With Twin‘s imminent fourth edition all about rebellion, the time couldn’t be riper for Flash Projects’ latest pop-up photography show, Street Fighting Man: Fifty Years of Youth Protest. Recent months have seen an electric surge in youthful uprising, as the young and angry have taken to the streets in a way not seen for over a decade. From the top up fees protests in London to last week’s riot against Tesco’s in Bristol, a new generation is asserting itself in ways reminiscent of the Sixties’ student protests.

Taking its name from The Rolling Stones‘ track, Street Fighting Man, which was inspired by Mick Jagger’s experience of an anti-war demonstration in 1968, the celebrates how youth culture and media have conspired to create historic moments over the past fifty years. Bands like The Rolling Stones, whose concerts were often accompanied by riots, and The Clash were mouthpieces for fans. While photographer Caroline Coon’s pictures of punk bands The Sex Pistols and The Slits not only record a seminal scene but asserted the right to individual identity. Today, these images of the Brixton and Poll Tax riots are a reminder of how difficult times breed discontent and dissidence. Often change doesn’t come quietly, it resounds on the streets.

Street Fighting Man. 50 years of youth protest is on at Flash Projects, 5 Savile Row, W1S 3PD until the 4th June 2011.
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Tags: Brixton Riots, Caroline Coons, Flash Projects, Mick Jagger, Poll tax, Sex Pistols, Street Fighting Man, Tesco, The Clash, the rolling stones, The Slits

Forty-seven years ago blonde ingénue Marianne Faithfull released her debut single, As Tears Go By. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was the beginning in the making of a rock and roll icon. From Girl on a Motorcycle to the depths of drug abuse, Faithfull has lived life in the fast lane.

Twenty-three albums on and her latest record, released in March, is a rumination upon lost love. Recorded in New Orleans, on Horses and High Heels local musicians and well-known friends – Lou Reed, Dr John and Wayne Kramer from MC5 – lend a hand. “Conventional happiness isn’t my way, you know,” says Faithfull. “But this is a very happy record. I’m not depressed any more. And I think it’s all been well worth it. I did have a bit of a bad time in the Seventies but I think things have been wonderful. So I suppose this album is a bit of a breakthrough.”

Listen to the first track of the album Horses and High Heels at mariannedownload

Tags: Horses and high heels, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger