We were soon to be distracted by other suitors and opportunities. Steve Strange, Soundtrack: Laurence Anyways. This Morning is promoting a programme about The Blitz Club. We had exploded from a standing start like Usain Bolt. ✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent returns to JazzFM Sundays 1-3pm from Easter 2021… Catch up on Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”. When they got back to London, they all went clubbing at Hell, “He said it was a great scene and asked me if I would like to appear in the video for his next single, Ashes To Ashes. ❏ 40 YEARS AGO, on a warm London May evening, at the Scala Cinema, which was then situated on the rather nondescript Tottenham Street, in the heart of what is now Fitzrovia, Spandau Ballet and its previously underground sub-sect of youth culture emerged blinking into the daylight. When I originally wrote about Major Tom I thought I knew all about the great American dream and where it started and where it should stop. The Blitz is a wargaming community with a family atmosphere in which we all share the great passion of playing our favorite computer war games. Years later, Bowie told author Nicholas Pegg that with Ashes to Ashes he was “wrapping up the Seventies really” for himself, which “seemed a good enough epitaph”. THIS ONLY KNOWN VINTAGE FOOTAGE of the original Blitz Kids turning their club into a fashion runway in its heyday was discovered while Spandau Ballet were researching their documentary biopic Soul Boys of the Western World, being released in the UK in October 2014. Accompanied by our newly appointed lawyer, Brian Carr, the band and I went to meet Chris at the Island HQ in London, a large relaxed converted villa on St Peter’s Square in Hammersmith. First published today at Spandau Ballet’s website, ➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: He is particularly known for being a prominent member of the Punk sub-cultural and New Romantic pop … Sign in to manage your newsletter preferences. Most are sporting bow ties – Gary Kemp on synth at left, Tony Hadley as vocalist, with Steve Norman and Martin Kemp on guitars held high in their anti-rock stance. 2011 ➤ Relive Duran’s 30th-anniversary comeback with All You Need Is Now. Spandau Ballet, the Blitz kids and the birth of the New Romantics A movement that went on to dominate the charts and fashion worldwide grew out of a small club … Spandau Ballet fitted the club. It all seemed so right. An emphasis on style was ensured by enforcing a strict dress code at the door. Bowie’s chorus near Hastings, July 1980: Polaroid snapped by a crew member on the beach during filming of Ashes to Ashes with Blitz Kids Steve Strange, Darla-Jane Gilroy, Judi Frankland and Elise Brazier keeping warm in a mackintosh between takes. I was delighted when I was handed my wages of £50 by a member of the production team. Thanks! Steve Dagger publishes his eye-witness account…. He died on February 12, 2015 in Sharm El Sheikh International Hospital, Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt. Strange, singer with Visage and former manager of the Blitz club in London, has died of a heart attack in Egypt at the age of 55 . The black-and-white stills collaged into the segment are Shapersofthe80s originals, and the closing seconds are from LWT’s 20th-Century Box. UK. When gender bending was all the rage and very 'Pop'. © Steve Dagger It was a bold effective tactic. Darla-Jane Gilroy wore an ecclesiastical black velvet dress designed and made by herself, silk grosgrain coat and white collar with crucifix, plus a Stephen Jones hat. London was a grey, ugly place during the “Winter of Discontent” so the club was, says Robert Elms, like “a firework display: explosive and exciting”. of Spandau Ballet, ➢ Spooky or what? Weasel Wrote:Ok, that was my old system, 3K/mhz with 1 gig ram and I could run GW but it would chug in a convoy.I upgraded to a dual core 4200 with 2 gig ram and a modern video card X1950 pro and I play at top of the line settings no problems. All soon to merge together into “Club Culture”. See more ideas about club kids, blitz kids, new romantics. Stunning archive footage reminds us of its decadent vibe and how extraordinary you had to look to get in — even Mick Jagger was once turned away at the door. He came with a purpose – to whisk away four of the most outlandish Blitz Kids to strut with his pierrot through the video for his new number, Ashes to Ashes, from an imminent new album. ❏ On the 5th of December 1979, Spandau Ballet was born. The band finished their set. (Photograph © by Steve Brown, processed by Shapersofhe80s). Ex-Blitz Kids give verdicts on the TV play about Boy George, Worried About the Boy in 2010, Posted in anniversary, BBC, Blitz Kids, interviews, London, New Romantics, Pop music, Reviews, Swinging 80s, TV documentary, Youth culture, Tagged A Fine Romance, Blitz club, Duran Duran, Rusty Egan, Spandau Ballet, Steve Strange. It was most certainly an event. He had changed his look and his sound so many times, there were more than enough images to go round. On New Year’s Eve as the 80s started, I remember feeling utterly satisfied with the band’s progress in the last month. It had the atmosphere of a bizarre red carpet event before a film premiere. “Who is their manager.” He was an actor, known for Laurence Anyways (2012), Urban Cowboy (1980) and Welcome to the 80's (2009). The most important club in the world at that time. The poor guy was disturbed by it all, to say the least. For a while. “It’s Spandau Ballet,” I said. “To Cut a Long Story” sounded like a massive hit. Chris showed us around. Tony sang brilliantly. The new name sounded f*cking great. Writer/artist Chris Sullivan is nominally a Welshman who revealed roots that led to a grandfather who’d been a bouncer at the capital’s Windmill Theatre, while BBC London broadcaster Robert Elms is a paid-up Cockney in all but the Bow Bells bit, with a mum who was a clippie on the buses at age 15. Then they showed us the terms of the deal they were proposing. It was spectacular! I think the band realised collectively it was now or never and they seized the moment and started to play confidently and with a bit of swagger. ✱ Rewind Festival 2021 confirms favourite 80s icons for Scotland, North and South during July and August. Watch London Can Take It!, a film documenting the spirit of Londoners during the Blitz London Can Take It!, a documentary tribute to the endurance of Londoners during the Blitz, narrated by American war correspondent Quentin Reynolds and sponsored by the British Ministry of … I think he was a friend of Chris’s from public school. People like Boy George, Steve Strange, Phillip Sallon, Spandeu Ballet, Marilyn, & many others were a regular here before fame. The combined word of mouth powers of Chris Sullivan, Graham Ball, Robert Elms and Graham Smith reached every hip club person in London. Sample this initial, “I’m not a rock star” Bowie often said – No, David, you were a messiah, Prince Rogers Nelson RIP: ‘A funny cat’ and ‘sole authentic genius’ of the 1980s, 1980, Steve Strange’s call to join the party, 1980, Who was who in Spandau’s break-out year, 69 Dean Street and the making of UK club culture, 1978, When French semioticians come stalking Le Palace, you know it’s serious, 1981, Six golden rules for keeping Studio 54 ahead of the pack, 1981: Quest for the most unbelievably unpalatable cocktail, 1983, Posing with a purpose at the Camden Palace, 1983, Who’s who in the New London Weekend, 1980, Bowie recruits Blitz Kids for his Ashes video, 1981, The Romantics – a mainstream deejay’s guide, 1982, Strange takes fashion to the French, 2010, Blitz Kids review the play about Boy George, 2018, More unseen Blitz pix offered for sale, 130+ acts who set the style for the new music of the 1980s, 1980 ➤ Starting gun for British clubland bands, 1981, Blue Rondo create a new buzz with Latin sounds and an extreme suited dude look, 1982, Sade’s first foray to New York City, 2009, On tour with the reformed Spandau Ballet, 2010, Spandau overseas: so British, so gracious, 2010, Paradise Point: live leaders of a new Brit pop blitz, 1980, Blitz Kids’ outfits start making headlines, 1980, First steps by Hatter Stephen Jones, 1983, Crucial tipping point for the UK’s Fashion First Team, 1983, Showdown for Worlds End, Vivienne and Malcolm, 1980, ‘Your i-D counts more than fashion’, 1982, Ten years of dance and stance led by the Gold Mine, 1983, Hacienda navigates the coalition of all the cults, 1983, Deciphering the code of the Padded Cell, 1983, Shock report on art-schools in crisis, 1983, When Alternative wasn’t trendy and Trendy was naff, 1983, Jay Strongman on the year of Go For It, 1962, One TV show changes the way the British laugh, 1966, More popular than Jesus: the Lennon interview, 1970 – Dusty at 30: coming out to Ray Connolly, 1983: Showdown for Worlds End, Vivienne and Malcolm, 1984, Shenanigans behind the Band Aid hit single, 2001 ➤ Blitz Kids nail the rites for a Tuesday night out, 1980 ➤ Why Bowie came recruiting Blitz Kids for his Ashes to Ashes video, ➤ Sullivan & Elms relive their clubland double act, 2020 ➤ Steve Dagger recalls Spandau Ballet’s fifth gig and why it detonated their lift-off, 1979 ➤ Spandau’s manager Steve Dagger tells of two offers to sign his band at their debut, 2021 ➤ Spandau’s Gary Kemp goes solo with a love song for the Radio 2 audience, ➤ Duran reveal secrets behind their songs. After looking around, it will be easy to see that we support a large number of computer war games that cover a wide range of historical time frames. Published: 12 Feb 2015 New Romantic pioneer Steve Strange dies. Heritage award from the Performing Rights Society: In September 2014 Spandau Ballet returned to the site of the Blitz Club to see a plaque installed remembering their debut. He introduced us to Nick Stewart, an A&R man who was to be our point person. There were photographers recording the scene. Fellow Blitz Kids modelled a stylish collision of Space 1999 meets liturgical gothic, strutting to the Human League’s newest release, Empire State Human. But Spandau Ballet’s two performances there and subsequent meteoric rise to success did much to drive this tiny club and its spectacular cliental [clientele? After looking around, it will be easy to see that we support a large number of computer war games that cover a wide range of historical time frames. Hammer Horror met Rank starlet. I woke the next day thinking I’d dreamt it and you know I guarded that communal pay phone on the landing like a rottweiler until she did: be outside the Hilton the next morning, Thursday, she said, at some ungodly hour, fully dressed and made up the same way I had been at the Blitz, and to get the coach to a secret location. The only band that could play in the Blitz. I felt unbelievably relaxed and comfortable, empowered, and the band very confident, entitled energised. Prompted by the waves the band had been making, this – only their fifth live concert – was recorded by London Weekend Television and provided lift-off for the band’s ambitions. I wore flats which was a wise choice. ❚ TODAY WAS THE DAY in 1980 when London’s now fabled Blitz Club was blessed by a visit from David Bowie. , simply ask day, I spoke to Chris Blackwell and I own Island Records, and are happy give! 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