Blitz Kids as stars of David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes video in 1980: from the left, Steve Strange, Darla Jane Gilroy, Elise and Judi Frankland. When they got back to London after filming, they all went clubbing. Video © 1983 Jones Music / EMI Records Ltd
◼ SHAPERS OF THE 80S TELLS THE DEFINITIVE STORY of a subcultural revolution in British music and style 30 years ago. Its detonator was a youthful blast of impossible trendiness and its stars didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did. This site gathers together the eye-witness journalism and photography of one observer who knew a good time when he saw one and was published in the coolest titles of the day.
Now in its fifth year, this site has attracted a total of 722,500 views since its launch, according to year-ending WordPress stats. The figures also identify the 20 most widely read items out of more than 600 posted here. Most of these pieces were first published back in the day, but seven of the Top 20 items reflect the continuing interest expressed through the recent 80s revival. In many ways, London is again displaying all the symptoms of being the world’s most swinging city, as it was in the 60s and the 80s, when there were a galaxy of reasons to hit the town every single night of the week.
THE 20 MOST VIEWED POSTS AT SHAPERS OF THE 80S
1 ➢ The Blitz Kids — 50 crucial nightclubbers who
set the style for a decade
2 ➢ The key men in Boy George’s life, but why has TV changed some of the names? (2010)
3 ➢ Golden rules for keeping Studio 54
ahead of the pack (1981)
4 ➢ 69 Dean Street and the making of UK club culture – birth of the once-weekly party night (1983)
The difference seven months made: In May 1980 The Face launched with Jerry Dammers of the Specials on its cover. By November the new direction was Bowie plus a feature on The Cult With No Name, as the New Romantics were first known
5 ➢ The Face and other power brokers of the fourth estate — a new media language for a new decade (1980)
6 ➢ First Blitz invasion of the US — Spandau Ballet and the Axiom fashion collective take Manhattan by storm (1981)
Left, real Blitz Kids – right, the TV version… George’s boyfriend Wilf and fashion student Stephen Linard in 1979 (picture, Andy Rosen)… Daniel Wallace as a Linard lookalike and Douglas Booth as Boy George in Worried About the Boy, 2010 (BBC)
7 ➢ How real did 1980 feel? Ex-Blitz Kids give verdicts on the 2010 TV drama about Boy George’s teen years, Worried About the Boy
8 ➢ Hockney’s new vision of the world — Britain’s favourite artist reveals his insights into cubism (1983)
9 ➢ Paradise Point: live leaders of a new Brit pop blitz (2010)
Seminal spread in i-D issue one: the straight-up style of photography is established with, at left, one then unknown New Romantic and, right, one punkette. Photographed on the King’s Road by Steve Johnston
10 ➢ ‘i-D counts more than fashion’ — launch of the
street-style bible in 1980
11 ➢ 19 gay kisses in pop videos that made it past the censor
12 ➢ Who’s who in the New London Weekend — key clubs that set the capital swinging (1983)
13 ➢ Aside from the freaks, George, who else came to your 50th birthday party? (2011)
Londres est arrivée au Palace, 1982: classic set, nouveaux styles. Pictures © by Shapersofthe80s
14 ➢ Steve Strange takes fashion to the French — six British designers rock Le Palace in Paris (1982)
15 ➢ Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace — power play among the new non-working class (1983)
16 ➢ Who are the New Romantics? — A mainstream deejay’s guide published by Disco International (1981)
Houseband of the Blitz club: at the London megaclub Heaven Spandau Ballet play their tenth live date on 29 Dec 1980. From left, Steve Norman, Tony Hadley, Martin Kemp, Gary Kemp, plus John Keeble on drums. © Shapersofthe80s
17 ➢ They said it — landmark quotes about the decade of change by the people who made it happen
18 ➢ Rich List puts George Michael top of the popstars from the un-lucrative 80s (2010)
19 ➢ Comeback Shard comfy as ‘Auntie Sade’ — an enduring star who made 2010 her own
20 ➢ Robbie Vincent: 35 years as master of hot cuts and getting our “rhythm buds” going (2011)
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➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 