Tag Archives: Andy Polaris

➤ Nowt so Strange as Stephen John Harrington

Posted on 12 Feb 2015 | 2 comments

Steve Strange, Steven Harrington, Blitz Kids, New Romantics, nightclubbing, Swinging 80s, London, fashion, pop music, Visage, tributes

Steve Strange: Precocious club host and the face of synth band Visage, he changed British nightlife for ever

RIP Steve Strange
28 May 1959–12 Feb 2015
King of the Posers, Leader of the Blitz Kids,
co-founder of the Blitz Club,
PIED PIPER FOR THE NEW ROMANTICS,
catalyst for London’s fashion and pop
explosion in the 1980s

“ I chose to become famous and I work very hard at promoting myself. For me going out at night is work ”
– Steve Strange,
speaking to the Evening Standard in 1983

Iain R Webb, original Blitz Kid, later fashion editor of The Times and other publications, pays tribute to Steve Strange, who died in Egypt earlier today:

“ Steve gave us somewhere to go and beyond the crazy costumes and caked on make-up (maybe because of the…) made us each believe we had someone to be. He burned bright and we followed that light like moths to a flame – Billy’s to Blitz to Hell to Club For Heroes to Camden Palace… Oh, how we danced. His maverick spirit will never fade ”

Kim Bowen, stylist and former Queen of the Blitz Club, says:

“ You did create the stage on which
we all appeared ”

Andy Polaris, original Blitz Kid, and vocalist in Animal Nightlife, says:

“ It’s always a shock when you hear news that snatches away part of your youth. Steve Strange was not only a colourful character who had always left an impression on my teenage years. He was also a pivotal player in transforming London nightlife, along with deejay Rusty Egan. Their Tuesday nights at Billy’s club gave birth to the Blitz Club that influenced a generation of designers, musicians and artists. It’s remarkable the amount of creative talent that emerged from these clubs. It’s important to acknowledge that without Steve’s input a lot of these creative synergies might have never happened ”

Midge Ure, synth pioneer with Ultravox and Visage and driving force behind Band Aid, said:

“Steve and Rusty created a movement in London. The Blitz and the subsequent Blitz Kids grew into a massive movement in the UK associated with fashion and image and photography. You could stand in the Blitz Club and look around you and there’d be future journalists and film-makers and writers and musicians, and a young Boy George taking coats at the coat check. There was something really vibrant about that, and they were responsible”

Above: Steve Strange and three other Blitz Kids handpicked by David Bowie star in his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes

➢ Read my history of Steve Strange, the Blitz Kids and the birth of the New Romantics at The Observer

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
1980, Strange days, strange nights, strange people – my invitation to the party that would last five years

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
1982, Strange takes six cutting-edge British fashion designers to show their wares to the French

Steve Strange in 1980: wearing Willy Brown’s Modern Classics, photographed by Derek Ridgers

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
1983, Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace – the ultimate expression of Strange & Egan’s clubbing prowess

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Posted in Clubbing, Fashion, London, Pop music, Youth culture

Tagged Andy Polaris, Ashes to Ashes, Blitz Kids, dead, Iain R Webb, Kim Bowen, Midge Ure, New Romantics, Stephen Harrington, Steve Strange, Swinging 80s, Tributes, Video, Visage

➤ Beeb turns Nightlife Andy into Dalston superstar

Posted on 13 Dec 2013 | 1 comment

window displays, Christmas, shopping, London,BBC News, video

SW7 versus E8 – Harvey Nichols’ legendary windows and Oxfam’s in Dalston (© BBC)

❚ WHERE’S THE COOLEST CHARITY SHOP IN THE LAND? Dalston obviously, where the Oxfam shop on Kingsland Road in east London has become a destination thanks to its regular one-day sales of designer garments. Come Christmas, its volunteer Visual Display Manager finds himself in a BBC video head-to-head with the most famous shop windows in the land over at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge. It’s a case of East End boy versus West End twirls and the EastEnder in question is none other than Andy Polaris, former singer with 80s soulsters Animal Nightlife.

The BBC Magazine video shows how the award-winning team at Harvey Nix studies the seasonal fashion trends to arrive at a mood-board of imagery that then inspires their window displays for the all-important festive marketing push. In Dalston, by contrast, Andy turns to what’s currently in stock for inspiration and leads off on a theme of gold for his Christmas windows relying, he says, on “colour, light and perspective” – and a surprise last-minute donation.

Click any pic to launch carousel:

Video grabs © BBC News

➢ Visit Oxfam Dalston at 514 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AR, tel 020 7254 5318 (closed Sun)

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Posted in London, Media, Social trends, TV

Tagged Andy Polaris, BBC News, Christmas, Dalston, Harvey Nichols, London, Oxfam, shopping, Style, Video, window displays

➤ No flash, no mob, as Occupy Bowie proves a damp squib

Posted on 12 Aug 2013 | 1 comment

Occupy Bowie , V&A, exhibitions, fans,flash mob,David Bowie

More like Freddie Starrdust: The Bowie Experience tribute act outside the V&A yesterday in shabby Earthling coat and filthy lace. Photograph by Andy Polaris

❚ “CALLING ALL MISFITS, ANDROGYNES, glam rockers, goblin kings, scary monsters and super creeps: you are invited to a gathering on the steps of the V&A on the last day of the Bowie exhibition, 11 August. Together we will create a tableau vivant.” This call to arms by an ad hoc faction calling itself Occupy Bowie posted a tortuous Tumblr page that dared to translate this difficult French phrase as a “living picture” and illustrated several examples from a long tradition blah blah of motionless, silent models in poses plastiques blah blah often theatrically lit blah blah.

Another page at Facebook declared: “In honour of music, art and David Bowie, it will be a spectacle. It is a participatory event for visual extremists of all stripes. Don’t call us a flash mob.”

As it happens, this tribal turnout by a few dozen fans yesterday afternoon proved to be less a flash mob, more a naff huddle. There was a singalong to Rebel Rebel, but no truly glam Bowie persona in sight, what with the low-rent mimes and the generally jumble-sale approach to costume topped with nylon wigs that could have come from Ridley Road Market. By midnight we could count only three photographs of this act of mass homage posted online, then a couple more today.

Click any pic to launch carousel

Photo Denis Carr

Suspected ringleaders – note tatty jeans

Best Bowie in show

As it happens, Andy Polaris, who lives in East London, claims he was “passing by” the V&A in West London at 3pm and snapped the faithful engaged in their mystical rites. His verdict: “It looked more Freddie Starrdust than Ziggy Stardust.” This referred to the shabby Earthling playing guitar who is known as The Bowie Experience, a professional tribute impersonator wearing the least glam costume of any Bowie incarnation. Polaris said: “The women looked a lot better than the men and the girl with the dark hair and Aladdin streak was the best.” Funny, that. Even the apparent ringleaders themselves, University of the Arts types subtly disguised on Facebook as Occu PyBowie, let the side down in scruffy old jeans. They’d never have let each other get away with that in 1973, let alone the Blitz in 1980.

Brilliant sunshine put paid to any “theatrical lighting” to compare with the photographs of Ryan Schude or the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects Ball, 1931, that Occupy Bowie had cited as inspiration on that ambitious Tumblr page. Better luck at the exhibition’s Toronto opening in September, lads.

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Posted in London, Media, Pop music

Tagged Andy Polaris, David Bowie, exhibitions, fans, flash mob, Occupy Bowie, V&A

➤ Swagger on up the Junction for Dalston’s Vintage Designer Sale

Posted on 26 Nov 2012 | Leave a comment

CLICK A PIC TO VIEW BARGAINS IN A CAROUSEL:

Dalston, Oxfam, Vintage, Designer, Sale, fashion, menswear,charity, Andy Polaris

Yellow Marc Jacobs coat, grey Betty Jackson trousers

Luxurious D&G mohair jumper/dress, orange Lulu-style hat, YSL scarf

Katharine Hamnett coat, Rifat Ozbek Future Ozbek dress

Jessica McClintock evening dress

Roland Klein vintage coat, YSL Rive Gauche orange skirt

+++
❚ WHERE IS THE COOLEST OXFAM charity shop in the land? At Dalston Junction, naturally, where the coolest superstars chillax. Where are your smartest designer fashion bargains to be found next Sunday afternoon? At the Oxfam Dalston Vintage Designer Sale in London’s trendy E8. Who’s the local Mary Portas with an eye for a bargain, who has spent months selecting the right labels from donations to make this Christmas shopping event really hot? Step forward Andy Polaris, known to all 80s pop fans as the lead vocalist with pop-jazz combo Animal Nightlife.

“So far we have found 85 designer brands to pull in the discerning shopper, and many outfits are as new,” Andy says. “You’d have to go to Stratford Westfield to find this many under one roof. Even so, we’ll beat them on price. We’ve some nearly new Vivienne Westwood Red Label trousers, originally priced at £275, now going for £100.” Look at the highly collectable names pictured above, selling for between £20 and £100. There are Marc Jacobs, Rifat Ozbek, Katharine Hamnett, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves St Laurent, Betty Jackson, Roland Klein for women – and for men Gieves & Hawkes, Prada, Burberry, Ted Baker and such.

Animal Nightlife play Flick’s, Dartford: 1982 line-up with Leah Seresin, Andy Polaris and Chrysta Jones, just after releasing the single Love Is Just The Great Pretender. © Shapersofthe80s

As the volunteer who evaluates the donors’ bags, Andy and his aficionado’s eye hunt down the most fashionable labels. He is convinced that the 1,000 garments up for sale from noon on Sunday will walk out of the door. A similar event last summer had a queue forming before the shop had opened, and along with donations for light refreshments, the sale made a packet for charity.

What a great way to spend your Sunday. Awesome fashion. Menswear too. Mince pies. Christmas tunes. With Andy floorwalking and signing autographs, if you ask him nicely.

➢ Dalston Oxfam Shop, 514 Kingsland Road, London E8 4AR. Vintage Designer Sale, December 2, 12–5pm. Tel 020 7254 5318

➢ Time Out this year named Oxfam Dalston the best charity shop in London for books and music, which says a lot about the taste of the local donors!

♫ Revisit the achingly cool Dalston Superstars webcast soap series, the Vicedotcom “structured reality” video about hipness in Hackney. Download a mix of its bleepy soundtracks put together by UK b-asstronaut Grant Armour. Here’s a taster …

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2012 ➤ Pet Shop Boys show today’s pop pretenders the view from atop Mount Olympus

Posted on 17 Sep 2012 | Leave a comment

❚ THE NEW ALBUM ELYSIUM from the Pet Shop Boys this week entered the UK album chart at number 9. Curiously, it is being greeted with mixed reviews from younger critics, which is a shame for a creative duo widely regarded as a national treasure. Andy Polaris, lead singer with Animal Nightlife who provided a soundtrack to UK clubbing during the golden age of 80s pop, has offered to redress the balance with this review for Shapersofthe80s …

Pet Shop Boys , London Olympics, Elysium, album, pop music,video

London Olympics closing ceremony, August 12: The Pet Shop Boys sing West End Girls from rickshaws. Their orange pointy masks were said to depict the London rush hour. (Photo: Reuters/ Phil Noble). Click pic to view video of PSBs talking on BBC Breakfast

❏ Andy writes:
The Pet Shop Boys were part of the UK music explosion of the 80s which saw the British invasion of the US and much other global success. Today, along with Yazoo and The Eurythmics, they are the last of the electronic duos from the 80s who are still intact and flourishing.

The passage of time is a recurring theme in their eleventh album, produced by Andrew Dawson who worked on three successful Kanye West albums. Despite their last few albums as recent as Yes in 2010 receiving Grammy nominations (how many of their 80s contemporaries can say that?), if you’re not constantly on heavy airplay rotation or in rehab people assume you’re dead or retired. The perennial problem is: Are your best years behind you? How relevant are you in the current pop climate?

“You’ve been around but you don’t look too rough/ And I still quite like some of your early stuff.” The lyric to Your Early Stuff wittily captures frequent comments from cab drivers and others when confronted with these pop icons. They need not have worried, having popped up twice during the Olympics, at the closing ceremony, riding origami rickshaws, and again last week performing outside Buckingham Palace their new song Winner (from Elysium), along with West End Girl and Go West. This had the Olympic champions and contestants swaying and singing along with the crowd.

Pet Shop Boys , album, Elysium, Invisible,

Video grab from Invisible: “Am I tragic or a joke/ Wrapped in my invisibility cloak?”

The PSBs have a vast, enviable back catalogue of melodic hits but are still producing catchy electronic pop and Elysium contains some trademark mixes of — dare I say it? — their early stuff. Uptempo dance pop with strong choruses include the opening track Leaving, Requiem In Denim and Leopardskin, A Face Like That (no doubt with remixes already in the works), plus Radio 2-friendly songs like Hold On, Memory of A Future, Give It A Go and Winner, which all show off their knack with a melody. On the sombre, reflective ballads Breathing Space and Invisible, remorse never sounded so good.

Finally, never taking themselves too seriously, we have the brilliant, arch Ego Music which owes more to their influences, Sparks and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Lyrically, this number shreds the current crop of pretentious pop stars: “In the sea of negativity I’m a statue of liberty/ That’s why people love me, it’s humbling.”

I would recommend this whole album for its consistency and lack of filler tracks, which is unusual these days. If you haven’t heard the PSBs’ recent output, just sample Ego Music and Invisible. The album title was inspired by a walk in Elysian Park in Los Angeles, a protected area dating back to the founding of the city and given a name appropriately derived from the Greek word for paradise.

➢ Sample Elysium at Pet Shop Boys website

➢ View video for Invisible by Pet Shop Boys at NME