Creating a new teenage revolution to some sometimes very unlikely sounds at Blitz, 4 Great Queen Street, London, circa 1981
© PYMCA/Photoshot
Bowie’s Heroes was the Blitz kids’ anthem, but those that managed to get past Steve Strange’s ruthlessly elitist door policy were treated to a much wider palette of sounds. DJ Rusty Egan offered everything from the cutting-edge sounds emerging from mainland Europe to tracks from Iggy Pop and Roxy Music, Grace Jones or the Theme From A Clockwork Orange. All were afforded the same respect; there were no rules whatsoever. If it got the kids moving, then it was fair game. “We played Hi-NRG, electronic and up-tempo disco,” Egan told us. “I played movie soundtracks and David Bowie, which was the one pre-punk thing that everybody savoured. Then I’d drop in some glam rock like The Ballroom Blitz by The Sweet. It was a fun, party mix-up of all your favourite records.”
And what of New Romantic bands? It’s hard not to put Strange and Egan’s Visage, Blitz ‘house band’ Spandau Ballet, and Birmingham’s poster boys Duran Duran under the New Romantic umbrella, but that’s pretty much the size of it. Beyond the looks and the preening, the beating heart of the movement lay not in the records of those thrust under that all-encompassing marquee terminology, but within the carefully-concocted playlists that flooded the dancefloors of Billy’s, Blitz, Club For Heroes and Camden Palace. These truly defined the sounds of the Cult With No Name – call it what you want. Rusty Egan’s record bag has a lot to answer for.