Category Archives: Swinging 80s

2022 ➤ Finally, a blue heritage plaque to honour the Rum Runner

Posted on 20 Dec 2022 | Leave a comment

heritage plaque, Richard Whittingham, DJDick, Birmingham, nightlife, Swinging 80s, Rum Runner,

At the unveiling: Richard Whittingham beside the new plaque. (Photo by Adam Regan)

❚ NOT ONLY WAS A PLAQUE unveiled this month before the Lord Mayor of Birmingham to underline the importance of its key nightclub during the Swinging 80s, namely the Rum Runner. . . But the star of the occasion was clearly its deejay, judging from the immediate stream of affection from fans and friends that is appearing online alongside his bearded photo at the event, now aged 62. They said he’d flown in from Lapland especially.

At the age of 19 Richard Whittingham – aka, DJDick – was one of Britain’s most savvy club deejays, reading the tastes of Britain’s second largest city and trying to broaden them to embrace the new dance music like Duran Duran’s which was rapidly filling the post-punk vacuum. For my Nightlife column in the magazine New Sounds New Styles, Dick told me back then: “I’ve been trying to break the funk here for ages but nobody’s into it. The customers aren’t into it and the owners aren’t into anyone taking over their own night. I’m just buying the funk for the day when I have more freedom.”

Click any pic to enlarge:

Richard Whittingham aka, DJDick: talking to the 2011 Rum Runner One Show (© BBC)

heritage plaque, Maureen Cornish, Paul Berrow, Birmingham, nightlife, Swinging 80s, Rum Runner,

At the unveiling: Maureen Cornish and (we assume) Paul Berrow with Rum Runner plaque. (Photo Neil Drakeford)

heritage plaque, Maureen Cornish, Birmingham, nightlife, Swinging 80s, Rum Runner,

At the Rum Runner plaque unveiling: Lord Mayor Maureen Cornish with guests. (Photo by Debra Warren)

He found all the glamorous dressing up led by Birmingham’s Kahn & Bell boutique crazily entertaining, but he admitted what so many clubbers in the Eighties also did about not feeling safe on the streets. When the BBC’s One Show asked in 2011 what he would have worn at the Rum Runner, he replied: “Zoot suits, the odd frilly shirt, winklepickers of course – I had to hide them, to take them out of the house in a bag, and then put them on, because my mother thought they were trouble shoes.” [See interview in video clip below.] Today Dick describes himself as a carpenter and joiner, though he still deejays for occasional events.

Also at the plaque’s preview for the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Maureen Cornish, and members of the sponsoring charity the Birmingham Civic Society, we see many local characters pictured at Facebook’s website The Rum Runner – Birmingham, which curiously fails to identify anybody by name! We’ve already guessed that the bearded one is DJDick. Another in the green coat caught wielding a mic and parting the curtains has to be Paul Berrow, one of the brothers who owned the Rum Runner, formerly of Wandering Star Pictures and Tritec Music in the Eighties.

The new plaque is attached to a modern building called Rum Runner Works, set back off Broad Street where the entrance once stood, today located between the Solomon Cutler pub and the Walkabout sports bar. In the Eighties the council planned to turn Birmingham into a major conference city with developments including the ICC and Symphony Hall. The Rum Runner was demolished in 1987 to make way for the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which opened in summer 1990.

Click any pic to enlarge:

heritage plaque, Birmingham, nightlife, Swinging 80s, Rum Runner,

Rum Runners: naughty party invitation from Glyn Rickards

Rum Running: today’s RR Works set back from Broad Street

Rum Runners: membership card from Paul Woodyatt

Rum Running: original entrance to Birmingham’s legendary nightspot

➢ Visit The Rum Runner – Birmingham website at Facebook

Photos displayed here were taken by Neil Drakeford, Debra Warren and Adam Regan who said: “Lovely to see this legendary Brummie club getting a much-deserved blue plaque. The club launched so many careers but none more relevant to me than this great man” [DJdick].

LISTEN TO DJDICK LIVE AT THE RUM RUNNER:

At Dick Whittingham’s website we can listen to two recordings of him deejaying at the Rum Runner in 1983. These were donated on his 40-something birthday by Mark “Mack” McDonald, an old friend from way back.

VIEW THE BBC ONE SHOW FROM 2011:

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
1981, Birth of Duran’s Planet Earth

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2022 ➤ Martin Kemp on a life full of love but lacking two vital apologies

Posted on 7 Nov 2022 | Leave a comment

Martin Kemp, Spandau Ballet, Los Angeles, pop music, live concerts,

Golden years: Martin Kemp escaping fans after Spandau Ballet played at The Palace, Los Angeles, in 1983

❚ MARTIN IS THE YOUNGER BROTHER of the two Kemps, the good-looking one with the easy charm that has opened doors into a television career that included EastEnders. Gary is the older one with such a strong sense of self that as recently as 2017 it wrecked the last of several reunions for Spandau Ballet, by shedding their talented and popular singer Tony Hadley who now thrives with his own band. In 1978 Gary had invited Martin to learn to play bass then join his former school band the Makers 18 months before it was renamed Spandau Ballet and went on to international success.

Today The Guardian interviews Martin Kemp aged 61 about his third book, Ticket to the World: My 80s Story (HarperCollins £11), which sounds more cosy than you might expect following Kemp’s distressing surgery to remove two brain tumours during the 1990s. He can’t stop telling us how much he loves everybody in his life, even after fist fights with Gary. What does he have to say about why Tony Hadley left the band in 2017, after several previous break-ups? ➢ The interviewer Paula Cocozza reports:

“ “It’s something that I’d never spoken to him about. But I do feel guilty when I look back.” In the book, Kemp stops short of an apology. “Oh, listen,” he says immediately. “I would apologise to Tony, absolutely, for the way that he was treated. I think it was really poor.”

Why doesn’t he pick up the phone and say all this to Hadley? He really sounds as if he wants to. But he says: “I haven’t spoken to Tony for ages. I reach out to him, but I rarely hear back. I send little messages” – he mimes texting – “if I get two words back, I’m happy.

“Tony is lovely,” he says. “He is a lovely man. I will always, always love him, in the same way I love all the rest of the band. But you drift apart, don’t you?” ”

Nowhere in the interview does the name of Ross William Wild get mentioned, the singer who succeeded Hadley during 2018 following Martin Kemp’s recommendation, and was silently dumped after a trial series of concerts and subsequently contemplated suicide. When might he, too, expect an apology from the band who blanked him?

Spandau Ballet, Ross William Wild, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, Steve Norman, pop music,

October 2018: What proved to be vocalist Ross William Wild’s last outing with Spandau Ballet at the Hammersmith Apollo

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2022 ➤ After the op, Judi Frankland gets her boxing gloves on

Posted on 3 Nov 2022 | 1 comment

Judith Frankland, New Romantics, Blitz Kids, fashion, cancer,

Judi Frankland at home again in Whitley Bay: at rear, the staircase in her bungalow. . . to the fore, Judi in black-and-lime kaftan (“a snip at £10.99 from E-bay”), plus some lippy at last! © Shapersofthe80s

❚ DROPPED IN FOR AFTERNOON TEA THIS WEEK with the lovely Judi Frankland, after a rattlingly fast ride to Newcastle on one of LNER’s new Azuma trains, seemingly built without any detectable suspension. You may recall Judi recently left hospital after a major cancer operation which proved very successful and had her walking 1km a day straight afterwards! She told me: “What an amazing team at the RVI hospital. I cannot thank them enough. They were a proud team and I had plenty of time to watch how brilliant they were with everyone. It makes me emotional to think about them.

“I’ve been told the road to recovery will not be short but with their continued support I will stay positive and, as you can see, I have finally put some lippy on! The question is, Who left the fabulous flowers on the doorstep? I love them and thank you.” Her neighbours in the seaside resort of Whitley Bay lavish attendance and affection on the eccentric woman with vibrant red hair who they know appeared in that David Bowie video for Ashes to Ashes. The rest of us remember her from the Blitz Club’s heyday and her all-black degree-show collection from 1980, the wedding dress from which was worn by clubland leader Steve Strange in that video.

By now I’m sitting on Judi’s sofa where she has thoughtfully supplied a bottle of Merlot to help down my cheese and biscuits, while she slurps some taramasalata aided by two smooth crackers. “You would think I’d eaten a three-course meal quickly, grrr!” No solids is the current rule while she adapts to life without much of a stomach. Ironically, her stomach remains “the size of a football” so, having been forewarned, I’d brought with me supplies of houmous and baba ganoush and tzatziki.

Judi is living now in her late mother’s home which is jam-packed with her own artsy objects and pictures occupying every inch of space, not to mention mum’s Welsh terrier Betty who has quite an appetite for attention and is today a rare breed possibly for that reason. (Runs in the family?) Ironically for a bungalow, a staircase leads to a loft. “That is the stairway to my heaven, my sewing area. When mum was doing her fairs selling antiques she wanted a place to keep her stock so she did a no-frills loft conversion which is now my sewing room, though I’ll not be going up there for a while sadly.”

Judi Frankland 1981: queuing to check her coat behind Nick Trulocke before Spandau Ballet’s Sundown concert. © Shapersofthe80s

Earlier this day a nurse had already visited to whip out a stitch. Judi said: “The nurse is taking the dressing off tomorrow, yikes, but don’t worry I won’t be showing anyone my scar – oh the thought! I can’t go far but I did go to Tesco earlier in my kaftan and compression stockings, very slowly. Hospital just rang to check on me and told me to take it one day at a time. “Dumplings? I pleaded. No not yet she said, ha!” We’re still awaiting results for my lymph nodes. They said it’s going to be a long recovery and as you can imagine I am antsy but doing as I’m told. I’ve been told to get my boxing gloves on and fight so I will do just that. Meanwhile. I’ve spoken with Macmillan, they are wonderful and are in the process of getting me a Macmillan buddy.

“I do believe I’m adopting a different attitude to life that’s more positive and healthy and I intend to make it a very creative one. Can’t wait to be well enough to start sewing.”

Before she went into hospital Judi put out a request for anyone to mix her a CD with their choice of music – “as long as it’s not jazz or Gary Barlow, I’m up for owt!” Lots of nice friends have responded so this week, she says: “I’ve been playing old punk music – that’s my mood right now and thinking of a new punk look for me when I’m finally unleashed on the world again.” Shake Some Action, Judi!

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: 2021, So what’s the Bowie premium as Judi’s Ashes hat goes for sale?

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Posted in Blitz Kids, Fashion, Swinging 80s, Youth culture

Tagged Ashes to Ashes, cancer, Judith Frankland, RVI Newcastle, Steve Strange, Whitley Bay

2022 ➤ Steve Norman relives Spandau’s Glory days

Posted on 4 Jul 2022 | Leave a comment

Steve Norman, Spandau Ballet, Journeys To Glory Tour, TheSleevz, Pop music, live concerts,

TheSleevz live onstage at Pizza Express Holborn, Steve Norman in banter mode

❚ FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS of last month’s buzzy comeback gigs at the Pizza Express Holborn, sax-player Steve Norman announces dates for his Journeys To Glory Tour with his own band The Sleevz. They will celebrate Spandau Ballet’s debut album from 1981 whose tracks include the band’s first hit single, To Cut A Long Story Short, plus Musclebound, Reformation, The Freeze, Mandolin, Age of Blows, Confused and Toys. At that time Steve was displaying his skills as a guitar-player.

This week Steve declared: “I’ve been reminiscing about last weekend’s Holborn shows. They were two of the most joyful, exciting and yet relaxed gigs that myself and The Sleevz have performed in the past six years that we’ve been together.
I adore this venue as it’s only a stone’s throw from where I lived and grew up. And more and more, the love and participation from the fans, family and friends ensures that the basement remains our spiritual home.”

Not only did he demonstrate his supreme talents on saxophone and percussion, but his performance as lead singer has gained in strength and impact, backed by his very tight band featuring his wife Sabrina on vocals and son Jaco on bass. His medley of pop covers and a second half of Spandau classics all enjoyed fresh energy while, as ever, he shared banter a-plenty with his audience, many of whom he knows by name.

➢ The Journeys To Glory Tour by TheSleevz offers 14 UK dates between Wokingham 30 Sept and Lancaster on 31 October

And after a superb gig at Pizza Express: Yours Truly set upon by an over-enthusiastic Steve Norman

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: 2021, Steve Norman returns with TheSleevz and a surprise royal send-off!

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2022 ➤ Spandau seek your help to create a major new showcase

Posted on 10 Jun 2022 | 1 comment

Spandau, New Romantics, pop music, New York City, 1981

Spandau in New York City 1981: were you there and do you have any memorabilia?

■ THE FIRST NEW BAND out of Eighties clubland to score a chart hit are planning a celebration of those early formative years when the world called them the leaders of the New Romantics.

Today Spandau Ballet – all now in their sixties – announced “a major career-defining project” and appealed to fans for help. The band invites everyone who attended any of their performances between 1979 and 1981 to send in memorabilia such as flyers, posters, tickets, video or film footage of Spandau Ballet, onstage and off. For example, these would include their appearances at London’s Blitz Club, Mayhem Studios, Scala Cinema, HMS Belfast, their first Top of the Pops, Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens, Tiger Bay Cardiff, Heaven and the Sundown in London, Exeter Bowl Bournemouth, Le Palace in Paris, the Underground Club in New York, the Ku Club in Ibiza or the Much More in Rome.

Likewise, send them your memories of the pace-setting dance-led clubs during those years, such as Billy’s, the Blitz, Rum Runner, Le Beat Route, Le Kilt, Club for Heroes, Danceteria, the Voodoo Club, or from 1982 the Camden Palace and the Wag club. Again, memorabilia that captures the fashions and the atmosphere is welcomed.

➢ Click to visit Spandau’s special website for
submissions and more information
➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s:
1980, Steve Strange’s call to join the party

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Posted in Clubbing, Concert, dance music, Fashion, London, New Romantics, North America, photography, Pop music, Swinging 80s, Tipping points, Youth culture