| abstract
| - Stifled and exasperated by the confines of Stowe School in the 1950’s, Falcon’s creative energies were initially fired by the American rock and roll 45s and London jazz clubs which formed the soundtrack of his teenage years, the advance guard of the youth culture which would transform British society. This transformation was reflected in Falcon’s own first career which began with Society photographer Tom Hustler, but rapidly saw him gaining his own Pimlico studio and developing a signature style of powerfully composed, dramatically lit images. Featured in Vogue (magazine), Harpers Bazaar and the national press and exhibited at the Hampstead and Kingsway Galleries, they also led to a bone-shattering but exhilarating tour round the Mediterranean – on largely unmade roads - in a customised Mini with a tent on the roof to photograph BP’s oil installations. As the Sixties began to swing in earnest, Falcon’s restless energies and need for the new saw him additionally opening The Bistrotheque with partners in Victoria Street[1] in 1965. The all white Jumpahead boutique followed in 1967, its blanked in windows with a seven inch viewing slit affording dramatic glimpses of printed jersey and paper clothes by young and new designers in a radical, entirely mobile spot-lit interior. Wanting to progress beyond the frozen moments of photography to a more complex form of story-telling, Falcon enrolled at the London Film School in 1969 while presiding over an experimental commune in his Fulham house. After graduating in 1971, he became an underground film-maker, working with Nic Rogue on a Glastonbury shoot, directing amongst others films on Peter Blake (actor) and Robert Altman, a segment of the Dutch film Dreams of Thirteen, and finally Penetration, a humorous documentary exploring the vicissitudes of the European hardcore scene of the early 70’s. Shown at Cannes in 1974 – the first film of its genre to gain this distinction – it was retitled French Blue for the American market, where it unexpectedly reached no. 18 in the Variety Top 50, grossing $15,000,000, regrettably after being sold outright. Experience as a lyricist and producer of film soundtracks then positioned Falcon to become a key creative force in the New Wave explosion of the mid 70’s, whose diverse protagonists were “united by their need to destroy the old and create the new”, as Falcon recollected. Having originally produced Silly Billy, a feminist reggae track for Marie Elliot – afterwards Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex – the pair re-routed musically following a seismic encounter with the Sex Pistols, as Falcon remembered: It was the summer of 76 at the end of Brighton Pier. The senior citizens were ballroom surfing in the tearooms on the first floor, but something strange was happening downstairs in the disco space. The Sex Pistols had landed. They were pounding through their set in front of a small exclusive London audience on an awayaday excursion to the seaside. After three minutes you knew they were going to make it: the new order was on its way. Energised by the Sex Pistols, Poly evolved the radical and haunting sax-backed appraisal of the delights and dangers of consumerism and the techno-synthetic universe which would become the Germfree Adolescents album. As X-Ray Spex’s producer, manager, and photographer, Falcon played a key role in creating the band, while also promoting a twice weekly gig at the Man in the Moon following the demise of The Roxy, where the Spex played, and Kevin Rolland and Adam Ant amongst others would launch their careers. Following X-Ray Spex’s spontaneous combustion after their highly successful first album, Falcon effected the transformation of former punk Adam Ant. He mortgaged his house to resuscitate Adam’s career with a sell-out tour which led to his being signed by CBS for the No. 1 album Kings of the Wild Frontier, of which Falcon simultaneously oversaw the production. During the 80’s Falcon remained active in the music business, managing and touring globally with New Romantics Classix Nouveaux, pop act Amazulu, and Swedish rock pop band Trance Dance. Irresistibly drawn to the DIY vibrancy of the Indie (music) scene of the mid 80’s, Falcon also set up Awesome Records, distributed by Rough Trade Records, and Phantom Publishing. These featured more experimental and radical tracks, most notably by Poly Styrene and Danielle Dax, who released the acclaimed albums Jesus Egg That Wept, Inky Bloaters and Cathouse on Awesome before signing to Sire Records. Falcon remained strongly connected to British music in the 90’s and into the new millennium. He was involved in the IMF and the In the City forum, managed and produced further artists, and working closely with the punk rock revival of 97, specifically with the Pin-Ups and the Period Pains, and briefly pioneered a showcase for new acts at the Millennium Dome while also focusing on cross media ways to turn out the youth vote. But the decade also saw the focus of Falcon’s creative energies shifting eastwards. Classix Nouveaux had been first band to play in Poland in 1982 after the Solidarity uprising as part of the then government’s ‘bread and circus’ policy. Finding soldiers in the audience playing their machine guns like air guitars connected Falcon to the energy and dynamism waiting to be released in Eastern Europe. As the climate became more open with the fall of the Berlin Wall – at which Falcon was coincidentally present on the East German side – and the advent of Glasnost, Falcon was among the first to see both the creative and commercial potential of these new markets. Working in Bulgaria and Russia, the primary focus of his attention was Ukraine, where he first took Crunch to play in January 92 at the Ms. Rock Europe festival at the Palace Ukraine in Kiev, and in Kharkov Prison, at a time of freezing cold and social unrest. Further bands followed – most notably LaToyah Jackson, who played in Chernobyl itself for the ninth anniversary concert to commemorate the disaster. But this live interface was only one part of the cultural exchange which Falcon fostered, which would be chronicled in occasional letters on Ukraine’s wild lands printed in Melody Maker. Keen to help develop Ukraine’s pop music industry, and to promote British talent in the process, Falcon helped format and provide material for the post-communist post-modern cult tv show Post, which was shown twice weekly to 5 million viewers between 1993-98. This activity led to a grant from the Know How Fund – the first instance of subsidy for a cultural project – funding a weekly Best British Video half hour on the Noviy Canal, which ran for two years. Son of the sculptor Oscar Nemon, who had been born in Osijek, now in Croatia, Falcon also valued Eastern Europe for the warmth and fluidity of its culture, as well as the potential which it offered for experimentation and innovation. These qualities were reflected in the entries for Ukraine’s fast/fest student film festival, for which he headed a jury panel, and which he was negotiating for the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London to showcase the winning entries. Valuing popular culture – whether music, fashion or film – for its ability to allow individuals both to experience themselves at a powerful and personal level, and also to connect with others, Falcon pursued acts of artistic communion and participation in the photographs he took and the films he made, the lyrics and scripts he wrote, and of course through music itself. Reaching out to his fellow beings, Falcon sought both to understand and explain himself. The process enabled him also to be acutely perceptive of and generous towards the talents and strengths of others whom he helped and worked with over the years. For Falcon, who once had a leather jacket made for himself with the phrase Cosmic Questor emblazoned on it, creativity in all its forms was part of his own search for meaning and spirituality and a wider sense of connection with the universe. Falcon Nemon Stuart, born Oxford 27 March 1941, married Alice 1982, two sons Ze 1982 and Pendragon, 1988, died London 27 February 2002.
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