version city

In January and February 1983, Joe Strummer produced and directed a fifty-minute silent black-and-white film, Hell W10. The film starred Paul and Mick as rival underworld characters in Notting Hill, warring over a consignment of heroin. The scene at the end where they all get shot was filmed on the bit of waste-ground next to Westbourne Park bus garage.
For years, Hell W10 was believed lost. Then in 2002 the film turned up on a London market stall, and the following year it was included as an extra on the Essential Clash DVD.

the four horsemen

read this article

the blogpost above lead me to a curious train of thought, how will rule-abiding jobsworths who work in the licencing and food trades deal with the concept of men wearing proper hats again..?
i mean, if i go into a venue/cafe/bar wearing a new brixton fedora, can they really tell me to take it off, in the same circumstance that would befall someone who wears a baseball cap, or a beanie pulled down low... those hats are cultural signifiers of a negative self-image, whereas i'm sure that wearing a christy's chepstow, would only have people believe i'm O.G.(as in orginal gangster, ho-ho).
but the crux of the matter is, staff might have to discriminate, otherwise, they are making people remove formal clothing... personally i rarely go into a venue that has any sort of dress-code other than the one i subscribe to already, but how should i react to someone in a faux-police jacket, telling me i must remove part of my wardrobe?
having seen this in action, many, many years ago, whilst out with a friend who always wore hats, on one night he chose a woolen pakul hat which you can read about here. and we got as far as the front door of one long since demolished poser pre-club bar(where i first saw men who had shaved arms, purely out of their own vanity...), where he was told to take it off... this of course leads to issues with ethnic identity, this type of hat also symbolises history and place... as opposed to the baseball cap or the beanie, which is a cultural signifier and is sometimes worn to indicate wannabe criminal affiliations, or to hide behind/under.
i'm not down on baseball caps, i own several john deere caps, and they are excellent, i like wearing them, even though stateside people wonder why i'd want to look like a farmer... and i have a levi's beanie and a thick woollen adidas beanie(from the early 90's).
but it looks as if the rules are going to have to change, otherwise venues will have to supply hat-racks again... what's the point of spending time and effort on finding a good hat, only to be told to take it off, by someone who has no hair!
i know that i hunted high and low for decent hat shops, while travelling around... and i did actually find a traditional hat shop in barcelona.
now of course, i've done the research and have my favourites, baileys of hollywood and the new york hat co. being two not already mentioned here.

good article here, on shopping for hats in new york.

guns of brixton

you can crush us, you can bruise us.
but you'll have to answer to...