◼ STEVE NORMAN GIVES A THUMBS-UP FOR BARCELONA during one of his dirrrty sax solos on Spandau Ballet’s Reformation tour in 2010 (above). He and the rest of Spandau Ballet returned to Spain this week on their worldwide Soul Boys of the Western World Live tour and tickets are still available for their two weekend dates at the Festival Pedralbes in Barcelona.
Earlier this week on his personal art tour Gary Kemp was bowled over in Bilbao: “Wow. Just seen Gehry’s Guggenheim museum for the first time in the flesh. Even in the rain its magnificent.” Martin tweets: “Thank you Madrid… You were fantastic!” Now Steve is all set: “Ya venimos Barça.”
Surprise acoustic taster: Steve Norman, Tony Hadley and Gary Kemp playing bang in the centre of Madrid. Photo: Carlos Rosillo
➢ CLICK THE PIC TO VIEW VIDEO of blues troubadour Errol Linton and his double-bassist Jean-Pierre Lampé busking in London’s Oxford Street last night… “How good are they?!” says Spandau Ballet sax player Steve Norman who posted this cellphone video on his Twitter page. He told Shapersofthe80s: “I didn’t know who they were when I caught them on my phone. I was knocked out, so I approached the singer Errol and got his name and number. Always good to connect with talent such as him.”
◼ THREE TIMES DECLARED UK Blues Harmonica Player of the Year, Errol Linton was raised by his Jamaican parents in Brixton, south London. Playing eclectic British blues with a nod to his Caribbean heritage, this singer, songwriter and bandleader carries the legacy of Little Walter, Junior Wells and Sonny Boy Williamson into the 21st century, combining Chicago blues with gentle Jamaican rhythms.
Errol Linton: raw, fresh and British
“I started out busking and I still do. It leads to me getting quite a lot of my work including a booking for a wedding,” he says at the BBC Radio 3 website, where you can listen to Man Shot Down played by Linton’s Blues Vibe. “Since the Station Tavern in Ladbroke Grove, west London, closed it’s been even harder to get gigs. You’re more likely to find me busking on the Underground.”
The superb video below by the independent company Echo Productions was filmed live at the Cluny in Newcastle for a series of films called Gettin’ the Blues and features an introduction by drumming master Sam Kelly of Station House. The Echo caption says: “With his Blues Vibe combo, Errol Linton has always kept the legacy of Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson sounding raw, fresh and above all, British, in a strange offbeat way. Reggae lilts and licks are salient features of Linton’s music. His albums for Ruby Records, Vibin’ It and Roots Stew, have become British blues milestones.”
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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 2022
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm in 2021… Catch 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 800 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
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