Modern Toss is the potty mouthed cartoon collective invented by former Loaded staff Jon Link and Mick Bunnage. Their cartoons are a sweary, abusive joy, including missives from characters including Mr Tourette and Drive By Abuser. I swung by the exhibition to see how Toss is going down in London, and saw the Shoreditch gallery packed to the rafters with swear-fans. Here are some of the pieces up for sale.
Modern Tossers
England robbed in South Africa
You know, this picture- snapped on Hipstamatic on my iPhone straight from the telly, was retweeted on Twitpic over 3,100 times today. There you go.
Lord of the Dandys Sebastian Horsley has died: One of my favourite writers, who I was lucky to call a friend. I first met Sebastian Horsley in a toilet cubile in Soho, in 2003. I remember he was wearing a pink suit, platform heels and a large top hat, and it didn’t feel like there was enough room in the cubicle for the hat, and those two dancing girls. Later I would become Sebastian’s commissioning editor at Loaded, where we published a handful of his columns, mainly about debauchery and prostitution, topics in which he held a doctorate. They were works of art.
“Cut these words, and they will not bleed,” he signed off once.
Sebastian Horsley, should you not be aware of his work, was the author of Dandy in the Underworld, his memoirs of a colourful life as a drug addict, lover of fine clothes and ladies of the night. It was a book that changed the way I thought about confessional journalism. Over the years, I became a friend of Sebastian, and together we helped turn his muse, Rachael Garley, into Loaded’s candid sex columnist, a piece that still runs today.
At Sebastian's flat
As Toby Young has already written, you never left a meeting with Sebastian without feeling the need to write down something that he’d said. Only months ago, myself and Loaded photographer Ian Dewsbury were at Sebastian’s now infamous Soho flat, waiting for a prostitute to arrive. I was to interview a working girl for the magazine, and Sebastian was my first port of call, after a failed mission to a lap-dancing club. “I hate lap dancing clubs,” he sighed. “Why go to a buffet with no prospect of feeding?” I took out my pen.
Today, I feel sad reading our recent emails, each of them a classic. “I forgive you my dear, I forgive you,” he typed, after I forgot to send him his cuttings (he called them his ‘Gloriana’ and they were very important.). “That’s like an MBE from the devil….” I replied, to which Sebastian volleyed back, “Well Satan did model himself on me.”
We were both a long time off the booze, that day when the prostitute finally arrived. Quite a nice girl, actually, with a degree in marketing. But she was drunk and after the photographs she noticed the loaded revolver by Sebastian’s bed, and was peterbed. “Safe sex, my dear, safe sex,” quipped Horsley, and the girl’s mouth fell open.
Sebastian with his 'Gloriana'
The loss of Sebastian Horsley is a tragic one, but I was pleased that he got to see the theatre performance of his book finally played out on stage. “They say seeing your doppelganger is an omen of death,” he told the Evening Standard just days ago, hauntingly. I was supposed to be meeting Sebastian to talk about the forthcoming publication of Rachael’s columns into a similar book of memoirs, something I hope we can still do without him, but that can wait, of course. The first ‘Rachael’ columns we tried he ghosted himself, but the Editor insisted they sounded too much like Byron. I rewrote them myself and was terrified of what Sebastian would think. “I liked it very much once you got rid of Horsley,” he wrote. “I’ve been trying and failing for years to get rid of Horsley.”
I took the new Canon PowerShot SX210 IS to Los Angeles on a job, to test it out against my beloved (and broken Powershot S80). nice results.
I helped redesign the Loaded business cards this week, as we haven’t had any since 2007. They’ve got a chequered past, the Loaded business cards: Once known as ’shag-tags,’ some were once stolen by a workie who went on a drinking and blagging rampage, until I caught up with him. Othertimes, Loaded staff would lick them and stick to their foreheads at booze launches. Anyway, we’re all grown up now, and so are the cards. Each member of staff chose an iconic cover from yesteryear. And here they all are:
The Loaded team's new bizzo cards are...er, the bizzo
I spent an afternoon this week training with England ‘keeper David James, sponsored by Energy firm E.On, David’s sponsors. Loaded.co.uk hammered together a little video to go out online. It’s notable really, for a surprisingly acrobatic save by myself (listen in the background for David James yelping, ‘great save!’) and the recording of my wrist being sprained, live!
Just heard a rumour that Supergrass have split up. That’s really sad. I spent a really nice day with the band at their local, in Oxford a few years back, with Loaded snapper Ian “Picture Bat” Dewsbury. Interestingly, his photograph of the band with a suitcase is being used right now on the net as a ‘goodbye’ photograph, like here on the Fly.
It was easily one of my favourite interviews, and I nearly bought Gaz’s vintage motor from him. I was sorely tempted by it, but the main problem was a) I couldn’t afford it and b) I had been drinking for two days and couldn’t drive it back to London.
To see an amazing gallery of top drawer Loaded portraits from the last few years, click here to visit this brilliant blog.
I’m ashamed to say I never saw the Libertines play live. It’s one of my only regrets. Particularly when I watch the below YouTube clip of the band falling into the crowd at the Rhythm Factory, a gig that looks nothing short of madness. Just watch the people pogo-ing.
This month I’m helping a journalist friend compile a feature for a top-selling women’s magazine. She’s looking to find some alternative ‘footballer’s wives or girlfriends,’ for a fashion shoot and interview. We’re not talking about the predictably fake-tanned types you see in the tabloids. They want to find some interesting, independent and attractive young ladies who just happen to be dating- or married to, footballers.
They say, “Your man doesn’t need to be flying to the World Cup in June to be featured- in fact the magazine is looking to find women whose husbands play in all five divisions, all the way down to the conference, including…”
Premier League
Football League Championship
Football League One
Football League Two
Conference
“The feature will be a fantastic shoot, complete with styling. Although there is no fee for this feature, the magazine is read by all the right people and will surely lead to bigger and better things, should you desire it. The magazine is not after ‘kiss and tells’ or scandal, but we want to know exactly what it’s like dating a footballer, and all about your everyday life, and aspirations!”
If you live within the M25 area, are 18-30 and willing to be a part of this feature, drop me an email to postmaster@jeffmaysh.co.uk, and I’ll put you in touch directly with the magazine. Do send some photographs of yourself, noting who your partner plays for, and a bit about yourself.
Cheers!
