User:John Blades/sandbox/Johnny Rocket - Jewellery Designer

Johnny Rocket- Jewellery Designer Johnny Rocket is an Australian born London based luxury jewellery designer. Specialising in unusual catwalk and music creations on a grand scale. He is the current creative director of Johnny Rocket Ltd.

Contents 1 History 2 Music career 3 Britain 4 Collaborations 5 Post-Lee Alexander McQueen through today 6 List of Alexander McQueen collections 7 References 8 External links History

Born as John Pearce in Mackay Australia to parents Philip Henry Pearce (coal miner) and Eleanor Theresa Blades (clothes designer) in 1961, he is the eldest of two sons. Younger brother Kenneth Wayne is a respected automotive engineer.

The family lived in Moura, Queensland, Australia, until father Philip died in an underground mining accident at the Thiess Peabody Mitsui mine in 1967. After the tragedy, the family relocated to Brisbane Australia. The children attended Upper Mt Gravatt State Primary School and subsequently Macgregor State High School. John completed his high school education and became apprenticed to Wallace Bishop Jewellers in Brisbane. He attended Queensland TAFE and graduated with honours. He specialised in Jewellery Mounting and Diamond Setting.

Music career[edit]

During his time at Macgregor State High,John came under the influence of a group of peers who were to become central to the seminal Brisbane Punk scene. Brothers Roderick, Gavin, and Clayton McLeod formed The Young Identities, Shane Cooke, Axel Conrad,and Mathew Lenore - The Vampire Lovers. John became The Vampire Lovers manager / promoter.

The Brisbane punk scene, during the later 1970s to the early 1980s, consisted of a broad array of punk bands. However, a lot of these bands were either formed or located in a cluster situated within the southern suburbs of Mount Gravatt and Macgregor, Queensland (The Survivors, Razar, Just Urbain, The Young Identities/Kicks, AlphabetChildren/Flying Squad, Vampire Lovers and Strange Glory). Some other south suburb punk bands came from the outer region near Beenleigh (The Hard-Ons, Sabotage/Mystery of Sixes, Die Tanzen).

Venues that hosted punk gigs, largely booked and promoted by 4ZZZ, during this second phase include The Exchange Hotel, The Queens Hotel, The Curry Shop, The Baroona Hall, The Ahepa Hall, The Silver Dollar Disco, The Brisbane Hotel, Colossus Hall, Cloudland, The Majestic Hotel, Sally's Coffee Lounge, Caxton St. Hall, Darra Hall, Pinnochios, The Cleveland Sands Hotel, The Seven Hills College of Art, Griffith and Queensland Universities and even Pips Nightclub. Other places worth a mention were Rotten Import Records, a shop dedicated to punk music in 1978 and The Elizabeth Street Bar (nicknamed White Chairs) which became an important hang out for those of a Punk/ New Wave/Alternative persuasion during the stretch of 1980 to 1987

John had arranged a distribution deal for The Vampire Lovers with Citadel Records an independent record label from Sydney, Australia. It was established in the early 1980s by John Needham. Bands released through Citadel include Died Pretty, Deniz Tek, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, The Trilobites, Johnny Thunders & Patti Palladin, Harem Scarem, New Christs, Louis Tillett, The Bamboos, Screaming Tribesmen, The Stems, The Bam Balams, Sacred Cowboys, Dubrovniks, Lime Spiders, The Someloves, Lipstick Killers, Hard-Ons, The Barbarellas, Leadfinger and Dom Mariani

John disagreed with the elitist attitude of some of the 4ZZZ hierarchy, after a major falling out over the banning of The Lime Spiders "Slave Girl" by the feminist faction at the station. Due to this event, John began promoting and touring bands independent of 4ZZZ, initially with the Citadel Records artists, and then with the majority of Australia's independent labels. His events were highly successful and supportive of local bands ensuring high profile support slots for local musicians.

Meanwhile, the Vampire Lovers were the type of group, according to the Bucket full of Brains magazine, to "embody an enjoyably snotty early eighties zombie-punk-schlock vibe."[20] The Vampire Lovers had a tumultuous kind of spirit that caused some notoriety but "they overcame" their adversities to "succeed in releasing two popular singles" in 1983 and 1984.[21] Buzzsaw Popstar, their first record, according to the Behind the Banana Curtain compilation CD, "became an Australian 'indie' chart success."[15] John had by this point become known for his uncompromising attitude to bands being professional and became known by the nickname Johnny Rocket "because if you messed up you'd get a rocket from Johnny"

Johnny hosted floating venues at Souths Rugby League Club, Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club, The Druids Hall, and Macs 409 club in Roma St. The first permanent venue Johnny opened became the legendary Love Inn.The venue hosted the best of Australia's independent acts alongside legendary international acts like The Flamin' Groovies, Henry Rollins,and laying the foundations for the future Fortitude Valley scene. Paul Curtis future manager of Regurgitator was the inhouse art director, and Graham Don the resident DJ. Don would go on to be a key figure in the Brisbane scene, running the city venue Funkyard and managing Screamfeeder.

Rocket opened several other venues before relocating to Sydney to promote bands at the Sydney Trade Union Club,tour manage Citadels stable of bands manage Brisbane's Stooges inspired Horny Toads (later Brother Brick) and to continue his career as a jeweller designer and diamond setter for respected independent jeweller Russell Mccollough.

His involvement with legendary Sub-Pop bands Mudhoney and Nirvana culminated in the legendary Phoenician Club show, and ended with Nirvana's appearance at The Big Day out in 1989. This also ended Johnny Rockets career in Australian music as this was the point he decided to pursue his jewellery career in Europe and departed for London in January 1991.

Collaborations[edit]

In 2005, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Puma to produce a line of men's and women's footwear launched in Spring 2006.[49] The Alexander McQueen PUMA line is founded on the union of tradition and technology, with juxtaposing influences.[50] In 2008, the line's Fall 2009 collection was fully expanded to include men's and women's clothing and accessories,[51] with a collaboration with film director Saam Farahmand to produce a 4-minute movie Ghost as an ad campaign for the collection.[52][53]