Spandau provided the new British electropop, Axiom the radical London fashion show, while Tina Turner and Robert de Niro joined the coolest audience in Manhattan…
First published in the first issue of New Sounds New Styles in July 1981
➤ Click here to read the full crazy tale of the Ballet on Broadway
Posted in Clubbing, Europe, North America, Pop music, Youth culture
Tagged August Darnell, Axiom, Blitz Kids, Henry Post, Jim Fourratt, Jon Mole Baker, Melissa Caplan, New Sounds New Styles, Rhonda Paster, Richard Buckley, Richard Burgess, Robert Elms, Sade Adu, Simon Withers, Spandau Ballet, Steve Dagger
Blue Rondo a la Turk was among the first of the Blitzworld’s new image bands to change the musical gear of 1981 towards a tongue-in-cheek collage of carnival rhythms. Fronted by future Wag club host Chris Sullivan, the eccentric seven-piece staged a series of invitation-only tease-dates through the summer of 1981. Their frantic music and their zoot suits were unveiled in the New Romantics’ magazine, New Sounds New Styles …
➢➢ Click here to read the first feature published about Rondo: “He thinks he’s Geronimo”
➢➢ VIEW ♫ fine Northern Soul footwork in the video for Klacto Vee Sedstein here:
Posted in Culture, London, Media, Pop music, Social trends
Tagged Blitz Kids, Chris Sullivan, New Romantics, New Sounds New Styles, Reviews, Tipping points, Video
After New York’s notorious club Studio 54 closed amid scandal and jail for its frontmen, it reopened in September 1981 under new ownership and hosted by club entrepreneurs Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Pieper. Early in Fouratt’s hyperactive life as a shaper of culture and politics, he assessed the prevailing musical trends and set out his six golden rules for running a successful nightspot.
Rudolf and Fourratt: promoters who breathed new life into the Studio. Picture © by Shapersofthe80s
Posted in Clubbing, Culture, Pop music, Social trends
Tagged Blitz Kids, Jim Fourratt, Studio 54, Tipping points
Eye-candy: PX swimwear opens the show. Picture © by Shapersofthe80s
In April 1982, Steve Strange orchestrated the first serious sortie by a wave of young London designers to the Mecca of the established fashion world, Paris. An act of folly – or a marker for international success? Either way, this show sounded the last rites for the New Romantics…
➢ Video of the Paris show and its and rehearsals provided footage for the videos promoting Visage’s tracks The Dancer and The Steps from their eponymous UK Top Ten album of 1980. Sadly, these videos have recently been removed from YouTube, but the opening seconds of the Fade to Grey video show Strange arriving at Le Palace for the show:
Posted in Clubbing, Europe, Fashion, London, Media
Tagged Blitz Kids, Le Palace, Paris, Rusty Egan, Stephen Jones, Steve Strange, Video, Visage
By the summer of ’83, a new pop establishment ruled the mainstream music charts while a new executive ruled London’s burgeoning clubbing scene after dark. Meet the jacks and jokers who fronted the capital’s hottest nightclubs
➢➢ Click here to read Who’s who
First published under the monthly Nightlife tag in The Face, July 1983
Posted in Clubbing, London, Pop music, Social trends, Youth culture
Tagged Chris Sullivan, Dencil Williams, Ollie O'Donnell, Paul Bernstock, Philip Sallon, Reviews, Rob Milton, Soho, The Face, Tipping points
✱ 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”.
◆ 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 about
the godlike one
✱ Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 