➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣

1981 ➤ Blue Rondo create a new buzz with Latin sounds and an extreme suited dude look

Posted on 14 May 2009 | Leave a comment

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:

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Posted in Culture, London, Media, Pop music, Social trends

Tagged Blitz Kids, Chris Sullivan, New Romantics, New Sounds New Styles, Reviews, Tipping points, Video

1982 ➤ Never a week without a fashion show

Posted on 21 Apr 2009 | Leave a comment

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…

➢ Click here to read on

➢ 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:

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Posted in Clubbing, Europe, Fashion, London, Media

Tagged Blitz Kids, Le Palace, Paris, Rusty Egan, Stephen Jones, Steve Strange, Video, Visage

1983 ➤ Who’s who in the New London Weekend

Posted on 15 Apr 2009 | Leave a comment

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

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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

1983 ➤ 69 Dean Street and the making of UK club culture

Posted on 13 Apr 2009 | Leave a comment

69 Dean Street is an address implanted somewhere in the folk memory of every Face reader. During the four years when the launchpad for musical experiment shifted from traditional rock gigs to the dancefloor, one Soho building became a factory farm that has fattened each passing cult en route to today’s richly flavoured mainstream…