Tag Archives: i-D magazine

1980–2014 ➤ Ten inspirational reminders from the 80s to stir today’s young to action

Waldorf Hotel, Spandau Ballet, Blitz club, New Romantics, youth culture,Blitz Kids , To Cut a Long Story Short, London, clubbing, DJs,

Waldorf Hotel 1980: seated at centre, Spandau Ballet, house band of Covent Garden’s Blitz club, home of the New Romantics movement, plus support team of Blitz Kids who helped put their first single To Cut a Long Story Short into the UK singles chart at No 5, on 6 Dec 1980. Average age 20, everyone had a specific role to play in staging and promoting the band: seven musicians, six designers, three media and management, three club-hosts, two DJs, one crimper and 22 egos. Photographed for the Evening Standard © by Herbie Knott

◼ TEN OF THE MOST POPULAR POSTS visited here during 2014 confirm Shapers of the 80s as an “invaluable website” in the words of British historian Dominic Sandbrook. Grounded in the 1980s – the most explosive decade for British youth culture since the Swinging 60s – our eye witness reports and monthly reviews of British nightlife were originally published in magazines such as The Face, the “style bible” of its day. Our recent commentaries monitor fresh interest in the revival of 80s music and attitude during the past five years. Year-ending visit figures at Shapers of the 80s during 2014 have increased year-on-year by 16% to total 210,000.

Much unseen vintage video footage was discovered by the producers researching Spandau Ballet’s biopic, Soul Boys of the Western World, which proved an eye-opening slice of social history when it was released this year. Every frame reveals the sheer energy and commitment to hedonism and creative self-expression that characterised a generation of school-leavers who in the economic gloom of 1979 faced the threat of no jobs ever in their adult lives. The parallels with Britain’s protracted austerity today are obvious and we might hope the lessons of the 80s will again inspire the young to take their fate into their own hands.

TEN BENCHMARKS FROM THE SWINGING 80S

Andrew Ridgeley, George Michael, Wham Rap, video, Face magazine, Club Culture,

Click pic to open a Top of the Pops performance of Wham Rap! in another window … In the original music video (no longer viewable in the UK !!) “man or mouse” Andrew Ridgeley establishes his group’s clubbing credentials in the opening shots of the video, pictured, by reading our landmark Face cover story on The Making of UK Club Culture, now reproduced at Shapers of the 80s. (Screengrab © Sony BMG)

➢ Read: 69 Dean Street and the making of UK club culture

Blitz Kids, No Sacrifice, Chenil gallery,Kim Bowen, Jeremy Healy, Stephen Jones, fashion, London

No Sacrifice was an alternative fashion show in 1980 organised by Iain R Webb and mounted for art-school refusés: outside Chelsea’s Chenil Gallery, Kim Bowen as ever sports a hat by Stephen Jones (right), Jeremy Healy at centre. Photographed © by Mick Hurd

➢ Who’s who among the Blitz Kids: 50 crucial nightclubbers who set the style for a decade

Terry Doktor , Carmel Johnson, Rhonda Paster, Axiom, fashion Underground club, Spandau Ballet, gig

New York 1981: Before Spandau Ballet introduced America to electro-diskow at Manhattan’s Underground club, the Axiom fashion cooperative staged a runway show of New Romantic outfits. Photographed by © Shapersofthe80s

➢ 1981, first Blitz invasion of the US by Spandau/Axiom

London,Sullivan,Dirt Box, Mud Club,Wag club,White Trash,Sallon,Nightlife ,The Face,Swinging 80s, clubbing

First published in The Face No 39, July 1983

➢ 1983, Who’s who in the new London nightlife boom

Seminal spread in i-D issue one: the straight-up style is established with one then unknown New Romantic and one punkette. Photographed on the King’s Road by Steve Johnston

Seminal spread in i-D issue one: the straight-up style is established with one then unknown New Romantic and one punkette. Photographed on the King’s Road in London by Steve Johnston

➢ 1980, ‘Your own i-D counts more than fashion’

Blitz club, London 1979, Iain Webb, Stephen Linard, 2010, Worried About the Boy, Boy George, Daniel Wallace,Douglas Booth,

Real Blitz Kids versus the TV version: George’s boyfriend Wilf and Stephen Linard in 1979 (picture, Andy Rosen)… Daniel Wallace as a Linard lookalike and Douglas Booth as Boy George in Worried About the Boy, 2010 (BBC)

➢ How real did 1980 feel? Ex-Blitz Kids give verdicts on the 2010 TV play about Boy George, Worried About the Boy

➢ 1983, Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace

➢ Six rewrites punk history with an outlandish claim about the Not-Really-From-Bromley Contingent

➢ 1982, “Who?!” Peter Capaldi’s first interview (probably) as a green young stand-up

➢ 2014, Video gems unearthed by the Spandau Ballet biopic premiering at SXSW


➢ 2009 till now – Index of all posts at Shapers of the 80s

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➤ Toasting the Blitz Kid dynamos who have driven the success of Shapers of the 80s

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Blitz Kids as stars of David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes video in 1980: from the left, Steve Strange, Darla Jane Gilroy, Elise and Judi Frankland. When they got back to London after filming, they all went clubbing. Video © 1983 Jones Music / EMI Records Ltd

◼ SHAPERS OF THE 80S TELLS THE DEFINITIVE STORY of a subcultural revolution in British music and style 30 years ago. Its detonator was a youthful blast of impossible trendiness and its stars didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did. This site gathers together the eye-witness journalism and photography of one observer who knew a good time when he saw one and was published in the coolest titles of the day.

Now in its fifth year, this site has attracted a total of 722,500 views since its launch, according to year-ending WordPress stats. The figures also identify the 20 most widely read items out of more than 600 posted here. Most of these pieces were first published back in the day, but seven of the Top 20 items reflect the continuing interest expressed through the recent 80s revival. In many ways, London is again displaying all the symptoms of being the world’s most swinging city, as it was in the 60s and the 80s, when there were a galaxy of reasons to hit the town every single night of the week.

THE 20 MOST VIEWED POSTS AT SHAPERS OF THE 80S

1  ➢ The Blitz Kids — 50 crucial nightclubbers who
set the style for a decade

2  ➢ The key men in Boy George’s life, but why has TV changed some of the names? (2010)

3  ➢ Golden rules for keeping Studio 54
ahead of the pack (1981)

4  ➢ 69 Dean Street and the making of UK club culture – birth of the once-weekly party night (1983)

The Face, magazine, May 1980, launch, Jerry Dammers, David Bowie, The Cult With No Name, New Romantics

The difference seven months made: In May 1980 The Face launched with Jerry Dammers of the Specials on its cover. By November the new direction was Bowie plus a feature on The Cult With No Name, as the New Romantics were first known

5  ➢ The Face and other power brokers of the fourth estate — a new media language for a new decade (1980)

6  ➢ First Blitz invasion of the US — Spandau Ballet and the Axiom fashion collective take Manhattan by storm (1981)

Blitz club, London 1979, Wilf, Stephen Linard, 2010, Worried About the Boy, Boy George, Daniel Wallace,Douglas Booth

Left, real Blitz Kids – right, the TV version… George’s boyfriend Wilf and fashion student Stephen Linard in 1979 (picture, Andy Rosen)… Daniel Wallace as a Linard lookalike and Douglas Booth as Boy George in Worried About the Boy, 2010 (BBC)

7  ➢ How real did 1980 feel? Ex-Blitz Kids give verdicts on the 2010 TV drama about Boy George’s teen years, Worried About the Boy

8  ➢ Hockney’s new vision of the world — Britain’s favourite artist reveals his insights into cubism (1983)

9  ➢ Paradise Point: live leaders of a new Brit pop blitz (2010)

i-D 1980

Seminal spread in i-D issue one: the straight-up style of photography is established with, at left, one then unknown New Romantic and, right, one punkette. Photographed on the King’s Road by Steve Johnston

10  ➢ ‘i-D counts more than fashion’ — launch of the
street-style bible in 1980

11  ➢ 19 gay kisses in pop videos that made it past the censor

12  ➢ Who’s who in the New London Weekend — key clubs that set the capital swinging (1983)

13  ➢ Aside from the freaks, George, who else came to your 50th birthday party? (2011)

© Shapersofthe80s

Londres est arrivée au Palace, 1982: classic set, nouveaux styles. Pictures © by Shapersofthe80s

14  ➢ Steve Strange takes fashion to the French — six British designers rock Le Palace in Paris (1982)

15  ➢ Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace — power play among the new non-working class (1983)

16  ➢ Who are the New Romantics? — A mainstream deejay’s guide published by Disco International (1981)

Spandau Ballet, 1980

Houseband of the Blitz club: at the London megaclub Heaven Spandau Ballet play their tenth live date on 29 Dec 1980. From left, Steve Norman, Tony Hadley, Martin Kemp, Gary Kemp, plus John Keeble on drums. © Shapersofthe80s

17  ➢ They said it — landmark quotes about the decade of change by the people who made it happen

18  ➢ Rich List puts George Michael top of the popstars from the un-lucrative 80s (2010)

19  ➢ Comeback Shard comfy as ‘Auntie Sade’ — an enduring star who made 2010 her own

20 ➢ Robbie Vincent: 35 years as master of hot cuts and getting our “rhythm buds” going (2011)

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30 years ago ➤ The day Vivienne and Malcolm realised the end was nigh

End of the world: The last public appearance together by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, Oct 17, 1983. As they take the applause for their Paris show, a bitter battle for control of the Worlds End label is raging behind the scenes. Picture © by Shapersofthe80s

End of the world 30 years ago: The last public appearance together by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, Oct 17, 1983. As they take the applause for their Paris show, a bitter battle for control of the Worlds End label is raging behind the scenes. Photographed © by Shapersofthe80s

➢ My Evening Standard exclusive breaks the news
of a parting of the ways – read it inside Shapersofthe80s

First published in the Evening Standard, Nov 4, 1983

First published in the Evening Standard, Nov 4, 1983

Vivienne Westwood, fashion, retail

Guess who’s still in business today: Vivienne Westwood as triumphant tribal queen in a new portrait posted only this week at Facebook

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2011 ➤ Picky people’s year-ending Best Ofs from fashion, TV, web and film

BEST TV SHOWS OF THE YEAR

Being Human, TV series,thisisfakediy,Aidan Turner, Smallville
DIY claims to be one of the most visited underground music sites in the UK. Its TV watcher David Bedwell reckons TV in 2011 was arguably stronger than it ever has been, and picks his ten best shows, from Smallville to Being Human [pictured]. Of series three he writes: “Proud to be able to put a UK show at the top of my chart this year — there was no better central cast than Lenora Crichlow, Russell Tovey and Aidan Turner. They all have the ability to make you laugh or cry, sometimes even both.”

ANDREW LOGAN’S ALT BEAUTY PAGEANT

British Guide To Showing Off ,Andrew Logan, Alternative Miss World,beauty, pageant

The British Guide to Showing Off was a new movie by Jes Benstock celebrating the 12 incarnations over 40 years of Andrew Logan [pictured] and his Alternative Miss World contest — “Mashed potato for daywear. For evening wear she was a giant chip.”

CHRIS SULLIVAN’S TEN BEST FILMS

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❏ No 4 in ZeitgeistMeister Sullivan’s choice at Red Bull is Almodovar’s stylish thriller The Skin I Live In.

A FEAST OF ART BOOKS

Weather Project ,Olafur Eliasson , Tate Modern , art books,

Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson at Tate Modern, photographed by Dan Chung for the Guardian

❏ The Guardian critic Peter Conrad weighs up the year’s art books discussing the point of galleries and installations such as The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson at Tate Modern [pictured]. He finds David Hockney enthusing like a teenager about the iPhone and iPad, and genius springing from the man who gave us the shower scene in Psycho.

I-D: A YEAR IN PICTURES

i-D magazine,Terry Jones,fashion

❏ Magazine publisher Terry Jones brought us “32 covers that capture fashion’s diversity” from a year of designer collaborations, and parties such as the i-D and Alberto Guardiani Milanese fashion week rave “which will go down in history”.

PRINCESS JULIA’S TIP-TOP TUMBLRS TO FOLLOW

Hannah Metz , Princess Julia, Tumblr,blogging,
❏ In her wider wrap-up of the year, the international club deejay and Blitz era icon, Princess Julia, elicits even more fave Tumblrs from the five bloggers she chooses, who include the epitome of all that is beautiful and girly, lingerie-designer and artist, Hannah Metz [above].

DONNY SLACK’S 12 PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Donny Slack, Chap magazine,❏ The socialite musician, actor and spirit of the night Donny Slack records these highlights of his year at Facebook … Patti Smith’s Mapplethorpe book, Keith Richards’ book,
 PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake,
 Adam Ant at O2, Last Tuesday Society Halloween Party
, The Chap magazine
, Metronomy album, Patrick Wolf’s Lupercalia
, John Waters at the Festival Hall, Alice Cooper’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare album and I’ll Bite Your Face Off single, A Child Of The Jago collections, and Earl of Bedlam launching.

➢ Now visit: Other picky people’s year-ending
Best Ofs in music of all styles

THE THREE BEST-PAID MODELS

Gisele Bundchen, models, Forbes magazine, top-earners❏ Forbes magazine lists the top earners of 2011 beginning with the Brazilian Gisele Bündchen ($45m, pictured), Heidi Klum ($20m) and Kate Moss ($13.5m)… There is no list of the highest-earning male models because they earn a lot less than female models. According to Forbes: “A top male model may take home anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 annually, but most make a less glamorous living from catalog work.”

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2011 ➤ i-D Now reveals trade secrets and catches up with Scarlett from Cha-Cha

i-D NOW, pop-up exhibition ,Red Gallery ,photography, fashion,style,

i-D NOW: a pop-up exhibition at the Red Gallery in Hoxton

❚ THE ORIGINAL FASHION AND STYLE BIBLE, i-D, has decided to celebrate its 31st birthday with i-D NOW. This is a pop-up exhibition of historic covers, plus interactive events featuring industry-leaders, in conjunction with the Taschen anthology, i-D Covers 1980–2010, which was published last year. The event aims to give a behind-the-scenes look at how some of those covers and their hallmark winks were created.

Scarlett Cannon ,Helen Carey ,i-D magazine, i-D Now, exhibition

Straight-up from i-D issue 003: Scarlett Cannon and Helen Carey photographed by Thomas Degen

Details are being announced tantalisingly via Twitter but known tasters include past i-D fashion editor and broadcaster Caryn Franklin leading a discussion about fashion.

There’s a musical treat from boilerroom.tv and photographer Billy Ballard is staging a couple of Beauty Now shoots while i-D makeup expert Lucy Bridge does the styling. Other contributions will come from i-D family members including Terry Jones, Richard Buckley, Pat McGrath, Nick Knight, Simon Foxton and Edward Enninful.

i-D magazine,Scarlett Cannon,Head to Toe Guide,1982

i-D issue 008: Scarlett photographed by Thomas Degen

Coincidentally, by way of promoting the pop-up, i-D Online catches up with a couple of style-setters who first appeared together in a straight-up shot for the magazine’s third issue back in 1981. This was the height of the Pose Age when Scarlett Cannon and her startling haircut fronted the ultra-hip Cha-Cha club and she subsequently became the cover girl on i-D’s eighth issue.

Helen Carey with her own unique hairplay worked with designer Martin Degville in Kensington Market, where she was pictured here by Shapersofthe80s. They’re still up for striking a pose 30 years on, during which time Scarlett tells me she been “in full-blown glamorous gardening mode” as a garden tutor and food-growing consultant, among other things. For i-D she talks about her friend Helen’s business Vintage Vacations, which offers holiday retreats in classic silver American trailers.

➢ Read Scarlett’s piece Take A Vintage Vacation at i-D Online

➢ i-D NOW is a pop-up exhibition at London’s Red Gallery, 3 Rivington Street, EC2A 3DT (Sep 1–18, 11am–8pm, closed Sundays). For minute-by-minute updates visit #iDNOW on Twitter

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