The bolero connection: From the Apple boutique to Hawkwind

In yet another exclusive, THE LOOK brings you images of an extraordinary one-off jacket just loaded down with historic rock & roll fashion connections.

//John May’s amazing Apple label  bolero jacket//

But first here’s the backstory: in the early 70s John May was making his way in the counter-culture, having carved out a career in the underground press at Friends (the magazine which transmuted into Frendz).

//Nik Turner blows his stack for Friends//

Through the scene around the magazine’s offices in Portobello Road, John came to know the designer Barney Bubbles  – the subject of the acclaimed book and our exciting new blog -  and also Barney’s pals, the incredible Hawkwind.

By the summer of 1972 the unlikely band of hippies, poets, bikers and dancers had scored a surprise hit with the single Silver Machine, and used the money to fund an elaborately staged 30-date tour conceived by Barney and the similarly-missed poet, playwright and performer Robert Calvert:  The Space Ritual.

//Barney’s cover for Hawkwind live album Space Ritual//

“I was  always known as a bit of a mover, and one day at Friends (Hawkwind horn player) Nik Turner invited me to join them on the road as a dancer,” says John. “I thought I’d better get some decent gear together and remembered I had these label rolls from the Apple boutique.

“I can’t remember where they came from nor, I’m afraid, the name of the girl who made the jacket for me. I think she was making a lot of costumes for that tour. It was definitely her idea and design.

“She lived in a house with a large overgrown garden that  a plaque on it for the writer and naturalist WH Hudson, which would make it 40 St Luke’s Road, W11.”

//94 Baker Street, London, December 1966. Rex Images.//

You can read all about the Apple store in Chapter 5 of THE LOOK; appointed by The Beatles,  the chief designers were Dutch psych-art collective The Fool who insisted garment labels were four-colour printed silk versions of the original Apple logo. This pushed prices way out of the league of the average fashion consumer.

//The original Apple logo as fashion label//

When the shop’s manager Pete Shotton – a long-term Beatles associate who had been in John Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen – pointed out that the labels were doubling the price of the clothing, Lennon snapped back, “We’re not business freaks. We’re artists.” The boutique closed after just seven months of trading.

John May says that he lasted six gigs dancing along with the legendary Rene Le Ballestre and Stacia.

//Jacket shoulder detail//

“It was fantastic fun,”  says John, who went on to make make a name for himself as an investigative reporter at publications including NME (as “Dick Tracy” from 1976-1982), The Face and the Sunday Times and now blogs as The Generalist.

And now members of Hawkwind are back in the guise of Hawklords to perform The Space Ritual 09, at The Roundhouse on March 9. Read all about it and subscribe to the Barney Bubbles blog here.

As for John he says he won’t be wearing the jacket that night, though THE LOOK is looking forward to watching him revive some of those onstage moves.

See you there!