Blitz Club
The Blitz Club was founded by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan. Steve was invited to London by Billy Idol. His first job was designing artwork for Malcolm MacClaren and The Sex Pistols. Rusty was the drummer in punk /new wavers 'The Rich Kids'. They met on the Kings Road in 1978. After the Rich Kids disbanded we approached 'Billy's' club and told them "We'lll fill up your club on Tuesday nights!", they said yes. The club became the setting for a mixture of art students and fashion designers and music fans
The Blitz Years
The Blitz Club was already established as an existing bar. Steve and Rusty knew about it and liked it and in 1979 they moved their Tuesday nights there. The mixture of fashion, music and glamour provided a brighter alternative to the bleak streets and grey prospects in 1980s Britain. People often accuse The Blitz of being elitist... they were right...
With the embers of the first wave of punk fast burning out, the art school drop outs and degenerate-Dadaists weren't willing to follow the street punks towards OI! and it's newly planted proletarian roots. The Bowie influenced futurism of Strange and Egan's Blitz club was their new home. Little did they know that their hedonistic, haphazard detournement of past and future aesthetics and hurried forays through their mums makeup boxes was going to create a subcultural blueprint that would reach long into the future.
The Blitz Kids
The Blitz Kids was the name given to the main faces at the club, the original core of what became the New Romantics: Boy George, Marilyn, Perri Lister, Steve Dagger, Iain R Webb, Stephen Jones, Princess Julia, Philip Sallon, Carl Teper, Martin Degville and Robert Elms. Richard James Burgess (who coined the phrase “New Romantic” in an interview) was also a Blitz regular. We suggested he produce a young band called Spandau Ballet. They did their first gigs at The Blitz. "
Club For Heroes & Camden Palace
In October 1980, the Blitz Club night was temporarily put on hold. In the meantime, Visage had gone onto to be something
more than they had ever imagined it would with its first chart hit, Fade to Grey. Midge (Ure) and Billy Idol also went on
to do big things with Ultravox, and as a solo phenomenon (respectively). Whilst the New Romantic movement continued growing,
Steve and Rusty then moved on to our next ventures Club For Heroes (1981), and the Camden Palace (1982-84) which became one
of London’s first full-time clubs driven by new music and style.
The ethos of The Blitz carried on with Steve hosting and organizing and Rusty taking care of the music. Camden Palace featured many appearances of artists that either where already (or soon would be) household names... Madonna, Kraftwerk, Michael Jackson and Grace Jones. Steve & Rusty moved on from Camden Palace in 1984.
Warren Street squatters, drag queen, fashion hopefuls, burnt out punks - this fabulous ragbag of suburban fantasists, urban hustlers , wannabe sophisticates and eternal dreamers sashayed into the cramped confines of the Blitz like it was the Weimar in the 1930s. But outside it was Britain, lurching towards 1980, mass unemployment and class conflict. Our superheroes were no elitists ,but refugees from a class war they didn't belong in, penniless aesthetes creating bourgeois spectacles on dole queue budgets.
The Blitz Club - Worried About The Boy (BBC Two)
The Blitz Music Playlist
The list below is just a snapshot of a much larger body of music that Rusty personally selected, wove together, and presented to an audience ready and willing to devour new sounds and new styles.
Richard James Burgess (Member of Landscape, Shock and as Spandau Ballet's first producer) summed up the Blitz playlist as follows
"Rusty had concocted this amazing soundtrack for the Blitz club; and subsequently the movement. I still don't think he gets the credit he deserves for that. He was putting together music from artists like Bowie, Fad Gadget, Roxy Music, Eno, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ultravox, Kraftwerk and Landscape; choice cuts that all pointed in one direction. I got it right away. It was a like a shot of dopamine straight to the brain for me".
We will probably never know how many hundreds of records passed across Rusty's decks over the years. Doubtless many tracks became perennial favourites that were played again and again in subsequent clubs after the Blitz.
The Blitz Club playlist is maintained by Blitz Archivist Rob Kirby from ReVox Magazine
Blitz Club Playlist
Don Armando – Deputy of Love (12" full length version) 1979
Blondie – Heart of Glass (7" edit) 1978
David Bowie – Always Crashing in the Same Car (from the album Low) 1977
David Bowie – Be My Wife 1977
David Bowie – Helden (German 7" version) 1977
David Bowie – Sound & Vision 1977
David Bowie – D.J. (7" edit) 1979
David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes (7" edit) 1980
Cabaret Voltaire – Nag Nag Nag 1979
Wendy Carlos – Theme from a Clockwork Orange (Beethoviana) 1972
Cerrone – Supernature (12" full length version) 1977
Billy Cobham – Storm (from the album Crosswinds) 1974
Barry De Vorzon – Theme from The Warriors (from the soundtrack to The Warriors) 1979
Alice Cooper – Eighteen 1971
Cowboys International – Thrash 1979
Holger Czukay – Hollywood Symphony (from the album Movies) 1979
Sheila and B. Devotion – Spacer (12" full length version) 1979
Brian Eno – No One Receiving (from the album Before and after Science) 1977
Brian Eno – Kings Lead Hat 1978
Brian Eno and Snatch – RAF (b-side to King's Lead Hat 7") 1978
Eno, Moebius, Roedelius – Broken Head (from the album After the Heat) 1978
Fad Gadget – Ricky's Hand 1980
Marianne Faithful – Broken English (12" long version) 1979
Flying Lizards – Money (7" edit) 1979
John Foxx – No One Driving (7" remix) 1980
Peter Gabriel – Games without Frontiers (7" edit) 1980
Nina Hagen Band – TV Glotzer (White Punks on Dope) 1979
Human League – Being Boiled (from the 7" EP Holiday '80 and Travelogue album) 1980
Japan – Life in Tokyo (original 7" short version) 1979
Jean Michel Jarre – Equinoxe 4 (French 12" remix) 1978
Grace Jones – La Vie en Rose (7" edit) 1977
Joy Division – Atmosphere 1980
Kraftwerk – Radioactivity (7" edit) 1976
Kraftwerk – Trans Europe Express (7" edit) 1977
Kraftwerk – The Robots (original 7" edit) 1978
Kraftwerk – Das Model 1978
La Düsseldorf – La Düsseldorf (from the album La Düsseldorf) 1976
La Düsseldorf – Geld (from the album Viva) 1978
Landscape – U2XME1X2MUCH 1977
Landscape – European Man (7" version) 1980
Thomas Leer and Robert Rental – Day Breaks, Night Heals (from the album The Bridge) 1979
Lori and the Chameleons – Touch 1979
M – M Factor (UK version, b-side to Pop Muzik 7") 1979
Magazine – Touch and Go 1978
Mahler – Adagio from the 5th Symphony (from the soundtrack Death in Venice) 1971
Patrick D. Martin – I Like 'Lectric Motors 1979
Giorgio Moroder – The Chase (12" full length version) 1978
Ennio Morricone – 60 Seconds to What (La Resa Dei Conti) (from the soundtrack For a Few Dollars More) 1964
Mott the Hoople – All the Young Dudes 1972
Neu! – E-Musik (from the album Neu! '75) 1975
The Normal – Warm Leatherette (b-side to T.V.O.D. 7") 1978
Gary Numan & Tubeway Army – Down in the Park 1978
Gary Numan – Cars 1979
OMD – Electricity (7" re-recorded version) 1979
Iggy Pop – The Passenger (from the album Lust for Life) 1977
Iggy Pop – Nightclubbing (from the album The Idiot) 1977
The Psychedelic Furs – Sister Europe 1980
Lou Reed – Perfect Day 1972
Lou Reed – Vicious 1972
Lou Reed – Walk on the Wild Side (unedited album version) 1972
Rinder and Lewis – Willie and the Hand Jive 1979
Rockets – Space Rock (12" full length version) 1977
Michael Rother – Zyklodrom (from the album Flammende Herzen) 1977
Roxy Music – Do the Strand 1973
Roxy Music – Trash 1979
Roxy Music – Dance Away 1979
Roxy Music – Angel Eyes (7" remix) 1979
Shock – R.E.R.B. (b-side to Angel Face 7") 1980
Simple Minds – Changeling (original 7" version) 1980
Simple Minds – I Travel (7" edit) 1980
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Hong Kong Garden 1978
Sister Sledge – Lost In Music 1979
Space – Magic Fly 1977
Space – Carry On, Turn Me On (from the album Magic Fly) 1977
Spandau Ballet – To Cut a Long Story Short (12" extended version) 1980
Sparks – Number 1 Song in Heaven (7" edit) 1979
Donna Summer – I Feel Love (7" edit) 1977
Talking Heads – Psycho Killer 1977
Television – Little Johnny Jewel (Part 1 – 7" version) 1975
Television – Marque Moon (album version) 1977
Telex – Moskow Diskow (12" Maxi version, French vocal) 1979
Throbbing Gristle – Hot on the Heels of Love (from the deceptively named album 20 Jazz Funk Greats) 1979
Harry Thumann – Underwater (12" version) 1979
Ultravox – Hiroshima Mon Amour (re-recording from the album Ha! Ha! Ha!) 1977
Ultravox – Slow Motion 1978
Ultravox – Dislocation 1978
Ultravox – Quiet Men (12" full length version) 1978
Ultravox – Sleepwalk 1980
Vangelis – Pulstar 1976
The Velvet Underground – I'm Waiting for the Man 1973
Vice Versa – New Girls Neutrons (from the 7" EP 4 Music) 1979
Visage – Tar (original 7" mix) 1979
Visage – Frequency 7 (original version, b-side to Tar 7") 1979
Visage – Fade to Grey (12" extended version) 1980
Jeff Wayne – Eve of the War (7" edit) 1978
Wire – I am the Fly 1978
Gina X – No GDM (7" edit) 1979
Yello – Bimbo 1979
Yello – I.T. Splash (full length Swiss 7" version) 1979
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Computer Game (Theme from The Invaders) 1979
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Behind the Mask 1980
Who Were The Blitz Kids?
Kim Bowen, Stephen Jones, Dylan Jones, Julia Fodor, Lee Sheldrick, Stephen Linard, George O'Dowd, Andy Polaris, Kim Whitmore, Fiona Dealey, Perri Lister, Iain R Webb, Carl Teper, Judith Frankland, Theresa Thurmer, Michelle Clapton, Richard Ostell, Clare Thom, Greg Davis, Caryn Franklin, Eric and David Holah, John Maybury, Cerith Wyn Evans, Willy Brown, Christos Tolera, Grayson Perry, Sade Adu, Darla-Jane Gilroy, Melissa Caplan, Michelle Clapton, Francesca von Thyssen, Robert Durant, Robert Laws, Pam Hogg, Judy Blame, Lesley Chilkes, Jayne Chilkes, Perry Haines, Scarlett, Myra, Dexter Wong, Dinny Hall, Kate Garner, Jeremy Healy, Steve Mahoney, Ollie O'Donnell, Jimmy O'Donnell, Jo Strettell, Chris Sullivan, Simon Withers, Graham Smith, Graham Ball, Robert Elms, Steve Dagger, Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Richard James Burgess, Steve Lewis, Steve Norman, Gary and Martin Kemp, John and Flea Keeble, Tony Hadley, Christos Tolera, Jon (Mole) Baker, Peter Ashworth, Peter (Marilyn) Robinson, Stewart Mechem, Peter Probert, Rose Turner, Rachel Auburn, Paul Sturridge, Steve Beech, Robert Pereno, Bic Owen, Jelena Lakovick, Mandy d'Witt, Jo Hargreaves, Naomi Gryn, Christine Binnie, Holly Warburton, Bailey Walsh, Sue Clowes, Vivienne Lynn, Jennifer Binnie, Tracey Rivers, Philip Sallon, Wilf Rogers, Jeffrey Hinton, Dencil Williams, Paul Bernstock, Thelma Speirs, Dean Bright, Wilma Johnson, Daryl Humphries, Barry O'Dea, Michael Hurd, Paranoid Pete, Jacqueline Capron, Tim Dry, Barbie Wilde, Haley Harris, Peter Godwin, Karl Adams, Babs Mahon, Swede Mahoney, Mac London, John Barclay, Jill McComish, Robert Gordon, Helen Carey, Martin Degville, Kenny Campbell, Robert G Leach, Caroline Des Noettes Harper, Claire Mendelsohn, Chris Buxbaum, Bob Cleary, Debra Rossiter Guterres, Donna Waite, Franceska Luther King, Nigel Stark, Sioux Peto, John Barclay, Gabriella Palmano, Teresa Hartrey, Sue Scadding, Paul Disney, Claire Mendelsohn, Paul Frecker, Corinne Drewery, Helen Carey, Wendy May, Mark May, Wendy Tiger ... PLUS those trendsetters from an earlier chapter of London's story, including Duggie Fields, Kevin Whitney, Luciana Martinez, Michael and Gerlinda Kostiff, Andrew Logan, Brian Clarke, Richard Sharah, Marie Helvin, Gilbert and George ...