June 5th 2003
Steve Strange and Friend
Photograph by Cableimages.com
Tonight sees one of the bashes of the year as Steve Strange the former lead vocalist of 80‘s chart topping band Visage and Club Entrepreneur celebrates his birthday in style at London club Sway. Steve first came to prominence around 1978 as a new style of club scene was launched. It started in Meard Street, Soho, on a Tuesday night at a club called Billy‘s. DJ Rusty Egan and Steve Strange provided the setting for a mixture of art students, hairdressers and fashion designers to become precursors for the New Romantic movement which defined the next style in music - a cross between the emerging New Wave (Ultravox, Gary Numan, etc.) and an escape from the reactionary image of punk. Three factors contributed to the success of the club: the music was sophisticated and danceable (Roxy Music, Kraftwerk, Human League and David Bowie), there was no violence, and the participants ultra-chic appearance. Billy‘s became too small and Tuesday nights moved across town to Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, in 1979, Blitz became the new location for these early rave parties and the yardstick by which all other clubs have been measured.
Club for Heroes became the place to be seen in 1981. When everyone else started to do it, the duo raised close to a million pounds and transformed an old cinema (The Music Machine) into the first "full-time" club location called Camden Palace in April 1982, "Slum it in Style" on Tuesdays was the place to be. Where did Steve Strange fit into this picture? Starting out as a shop assistant at PX, he became the doorman (notorious at Blitz for letting in David Bowie but not Mick Jagger) in the early days and hosted Club for Heroes and Camden Palace. He also designed Visage and described the music as Futuristic.
Now two decades on following the recent success of his Chasing the Dragon night, it seems that Mr Strange has received another visitation from deep space for he has launched a new decadent and shimmering night - PcokZ at Sway in London. Perhaps the aliens have become bored with the last few years of Earth‘s musical and club offerings and feel it is time to set things right!
Many Happy Returns
from the
Celebritiesworldwide Team!
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
