Book Launch / London Calling: The Clash in the Capital
Schedule
Tue Mar 31 2026 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
The Showroom Gallery | London, EN
Join Paul Gorman and Andrew Renton in conversation for the launch of Paul Gorman’s guide, London Calling: The Clash in the Capital.About this Event
Publication Launch: London Calling: The Clash in the Capital / Paul Gorman in conversation with Andrew Renton
31 March, 6.30-8 pm
Free, booking essential
Join Paul Gorman and Andrew Renton in conversation for the launch of Paul Gorman’s guide London Calling: The Clash in the Capital, as part of the public programme for Slits Are Girls by Ângela Ferreira.
Charting The Clash through the city that shaped them, the guide spans 130 locations across London, tracing where the band members were born, lived, rehearsed, recorded and performed. In their formative years the band were closely associated with The Showroom’s neighbourhood using the Edgware Road Ice Cream parlour as their office; with lead vocalist and guitarist, Joe Strummer, squatting around the corner on Daventry Street – the same street where The Slits hung out and rehearsed.
Written by pop culture historian Paul Gorman and designed by Scott Sugiuchi, this fold-out guide shows how a group with global reach – drawing on reggae, rockabilly and sounds from across the world – remained rooted in their home city. North, south, east and west, London fed directly into the band's sound, politics and lyrics.
Paul Gorman is a writer, curator and guide-maker. His books include The Life & Times of Malcolm McLaren, The Story of The Face: The Magazine That Changed Culture, The Wild World of Barney Bubbles, Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall of the Music Press, Straight with Boy George and Nine Lives with Goldie. His latest book is Granny Takes A Trip: High Fashion & High Times. London Calling is the latest in Gorman’s series of guides about pop and counter-cultural aspects of the UK capital published by Herb Lester, including The Look of London, Situation Vacant: Sex Pistols & Malcolm McLaren’s London, David Bowie’s London and Down The Road Apiece: The Rolling Stones’ London 1962-71.
Andrew Renton is curator of Ângela Ferreira: Slits are Girls. A writer and professor of Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, he has curated many shows internationally, included the first Manifesta biennial. He was a member of the jury for the 2006 Turner Prize, and is trustee of several arts organisations, including The Showroom, The Drawing Room and Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art. He has advised many collections and institutions, including the British Government Art Collection.
The event is organised in partnership with the publisher Herb Lester Associates.
This event is organised as part of the public programme for our exhibition Ângela Ferreira: Slits are Girls and is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Where is it happening?
The Showroom Gallery, 63 Penfold Street, London, United KingdomGBP 0.00
