Alexa Chung: British TV host, Vogue contributing editor and former model
❚ MULBERRY AND VOGUE EDITOR ALEXANDRA SHULMANwill co-host London Fashion’s Night Out on September 6 with a joint private party. It is a grand curtain raiser for London Fashion Week when the British label is known for hosting starry soirées and past guests have included Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst and Alexa Chung.
Thursday’s Night Out, which Vogue calls “the sartorial equivalent of Christmas”, is a shopping extravaganza centred on Mayfair but embracing London’s other smart shopping areas. The biggest names throw street parties and promote great offers and exclusive merchandise for that night.
Celebrity Big Brother launch on Wednesday: Roman and Harleymoon Kemp applaud their father Martin as he enters the TV house. (Video grab from Channel 5)
❚ HITS ON SHAPERSOFTHE80s ROCKETED YESTERDAY, driven by web searches for the name of Roman Kemp, the 19-year-old musician and 6ft 1in fashion-model son of Martin Kemp, the TV soap star, film producer and bass player with Spandau Ballet. Evidently, sharp-eyed fans had been excited to catch three glimpses of both Roman and his sister Harleymoon Kemp, an upcoming celebrity photographer who turns 23 this weekend, cheering on their dad as he entered the Celebrity Big Brother house this week on the UK’s Channel 5. He was immediately tipped at 5/2 as bookies’ favourite to win the three-week competition.
In response to this surge of interest in the model showbiz family, Shapersofthe80s rounds up a few links to reports we have published in the past — not forgetting mother Shirlie Kemp who was herself a popstar in the 80s in a double act with Pepsi Demacque, as well as being one of the jive girls in Wham!, behind George Michael.
But Google search reveals Roman to be the star of the moment, just as his career switches into gear as a fashion model. Earlier this year the Models 1 agency introduced him as one of their hot new additions to its men’s division, saying: “His sharp features, sweep of hair and bright blue eyes are sure to land him a campaign or two.” Fans can feast their eyes on our slideshow of shots from his agency card. The associated publicity generates the obligatory celebrity questionnaire in which he reveals: Subtract’s album was the last he listened to on his iPod; his idea of fun is making films; his dislikes include Keanu Reeves; he wants to have dinner with Arsène Wenger; and he flies planes.
Shapersofthe80s also happens to know he’s a nifty bass guitarist in his father’s footsteps, and was on hand to give Martin some tips when dad had to relearn his bass parts for Spandau Ballet’s reunion tour of the world in 2009, having spent the previous two decades as one of British TV’s highest paid actors. Over the past year or so, we followed Roman’s band Paradise Point through a hectic schedule of dates, during which the teen wonder also shot and edited a stunning video of their own song Run In Circles which you can view below. Then suddenly last summer, with a Facebook apology but no explanation, PP stopped performing.
The hot news for Paradise Point fans is that the group is planning a relaunch pretty soon, with a twist. You read it here first.
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Read more about the Kemp family at Shapersofthe80s
Side-knotted scarf versus thin school tie: despite their differences in 1976, Jones and Webb became firm friends at St Martin’s
❚ AUGUST 10 AT 2.30pm: Milliner Stephen Jones announces that due to the very sad news about the death of Anna Piaggi, Stephen Jones In Conversation with fashion writer Iain R Webb at The Bowes Museum, Co Durham, has been postponed until Friday. For anybody within 500 miles, it will be a must event to catch two seminal Blitz Kids talking at 19 to the dozen. (With quite a nice museum and mechanical silver swan attached)…
“ The organisers at Royal Ascot (June 19–23) have created a chic video to advise racegoers on putting together an appropriate look. Those who go off-track with the new guidelines will not be allowed entry to the Royal Enclosure if their hems are more than one inch above the knee, so there’s a lot to consider when getting dressed for the event. ”
❏ The Royal Enclosure is the top of the range option, giving you access to all the best viewing areas and facilities on the course. Formal day wear is a requirement.
❏ The Grandstand Admission ticket at Royal Ascot provides similar access facilities to those offered throughout the year. Dress in a manner as befits a formal occasion.
❏ The Silver Ring at Royal Ascot is a separate admission area that does not provide access to the Parade Ring or the main Grandstand. Bare chests are not permitted at any time.
The way it still is… Royal Ascot is where to “enjoy all of the pageantry and history of a quintessentially British day out”. Click image to run video of the new Style Guide
➢ Choose “View full site” – then in the blue bar atop your mobile page, click the three horizontal lines linking to many blue themed pages with background article
MORE INTERESTING THAN MOST PEOPLE’S FANTASIES — THE SWINGING EIGHTIES 1978-1984
They didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did.
“I’d find people at the Blitz who were possible only in my imagination. But they were real” — Stephen Jones, hatmaker, 1983. (Illustration courtesy Iain R Webb, 1983)
“The truth about those Blitz club people was more interesting than most people’s fantasies” — Steve Dagger, pop group manager, 1983
PRAISE INDEED!
“See David Johnson’s fabulously detailed website Shapers of the 80s to which I am hugely indebted” – Political historian Dominic Sandbrook, in his book Who Dares Wins, 2019
“The (velvet) goldmine that is Shapers of the 80s” – Verdict of Chris O’Leary, respected author and blogger who analyses Bowie song by song at Pushing Ahead of the Dame
“The rather brilliant Shapers of the 80s website” – Dylan Jones in his Sweet Dreams paperback, 2021
A UNIQUE HISTORY
➢ WELCOME to the Swinging 80s ➢ THE BLOG POSTS on this front page report topical updates ➢ ROLL OVER THE MENU at page top to go deeper into the past ➢ FOR NEWS & MONTH BY MONTH SEARCH scroll down this sidebar
❏ Header artwork by Kat Starchild shows Blitz Kids Darla Jane Gilroy, Elise Brazier, Judi Frankland and Steve Strange, with David Bowie at centre in his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes
VINCENT ON AIR 2026
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch up on Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday 2020 session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”.
TOLD FOR THE FIRST TIME
◆ Who was who in Spandau’s break-out year of 1980? The Invisible Hand of Shapersofthe80s draws a selective timeline for The unprecedented rise and rise of Spandau Ballet –– Turn to our inside page
SEARCH our 925 posts or ZOOM DOWN TO THE ARCHIVE INDEX
UNTOLD BLITZ STORIES
✱ If you thought there was no more to know about the birth of Blitz culture in 1980 then get your hands on a sensational book by an obsessive music fan called David Barrat. It is gripping, original and epic – a spooky tale of coincidence and parallel lives as mind-tingling as a Sherlock Holmes yarn. Titled both New Romantics Who Never Were and The Untold Story of Spandau Ballet! Sample this initial taster here at Shapers of the 80s
CHEWING THE FAT
✱ Jawing at Soho Radio on the 80s clubland revolution (from 32 mins) and on art (@55 mins) is probably the most influential shaper of the 80s, former Wag-club director Chris Sullivan (pictured) with editor of this website David Johnson
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