Tag Archives: Swinging 80s

➤ Remembering Steve Strange: Today’s tweet from Midge Ure

Posted on 12 Feb 2016 | Leave a comment

Midge Ure, Rusty Egan, Steve Strange,,anniversary, death, Visage, pop music, Blitz Kids, New Romantics

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❏ To which Rusty Egan, Steve’s partner in the Blitz Club and other landmark ventures that helped create the Swinging 80s, replies:

“ For 2 years prior to this unfortunate event Steve and I were embroiled in a public feud. Sadly we did not kiss and make up and I like most people was shocked he left us so young. RIP Steve. I have still got a few things I need to do… will sort that biz out later. ”

Visage, Swinging 80s, pop music, Blitz Kids, New Romantics,Midge Ure, Rusty Egan, Steve Strange, Dave Formula , Billy Currie

Visage 1980, left to right: Midge Ure, Rusty Egan, Steve Strange, Dave Formula and Billy Currie. (Photo © Denis O’Regan)

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
2015, Original Blitz Kids say farewell to Steve Strange – read exclusive tributes to the King of the Posers

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
1980, One week in the private worlds of the new young

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s:
Catch up on New Romantic landmarks reported here at Shapers of the 80s

➢ Read the story of Spandau Ballet, the Blitz Kids and the birth of the New Romantics at The Observer, by Yours Truly

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

Tagged anniversary, Billy Currie, Blitz Kids, Dave Formula, death, Midge Ure, New Romantics, Rusty Egan, Steve Strange, Swinging 80s, Twitter, Visage

➤ Spicy new survey from Derek Ridgers celebrates the wild hours between dusk and sunrise

Posted on 20 Nov 2015 | Leave a comment

books, Carpet Bombing Culture,photography, nightlife, London, UK, youth culture, street style, Dark Carnival, Derek Ridgers

Clubbers at the Astoria in 2000 photographed by Derek Ridgers

◼ HERE’S A PROMO VIDEO FEATURING some preposterous talking heads who include photographer Yasmine Akim and dancer Constantine Flowerz, describing a new large-format book of spicy photographs from Derek Ridgers’ travels through London clubland… The Dark Carnival: Portraits from the Endless Night is being published next week by Carpet Bombing Culture.

If you’re in it, you’ll be on the list for the launch party on Friday 27th from 5pm at the Lights of Soho gallery, followed on by a free Soho Swag night from 9.30pm at the 68 and Boston bar at the top end of Greek Street, hosted by 80s shapers Christos Tolera and Chris Sullivan.

The Dark Carnival is Derek’s second book published this month. He modestly calls it “my 40-year wander through nightclubs” but this delicous cornucopia selected by Derek himself proves much more of an adult shocker where anything goes on the themes of sexuality, seduction and shame (lack of), with eye-poppers shot at Anarchy, Smack, Submission, Wacko, Wicked, Rubber Ball and coming right up to date at Torture Garden.

➢ Buy The Dark Carnival direct from Carpet Bombing Culture, 216 huge pages for £30

photography, nightlife, London, UK, youth culture, books, Carpet Bombing Culture,street style, Dark Carnival, Derek Ridgers

Anonymous clubber in Brixton 2011 photographed by Derek Ridgers

AUDIO UPDATE: ROBERT ELMS INTERVIEWS DEREK ON BBC RADIO LONDON 9 dec 2015

+++
Q: Does this kind of nightlife still exist?

“Yes it does. It’s not quite so focussed today and readily categorisable. Hardly any of the little basement clubs are left in Soho. I think the St Moritz is the only one” – Derek Ridgers on BBC Radio London

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Posted in books, Clubbing, History, London, photography, Youth culture

Tagged Carpet Bombing Culture, Christos Tolera, Constantine Flowerz, Dark Carnival, Derek Ridgers, Interview, Lights of Soho, New Romantics, nightlife, Robert Elms, Soho Swag, street style, Swinging 80s, UK, Yasmine Akim, youth culture

1980s ➤ The Ridgers lens lays bare the pursuit of love

Posted on 18 Nov 2015 | Leave a comment

The Others, Derek Ridgers, Idea Books, youth culture, nightlife, London, Swinging 80s, Dover Street Market, photography, style,

London 1984: if this is you, come to the party! Photo © Derek Ridgers

◼ IF THIS PHOTO SHOWS YOU perfecting the horizontal jig in a London club in 1984, you’ll find yourselves immortalised in the latest book by photographer Derek Ridgers, titled The Others. The collection captures young love in all its clubland guises and if you spot yourself in this gallery why not email info [a t] idea-books.com and ask to come to the London launch this Thursday, 19 Nov?

Between 1980 and 1986 Ridgers and his candid lens couldn’t help following the pursuit of romance among the lovers, the loveless, the lonely and the last to leave in nightclubs as disparate as Gossip’s, Planets, Great Wall, Batcave, Feltham Football & Social Club, Flick’s, Lyceum, Le Beat Route, Camden Palace, Taboo and many more.

These snogging couples represent Britain’s many subcultural tribes who expressed distinct affinities in the early 80s through personal style and musical tastes. The book’s foreword says its intriguingly contradictory title describes the “other” clubbers who had enough attitude *not* to get rejected by the greeters on the doors of London’s finest clubs. It would make more sense to call these kids The Chosen Ones. Once inside a club, however, they got their priorities right and relegated posing into second place behind the down-to-earth goal that was really on their minds.

The Ridgers images capture all the fun and frailty and the frissons of exploring your youthful identity among like-minded tribalists in ways the publisher was probably trying to nail: a sense of “otherness” that characterised many subcultures in that austere and intolerant era. Whether brave or tentative, outsiders or players, they were helping shift attitudes in dark and stylish cellars across the land. They re-energised Britain by mobilising the talents in which the young excel: through music, clothes, haircuts and romance.

The Others is priced £35 for 124 pages in a limited edition exclusively available at Dover Street Market London and New York, Ginza and the Comme des Garcons Trading Museum in Paris, as well as Marc Jacobs’ Bookmarc stores in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Tokyo. And online from Idea Books.

Big hair, 80s-style: Mohican and his captive. Photo © Derek Ridgers

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Posted in Clubbing, Fashion, London, North America, photography, Social trends, Youth culture

Tagged Derek Ridgers, Dover Street Market, Idea Books, London, nightlife, romance, Style, Swinging 80s, The Others, youth culture

2015 ➤ Hot revelations from the Flexipop book party

Posted on 25 Sep 2015 | Leave a comment

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books,Barry Cain, Tim Lott, Red Gallery

Flexipop founders: Tim Lott and Barry Cain at Red Gallery last night. (Photographed by © Shapersofthe80s)

◼ THREE DECADES AFTER the maverick monthly music magazine Flexipop closed, guilty names were named during last night’s book launch at Shoreditch’s coolest new venue, the Red Gallery. During a Q&A with the mag’s founders Barry Cain and Tim Lott, they confessed that the three most difficult artists to deal with in those heady days of Britain’s burgeoning pop scene were. . . [X-Factor-style pause] . . . Tears for Fears and . . . Paul Weller and . . . the American new-wave band Blondie! Lott tactlessly remarked that what surprised him most was that singer Debbie Harry had “a huge head out of all proportion with her body” – which clearly means he really had a thing about blondes.

Whinging hosts apart, guests at their party were distinctly more polite. Generating tidal waves of affection was the original 2 Tone rude girl Pauline Black, who was happy to chat about this summer’s new album titled Subculture 36 years after her band The Selecter set out, having survived two splits and reunions, and now poised for a UK tour. . . Exchanging gossip beneath the “Free hugs” notice we found veteran 80s popsters Christos Tolera (Blue Rondo à la Turk) and Phil Bloomberg (Polecats). . . Catching up on the music du jour were the gifted jazzer Mark Reilly (Matt Bianco, still going strong and knocking out albums every few years) and the ubiquitous Andy Polaris (Animal Nightlife, long defunct) who these days injects magic into the windows of the UK’s trendiest Oxfam in Dalston. . .

Click any pic below to launch slideshow

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, Pauline Black, Selecter,

Pauline Black with friends Ella and Jim . . . All photos © Shapersofthe80s

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, Barry Cain, Tim Lott, Neil Matthews

Q&A with Barry Cain, Tim Lott, Neil Matthews

Mark Reilly, Andy Polaris,Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, ,

80s superstars Mark Reilly and Andy Polaris

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, Soft Cell

Flexipop strip satirising Soft Cell

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, Neil Matthews

Neil Mackenzie Matthews with his photo exhibit

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, Toyah

Lensman Neil Matthews and Toyah, immortalised wearing his bunny ears

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books, Christos Tolera, Phil Bloomberg

Free hugs from Christos Tolera and Phil Bloomberg

Flexipop, pop music, London, Swinging 80s, books,

Flexipop readers’ all-time fave tracks

Powering through the crowd was photographer Neil Mackenzie Matthews, eager to push his exhibition of pop-star photos printed on smart Somerset paper and selling at very affordable prices. He produced some flopsy-bunny big ears which apparently was the prop he invited stars of the 80s to wear in front of his camera. We saw immortalised on a poster the playful chanteuse Toyah Willcox, though Neil recalled how, despite having bought the ears as a gift for the precious Ian McCulloch of Echo and The Bunnymen (geddit?), he refused outright to see their entertainment value.

It was Flexipop’s belief that all celebs should be humiliated at every turn. As further proof, souvenirs of the magazine’s heyday were visible everywhere, including a blown-up cartoon strip satirising Marc Almond as a “sex dwarf” and Dave Ball his partner in Soft Cell as a beer-swilling “mega-hunk”. Writs for libel were due to be served at midnight.

Flexipop’s trademark plastic 7-inch discs were being dispensed free, after unsold supplies were recently unearthed in Cain’s mum’s garage – and “still playable”, assuming you have a wind-up gramophone.

Apparently Paul Weller couldn’t get along to the party as he was collecting some award as Modest Mod-father of Them All.

➢ The big public Flexipop! book launch party
for charity starts at 7.30pm tonight 25 Sept at the Red Gallery, London EC2A 3DT – tickets £20 at door

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Posted in London, Media, Pop music, Youth culture

Tagged Barry Cain, Books, Flexipop, London, Neil Matthews, Pauline Black, Red Gallery, Soft Cell, Swinging 80s, Tim Lott, Toyah Willcox

➤ Steve Strange’s family ask fans to respect his funeral service

Posted on 27 Feb 2015 | 3 comments

Steve Strange, Steven Harrington, Blitz Kids, New Romantics, funeral, Wales, Tanya Harrington

Steve Strange in Wales with his sister Tanya

❚ THURSDAY 12 MARCH HAS BEEN SET as the date for Steven Harrington’s funeral, known to most of us as Steve Strange, the singer frontman for the 80s pop group Visage. Plans for the day are now different from earlier reports, as his family have been overwhelmed by the public response to Steve’s sudden death from a heart attack in Egypt. Shapers of the 80s has received more than 21,000 visits since publishing the many moving tributes by Steve’s friends among the original Blitz Kids.

Steve Strange, Steven Harrington, Blitz Kids, New Romantics, funeral, Wales, mother

Steve Strange at home with his mother Gill who is renowned for her cooking

Today, the person coordinating all the arrangements, Steve’s personal assistant and family friend Amanda Lloyd, has asked us to set out the family’s wishes, after rather exaggerated claims by friends were reported at Wales Online and were taken up by other national media.

The family remain shocked by the suddenness of Steve’s death. Amanda says: “It was so unexpected. I miss him terribly. A lot of other people are missing him, he was such a lovely guy.”

She admits the flamboyant side of Steve would probably be pretty pleased with all the attention the past fortnight has generated but she stresses that Steve’s family hope the church service won’t become a media event. It is intended to be an intimate celebration of his life for his family and for Steve’s close personal friends, such as musicians Martin and Gary Kemp and Steve Norman, who wish to attend. Essentially, invitation-only friends will be name-checked on the door. (Amanda asks Steve’s friends who wish to attend to contact her in advance directly or via Shapers of the 80s.)

“Steve’s family hope the church service
won’t become a media event”

A loudspeaker relay outside the church will enable members of the public to follow the service and those who wish to gather there are asked to respect the solemnity of the occasion – which might be a hard ask for some crazier members of Steve’s following! One highlight, Amanda says, will be the award-winning Bridgend male voice choir singing in both Welsh and English.

Steve Strange, Steven Harrington, Blitz Kids, New Romantics, funeral, Porthcawl, wake, Hi Tide Inn

Hi Tide Inn: venue for the wake

The free event that is open to the public follows in mid- afternoon at the huge Hi Tide Inn on the sea-front at Porthcawl. Members of Steve’s current band will be playing the music of Visage as a tribute, while screens will show his life on film. Amanda says: “Steve would have wanted his fans to enjoy a celebration of his life.” But let’s all remember that the occasion is a wake after all, and to respect the privacy of a family in mourning and of the close friends who are being invited into a secure area at the inn.

A larger event in tribute to Steve is likely to follow in central London around the time of his birthday in May, but details have not yet been confirmed.