Photo by Kate Garner
❚ A LAVISHLY DESIGNED OBITUARY of Stephen Linard written by me appears in today’s Evening Standard online and stands as a well-deserved memoir for one of my best friends…
➢ The life of Stephen Linard – A flamboyant Canvey Island boy who went on to shape the Blitz Kids silhouette in the 1980s
Posted in biography, death, fashion illustrations, journalism, London, New Romantics, Swinging 80s, Youth culture, zeitgeist
Tagged Blitz Kids, fashion, Stephen Linard
Stephen Linard in 2018: A last pint at his local pub before moving away from Canvey Island. (Photo @ Shapersofthe80s)
INCREDIBLE!!!! Update – Shapersofthe80s has received 8,100 hits during the three days since Stephen’s death. Thank you to his fans
❚ HARD TO ACCEPT THAT STEPHEN LINARD has now died from the extensive throat cancer that had caused him so much pain recently. He was one of the craziest of eccentrics who frequently made me laugh out loud. We met at a party at Steve Strange’s flat in 1980 when he was among the sharpest half-dozen Blitz Kids who changed their looks daily and put the Blitz Club on the map. We hit it off immediately and I soon latched onto the star trio of Stephen, Kim Bowen and Lee Sheldrick who went everywhere together.
I photographed his degree show and over the years helped him through various projects in that era when St Martin’s School of Art failed to equip its graduates with any guidance for running their own businesses. Luckily, pop stars from Pet Shop Boys to U2 and even Bowie readily adopted his strong styles and in 1983 the American fashion press included him among the eight most influential London designers [see link below], noted for his strong eye for colour.
From 1983 to ’86 Stephen lived in Tokyo designing for Jun Co, the fashion giant, on a salary which, he liked to boast, exceeded the prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s. From 1989 until recently Stephen was a key player on the design team at Drake’s, the respected men’s haberdasher off Savile Row (pictured below). The main photo (above) marked a last pint at his local pub on Canvey Island where he lived in his late mother’s house until 2020 before joining the Old Romantic Folks who go on retiring to St Leonard’s-on-Sea.
Only six months ago, as if in anticipation of the worst, Stephen staged a striking exhibition of his early illustrations, titled Total Fashion Victim after the club-night he had hosted at Soho’s coolest hang-out, the Wag. I was lucky enough to write the outline catalogue with him.
Former Blitz Kid and St Martin’s fashion graduate Stephen Linard in 2011: a designer with Drake’s, the gentlemen’s haberdasher, seen here at a staff preview for the opening of its first shop just off Savile Row. (Photograph © Shapersofthe80s)
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: 2023, Total Fashion Victim – Linard’s exhibition of his early work
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
The Blitz Kids WATN? No 28, Stephen Linard
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
1982, Six British designers take London fashion
to the French
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: Overseas influencers
declare eight hot fashion Brits for 1984
➢ Goodbye, Stephen Linard: It was a privilege to know you – by novelist Maggie Alderson
➢ Linard’s entry at the Encyclopedia of Fashion – by Alan
J. Flux; updated by Daryl F. Mallett
Posted in biography, death, London, New Romantics, Swinging 80s, Tributes
Tagged Alan Flux, Blitz Kids, Drake’s, fashion, Maggie Alderson, Stephen Linard, Total Fashion Victim, Vogue, WWD
Backstage after the London show: Animal Nightlife’s singer Andy Polaris meets August Darnell to thank him for a lifetime of inspiration
Not only a handshake and a hug for Andy Polaris from the showman that is August Darnell, but now a taster from his review of the evening in Canary Wharf…
“ August Darnell is the real deal and the soul survivor of the band Kid Creole and the Coconuts that has evolved over the years from its original cast in the early 80s but wisely maintained its winning formula… At a club night in London’s Canary Wharf his talented musicians provided the muscular sound, the perfect funky backbone which was always a key element of their success. Straight out the gate the Coconuts came to slay with well executed dance moves, while a physical aerobic workout combined with vocal prowess to result in a remarkable feat. I can only think of the Ikettes with Tina Turner who shared these onstage dynamics. My enthusiasm for this dazzling choreography – created by founder member Adriana Kaegi – is fired by the sheer inventiveness at the beating heart of the band… On stage tonight we heard Broadway Rhythm, Animal Crackers and Flip Flop and Fly but of course the loudest cheers were for the hits Stool Pigeon and Annie I’m Not Your Daddy. Both are mini musical masterpieces that buoyed up the audience with more snazzy footwork and infectious brass…”
❚ ONE OF THE GOD-LIKE SHAPERS of the new music of the Eighties was playing live in London this week and afterwards we met again for the first time since 1981. He is August Darnell, aka Kid Creole frontman of the Coconuts, and when I remarked on what a vital conduit he had provided between New York, London and Paris assisting the exchange of new indie bands, no-wave dance music and other strange flavours on Michael Zilkha’s ZE Records label, he was flattered to be remembered that way. Yes they were fertile times, he agreed, as post-punk pop, disco, funk, dub and Latin all collided with artsy pretension spiced with irony. He loved that rules were being broken.
In 1980 Darnell became a producer at ZE and his collaborations boosted the careers of James Chance, Cristina, Was (Not Was), Don Armando’s Second Avenue Rhumba Band and Material, while introducing the category of “Mutant Disco”. The edgy compilation album bearing that name distinctly helped to make ZE “the most fashionable label in the world” in the opinion of The Face magazine by 1982. Woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks!, according to Was (Not Was).
Click any pic to enlarge in slideshow:
Darnell had set out in 1974 writing lyrics with the funky Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band in which vibraphone player Andy Hernandez was known as his “trusty sidekick” Coati Mundi. Hernandez served as Darnell’s on-stage comic foil, as well as his musical director and arranger. Their first hit single on RCA was Cherchez La Femme with Cory Daye the lead vocalist. The album went gold and the band was nominated for Best New Artist in the Grammy awards.
In 1980 he formed his own band as Kid Creole and the Coconuts, his style as lounge-lizard vocalist being defined by a Latinised Cab Calloway type in a zoot suit and broad-brimmed hat, alongside “Sugar-Coated” Coati Mundi in a line-up of instrumentalists and singing dancers. Sire released the Coconuts album, Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, in June 1981, while the next album in May 1982 was boosted by its instant appeal in the UK under the title Tropical Gangsters. The LP hit number three, and three singles – I’m a Wonderful Thing Baby, Stool Pigeon and Annie I’m Not Your Daddy – made the Top Ten.
As a dynamic live act with unique visual appeal, the Coconuts toured the world, confirming Darnell as a respected composer, arranger and producer. They recorded 11 albums and scored more hit singles including Dear Addy, Endicott, The Sex of It, and My Male Curiosity.
And now here were many of those familiar strains being given brilliant new life on-stage at the Boisdale restaurant in Canary Wharf this week, thanks to a powerful seven-piece band and three slinky dancers. Of course August Darnell was showing his age – heavens, aren’t we all these days? Despite which, his generous set was driven by his own rich voice and every ounce of sheer bazzazz. There was no beating Don’t Take My Coconuts!
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: 2012, Mutant Disco update
New York, May 1981: When I first met August Darnell, here with Jim Fouratt, promoter of the Spandau Ballet/Axiom gig and fashion show at the Underground club. (Photo © Shapersofthe80s)
Michael Zilkha and Michel Esteban: in 1978 founders of the record label combined their initials to make ZE and based themselves in both New York and Paris
Posted in 1970s, albums, dance music, live music, London, New York, Paris, Reviews, Swinging 80s, zeitgeist
Tagged Andy Polaris, August Darnell, Boisdale restaurant, Jim Fouratt, Kid Creole, Michael Zilkha, The Coconuts, ZE Records
At his TFV PV: a colourful Linard with some of his early illustrations inspired by Tom of Finland. (Photo © Shapersofthe80s)
❚ NORMAN ROAD in St Leonard’s on Sea hosted more than its usual share of Eighties art fans this weekend. At Lucy Bell’s a book signing by Bowie’s travelling companion and photographer Geoff MacCormack drew fans seeking a signature on his latest title. Only yards away the newish Rogue Gallery was hosting Total Fashion Victim, an archive exhibition of one-time Blitz Kid Stephen Linard’s earliest fashion illustrations while a student from 1978 onward. As his tutor at St Martin’s Rosetta Brooks declared, he was a leader among the small pack of London fashionistas noted for their poser talents. “Each poser,” she believed, “is a ready-made,” exactly as defined by Marcel Duchamp in New York around 1914 when modernism was being born. (His own most famous ready-mades included Bicycle Wheel, Bottle Rack and the urinal titled Fountain.)
Partying with Linard – Click any pic to launch slideshow:
Here we can judge for ourselves from more than 40 pieces of artwork on sale for the next month, and enjoyed by a considerable crowd at the private view. Among them one of Linard’s designer contemporaries at St Martin’s School of Art was Corinne Drewery, later to become a pop singer with Swing Out Sister, here eye-catching in one of his flapper dresses in ikat with faded rose print which she used to wear circa 1983, “and it still fits”!!!
Linard’s previously unseen work – Click any pic to launch slideshow:
Posted in 20th century, art for sale, Blitz Kids, degree shows, exhibitions, fashion illustrations, New Romantics, stage costumes, Swinging 80s, Youth culture
Tagged Corinne Drewery, Eve Ferret, Helen Robinson, Lucy Bell, Michele Clapton, Princess Julia, Ray Gange, Rogue Gallery, Rose Hibbert, St Leonards on Sea, Stephen Linard, Total Fashion Victim, Val Byers
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday 2020 session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”.
◆ 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
✱ 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
✱ 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
➢ Search for all on Bowie here
at Shapers of the 80s
✱ “I’m not a rock star” Bowie often said – No, David, you were a messiah – Obituaries and key videos on the godlike one
✱ Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 