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BLITZ (PLAY LIST) It
was here that Rusty Egan and Steve Strange provided the setting for
an exotic farrago of London art students, hairdressers and fashion
designers - which became the precursors of the New Romantic movement.
As the ultra-chic crowd, dancing to the sophisticated music of Roxy
Music, Kraftwerk and David Bowie grew, the Tuesday night was forced
to relocate across town to Great Queen Street in Covent Garden in
1979. But that was also the year Steve and Rusty started harbouring ideas of building their own permanent club, and raising the investment. Rusty himself had gone on record as far back as April that year, stating, ”I’m trying to buy a club – I’m thinking of it being a theatre.” But the Egan/Strange axis was not the only ‘supergroup’ with its eyes focused on the Camden Theatre. On the supply side Tony Gottelier, and ex-Bacchus Discotheques executives, David Read and Abi King formed a company Dreamskill, inspired by the new spirit that was coming out of New York, and the way state of the art technology was appearing in a theatrical context (such as Studio 54). Like Egan and Strange they had been turned on by the experience of Studio 54, Larry Levan and the Richard Long sound system at Paradise Garage, and the absurdly camp Le Palace of Fabrice Emaer in Paris. Dreamskill wanted to be principle importers of American concepts in their schemes – and topping their shopping list was the Richard Long sound system (although the Camden budget precluded this, and the audio system was eventually designed by British engineer Stephen Court). While Dreamskill was to be a short-lived fantasy, Tony Gottelier forged ahead, building the Camden infrastructure with its inflatable blimp for F&H Entertainments; Mike Gibson’s Chapel Studios undertook the bar design. Tony
remembers being particularly proud of the lighting, rigging and SFX
design at the original Camden Palace. It set off a chain of new developments
that forged a direct link with the future — such as the General manager Mick Parker already knew of Rusty Egan, whose band had appeared regularly at the Music Machine, and it was obvious that with him on the decks — alongside Colin Faver and Eddie Richards — Steve Strange defining the door code and ace publicist Carol Hayes working the tabloids and lifestyle sections, this was the recipe for success. Looking back, it’s little wonder that bands such as the Human League, Ultravox etc formed such a close association with Camden. All were keen to have their music ground out on the nation’s dancefloor since several already had strong club associations - Depeche Mode with Crocs in Rayleigh, a popular disco at the time, while the Human League were linked with Sheffield’s Limit Club and Duran Duran were discovered by Paul and Michael Berrow at their club, The Rum Runner in Birmingham. It was far from being a London phenomenon. “And
why else would bands be making 12in records? Only because they wanted
their records played in clubs,” rationalises Rusty, who had famously
said of Camden’s music policy, “It has to be danceable but
it Depeche Mode and Ultravox were among the opening night bands. Another was Robert Pereno’s Shock. With Emma ‘Wild Child’ Ridley, Pereno was at the centre of the London clubbing scene and I was surprised, while interviewing Mark Fuller a few years ago for this magazine, to run into him - selling freshly squeezed juice to Marco Pierre White’s restaurants. Of
the three and half years that Rusty Egan was associated with Camden
he figures it maybe exploded over a two year period. He draws the
analogy with Stock Aitken & Waterman’s hit, Roadblock. “It
was a great “The
relevance of what I did at Camden was that people brought records
to me — Chris Squire brought Yes’s Owner of A Lonely Heart.
The great thing was the openness, Colin Faver, me and Eddie Richards
playing “Madonna made her London debut at Camden in 1983 and after I saw Grace Jones at Saint in New York we had her live at Camden, which was one of my biggest coups.” But one of his biggest disappointments was when they set out to convert Camden into a Kling Klang night for Krafterwerk. “But at the last minute the agent Ian Flooks said, why play there? It was too small.” While
Rusty never fell out with Steve Strange, eventually their entrepreneurialism
no longer fit the corporate model of European Leisure, who thought
they could operate without their two frontment. “From an ego
point of view Steve had to have the glory didn’t he — he
“As
for the operating side, I think the New Yorkers were just better at
it. It’s diffiicult to compare Mick Parker’s Northern approach
with (German entrepreneur) Rudolf at Danceteria! At Camden you couldn’t
even buy a pack of Marlboro! We were getting the club in the papers
every He
says the final straw came when he and Steve alerted the management
to the impact Peter Stringfellow’s impending Hippodrome might
have. “I sat at a board meeting and said this is going to affect
us. We had a Rusty returned to the studio world. “I was producing people like Spear of Destiny, Nona Hendryx and stuff from Space. Some of those records were great electronic pioneering dance records. “After
Camden I did Saturday nights at the Lyceum with Ian Dewhurst and brought
Run DMC over I also did some parties in Ibiza — but I had lost
the hunger to DJ. I thought it was time to hang up my gloves. I played
Hammersmith Palais and it was a disaster. I think I just lost the
But his appetite has been rekindled into the new era of digital downloads. After his laptop was stolen Nicky Holloway introduced him to the website PC:DJ and he also marvels at sites like sonicselector.com - “a 350,000 file download with just one click.” He concedes, “These days 25-30 year old managers in clubs don’t know who I am and no-one really cares.” Rusty
Egan glorifies the idiom between 1977 and 1987 when the magic was
there and the vibe was truly great. “It was our time. I believe
the music, light, sound and décor are all vital to that magic
that we are “Rockstar is a great night, with people dressing like the girlfriends of rockstars … looking like 70’s groupies. I now make sure the music complements that idiom, so I drop in Guns & Roses, Van Halen, INXS and Joan Jett, so they get off on the music. “At Fesh in Shoreditch I play the music I was playing 25 years ago at Blitz — I can play all the original tracks that were later sampled. It’s Blitz music for 20 year olds.” He has also teamed up again with S-Express’s Mark Moore, at his groundbreaking club Electro A Go Go (Madam Jo Jo’s) and is back with Princess Julia, who co-starred with Steve Strange in the original Visage Fade To Grey video at the gay venue, The Cock. But the biggest shock awaiting the man who once said “I would rather people list to a track they cannot dance to than dance to a track they cannot lisen to …” was awaiting him one night when he got to a venue early. “The warm-up guy was literally playing my set — back to back records that I had been playing for two months. But the incredible thing is this young guy had it all on vinyl — it must have cost him a fortune.” BLITZ - PLAY LIST
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