BLITZED

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed that.

I say "surprisingly" simply because of the subject matter. Whilst I think Robert Elms is a very fine writer and excellent broadcaster I simply never went to the Blitz (or Billy's previously) and had zero desire to go there. It just simply wasn't "my thing." I knew lots about the place at the time - I mean I read every episode of The Face - and the more I got to know about it the more I was adamant that I didn't want to attend.

I really should have been the archetypal attendee at both clubs. I loved Bowie (back then and still), was a relative early fan of Kraftwerk etc, enjoyed going out, loved my art and simply adored clothes. In fact it was probably that clothes bit there that put me off. Elms does an admirable job in stating how the clothes aspect wasn't about fancy dress but he doesn't convince me. The club and music side at the time and as he describes it now sounds very much like the Bowie & Roxy nights we were attending between 1975-1978 in Wigan (and I'm assumimg they were taking place in many other towns and cities). In Wigan if you weren't into Northern Soul, Heavy Metal or "normal music" then these Bowie & Rock Nights were your sanctuary. The usual suspects were spinned and a sort of "scene" undoubtedly developed around these nights and the post-Glam, pre-Punk bands such as Doctors of Madness, Deaf School and Ultravox! That's Ultravox with the exclamation mark! Not Midge - a Blitz patron -'s Vienna-era Ultravox. In fact some Deaf School gigs were more Blitz than it appears the Blitz was.

But I digress on all this. Let's get back to Blitz the book. There is undoubtedly a tale to be told and Elms tells a really good tale. It is superbly written. There are some utterly preposterous claims in there (I'm not having the comparison of Blitz with The Cavern Club and Two I's with regards to the importance in UK music), it's as you would expect Londoncentric but these points are outweighed by bagfuls of self-deprecation and lots of humour. I know the Spandau Ballet story pretty much inside out as a number of mates went to school with them, were early fans of them and early versions of the band and helped them along the way as roadies, mates, sparks etc. I also really like (and still listen to) early Spandau. I also like - and watched back then - Blue Rondo, Matt Bianco, Funkapolitan and of course Sade who are mentioned within these pages. But Culture Club? Visage? Bananarama? Come on...

Minor gripes though and as the story continues and branches out in tales of The Wag, Hard Times, early warehouse parties - and as an aside I'm 95% certain I was at that very first party which considering I'm the most unlikely person to have been at such an event does nothing for the credibility of that burgeoning scene -, the observations on the politics of the time, the importance of The Face in chronicling those times, and much more are spot-on.

There is also no denying the huge impact that a number of the folk that shaped the eighties in the worlds of fashion, design, architecture and music attended the Blitz club (albeit I fancy some may only have been once). And for every Boy George - who I would often see out and about and on every occasion found utterly obnoxious - there was an Elms, Chris Sullivan, Mark Powell, Sade who now come across as really decent folk -, and that tale is convincingly told. Also, Elms' own summary of where we are now with regards to youth cults and the cultural scene is 100% aligned with my own viewpoint.

So in summary did reading this book make we wish I'd been a Blitz Kid or part of what was dubbed the New Romantics? Absolutely not. In fact it just confirmed my prejudices/beliefs about it at the time! But as a chronicle of those times it is an excellent read. I'd recommend it to anybody interested in the eighties, art, music, design, culture, working class culture and more importantly sub-cultures to read the book. It certainly sets the scene. Even if that scene isn't your scene.