The gift of new romantics

I would never have described myself as a new romantic. I hated being catagorised into a box. Goth didn’t exist and honestly post-punk feels the most comfortable fit for me back in the early 1980s.

What I didn’t realise at the time and it is only just beginning to hit me – is I lived in a very special time. I lived in a time when music was magical. Had you asked me, I would have always said I was a guitar gal, but I have since realised what a huge part electronic music has played in my life.

Way before it was legal for me to drink – I was going on a weekly basis to my local version of the Blitz Club. The Blitz club really was a movement the same way that Punk tried so hard to be. For me, being individual, standing out in a crowd had always felt natural and here was a chance – once a week – to stop wearing my school uniform (no matter how much I had adapted it – it was still a school uniform) and really be outrageous. With other who felt the same. It was such an important part of my life and really imprinted on me for who I was to become as an adult.

Steve Strange, Rusty Egan and Boy George amongst others led the way for us.  At the Blitz Club, looking good was as important as sounding good. It left a lasting impression on a generation.

Sadly Steve Strange passed away yesterday.  He will be missed. He would have loved to have known how much love was really out there for him.  But he leaves a generation of Blitz kids. And without the Blitz – where would David Bowie have gone to find someone for his Ashes to Ashes video?

Rest in peace Steve – and I hope you are styling them up in Heaven!