Paul Gorman is a British-Irish writer and curator.
Gorman's journalism has appeared in many of the world's leading publications and his books includeThe Life & Times ofMalcolm McLaren,The Story OfThe Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture,Straight withBoy George,Nine Lives withGoldie andTotally Wired: The Rise & Fall of The Music Press.
Gorman has also staged art, design and pop culture exhibitions in the UK, Denmark, France and the US.
Gorman was born in St John's Wood, north London, and attendedUniversity College School in Hampstead.
From 1978, Gorman worked on weekly news for trade publications and in 1983 won thePeriodical Publishers Association award for campaigning journalism for a series of investigative food industry articles. In 1990 he was appointed west coast bureau chief ofScreen International, based in Los Angeles.
Between 1993 and 1998, Gorman was contributing editor atMusic Week, reporting on executives and artists such asMadonna's managerFreddy DeMann,Creation Records founderAlan McGee andU2 managerPaul McGuinness. Between 1994 and 1999, Gorman was contributing editor at Music Business International. During this time he contributed regularly to magazines such asMojo and conducted the first published interview with theSpice Girls.[1]
Gorman continues to contribute to magazines and newspapers includingGQ,[2]The Daily Telegraph,Mojo andVice.
In the mid 1990s Gorman worked with production company Channel X on developing thetrash culture TV seriesThe Strip he created with partner David Knight forChannel 4.
In 1999 Gorman directed the documentaryLas Vegas Grind for Channel 4. This was hosted by Mexican-American artistEl Vez, who Gorman subsequently signed toAlan McGee's record label Poptones, which released two El Vez albums and the single Feliz Navidad in the UK.
In 2012 Gorman produced and presented The Kings Road Music & Fashion Trail,[3] a series of short films for Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council on addresses which housed significant boutiques, includingMary Quant's Bazaar andGranny Takes a Trip.
In 2008, Gorman launched fashion labelThe Look Presents throughTopman with three collections based on artist and designers featured in his bookThe Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion: T-shirts byWonder Workshop; T-shirts by Granny Takes a Trip founderNigel Waymouth; and Priceless – a menswear range byAntony Price, designer forRoxy Music andDuran Duran.
In 2010 Gorman curated the exhibition Process: The Working Practices Of Barney Bubbles at London's Chelsea Space.[4] The show attracted the largest attendance of any exhibition held at the gallery.[5]
In 2011 Gorman consulted on, and sourced material for, the British exhibitionsPostmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990[6] andSnap Crackle & Pop: British Pop Art Meets The High Street In The Swinging Sixties.[7] In September 2011, Gorman staged a dedicatedBarney Bubbles exhibit at Mindful of Art, a group show at London's Old Vic Tunnels.[8]
In 2012 Gorman curated the exhibition Lloyd Johnson: The Modern Outfitter, presenting the work of the London fashion retailer whose boutiques provided clothing for a variety of performers includingFred Astaire,George Michael,The Clash,Tom Waits andBob Dylan.[9]
Gorman consulted on and sourced material for British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, which ran from March – August 2012 at the V&A.[10]
Also in 2012, Gorman curated The Past The Present & The Possible, a dedicated section presenting 300 artworks by Barney Bubbles as part of the group exhibition White Noise: Quand Le Graphisme Fait Du Bruit atLes Subsistances, Chaumont, Champagne Sud, France.[11]
Gorman consulted on and sourced material for Glam! The Performance of Style, an exhibition about the visual, social and creative aspects of the 70s glam rock genre which opened at Tate Liverpool in February 2013[12] and moved to Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle in June 2013[13] and Lentos Kunstmuseum in Linz, Austria, from October 2013 to February 2014.[14]
In 2014, Gorman co-curated an exhibition aboutMalcolm McLaren's engagement in fashion with Young Kim of the Malcolm McLaren Estate. Staged as part of the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair, it was entitled Let It Rock: The Look Of Music The Sound Of Fashion.[15] The exhibition was based around six sections dedicated to the retail outlets McLaren operated with Vivienne Westwood in the 1970s and 80s.[16]
The exhibition received a positive response from the media.Financial Times fashion editorCharlie Porter noted "the hang of the garments is exceptional"[17] while prominent style blogger Susie Bubble greeted the exhibition as "an incredibly detailed and well-put together overview specifically about McLaren's fusion of music and fashion".[18]
In autumn 2014 Gorman was one of the curators of Art In Pop, an exhibition about the engagement between the worlds of art and popular music at the Centre National d'Art Contemporain gallery Magasin inGrenoble, France.[19] Overseen by Magasin curator Yves Aupetitallot, Art In Pop included a large space curated by Gorman and Young Kim dedicated to McLaren's work and including clothing exhibits, a soundtrack and photographs of his student paintings executed in the late 60s. Marie France described it as "an invigorating exhibition not just to see but hear as well".[20]
In 2017-18, Gorman curated a series of exhibitions for home leisure specialistSonos on The Face magazine andDavid Bowie at the company's stores in London,[21] New York[22] and Berlin.[23]
In 2018 Gorman curated Print! Tearing It Up, an exhibition at central London'sSomerset House about the resurgence of independent magazines in the digital age.[24]
In October 2014, following the publication of the authorised biographyVivienne Westwood by the fashion designer and her co-authorIan Kelly, Gorman accused the authors and the publisherPicador of plagiarising substantial sections of material from his bookThe Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion. Gorman also described the Westwood biography as "sloppy" and "riddled with inaccuracies" and claimed it contained serious libels against two individuals, one of whom was pronounced to be dead by Westwood when in fact the individual was alive and practising as a therapist in west London.[25]
Picador publisher Paul Baggaley toldThe Bookseller: "We always take very seriously any errors that are brought to our attention and, where appropriate, correct them."[26]
Subsequently, the paperback edition included 27 new citations to Gorman's book.[27]
