IT’S 1983, AND A RESTYLED VICTORIAN PILE CALLED THE CAMDEN PALACE IS OFFERING THE BEST NIGHT OUT IN LONDON. MERELY A POSER’S PARADISE? BY NO MEANS – THIS IS WHERE THE WORLD’S MEDIA COME, ALL LOOKING FOR THE NEXT BIG THING. EACH WEEK, ON THESE CROWDED STAIRWAYS, CAREERS CAN BE MADE… PROVING THAT DRESSING UP TO GO TO A STEVE STRANGE CLUB REALLY CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

DAVID JOHNSON

Main picture: Steve Strange led the movement up in the world – and into the Camden Palace. Completed in 1900, the hall became a rock venue as The Music Machine in 1977 before being rechristened in 1982. Kitted out with fresh lighting, two enormous (and infamous) ‘trapeze artist’ installations and London’s largest video screen, it was here that Steve Strange and Rusty Egan hosted up to five nights a week, each with a particular flavour and clientele. The Palace was also the location of Madonna’s first UK show in October, 1983. Since 2004, the club has been known as KOKO

Tasty Tim – a busy DJ on the London scene to this day – and gothic-influenced fashion designer Stephen Linard

A flyer for Trash at the Camden Palace. Tuesday, the first event of the Palace’s five-night week, always attracted a notably more gay element

“I’m wrecked,” Nick announces as he downs his sixth pint of lager at about 2am. “I was so late waking up yesterday I had to take a taxi to the dole to sign on before I went into work.”

Nick [not his real name, obviously] looks startling in a hat so huge it has to be seriously trendy, and is well aware of the irony of his remark. He is 19 and clears £80 a week working in Vivienne Westwood’s clothes shop which also dresses him for next to nothing, another £15 on Saturday checking coats in a nightclub – oh, and of course £22 social security. “That’s just pin money,” he says. “It pays the rent.”