An entertaining and atmospheric account of May 68 from street level, alongside amusing correspondence betweed Fred and the libcom group.
The text is an excerpt from 'Fashion and Perversity - A Life of Vivienne Westwood And the Sixties Laid Bare', Bloomsbury, 1996.
It's the best part of Vermorel's book - which is otherwise composed of portrayals of himself as always the coolest, smartest character around, name dropping, generally worthless theoretical musings and descriptions of the budding 'hip capitalism' of punk entrepreneurs Vermorel, Malcolm McClaren and Vivienne Westwood.
The text is available at:
http://arkansas.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20287/index.php
We did host the text on libcom.org, until we received an email from Fred's agents, followed by one from the man himself.
Dear [libcom person],I am responding to your email to my agent (below) concerning your unauthorised publication of a 5000 word extract from my book Fashion and Perversity, 1996.
Firstly, I note that libcom.org is registered to Albert Meltzer, a dead buffoon. That no doubt accounts for its funny smell.
Secondly, I have always considered anarchists to be the nitwits of the left and do not wish my work to be associated with your "movement" or to subsidise or lend any credibility to it.
Thirdly, while declaring poverty, you are running several undeclared nice little earners from your prime real estate in E1.
In short, you must immediately remove my material from your site and apologise in writing with a promise not to repeat the offence.
If this has not been done in two weeks I will be obliged to pop down to Whitechapel and remove property from your premises with a resale value of £3000, being the sum I would charge for the reproduction of that text.
Yours,
Fred Vermorel
Needless to say, libcom is a website and has no property, let alone any "real estate," "prime" or otherwise. We don't earn any money, other than regular contributions from the site administrators and some donations from users. The site administrators own no collective property, and in fact none of us own our own property, as we are all renters.
