➤ Selected highlights from across
the whole of Shapers of the 80s
INDEX OF ALL 800+ POSTS:
➢ 2009 till now : Click for everything at Shapers of the 80s, listed in a new window
All Bowie in one click:
➢ All-Bowie search here at Shapers of the 80s
ON MOBILES:
In the blue bar atop your mobile page, click the three horizontal lines linking to blue themed background pages
THE POINT OF IT ALL:
Three who made a difference to the 80s: Dagger, Egan and Sullivan
➢ How three wizards met at the same crossroad in time
and shaped the new decade . . . “What’s spooky is that these three wizards — Steve Dagger, Rusty Egan and Chris Sullivan — met at the same crossroad in time. What’s important to stress is that they did not act alone. Some people may feel it unfair to name them as leaders of the movement, though I have no hesitation doing so. . .”
➢ Spandau Ballet, the Blitz Kids and the birth of the New Romantics — a brisk history by yours truly of who did what to make stars out of a club houseband, change the rhythm of the UK charts — and ultimately transform the British media
➢ How three wizards met at the same crossroad in time — a brief scene-setter on the forces shaping the Swinging Eighties
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➢ 1980, Strange days, strange nights, strange people: at The Blitz a decade dawns
➢ Untold before 2018… 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
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➢ 1980, One week in the private worlds of the new young: London blazes with creativity
➢ 1981, First Blitz invasion of the US
Blue Rondo a la Turk live, Jun 21, 1981: early try-out at a Chelmsford pub with Chris Sullivan at right. Photography © by Shapersofthe80s
➢ 1981, Blue Rondo create a new buzz with Latin sounds and an extreme new dude look
➢ 108 acts who set the style for the new music of the 1980s
➢ 1982, Harry Cool’s guide to Who’s Who in the Pits
➢ 1983, Who’s who in the New London Weekend
➢ 1983, Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace
➢ 1981, Birth of Duran’s Planet Earth … when other people’s faith put the Brummies into the charts
➢ 1983, Shock report on art-schools in crisis
➢ 1983, Crucial tipping point for the UK’s Fashion First Team
➢ 2010, Comeback Shard comfy as ‘Auntie Sade’
➢ 2011, The unknown Mr Big behind the Blitz explains its origins
➢ 2009, Onstage, Spandau’s Hadley and Kemp finally get huggy: a mighty Reformation
➢ 35 years as master of hot cuts – How legendary funk deejay Robbie Vincent influenced the shape of British musical taste
➢ 1983, Overseas influencers declare eight hot fashion Brits for 1984 – in The Face December issue
➢ 1984, Ure and Kemp spill the odd bean about the sensitive egos involved in Band Aid
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The night Bowie “transformed live television”: 1979 recording of the most immaculate of all performances of TMWSTW by Bowie, here on SNL with Klaus Nomi, Joey Arias, Stacey Hayden on guitar and Jimmy Destri on keyboards. Just click on the pic
BOWIE LANDMARKS
✱ “I’m not a rock star” Bowie often said – No, David, you were a messiah – Obituaries and key videos from a godlike star
✱ 40 years since “I picked on you-oo-oo”! July 6, 1972 saw the seminal pop moment — David Bowie’s first appearance on Top of the Pops as Ziggy Stardust, on the day in 1972 that he created the next generation of popstar wannabes
✱ Who dares define glam rock? Where to draw a line between glitter and glam – naff blokes in Bacofoil versus starmen with pretensions
✱ Bowie’s teenage lover who created the look of Ziggy – unseen pic of Freddie Burretti from 1973, exclusive report at Shapers of the 80s
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STEVE STRANGE LANDMARKS
◆ On Mi-soul radio on 13 Feb 2015, the day after Steve Strange died, deejay Rusty Egan paid musical tribute to his sidekick in founding their legendary Blitz club-night back in 1979: “Music says everything I could ever want to say” … Catch up at Mixcloud
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OH MY VISAGE-AH
◆ 2013: Midge Ure denies Strange’s claims of collaborating on a new Visage while Rusty Egan asks where his royalties have gone
◆ 2013: Out of the 80s frying pan into the 21st-century fire. . . Here’s the true story of how Visage changed the sound of clubland music, as Steve Strange announces his own new version of “Visage”
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PRINCE LANDMARKS
✱ Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s
✱ Prince’s humanitarian activities
✱ Prince’s raunchy earliest videos and his last
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Sade in a nutshell ♫ ♫
✱ After 2010’s Grammy Award winning Soldier Of Love LP, Sade went on to release The Ultimate Collection. The 29 tracks on two CDs included three new numbers, plus a version of Moon & The Sky featuring Jay-Z . . . In 2011 the band won a Grammy award for Best R&B Performance By A Group for the track Soldier Of Love
✱ 2010 — Shapersofthe80s finds comeback Shard comfy as ‘Auntie Sade’
✱ 1981 — Pix of Sade’s Demob designs during the first Blitz invasion of the US
✱ 1982 — Pix of Sade helping backstage during Steve Strange’s fashion show in Paris
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GEORGE O’DOWD SINCE 1979
➢ 1980, Three key men in Boy George’s life
➢ 2010, Ex-Blitz Kids give their verdicts on the TV drama Worried About the Boy (pictured)
➢ 1979 — Unbelievable! The voice of sweet reason in George’s TV debut
➢ 2010, Ex-jailbird George takes his first trancey steps on the path to sainthood
➢ . . . then Shapersofthe80s reports from the fruit-cakiest party of summer 2011
➢ 2012, Boy George reunites with Culture Club for New Year’s Day — and a new album
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SPANDAU 35 YEARS ON
◆ Shapers of the 80s tells the story of Spandau Ballet’s comeback tour after two decades apart — Videos, interviews, free downloads, links and background articles from the 2009–10 Reformation tour … That’s all folks, possibly for ever, as it seemed at the time
◆ Story behind the making of Spandau’s Olympic Gold, remixed by deejay Paul Oakenfold and turned into a slick vid
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DURAN DURAN’s REBIRTH
✱ 35 years ago the 80s supergroup’s debut single Planet Earth peaked at No 12 in the UK chart . . .
Shapers of the 80s tells how Duran’s road to stardom began in the Studio 54 of Birmingham, UK, in 1980
✱ Highlights of Duran’s round-the-world adventure in 2011 . . . and DD’s delayed return to the UK . . . Plus ten killer videos other people made as tributes
to Duran’s return to creativity
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G-G-G-GOLDEN YEARS
➢ 1966, More popular than Jesus: the Lennon interview in full
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30 YEARS SINCE HOCKNEY REVEALED HIS VISION
◆ The painter David Hockney proposed the “cubification” of cinema three decades ago in a landmark interview in 1983 with Shapers of the 80s when he revealed “Suddenly I see cubism differently, more clearly”. Read it inside, along with news of his recent experiments to subvert single-point perspective. [iPad self-portrait, detail © David Hockney]
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RANDOM!
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Shapers of the 80s “invaluable”
◆ Shapersofthe80s is declared an “invaluable website” by historian Dominic Sandbrook, author of the rich cultural analysis, Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979. We report how Sandbrook gives generous credit to key influencers on youth culture who are the stars of this website. His unstuffy appreciation of high and low life energised the BBC2 series The Seventies aired in 2012
◆ Elsewhere at Shapers of the 80s, telly don Simon Schama succinctly expresses why we should document the “irreverent freedom” that is a special aspect of life in Britain
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➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 