❚ MODELLED AFTER VOLKSWAGEN’S MINIBUS, the Soundwagon record player is now available worldwide, and Cool Hunting tried it out at the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Association). Simply drop the wagon with built-in stylus on a vinyl record and a nine-volt battery lets it ride. From Stoyko’s online store for ¥7,980 (about £61 / $96).
INDEX OF ALL 700+ POSTS
➢ 2009 till now : Everything at Shapers of the 80s...
Now in our eleventh year.
Thanks for 1.75 million visits.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
An “invaluable website” — historian Dominic Sandbrook, 2012A UNIQUE HISTORY
➢ WELCOME to the Swinging 80s
➢ THE BLOG POSTS on this front page report topical updates
➢ ROLL OVER THE MENU AT TOP to go deeper into the past
➢ FOR NEWS & MONTH BY MONTH SEARCH, see the sidebar below
❏ 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 AshesTOLD 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
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RECENT ADDITIONS
- 1979 ➤ Spandau’s manager Steve Dagger tells of two offers to sign his band at their debut
- 35 years since Band Aid’s monster Christmas single and the 80s ceased to swing
- 2019 ➤ The Boulevard rises from the ashes of the Raymond Revuebar
- 2019 ➤ Ever wondered how Rusty Egan does what he does?
- ➤ A double act is born – Sulls & Elms, take a bow!
- ➤ After his Spandau ordeal, singer Ross shakes off the blues
- ➤ How Nile Rodgers “rearranged” Bowie’s Let’s Dance into a stonking hit single
- ➤ The makings of Scarlett, a perfect muse for the Eighties
- ➤ Ross Wild retunes to Gatsby’s Roaring Twenties
- ➤ New from Prince: Holly Rock single and video, plus album of demos
- ➤ Those ‘things’ Blade Runner’s Hauer had seen…
- ➤ Duran rock NASA’s Rocket Garden, feet firmly on Planet Earth
SEARCH our 700 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 new 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 80sLANDMARK FAREWELLS. . . HIT THE INDEX TAB UP TOP FOR EVERYTHING ELSE
➢ 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 on the godlike one
✱ Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s
✱ 2015 – Original Blitz Kids say farewell to Steve Strange – read exclusive tributes to the King of the PosersArchive — Many publication dates are arbitrary, so click and take pot luck!
RANDOM!