Original subtitles

I never said I was a new romantic. It was embarrassing.

If anything it was, "Oh, shit, why did this name stick?"

What was new about it for a start off and what was romantic about it?

I didn't get fully on board, but I joined the tail end of the comet.

If you stepped out and you didn't get someone shouting abuse at you, you hadn't done it right.

This group of people were doing something unique, special, outrageous.

My parents hated it and I loved it.

# This affair is absolutley ridiculous! #

Who came up with "new romantics"?

MUSIC: "Prince Charming" by Adam and the Ants

Some branded them "Peacock punks" or "Blitz kids".

# Don't you ever, don't you ever stop being dandy... #

With their pretty-boy make-up and good looks, they would go down in history as the "new romantics".

# Prince charming, prince charming

# Ridicule is nothing to be scared of... #

At the dawn of the '80s this artistic group of writers, designers, musicians and club-goers

created one of the most colourful scenes in modern popular culture,

and memorably spawned pop acts such as Spandau Ballet, Adam and the Ants,

Duran Duran and Culture Club.

# Boys

# Boys keep swinging Boys always work it out... #

The creative spark for future new romantics occurred in the early '70s

with performances by David Bowie and T Rex.

I think David Bowie made it all right

for guys to play with their femininity.

When I was a kid, Bowie was the light at the end of the tunnel.

I was living in suburbia, I knew I was gay, I didn't fit in.

He comes along looking like that.

# There's a star man waiting in the sky... #

Seeing David Bowie

do Star Man on Top Of The Pops changed my life.

He came from a planet I wanted to visit.

I was banned from school for having orange hair in my Bowie phase.

# Let the children loose, Let all the children boogie... #

Living in the suburb of Manchester that I lived in

it was music from another planet.

# We're so pretty, oh, so pretty... #

With the arrival of punks, satin was replaced by safety pins

and mascara by mohicans as androgyny gave way to anarchy.

BOY GEORGE: There was one important piece of press -

a photo of a teddy boy holding a brick, punks versus teds.

Overnight, this war started.

When I first saw George, he was fifteen

and he was wearing a wedding dress and a policeman's hat -

that was brave.

I can remember actually being on a bus

and getting kicked in the face by a teddy boy, he walked up and booted me in the face.

The original audience couldn't go out.

We didn't stick safety pins through our faces, we didn't gob or fight.

We grew up with the myth of swinging London.

Well, London in 1978 didn't swing. It was like Bulgaria on a bad night.

# This town... #

"'Coming like a ghost town."

# All the clubs are being closed down... #

No money, no work, no clubs, dark and bleak - that's what we had.

# Bands won't play no more

# Too much fighting on the dance floor... #

In 1979, all dressed up but with nowhere safe to go,

two club pioneers started a Bowie night

at Billy's in Soho - Steve Strange and Rusty Egan.

They were the gruesome twosome, the Hinge and Bracket of new romanticism.

A lot of people think of Rusty as Steve's foil. He organised the clubs

and got up early and did things.

Steve was the swanning-around genius.

The idea of taking a club over and it being yours for the night

hadn't been done since the '60s.

I played records and invited my friends.

The minute you walked down them steps, you were home, you knew.

I found something I could belong to. It was my turn.

On the opening night we must have had about 150 people in there.

By the third week, there were queues round the block.

I said, "Make sure the blokes who want to beat us up don't come in."

Only blondes. Sorry, you're not blonde enough.

Steve was like, "You look great, but you can't come in those shoes."

# Oh, we can be heroes

# Just for one day... #

They always played Bowie's Heroes.

If you went anywhere that was new romantic, you'd hear Heroes.

There was a sex change behind the bar, I was 16 and it was fantastic.

# Here comes the mirror man

# Says he's a people fan

# Here comes the mirror man... #

He went through the ecclesiastical phase with priest robes.

My nun's outfit was pretty happening. It's funny,

but there's no way I'd go out dressed as a nun unless I AM a nun!

Are you ready?

No, I'm taking my time.

I used to wear piles of make-up, a lot really.

"Oh no, here comes Marilyn. Oh, fuck!"

You'd walk out and old ladies would fall over.

Make-up and Elnet was the big thing.

We got our make-up done for nothing. You'd go to Selfridges at 5.30

and the girls would do a make-over.

I didn't like make-up - it wasn't the sexuality, it just looked daft.

But I did like the hair lacquer and a bit of diamante.

I wore a diamante crucifix and I looked like Jack the Biscuit.

At Billy's the new romantic movement took shape - make-up, frills and big hair were essential.

DJ Rusty Egan's adventurous mix of music provided the soundtrack.

# She's a model and she's looking good... #

I'd play glam rock - Marc Bolan, et cetera,

mix that up with electronic stuff - with Kraftwerk, you know.

In those days, a disco didn't have a hip DJ,

one that was the star of the show.

SCOTTISH ACCENT: I wasn't a DJ, aye.

I put records on.

It wasn't rock 'n' roll, but it wasn't disco. It was somewhere in between.

Gary Kemp was a regular at Billy's.

He soaked up the atmosphere with fellow members of Spandau Ballet.

I remember saying, "We've got to get a synthesiser."

Over the period of late '78 and '79 in rehearsals the band gradually changed

from being what was a rock-pop type sound

to a modern, synthesised type dance sound.

DRUMS BEAT

New romantic music wasn't just about synthesisers.

Although most acts adopted the new technology, Adam and the Ants got their inspiration from Burundi,

using two drummers to create tribal rhythms to match the warrior image.

I got the Eighth Hussar jacket

from my friend Dave - it was worn in A Charge Of The Light Brigade

by David Hemmings.

You felt quite like a buccaneer, you know,

stealing clothes as you went along and putting it together, wearing it.

We wanted to be a pop band in the early '70s tradition like T Rex.

Although attention was focused on London,

elsewhere new romanticism was thriving,

especially in Birmingham, home of the Rum Runner club and Duran Duran.

The Rum Runner was amazing. It was our little domain.

We rehearsed there and we played there.

Were there clubs in Birmingham? The Peacock in Birmingham was nice.

In London it's posey. In Birmingham they'd ask where you came from.

I lived in London

and I wasn't interested in what was happening in the provinces.

Penny's in Sheffield was great cos there would be an interlude -

brickies in eyeliner would get up and mince.

There's no question that the London scene looked on us as being slightly provincial.

But we didn't mind that - being the underdog didn't do us any harm.

People of our generation had been influenced by disco, punk, glam, Bowie, Roxy.

They were bound to make this big amalgamation in 1979.

Back in London, the great success of Tuesday nights at Billy's

encouraged Rusty Egan and Steve Strange to a bigger venue - Blitz in Covent Garden.

Steve wore a different outfit every week trying to top the outfit

that would be worn by Boy George, Marilyn or a plethora of others.

# Boys, now the times are changing

# The going could get rough... #

Some people thought if they put a wetsuit on and painted their faces, they'd get in. I'd say no.

There weren't that many places you could go and look weird.

You had to have your own little clubs, but Steve took it too far.

People were humiliated. It was embarrassing.

When Mick Jagger came up, the club was so full, we'd just had a warning from the fire people

that if we let in one more person, we would lose our licence.

He went, "Sorry, mate, we're full up.

"He don't look like Mick Jagger."

Mick Jagger went out in jeans and an old jacket.

I was angry about that because I thought Mick had done a lot more than he had!

There'd be a queue waiting to get in,

but you'd swan to the front, pull rank and kiss Steve on the cheek.

I remember Steve Strange at the door

and getting through the door it was, "Yes!"

# I just can't get enough... #

Steve employed me, rather foolishly, to work in the cloakroom.

George would be calling you every name under the sun, cos he was bitter and twisted.

Marilyn was his sidekick.

There would be "Uh!" when I walked through the door.

I was just being that thing.

The women's toilets would be full of men hogging the mirror.

There'd be someone done up like Ghandi and someone as a 1920s film director

and a third person like a Pierrot.

# Do you remember a guy that's been?

# It's such an early song... #

David Bowie came to the Blitz to select people for his Ashes To Ashes video.

Steve Strange, the king of the Blitz, got to sit on Bowie's table.

# I'm happy

# Hope you're happy too... #

Steve's posing like, "I'm sitting with..." Without actually going...

# The shrieking of nothing is killing... #

When he asked me would I do that,

I thought, "Fucking hell, he's asking me to do this video!"

I didn't want to be in Ashes To Ashes walking along the beach going...

# Glowing, glowing, glowing

# Ashes to ashes, funk to funky

# We know Major Tom's a junkie... #

When he went upstairs they all went, "Bowie, Bowie", with their arms in the air, like hailing Caesar.

I remember thinking, "How can he deal with this? These people are literally up his bum."

So I just went back to the cloakroom.

Although Bowie wasn't of that scene, he's always been a clever leech,

an absorber of things, a sucker of blood.

# You better not mess with Major Tom... #

When I saw it on TOTP with Steve Strange,

it annoyed the hell out of me.

They received £50 for a day's work, which was a fortune.

Once the new romantic thing started,

people wanted to be famous, so bands were formed to get records out.

Inspired by David Bowie, Steve and Rusty craved pop fame of their own.

They formed Visage - a studio group of assorted musicians

including Midge Ure and Billy Currie from Ultravox.

In 1980, they put the new romantics in the top ten with Fade To Grey.

Billy came up with the bass line -

da-da-ba, da-da-ba - and the beat he programmed.

# Devenir gris... #

It's not me talking in French.

I said, "We should get my girlfriend, she's French." Midge wrote the lyric.

She recited the lyric in French and, basically, it created this feel.

# One man on a lonely platform

# One case sitting by his side... #

Everything was done in 24 hours.

I wanted my body sprayed silver and black.

I scrubbed with a Brillo pad.

# Feel the rain like an English summer

# Hear the notes from a distant song... #

BOY GEORGE: When I see that, it brings back memories.

I couldn't allow myself to like it.

He got into the charts before I did!

Then I had to have that "d-d-d-udge".

It was the sound I was working on at the time - electronic drums.

It went to number one in about nine countries.

# Fade to grey... #

I appeared from under a cloth.

I spun my head round a bit and, um...

a bit of hands.

# Un homme dans une gare isolee

# Une valise a ses cotes... #

A couple of people asked me for my autograph...in the dole queue.

# Montre dans la peur lorsqu'il... #

I look back now and it wasn't a great record,

but it was of the moment.

It wasn't only musicians who were making names for themselves.

Writers, photographers and designers,

mainly from St Martin's, began to emerge from the Blitz club scene.

There were about 150 people in the room.

I would guess that at least 100 of those went on to be very successful.

# The grabbing hands grab all they can... #

We were ambitious.

It wasn't just frivolous fun. Everyone had their eye on money.

They were aspirational, calculating, publicity and fashion conscious.

They weren't romantic.

People were creating businesses for themselves.

Spandau Ballet latched on to that. Their manager was part of the scene.

He saw the potential for marketing Spandau Ballet.

# Everything else in large amounts... #

I wasn't a sort of a businessman

who was taking advantage of this situation without being part of it.

The group were part of the scene.

We couldn't play regular clubs because they weren't interested.

We had to play there or go and find a venue,

like a battleship or an art house cinema.

Spandau Ballet were first caught on camera at London's La Scala Cinema

in the spring of 1980.

They were given a poetic introduction

from budding journalist Robert Elms.

I remember Robert Elms coming on at the Scala

and reading this kind of avant-garde poem - none of us took it seriously. "Get on with the music."

From half-spoken shadows

Emerges a canvas

A kiss of light breaks to reveal a moment when all mirrors are redundant.

"A curtain drops. Mist in the future." You know what I mean?

You thought, "Get a life."

Listen to the portrait of the dance of perfection.

Gary had a book on Expressionism and it was meant to look like Bauhaus.

It looked like Toy House, but it was great.

I stood there with this light across my face.

Spandau Ballet.

We had this set of rather stark electronic songs

with the drums just going, "Boom, boom, boom."

# Sitting on a park bench

# Years away from fighting

# To cut a long story short I lost my mind

# Standing in the dark

# I was waiting for a man to come

# I am beautiful and clean

# Very, very young to be standing in the street

# To be taken by someone... #

We bravely decided to become the house band.

I say "bravely" because these guys were only interested in themselves.

Bands like Spandau were gung-ho for fame.

They definitely used the scene to get as much attention as possible.

The movement was attracting the national media,

but the established rock press wouldn't jump on the bandwagon.

It's a club thing and asking the NME to cover it

is like asking Anglers' Weekly to do drag racing.

They saw the new romantic thing as London ponces with big hairdos.

It was a very small scene and it wasn't what they were into.

You could understand why none of these people came to the Blitz.

Anyway, they wouldn't have got in.

What they needed

was OK! or Hello! or the magazine culture

that would have put them in a large photograph, with a small, uncritical text.

# The image is going to make you and I

# But it means nothing to me... #

Unable to gain support from the influential NME,

the new romantics decided to create their own magazines.

It was interesting

that i-D and The Face both started up in 1980.

When you bought a Sunday paper it didn't have a bit that said "style".

The Face started doing that.

It chronicled it so well, it became the bible.

They featured things from London, Sheffield, Liverpool

and if you were a proto-punk,

or a goth in the middle of nowhere, you could buy this and think,

"I'm not a freak. There are others like me."

# Guns that cross the street You never know who you might meet

# Who's in disguise... #

You'd cause a lot of commotion going out.

People used to get angry. They'd be upset at the sight of these people.

# It's a miracle, it's a miracle... #

It wasn't dressing up at night. You wore this all day long

and fled for your life if you came across the wrong sort of people.

People might have shouted at you. They still do!

Clothes don't really make you different.

But to others it does. "Gosh, you're interesting!"

I could have a good chat with some old bag I met in the launderette,

probably much more interesting than at the Blitz club - people there had nothing to say.

But equally there were some really exciting people who were creative. It was a real mixture.

It was just like a place for posers to pose around in

and wear dark glasses, which is very '80s, isn't it?

You'd get a very pretentious cocktail -

something with umbrellas in.

Then you'd dance a bit. Yeah.

# Put on a little make-up, make-up

# Make sure they get your good side... #

The Blitz dance floor was the size of a postage stamp.

You couldn't do anything mildly creative.

You couldn't dance too much in those clothes, especially if you had heels on.

It was handbag on the floor kind of dancing.

# Goody two, goody two, goody two shoes, don't drink, don't smoke

# What do you do? You don't drink, don't smoke... #

If there was a drug of choice it was speed which had been the punk drug.

# Fashion, that'll be a joke... #

I'd buy some speed.

Speckled blues had strychnine in them.

You could get that cough mixture with morphine. It was lovely.

# Opening the oddballs, oddballs... #

If you haven't got cash, it's cheaper than pints of beer.

Everyone now thinks everybody was dressed as Coco the Clown. Some were.

But there was another whole side that was considerably more heterosexual.

# It's the look, it's the look, the look of love

# It's the look, it's the look, the look of love... #

We loved the gay element - it made it more entertaining, more fun.

There was a great mix, but it was rampant. Sex and drugs were what it was all about.

You could sleep your way through the Blitz in about six months.

You'd be getting off with girls and boys, then they'd get off with each other. It was confusing, really.

By the end of the night, the Blitz was an extraordinary sight.

By the end of the night people were going, "Na-na-na," because of drugs.

Honestly, it looked like the Somme at the end of the evening.

People were just like that. Make-up had run, hair had gone,

hairspray had gone into clothing.

It looked worse on the boys than the girls.

When they get their five o'clock shadow, it's not a pretty sight.

You'd hope to go home with someone - same sex, opposite sex, you were never sure.

On the way home,

the milkman had been, so we'd pick up as many pints as we could carry

and go back to the squat with 20 pints of milk for lunch and tea.

You don't want to merge into the background.

Most kids in their teens and 20s

do it because you want attention and think you're worth attention.

As soon as you become sexually aware, you want to promote yourself.

Here are five young guys from Islington who are causing a buzz.

I remember I was so desperate to get

Cut A Long Story Short.

I remember the silly dance where they put one leg up.

I was always glad we never wore kilts,

not that I dislike them.

# To cut a long story short I lost my mind... #

We liked looking mad with smocks, tunics and cloth.

But none of it was designer stuff. It was either made by friends or students,

or we found it in second-hand stores.

"Yes, our time has come. New romantics will conquer the world."

Now you think, "Oh, no, it's a load of kids dressed up in baggy pants."

In late 1980 with their first single high in the UK charts,

Spandau Ballet played their first gig outside London in Birmingham's Botanical Gardens.

The promoter said, "Duran Duran -

"could they do a support slot?" I said, "Fuck off,

"I don't want a group from Birmingham on our bill."

I remember talking to this guy and he said, "We've got a band and we like you."

And I was... It was Simon Le Bon, actually.

We saw them play at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.

When we left, we were smiling. We said, "What's that about?"

I wish I'd said yes, cos then I could have had a poster with Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran underneath.

So that was a regret.

Meanwhile, back on the wild frontier, Adam and the Ants

had also launched their Top Ten campaign.

# Well, I'm standing here looking at you

# What do I see?

# I'm looking straight through It's so sad

# When you're young to be told

# You're having fun So I'll unplug the jukebox

# And do us all a favour

# That music's lost it's taste so try another flavour...#

That whole "do yourself a favour, that music's lost its taste"

was a statement rebelling against the stuff that had been before

and saying, "This is what a band should sound like now."

# A big nothing threatening me... #

Adam Ant was a Scarlet Pimpernel. His shows were like Broadway shows

if you were 17 and lived in Sheffield.

Adam and the Ants destroyed their punk credibility by starring at the 1981 Royal Variety performance.

It put them at the centre of pop's mainstream.

What we were doing was anti rock 'n' roll, anti punk rock.

That was the most anti thing we could do to really annoy the NME.

When we met the Royal Family, I felt 18th century,

whipping the coat off and letting her walk on it.

She said, "I didn't recognise you." She would have preferred the clobber.

# Do yourself a favour Ant music... #

Just outside the Top 40, Duran Duran.

# I only came outside... #

I remember them clearly on TOTP.

They were in these ludicrous frilly shirts.

I just thought they were fantastic.

I do remember the first TOTP.

Frilly shirts. Absolutely.

I personally remember sort of, like...

hearing them and thinking, "Oh, they've got it wrong." But they didn't and they made a lot of money.

At the time it was, "They're from up north.

"What do they know about new romanticism?" But they had the big hit.

# Can you hear me no-o-ow

# This is planet Earth

# You're looking at planet Earth... #

Duran Duran actually used the term "new romantic" in a song,

which I thought was an obscenity - they were a ridiculous bunch anyway.

# ..a new romantic looking... #

"New romantic" was in Planet Earth.

We were very aware of that.

We took it out of a magazine. They were putting us in a box already.

That was early Duran irony.

We laughed our heads off at this record.

We fell about laughing and made the record into an ashtray.

In a way, Duran Duran brought the frilly shirt thing to the masses.

# Oh, oh, this is planet Earth... #

With new romantic bands dominating the charts,

everyone wanted to read about them, write about them and dress like them.

Fascination with the cult grew as big as the hairdos.

But what could you call them?

The papers can call it what they like - new romantics, Blitz kids.

It's the cult with no name. The papers can't put one finger on it.

The term "new romantic" came about because no other names stuck.

I suppose that's when things changed.

You were getting things in the Sun saying, "How to copy Steve Strange's make-up."

Suddenly you had a mainstream icon embracing the look.

And you had the high street rushing to catch up with the next look.

We're from BBC Television. Oh, yes, you look as if you're something.

I'm wearing the new romantic look.

Oh, yes.

This is going to catch on. What do you think? It doesn't turn me on.

Three things stick in my mind - frilly blouses,

I was big into frilly blouses.

Pixie boots which were an essential part.

And we used to wear a scarf.

You'd get the triangle and tie it round your neck.

It would go... It was ridiculous!

It went mass and on an individual level people went where it took them.

There were electro bands - Depeche Mode, Soft Cell - which were coming up.

They were probably doing... slightly smarter music really.

# Tainted love

# Don't touch me, please

# I cannot stand the way you tease... #

Tainted Love by Soft Cell was great.

The whole scene was expanding.

The influence spread across the industrial North

when acts like the Human League and ABC broke through commercially.

In a funny kind of way, our music was very romantic.

All Of My Heart, Poison Arrow - they're romantic songs.

# If I were to say to you can you keep a secret... #

That was a very new romantic act.

But by then is wasn't called that any more. It was "modern soul".

I think they called it "white soul".

Don't You Want Me by Human League and Poison Arrow by ABC

signalled the end of new romantic as a force.

We surfed in post new romantic, if we're being Q Magazine about it.

There were a lot of acts that tried to jump on the bandwagon

of what they thought new romantic was

and it was a catastrophe, like Classics Nouveau.

I didn't mind Classics Nouveau. I think the punk in me felt vaguely antagonistic.

They were formed out of members of X-Ray Spex which was a great band.

The front man's only talent was that he had a bald head.

He shaved his head, but most people could do that.

# It's not the way you look, it's not the way that you smile... #

Whenever you talk about the '80s,

that name always comes up - Flock Of Seagulls.

It's just that hairdo, that one funny hairdo.

# If I had a photograph of you... #

People kind of said,

"It's just haircuts, man."

Who are they kidding? Elvis was a haircut, Lennon was a haircut.

Having seen many of his old crowd become successful,

one time Blitz cloakroom attendant, George O'Dowd, decided it was time

to launch his own brilliant career.

I said I wanted to be a window dresser.

I wanted to work in a costume department.

They looked at me as if I was nuts. "We've got a job at a fruit-packing factory."

There was a shop in Carnaby Street that he used to work in.

It said, "Closed. Gone to see a man from Virgin."

# But time is precious I know... #

I needed to do something with my life.

I couldn't go swanning round clubs forever, getting my photo taken.

# Time won't give me time... #

My mum was like, "I don't understand why people take pictures of you."

So when I joined the band they could say, "This is what he does."

# Do you really want to hurt me?

# Do you really want to make me cry?

# Do you really want to hurt me...? #

'To be a member of the Culture Club you have to know the style.

'The fans spend hours in front of the mirror emulating their hero.'

How long does it take? Half an hour to do the plaits. And the make-up?

Not long. About ten minutes.

Your fans are what you are. You don't exist without them.

# I could waste a thousand years... #

When I first started Culture Club, people thought I looked outrageous.

It was nothing - that was toned down

to what I looked like before - it was totally toned down.

I wouldn't have been able to travel with all those costumes!

# Oh, I hear you on the radio... #

Marilyn was this weird new romantic folklore.

People find him fascinating. Always want to know how he is, what colour lipstick he's wearing.

Once I saw him at a bus stop.

He was there in full drag, shaving away.

# Peace, peace of mind... #

The popular misconception is I had a pop minute...

..because of George and that is ridiculous.

If you like something, you buy it, not because you like something else.

Marilyn was beautiful, he had a great body.

He didn't have a good voice, but he had everything and he could have done a lot more with his career,

had he not been so obnoxious to people.

When he had a hit, he turned into a monster!

Inevitably, people link you with Boy George. Who?

The reason why I was doing that was not because I was a bitchy queen,

but because I was insecure

and I didn't believe that I was beautiful and fabulous and all the things people were saying.

He's very intelligent, but there's a difference between being intelligent and being emotionally intelligent.

Emotional intelligence is something you have to learn.

Usually that comes via therapy or self examination.

The Blitz closed in 1981, but the London scene entered a new phase

with many setting out on their own.

Chris Sullivan started up at Le Kilt,

while Ollie O'Donnell launched Le Beetroot.

# A curious smell, an intangible crime

# I'm washing my clothes and the stain still grows... #

On the dance floors electronic music gave way to funk

and Spandau Ballet kissed goodbye to their new romantic style.

That was the first time they acknowledged dance music

and black American disco roots.

It wasn't a record that stands the test of time, but it was radical.

Tony's walking up and as he comes into the club, I greet him.

They became pop stars,

so the club I had was frequented by pop stars.

When the scene moved into the Beetroot and we did the video there,

it was the hottest club in London at the time.

# I don't need this pressure on I don't need this pressure on... #

That was our last hurrah of Spandau being part of this movement.

# I don't need this pressure on I don't need this pressure on

# I don't need this pressure o-o-o-n... #

It went from being a Tuesday and then a Tuesday and a Thursday

to being every night of the week.

It suddenly went "Whoosh!"

George was already forming Culture Club and Wham were on their way.

There was a real commercialisation of this kind of music.

We said goodbye to it. We went off to Nassau to make the True album.

# There is a motion in my arm... #

We couldn't remain a cult and still do TOTP.

ELECTRONIC DRUM BEAT

# Standing in the door of the Pink Flamingo

# Crying in the rain... #

By 1982, Steve Strange and Rusty Egan ran the Camden Palace,

a mega club that attracted over 1,000 of London's in crowd.

In three years they'd emerged from small time club land

to create a massive money-making enterprise.

What is the secret of a successful nightclub? You're looking at it!

We had Sylvester Stallone, Grace Jones,

Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Eurythmics, Culture Club.

It had all changed and got very big and corporate.

# Say hello

# Wave goodbye... #

There was a kind of big heroin explosion in London at that time. It did affect the club scene.

Everybody knows I had a bad drug problem.

I went from being really, like, kind of anti-drugs

to being completely immersed in it.

BOY GEORGE:

# The victims we know so well... #

Somebody gave me this white powder and I thought, "Fine, I'll have it."

# But you're always there like a ghost in my dream... #

Lots of people did get involved with heavy drugs

and heavy sex - they're not with us now or have ended up in mental homes.

# The strangest void for you... #

I had five-inch stilettos on. I got right across the dance floor,

got to the steps and took one step, two steps and went, "Aagh!"

Everything went bang.

# It's sink or swim like it's always been... #

I could hear my friend saying, "Oh, my God!"

He was looking at me and I could hear it. "What have you given him?"

"You haven't!" And I went, "Heroin?!"

Myself, I had a heroin problem which came later.

But I never used it intravenously.

I do remember

this girl Mitsu who was a very pretty Asian girl, beautiful.

She died of an overdose in Warren Street.

# Wishing there was some kind of heaven... #

I had to go to my mother's and for about a week

my skin was translucent white - you could see the green veins in my skin.

I looked like a... like death, like I'd died.

I couldn't get out of bed for five days,

or more.

It wasn't just a little disco.

It was a complete life, environment, that we lived in.

It was 24 hours a day. It wasn't one night a week getting dressed up

and going to a nightclub.

I don't think people realised how dangerous it all was.

That element crept in towards the end of it.

That was the end of it. It tore it all apart.

HOUSE MUSIC

The acid house scene exploded

and in the '90s you could trace back to the Beetroot and the Blitz

and one or two other London clubs.

It introduced one-off clubs, warehouse parties,

the Rusty Egans as the centre of attention,

nightclubs where they tell you you must look right - that didn't exist before.

Before that it was very effeminate for a man to wear deodorant, let alone a full face of make-up.

Men have, like, bathroom cabinets full of products now.

When I was a kid it was Brut!

There was this colourful bang,

which revitalised pop culture and fashion and had a lot to do

with revitalising London as a swinging city.

They helped make London saleable in the way it is now -

a hotbed of creativity and design.

That had time

to dress up, it had time to be preposterous

before it was scrutinised and before it went mainstream.

You know, that just wouldn't happen any more.

I think people think they should fit in as opposed to stand out.

When you go out in the street, everyone sort of looks the same. They're wearing uniforms almost.

I don't know what would inspire me if I was 14 now.

You know, I don't know what I would look to. Westlife?

# Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma, chameleon

# You come and go

# You come and go-o-o

# Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dream

# Red, gold and green

# Red, gold and gree-een

# Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma, chameleon

# You come and go

# You come and go-o-o

# Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dream

# Red, gold and green

# Red, gold and gree-een. #