Faces behind the Amwell Street Knocking Shop: Chris McMillan, Princess Julia, Karlie Shelley, Josh Quinton, Mich Dulce, Felicity Hayward, Emily Rose England
❚ A POP-UP SHOP THAT RUNS FOR A MONTH, that’s The Amwell Street Knocking Shop. Strictly speaking, it’s open Fris–Sats–Suns, noon–8pm until Sun June 26 (weekdays by appointment only). Events and art installations are promised, plus celeb sales assistants, and cult film screenings downstairs chosen by guest curators. But the core business is selling archive and vintage clothing and accessories sourced by an impressive team of now tastemakers: Karlie Shelly, Felicity Hayward, Josh Quenton, Lauren Webb, Princess Julia, Yasmina Dexter, Pinkie Love, Pam Hogg, Joe Corre, Ben Westwood, Vivienne Westwood, Judy Blame, Flora Starkey, Noki, Mich Dulce, Noah Crutchfield.
Past bargains in Amwell Street: Alexander McQueen backless dress, plus assorted vintage items including books
Past bargains in Amwell Street: Piers Atkinson studded blue beret, Vivienne Westwood two-buckle shoes
Brett Anderson: “emulating people shouldn’t be about wanting to sound like them”
STRICTLY SPEAKING, Suedewere a supercool guitar band of the 80s, having come together in 1989, though admittedly their hits followed in the 90s. Having reformed last year, alas without guitarist Bernard Butler, they released The Best Of Suede in November and tonight they play Suede’s music in sequence at the first of three gigs at London’s O2 Academy in Brixton May 19–21, plus Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, May 24–26. An interview with the current issue of BEAT magazine has singer Brett Anderson (“the lost boy of Britpop”) reflecting on the climate in which the band formed…
“As a teenager in the early 80s it was an incredibly tribal time, everyone at school was either a mod or a punk or a skinhead or a headbanger. Which gang you belonged to said who you were as a person. This was when I was thirteen or fourteen, when I first started buying records and I suppose that influenced the sort of band I wanted Suede to be, I wanted them to be the sort of band people would get tattooed. I wasn’t particularly interested in Suede just being liked; I was only really interested in Suede being loved.
“Suede was about the intense passion of being loved as a band and constructing a universe for people to dive into and that was all part of the iconography of the sleeves and the worlds I sang about and possibly the over-use of lots of the imagery was all part of it. Maybe it was all part of my need to belong somewhere. We established a Suede landscape, and I always loved those bands that did that. Maybe it’s a very much over-used reference point but I did grow up loving The Smiths records and loving what they did and the kind of tribalism they created.
“I never wanted to be The Smiths, emulating people shouldn’t be about wanting to sound like them. I was talking to Jamie from Klaxons and he said he was a huge Suede fan when he was growing up and that Suede were the reason he wanted to be in a band. You listen to Klaxons, and they don’t sound anything like Suede and that’s the biggest compliment. That they took something of the spirit of Suede, they didn’t rip off the cord sequences, they didn’t rip off the words and they didn’t dress like Suede.
“They just took something of the spirit and sense of aiming to achieve something that was meant to be a little bit unachievable. And they created this incredible very original band. I’m really proud of that sort of influence. It’s the same with Bloc Party. There’s all these bands, that have told me that Suede have been incredibly influential, but they don’t sound like Suede, that’s almost like a double compliment for me.”
❏ Brett also deals with drugs, androgyny, Justine and Bernard — “I actually put an advert in the NME, that’s how I met Bernard. It read, ‘Must like Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths, David Bowie and Lloyd Cole and The Commotions. No musos, no beginners, some things are more important than ability’.”
Duran interviewed at SXSW in March: Simon Le Bon checks a runaway thought before the audience jumps to the wrong conclusion (SXSW video grab)
❚ UPDATE, JULY 1: Following the postponement of Duran Duran’s European arena tour owing to singer Simon Le Bon’s vocal problems, consult the band’s website for news… DD have rescheduled all eleven UK concerts to run from Nov 30 Brighton to Dec 17 Newcastle.
❚ UPDATE, MAY 29: Duran Duran now offer a fulsome apology for having to cancel their current UK tour dates — not, as sceptics suspected, because of unsold tickets but because of singer Simon Le Bon’s continuing “laryngeal problems”. Their website today reports: “Following a consultation with both a vocal coach and his team of ENT specialists today, Simon Le Bon has been advised that he needs to continue to rest his voice… Devastated by the news that they will not be able to resume the tour as planned on Tuesday, Simon said ‘We’ve been postponing shows with very little notice, in the hope each day that the improvement would have been significant enough for me to sing again without risking any long-term damage’.”
View John and Nick’s special video apology at YouTube . . . Today too, Roger Taylor blogs on the DD website on the horrible irony of Woody Allen’s famous quotation “If you want make God laugh, tell him about your plans” and he makes the promise: “I know that all the shows are very close to being re-scheduled later in the year.” . . . Read Simon Le Bon’s blog at DD’s website on June 1: “I reckon I got 6 semi-tones wiped off the top of my range and … it’s very difficult not to worry about it.”
❏ Here’s a sparky interview with the band just released by the SXSW festival, recorded in March. With former MTV reporter John Norris in the chair, Nick Rhodes says he still sees Duran as an art-school band and John Taylor reflects on the golden era of MTV. Stills from this interview have been posted at Flickr
❏ This stylish tuxedoed shot by Pierpaolo Ferrari comes from the current “Long Live the 80s” issue of L’Uomo Vogue, with a feature on DD by former Wag club host Chris Sullivan, translated for the Italian edition.
HERE’S A CATCH-UP ON PREVIOUSLY POSTED DURAN NEWS FROM THE YEAR SO FAR
❏ It was 30 years in March since the 80s supergroup’s debut single Planet Earth peaked at No 12 in the UK chart… This year their 14-track CD of AYNIN spent five weeks on the UK album chart.
❏ View highlights from Duran Duran’s Unstaged online concert March 23 at the Mayan theatre, Los Angeles, in 1080p HD at the band’s Vevo channel on YouTube /DuranDuranVEVO. Click here to find which global regions are licensed to view highlights at YouTube. The four DD Unstaged concert tracks most viewed via Vevo in the first three weeks after the live webcast drew more than 1.5m views — these are All You Need is Now with 700,930 views, then Notorious 298,505, Planet Earth 290,477, and Friends of Mine 274,935 way out ahead of all other tracks, most of which pulled only four-figure audiences.
❏ Rhodes and Le Bon give a seven-minute video history of DD for ABC News, Jan 2011 — “Rio was the album that made us the biggest band in the world. It made us big in America”
❏ Duran have been blessed by an interview at Quietus, its holiness the online magazine whose touchstone is “reverence” and claims “we’re not afraid of surprising our readers”. Writer Simon Price delivers two surprises. Plus this list of post-80s albums the band think most deserve to be listened to: The Wedding Album (1993) … Pop Trash (2000) … Medazzaland (1997) … Astronaut (2004).
❏ On the currentAYNIN tour Duran Duran played North America and Mexico March 16–April 27, just before their 11-date UK tour from Newcastle to Sheffield May 18–June 4. They take in Berlin on May 26 and continue across Europe, Paris to Bergen June 10–Aug 28. [Update — These were the original plans, which were substantially cancelled in May and June.] In between they return to the UK for the V Festival on both Aug 20 and 21.
❚ “LOOKING EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL — Sade letting her hair down along with the band sounding sublime.” So writes the 80s singer Andy Polaris on Facebook today after spotting this smooth video of Sade and her band performing their 2000 hit, By Your Side, in Milan earlier this month. As their Soldier of Love world tour comes ever closer to Ireland and the UK, fans can still find Sade tickets for the four dates: Wed 25 in Dublin from €55, May 27 in Manchester from £80, May 29 Birmingham from £44, and May 31 at London’s O2 arena from £80.
❏ Update May 31, former Animal Nightlife singer Andy Polaris writes: “Sade was superb tonight. The band were crisp and she looked and sounded better than ever — very confident. A rapturous greeting from the home crowd. Sophie Mueller’s stage design complemented the songs and gave them a visual punch from the use of stark silhouettes, city horizons and background footage of the band relaxing. One of the main standouts was Pearls where Sade’s silhouette walked onto a bare stage with a sunrise mirroring the harsh life of a woman from Somalia. It was simple but effective piece of staging and no need for the usual excess of dancers and pyrotechnics needed in arena shows… Lovely to have a brief chat at the after-party, as beautiful and gracious as ever. Great to see some old favourites Ollie, Matt Bianco, Mark, Gordon, Phil Polecat, Melissa, Jacqui, Paul Simper, Greg, Mark Powell, amongst others. Sade looked like she was having a ball and overall it was a triumphant return especially on home turf.”
❏ Deejay Princess Julia blogs: “I was intrigued to see Sade working her definitive style… I wasn’t disappointed on both counts. Sade rules, she really does… it’s all in the detail, precise, easy, she came on in a body con style outfit, plus signature polo neck (I’d already discussed her wardrobe with a few friends! Bolero jacket, cummerband and capri pants were all options). She arrived on stage hair slicked backed, big hooped earrings, my favourite look really, looking elegant, modern, understated and most of all really happy to be on stage in London.”
The Hacienda today: the former nightclub’s dancefloor is a carpark beneath a block of flats. Click image to run rare video footage as Tony’s son Oliver Wilson reflects on the legacy of his father’s nightclub
❚ BIG NEWS OUT OF MANCHESTER, recently named the UK’s live music capital by the PRS. After a week or two of wrinkles comes a smart new website and the very clear announcement: “Haçienda Records is the official digital label of FAC51 The Haçienda and based exclusively at fac51thehacienda.com. Crossing all forms of indie and dance genres, the label has initially been an outlet to publish the output of Peter Hook but with the new revamp and full establishment of the label, Haçienda Records is also gearing up to release new and established artists on a monthly basis.”
❏ May 18–28, 2011 — Haçienda Records launches its new website with an exhibition of original memorabilia titled The Haçienda Then and Now, at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester. Some FAC51 artworks on show are for sale at the gallery, along with original club posters.
Industrial light and magic: Ben Kelly’s design for the Haçienda interior in its heyday — plus that treacherous step onto (or off!) the dancefloor. Two views, idealised as silkscreen prints by Morph & Ben Kelly 2011, available through paulstolper.com
MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS TO PREVIEW AND PURCHASE
❏ Haçienda Records initiates a new cataloguing series that starts with HAC 001, Man Ray’s Summer 88 EP (Jan 2010). The new website contains all Man Ray and Freebass releases to date, plus Basement Jaxx, 808 State and many other Factory mixes.
❏ Man Ray’s new EP Tokyo Joe (Hac 006), released exclusively on the website, is a reworking of the version made for the opening of The Factory club in Manchester in February 2010.
❏ The Light’s debut EP 1102 /2011 is released May 16.
❏ Graeme Park, the Haçienda’s resident Saturday night deejay in the 80s, contributes a mix of classic and modern acid house and disco, as Then Haçienda Now, plus his Vinyl Fixation Vol 1.
❏ “Mancunian Rock Royalty” Hooky and Rowetta presided over world premieres of The Light’s rendition of Atmosphere and the unreleased Joy Division track Pictures In My Mind Friday on BBC 6 Music’s Radcliffe And Maconie Show, April 29.
❏ Haçienda Record’s releases for June and July are Humanizer’s This Tiny Universe EP, and Richie G’s Baum…./Titten, a double header of German and underground resistance-style instrumental techno.
Face of Factory: Steve Coogan plays Tony Wilson in the all too ironic docu-drama, 24-Hour Party People
❚ BASSIST PETER HOOK was a co-founder of the rock band Joy Division in 1976, originally named Warsaw, with vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist Bernard Sumner and drummer Stephen Morris. After the death of Curtis in 1980, the band reformed as New Order. Joy Division’s debut album, Unknown Pleasures, was released in 1979 on Tony Wilson’s nascent label Factory Records, the story of which became the most priceless rollercoaster ride in UK rock history. The label attracted a roster of idiosyncratic acts, plus luminous talents such as graphic designer Peter Saville and architect Ben Kelly who created the landmark nightclub the Hacienda, which opened 29 years ago next Saturday, dubbed with its product number FAC51, and with Hook as co-owner. All are parodied in Michael Winterbottom’s 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, and some feature in Anton Corbijn’s 2007 film Control about the life of Curtis.
In 2009 Hook told the tale of FAC51, in The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club, in a very personal memoir of the 80s which is far sadder, funnier, scarier and stranger than anyone could imagine. The Sunday Times Culture review called him “a born anecdotalist”. i-D has an interview here. In 2010, Hook opened a new venue in Manchester, FAC251, in the former office of Factory Records designed by Kelly. This week the digital record label follows.
➢ 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
LANDMARK FAREWELLS. . . HIT THE INDEX TAB UP TOP FOR EVERYTHING ELSE
“Suede was about the intense passion of being loved as a band and constructing a universe for people to dive into and that was all part of the iconography of the sleeves and the worlds I sang about and possibly the over-use of lots of the imagery was all part of it. Maybe it was all part of my need to belong somewhere. We established a Suede landscape, and I always loved those bands that did that. Maybe it’s a very much over-used reference point but I did grow up loving The Smiths records and loving what they did and the kind of tribalism they created.
In 2009 Hook told the tale of FAC51, in 
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 