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Saturday 2 February 2013

Sleeping Gas


I was in the enormous and ostentatious Westfield shopping centre at Shepherd's Bush on Thursday night, wandering round waiting for our 6th formers to finish their shopping (a treat for them after a long day treading the streets of London). I nipped into the Fred Perry shop, weary and wanting to get back the hotel and also slightly disappointed with the new season's line, when this Teardrop Explodes song came on the in-store stereo and perked me up no end- almost had me bouncing round the shop like a nipper. Although as the only customer the lad behind the till began to give me an odd look.

Sleeping Gas

In the picture is Wyndham Lewis, who London Lee pointed out was the Lord of the Vorts (Vorticists that is).

3 comments:

Walter said...

Interesting combination with wyndham lewis, vorticism, fred perry and the teardrop explodes - stimulating my brain on saturday morning

Echorich said...

Yes SA, you are sending us is so many interesting directions recently!!
Sleeping Gas is one of those touchstone music moments for me of the period 79 - 81. It was a time of some amazing discovery - including said Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen, WAH!, Comsat Angels, Joy Division... I have a post punk playlist for the car that opens with Sleeping Gas and flows right into the Comsat's Total War - you can imagine where it goes from there...
As for Fred Perry - it kill me that it make Lacoste seem reasonably priced these days. I remember when I lived in NYC still, even up until the early 2000's, that Fred Perry was such an unknown quantity and you could get polos or track jackest for $50 or less if you shopped. Now it's all about celebrity ranges and three figure price tags. I mean who really needs a No Doubt designed FP polo?

londonlee said...

I remember when you could buy Fred Perry's at Woolworths and Millets. And they were cheap.

Wyndham Lewis is one of those great artists who was also an utter shit as a human being. I've read that the reason his portrait of Edith Sitwell is "unfinished" (the hands are just an abstract blur) is that she couldn't bear to sit for him any longer.