Life after fantasy blockbusters and magically permanent adolescence can get a little hairy. One of these actors used to be an apprentice Wizard, and is this month’s cover star of US metromag Details. One used to be a Hobbit. One used to be a nerdy Spidey. Though can you tell… Read More »Attack of the TwinkyClones
Mark Simpson on Jon Savage’s ‘Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945‘ Of all the terrifying new weapons developed in the Second World War and unleashed upon an unsuspecting planet, the teenager was by far the most powerful. The supersonic shockwave of Fat Man and Little Boy was as nothing compared… Read More »Time to Retire the Teen?
‘Shamed TV entertainer’ – as he was re-Christened by the British press – Michael Barrymore’s new autobiography ‘Awight Now: Setting the Record Straight’ has just been published by Simon & Schuster. I’ve yet to see a copy, but the title and the blurb, the publicity, the large publisher behind it… Read More »Michael Barrymore’s Big Brother Comeback
by Mark Simpson (Originally published on SHOWstudio.com, 2002) Oscar Wilde famously donned cowboy duds for the Western leg of his tour of the US in 1882, after discovering that his usual dandy garb didn’t go down quite so well in the hard-bitten cattle and gold-rush towns as it had in… Read More »Tailor to the Desert Stars: a Tribute to Nudie
by Mark Simpson (Independent on Sunday, 23/07/06) “Oh, Bertie, when are you going to write your memoirs?” asks punk academic Jon Savage at a chance meeting with the author in Berlin. Berties replies: “Oh, I don’t know, Jon… what would I write, a teenage boy lost in suburbia, prostitution and… Read More »Suburbohemian Rhapsody: review of ‘Berlin Bromley’