Dec 5, 1979: Spandau Ballet’s debut at the Blitz. Pictured by Ted Polhemus
British youth culture at its finest [This website launched in 2009]
- Home
- WHAT THE ?!
- REVOLUTION
- CLUBBING
- 69 Dean Street and the making of UK club culture
- 1978, When French semioticians come stalking Le Palace, you know it’s serious
- 1981, Six golden rules for keeping Studio 54 ahead of the pack
- 1981: Quest for the most unbelievably unpalatable cocktail
- 1983, Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace
- 1983, Who’s who in the New London Weekend
- Ace faces, always there!
- 2016, Young guns remember George Michael
- Simper’s history of 80s clubland
- BLITZ KIDS
- Exclusive: Blitz Club pix in colour – 1
- Exclusive: Blitz Club pix in colour – 2
- 1980, Just don’t call us New Romantics
- 1980, Bowie recruits Blitz Kids for his Ashes video
- 1981, The Romantics – a mainstream deejay’s guide
- 1982, Who’s Who in the Pits
- 1982, Strange takes fashion to the French
- RIP, Steve Strange, King of the Posers
- Whey-aye man, it’s Geordie Judi!
- 2010, Blitz Kids review the play about Boy George
- Smith & Sullivan’s definitive clubland photo book
- 2018, More unseen Blitz pix offered for sale
- SOUND+VISION
- 200+ acts who set the style for the new music of the 1980s
- 1980 ➤ Starting gun for British clubland bands
- 1981, Birth of Duran’s Planet Earth
- 1981, Lift-off in Birmingham
- 1981, Blue Rondo create a new buzz with Latin sounds and an extreme suited dude look
- Origins on video ♫ ♫
- 1982, Sade’s first foray to New York City
- 2009, On tour with the reformed Spandau Ballet
- 2010, Spandau overseas: so British, so gracious
- 2010, Paradise Point: live leaders of a new Brit pop blitz
- 2011, Tony Hadley band wow US fans
- 2011, Duran Duran celebrated in video
- MODES
- N-S-N-S
- THE FACE & i-D
- 1980, ‘Your i-D counts more than fashion’
- 1982, Ten years of dance and stance led by the Gold Mine
- 1983, Hacienda navigates the coalition of all the cults
- 1983, The year of “Go For It”
- 1983, Deciphering the code of the Padded Cell
- 1983, Shock report on art-schools in crisis
- 1983, When Alternative wasn’t trendy and Trendy was naff
- 1983, Jay Strongman on the year of Go For It
- ORIGINS
- SEISMIC SHIFTS
- 1980, A new decade demands new comedy
- 1983, Hockney’s new vision of the world
- 1983: Showdown for Worlds End, Vivienne and Malcolm
- 1984, Shenanigans behind the Band Aid hit single
- McLaren’s ‘Requiem to Myself’
- 2010, A giant dies: Charlie Gillett
- 2011, Hilary Alexander throws in the trowel
- 2016, David Bowie is dead
- 2018, Cherry-picker Judy Blame
- THEY SAID IT
- INDEX
MAIL US ✉
Queries to Johnson [a t] shapersofthe80s.com
Publicity to media [a t] shapersofthe80s.com
Except where otherwise attributed, all text here is
© 1978–2025 Shapersofthe80s.com
If you wish to quote from any text here, please attribute it.
This is a not-for-profit website — any ads you see are placed by WordPress in return for almost free hosting, not by the author.
WE RESPECT COPYRIGHT
We respect copyright, and are happy to give credit to a photographer’s work and try to seek permission first. If you own images published here and wish them to be removed, simply ask.
Reblogging is theft, so whenever you recycle any picture for your own use, please credit the photographer or artist (living or dead), and seek permission to reproduce it. Their livelihoods (and those of their families) often depend on fair dealing
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 
