Acme Attractions was a London clothing store on

Kings Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents) is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

, that in the early 1970s provided a place for many punk and reggae musicians and scenesters to hang out. Shop assistant and manager

Don Letts Donovan Letts (born 10 January 1956) is a British film director, disc jockey (DJ) and musician. Letts first came to prominence as the videographer for the Clash, directing several of their music videos. In 1984, Letts co-founded the band Big Au ...

described Acme Attraction as a place "where the interaction between the different factions became more important than selling merchandise, even though at that age it was a deadly combination."

History

Acme Attractions was inspired by

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and ...

and

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, ''Sky Arts'' ranked her the ...

's Fifties-inspired boutique Let it Rock (revamped in 1972 and renamed Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die). In spring 1974, a radical change saw their shop become

Sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

, selling fetish wear and Westwood's innovative designs. Acme's owner, John Krivine, decided to venture into clothing with Steph Raynor. In 1974, Acme Attractions initially opened as a stall in the antiques market Antiquarius on the King's Road, Chelsea. While it was owned by Krivine and Raynor its public face was Don Letts who says that Acme was selling "electric-blue zoot suits and jukeboxes, and pumping dub reggae all day long". Acme actually had to move to the basement after complaints about Don Letts's pounding dub reggae. Within two weeks of opening there were queues to get in. Steph Raynor remembers: By the mid 70s, Acme had quite a scene attracting the likes of

The Clash The Clash were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements ...

, the

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

Chrissie Hynde Christine Ellen Hynde (born September 7, 1951) is an American-British musician. She is a founding member of the rock band the Pretenders and is the band's lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter; she and drummer Martin Chambers are the ...

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

Deborah Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble, July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in M ...

and

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska and rocksteady and was renowned for his distinctive voca ...

. Letts remembers that "Marley ... come by because he knew he could get a good draw from the thriving black-market action that also went on in Acme." The scene created by the shop also led to the formation of

Generation X Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...

, which launched the pop music career of

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

Andrew Czezowski

The Acme accountant, Andrew Czezowski, seeing the potential in the crowd the store attracted, started up The Roxy, the first punk-rock venue in London, so that people could go from the store and have some place to party. Letts was the first house DJ. Czezowski attended the ''100 Club'' Punk Special in September 1976. He managed

and The Damned and later founded The Fridge nightclub at 390 Brixton Rd in 1981.

Chelsea

Chelsea, a band, formed in August 1976 and were originally managed by John Krivine and Steph Raynor, and was in direct competition with Malcolm McLaren's

and

Boy London

Seeing the success of punk and how a new market was created for punk related clothing and merchandise, Stephane Raynor and Israel-based businessman John Krivine closed Acme Attractions to create Boy London, at 153 King's Road, in 1976. John Krivine hired

Genesis P-Orridge Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmi ...

and

Peter Christopherson Peter Martin Christopherson (also known as Sleazy; 27 February 1955 – 25 November 2010) was an English musician, video director, commercial artist, designer and photographer, who was at one time a member of design agency Hipgnosis. He also ...

for branding of Boy. Vivienne Westwood licensed designs to Boy, who issued them, some with alterations, over the next eight years. Krivine sold the company in 1984. While Don Letts opened the new store, he soon quit, "It was the bastard child of Acme, created to capitalize on the "tabloid punk" and although I opened and ran the joint it just weren't my speed. I quit to manage the

Slits The Slits were a punk/post-punk band based in London, formed there in 1976 by members of the groups the Flowers of Romance and the Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma Rome ...

and headed off on the White Riot tour with

References

Sources

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External links

More pictures from the store
2009-10-24) {{Coord, 51, 29, 16.63, N, 0, 10, 1.95, W, scale:3125_region:GB, display=title Retail companies established in 1974 1974 establishments in England Shops in London Retail buildings in London King's Road, Chelsea, London