stussy t-shirt you assume that they know their way around the street-wear omniverse. Back in the day, such a label didn’t exist. You recognized someone because they had destroyed shoes, wild hair, and probably are carrying a skateboard that had actually been used. Those kids had a certain and a certain presence and swagger (Still hate the word.) that boldly stated to the world, I live the life. It wasn’t the label that created the culture, it was the participants who created the label.
Also all credit must be given to the guys over at Rockers NYC where the older pictures were taken from. Amazing history over at the Rockers brand.
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