Hold Back The Rain (and, indeed, they did)

Duran Duran

In summary:-

Duran Duran have still got ‘it’.

I do not like N.E.R.D. Or their fans.

Duran Duran can control the weather with their music. Hold Back The Rain actually did the trick both times. They are Gods.

When you are being nearly crushed to death, keeping your shoes on becomes disproportionately important.

If you stand in the middle of a swelling crowd of festival-type people whilst wearing a Sixties dress and shout at them, in a posh accent, for being stupid then people will look at you a bit funny. It’s inevitable.

Nick Rhodes owes me the amazing vintage Adam Ant badge I lost in the mêlée. It’s his fault we were in a crowd of idiots. He said this was a festival which ladies could wear nice shoes to, because it was in a park. Real world, meet Nick. Nick, meet the real world.

"Oh, so THAT'S the real world over yonder is it? Oh dear..."


Contrary to some reviews, a 50-year-old man shouting ‘freebase’ and gyrating on stage is not sad…it’s delightful and endearing. Well, when it’s Simon Le Bon anyway.

My girls may have been getting more excited about Simon’s top hat [and, later on, tuxedo] and Nick’s cravat and cane, but John Taylor is an expert at doing a Miss Peelpants-orientated strip tease. Sharp suit. Jacket off, leaving white shirt and waistcoat. Then waistcoat off, leaving slightly crumpled white shirt and braces. Top marks!


Well, I’m now back from my Duran ‘Odyssey’ and I’m almost at a loss to process the weird old week I’ve had. I’ve been all the way up to Edinburgh and back, have seen the boys twice in one week (both times from very near the front by sheer luck and steely determination respectively), have walked into a service station with rollers in my hair, have sat eating pineapple wedges and glace cherries from behind the bar of the Hard Rock Cafe because they were no longer serving food (many thanks to the kindly bar staff), have cursed Nick Rhodes quite a lot (a man like that should understand that open air gigs and nice hair, make-up and clothes DO NOT MIX), nearly drowned attempting to get to Edinburgh Castle in torrential rain, nearly died in an N.E.R.D crowd whilst waiting for the Duran set, have laughed so hard I started bawling (still can’t work out if it was because it was all so funny or utterly horrifying)…oh and I even ate a Pot Noodle. Which is possibly the most alarming aspect to the entire week.

So now I can get back to work, I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to hear!

Only in Chelsea, in the Sixties…

1960s, Illustrations, king's road, sixties, Vintage Adverts

…could you have had a job agency who will find a job appropriate to your star sign. I wondered if it was a joke. Perhaps it was? I like to think I’d fit seamlessly into society if I ever fell through a wormhole in time and found myself in 1969, so I almost get annoyed with myself for finding such things so very amusing and bizarre. Perhaps I would have found them entertaining back then? I hope so…like the idea of sanitary towels aiding my search for a millionaire husband*?

*I was once accused of being a ‘gold digger’ by a former aquaintance of mine. It still perplexes me to this day. She can’t have been basing it on reality, if she’d ever met any of my boyfriends she’d know that. Perhaps she saw a packet of Dr Whites in my handbag?

Pussy Galore

1960s, british boutique movement, carnaby street, petticoat magazine, pussy galore, sixties, The art of labels

Well I never. All these years I’ve been moaning that I knew so very little about the Pussy Galore boutique, aside from the brief paragraph the V&A managed to unearth when they displayed my frock. Yet right under my nose, in a clearly somewhat under read copy of Petticoat magazine, was this little gem. Well, now I know why they didn’t last very long. I’m not sure I’d want to buy frocks from a girl in her underwear. I don’t care what they may say about rocketing lingerie sales, pah!

Pussy Galore was opened by Carnaby Street entrepreneur Henry Moss in 1969, when this clipping dates from.

I realise this may not be terribly exciting for anyone else, but at least if I blog about it I’m unlikely to forget I have it. Which is something I often manage to do.

My solitary[ish] Pussy Galore piece is the tablecloth mini, but I also have a pair of purple suede hotpants (Made, apparently, for someone with a child-size bottom. Size 38 my….errr….arse!) which had this hang tag on them. I’m sure they must be Pussy Galore, but there isn’t a fabulous huge satin label inside. Just the hang tag. Dyed by the purple suede over the years. Isn’t it groovy?

Pimm’s and Bloggers

Foale and Tuffin, pimm's, wendyB

It was so delightful to spend the afternoon with the gorgeous bloggers (all four of them) WendyB, Sharon Rose, Samantha and Kate at Harvey Nichols today. Grumpy waiters aside. Five hours and two pitchers of Pimm’s definitely wasn’t enough, especially when I returned home to find Wendy had forgotten to tell me she likes Foale and Tuffin. Well, I could have bored for England on that subject….next time, next time.

Thank you ladies, especially to Wendy for coming over in the first place and organising it – and to Sharon Rose for the gorgeous Bus Stop blouse (which fits perfectly) and Mary Quant scarf. The former may get a debut while I’m on my Duran Duran odyssey next week. More of that in due course…

Random Ossies in Adverts: Part II

1970s, Make-up, ossie clark, Random Ossies in Adverts, Vintage Adverts

I think that printed dress turns up in several adverts spanning several years. I’m assuming one photographer or stylist had the dress and just plonked every model in it when they needed a ‘floaty’ look. I shall scan further examples in when I can!

Serge et Jane, Jane et Serge

1960s, 1970s, jane birkin, picture spam, Serge Gainsbourg, sexy couples

Has there ever been a sexier pairing on the planet? (Or, even, a more naked woman in the Sixties than Jane Birkin? But that’s another blog post altogether…) The chemistry practically jumps out of the pictures and slaps you around the face…

Random Ossies in Adverts: Part I

Make-up, ossie clark, Random Ossies in Adverts
Jenny is 17 and lives in Cheam, Surrey.
 
Jenny is 17, has perfect skin and is wearing a Celia print Ossie. For these reasons, I doth growl at her.

EmmaWatsonPants in Ossie Clark

celebrities in vintage, ossie clark

Sorry. The temptation was just too strong. Someone called Emma, showing her pants. In an Ossie no less!

I can empathise as well, Emma. My Hockney portrait Ossie does the same thing. I also have one of those deep plunging halter crepe dresses, which doesn’t even button over that area.

And he wanted us to go without pants when we wear them??

Still….it’s all worth it!

Happy Birthday Naughty Beatle

ringo starr, The Beatles

69 years young today. Although once upon a time he was my favourite Beatle (way back in my early teens when I first saw A Hard Day’s Night and Help!), Ringo is rather annoying these days. But he was a Beatle, he was really rather delicious and loveable, was married to the superfab Maureen, gave us the rather dishy Mr Zak Starkey, and appeared in lots of kitschy ’60s and ’70s films. Oh, and directed Born To Boogie. So there’s a lot to salute, I just wish he’d remember where he came from and be a bit more gracious.

But ’til then, Happy Birthday Naughty Beatle and fellow Cancerian!

Oh, and if you’ll turn to 4.46 in this YouTube video, you can have a good look at his very nice arse.

It was Thirty years ago today…

Uncategorized

…that Miss Peelpants was born. And yes, I ate the buttercups….apparently! Wasn’t I a chubster?

I’m running away from London to spend the day at the seaside. It’s a shame I don’t still have the fetching cotton mob cap, non?