Steve Strange - From Punk To New Romantic (2024)

From Punk to New Romantic Part 2

From March to July sees a Steve Brady return to being Steve Strange and become more disenchanted with Punk and how it was turning out as it became more stereotyped and with a harder look and sound.

As luck would have it though, its the Moors Murderers song and his singing that brings him to the attention of David Littler, the new guitarist in the Photons (original band pictured right) who've lost their singer and who are managed by who else but Andrew Czezowski and he's drafted in to replace the sacked vocalist. The Photons are put together by Andy and are dressed in various primary colour suits. Andy Czezowski who must have had reservations but they needed a replacement singer and Strange looked the part so he was in. The pink suit in the picture right, handed back in by the outgoing singer, is given to Steve Strange. The band rehearse at James street in the rehearsal room under PX but manage one just showcase gig and a demo. However with Strange and the new bassist the band come together and write songs quite quickly.

David Littler: Yes the sound did change, the new bassist was very good and Vince and I had been playing together for a while so had got better. Steve was confident (unlike Frank) and we rehearsed songs lyrically written by myself (Cold Fire) and Vince (Shot) as well as Steve’s so had quite a few songs. Punk77 Interview 2020

Those demos From August/September 1978 produce 3 songs Tar, Mind Of A Toy and a very rough Eve Of Destruction which Andy had suggested covering. The latter has just synth bass and electronic drums and a heavy Steve New guitar part over which Steve sings. The demos also bring out about the sacking of David Littler and the band again fizzle out. Strange was using the band according to Andy:

Andy Czezowski: I managed to get some time at Surrey Sound studios where the Police recorded. We did three tracks which were good quality. He was using us to learn how to sing and perform and experience in a professional studio. Punk77 Interview 2005

Strange himself though was unhappy and went against the band ethic dress wise.

Andy Czezowski. He left because he wasn’t pulling his weight. We weregoing one direction; the sharp suited look, power pop guitar thing and he wanting to go into the pirate look; he was very much a Vivienne clone so any money he could steal or borrow he would spend it on her latest look which was the pirate look so he was dressing like that instead of the Photons being a tight unit. Punk77 Interview 2005

Having been involved in the Rich Kids and knowing Rusty Egan, Midge Ure comes backstage at the showcase gig and suggests hooking up to use some dead studio time. Ure is getting into electronic music. They make some EMI demos in late 1978 (not long after the last) that go nowhere. The demo songs are All The Kings Horses,2525 and a reworked Eve Of Destruction .

By now Strange had left Seditionaries having been caught out.

Steve Strange: .. one night she turned up at a gig and caught me wearing a particular tartan bondage suit from the shop and sacked me.” Nathan Bevan 2015

However Steve walked straight into another job, again fashion based, but this time at London PX owned by Helen Robinson and Stephanie Raynor based at.... Andrew Czezowski's James Street warehouse offices.

Steph Raynor: When Steve walked into Stephane's PX shop he started trying everything on and immediately took over the shop floor , so there was nothing to do but hire him. Blitz Kids

He manages the shop with Princess Julia and begins to get a name for himself as as face wearing outrageous clothes and someone to be imitated. He (and others) also miss clubs like the Roxy that was somewhere for discerning people to go to and so begins the legend of Billy's and Blitz and the New Romantics.

Steve Strange in Paris 1978 - Photo Steph Raynor - Blitz Kids site

You've got to hand it to Andy Czezowski; despite all the above dealings with Steve he bore no grudges and again he and partner Susan are instrumental in helping launch Strange and what comes next and New Romantics. First off how Steve & Rusty recall it as below then a piece on David Claridge from 1980:

We Can Be Heroes - Chris Sullivan: Steve Strange used to take me to all these odd clubs, like Billy’s, that were empty in the week,’ recalls DJ/producer Rusty Egan, ‘So I suggested to Steve that we do a night and invite all the Bromley contingent and all the punks that don’t go out on the weekend for fear of getting beaten up, and all the others we knew, and get them all together on one night.’

Strange and Egan had seen one nighters like the Monday night Vortex Club in Crackers work a treat so, seeing a huge gap in the market, approached Vince. He was all ears

‘We now had the venue,’ reflects Egan. ‘And, as I had a great record collection I decided to DJ and play Lou Reed and Bowie and what I considered to be great music. We called it Bowie night and I asked David Claridge, the puppeteer who had his hand up Roland Rat [he’s also the man behind S&M organisation Skin 2] to DJ, because we wanted to play stuff you couldn’t hear anywhere else.

Over 21 Magazine – May 1980: David Claridge is a 26 year old actor who puts on nights ... and he was there,with his pile of records,at the start of Billy’s and Blitz, a little piqued (perhaps) because Steve Strange got all the publicity.

Steve Strange: One day Rusty and I were chatting about how things had gone a bit stagnant. We were talking about London clubs and comparing them to those in other cities.....We were young and had balls to do anything, so we looked for a venue where we could set up our own club. We were very shrewd. We went to Billy's.. and saw that it was empty...Two weeks later we went back to the owner and said we could pack the club. He could have the drinks profit and we would take the money on the door...We had kept our promise of filling his club up, but after three months we realised it was time to move on because we needed bigger premises...The nightclub revolution had begun. Blitzed! The Autobiography of Steve Strange

Boy George: The success of the Blitz led him to believe he had created the New Romantic scene. There really was no scene. At capacity the Blitz held 300; it wasn't a national phenomenon like punk. Take It Like A Man

The sharp eyed of you will notice of course this is post Billy's when it became Gossips. Photo Derek Ridgers

If anything they continued the tradition of all successful clubs which was creating a safe place for select discerning clientele and making publicity/money from it.

Andy Czezowski: Steve came back to me; you know you bust up with people but doesn’t mean you don’t speak to them again. And said 'oh Andy when you going to open up another club'. I said 'when we find the right place.' and then I said why don’t YOU DO a club in the DIY punk spirit. Now we had been looking for clubs and one was Billy's (became Gossips) in Dean street and we met the guy a 25 stone black man called Vince and a stripper hanging around him and we thought here we go again and said no not for us!

Some time later Steve and Rusty came to me and asked about clubs and I took them round to this bloke and they wanted to do a Bowie night. Steve said what do we do now? I said you go to print flyers so I set everything up and trained them and they called the night Billy's with David Claridge (Roland Rat) who was from Wales as well as Steve who loved David Bowie. Vaguely knew Steve, they hung out together.. he became the DJ.. it was his idea.. they went off and did it and after a few weeks had an argument with club owner as predicted.Punk77 Interview 2020

You've got to hand it to Andy because when it went sour, as he said it would, he stepped back in to help.

Andy Czezowski: They stopped the nights and asked me if I knew of anywhere else and I suggested the Blitz bar named after its post-war theme of propellers and camouflage. The bar managers used to come into the Roxy so we knew each other a bit. The managers were Jeremy King and Chris Corby who became top restaurant owners. I dragged Steve and Rusty round and said they wanted to do a club night so you guys sort it out. So they then did a deal and they launched the club night called the Blitz.Punk77 Interview 2020

Visage outside Blitz - sorry Andy you can't come in!

However one strange (sic) thing happened though on opening night which for anyone else would have left a sour taste but Andy laughs recalling it.

Andy Czezowski: On the opening night typical Steve Strange.. he wouldn’t let us in on the opening night! He was into the over the top new Romantic sound and look and we turned up but still dressed a little bit punky and he wouldn’t let us in as it wasn’t the look he wanted. But I kind of agreed with him because to run a club you want people of the same kind. Susan: 'No he hated us!' Andy: 'Yes. But without us there would have been no Blitz.'

Parallel to this Ure and Strange continued their collaboration and then bring in members ofUltravox and Magazine and Rusty Egan to form the band Visage. Strange brings a couple of songs to the party from those Photons demos. The demo is interesting because the three tracks on it areMind Of A Toy, Tar and a third rough track which is a raw cover version of In The Year 2525 which according to Andy Czezowski he suggested to Strange to do. Not sure where Madame Carla went.

David Littler: I think it may be just Steve New on Eve of Destruction multi-tracking theparts on a 4 track ( there’s only that synth bass and guitar with a bit of syn drum).It’s just an educated guess...and I don’t know for sure.

It's interesting because the cover version is reworked a short while later with Midge Ure, Rusty Egan and Strange using Rich Kids left over studio time and used for demos to attempt to secure a recording deal that kicks of Visage but the electronica cover version here IS the nascent Visage sound and predates the later demos.

Tar is completely reworked and becomes the first single and features on their debut album but it is the second single Fade To Grey that becomes a defining moment for the New Romantic sound and which is a massive hit around the world bringing massive success. However in one major respect its success rankles Strange.

But there was one thing that did piss me off in a big way. We always wrote as a five piece band, with the lucrative publishing royalties being split between us equally. Someone might come up with a lyrical idea and someone might finish it off, so the fairest way as to share things.. being left off the writing credits was like a knife stabbed through the heart. Blitzed! The Autobiography of Steve Strange

Interestingly the second single is Mind Of A Toy which, though is reworked electronically, is very similar chorus wise to the original Photons demo and which Steve's autobiography fails to mention the origin of of the song. There are no credits to Photons members only Steve and Visage so a bit of what goes around comes around there.

David Littler (Spitfire Boys & Photons) Steve went on to record Tar and Mind of a Toy with Visage. I fell out with Steve for a while after this because I co-wrote all with him and did not receive any cash or credit. It's true that the lyrics were essentially his and the arrangements different but in copyright, those songs belonged to Steve and myself and I should have been paid accordingly. Punk77 2003

Click to hear original Photon demo excerpt of 'Mind Of A Toy'

However because the original songs hadn't been published David had no rights.

David Littler .....Andy C said he had spoken to Rusty Egan who said he wrote the songs... because the original songs had not been published I didn’t have any rights (legally), had they been, I would have 50 percent credit with Steve Strange. Steve wrote the lyrics and I wrote and arranged the music. When Visage recorded the tracks they didn’t even know they existed as Photons demos so just assumed they were original songs. Punk77 2020

And there we leave the Steve Strange Story. As you can read in his autobiography and interviews, The Moors Murderers and Photons get brief mentions and airbrushed to present Steve as an innovator and a man ahead of his time. His autobiography in 2002 saw him and Orion books threatened to be sued by Dave Goodman when he tried to blame him as the person behind the Moors Murders.

In 2002, Orion Books published a biography on Steve Strange, ghost written by Bruce Dessau. In it was an untrue story claiming that Dave Goodman was the prime instigator behind the controversial 'Free Hindley' single by Steve's band 'The Moors Murderers'. Dave threatened to sue Orion for libel and they withdrew the story and published an apology in the music press.

The offending passage was suitably reworked and beiged not even mentioning the Moors Murderers name. He does at least mention the Photons but again in passing and again rewriting history by saying he was ahead of the game. Andrew and Susan also get a fleeting mention which is kind of him.

How he fared from this point onwards is well documented elsewhere, but the fame was a double edged sword bringing with it drink and drugs, which he over indulged with to the point of addiction, a nervous breakdown and arrested for shoplifting. Though he managed to get his life back on track somewhat, he died much too young aged 55 of a heart attack. Without doubt a character that divided opinion but nevertheless a talented if flawed one who knew how to use circ*mstances to his advantage often forgetting the people who helped get him to what he became.

After the Photons split Strange reminisces in Blitzed! about his future:

Steve Strange. I thought I might go on to have a solo career; I didn't know how things would work out. I didn't plan to start a nightlife revolution. Blitzed! The Autobiography of Steve Strange, P40

I appreciate the above article may sound as if its critical but I don't mean it to be. I find Strange's route to fame fascinating and most importantly life affirming. Whether you're young or old if you're dissatisfied make the move, survive by any means, pursue your dream, network and use any avenue that opens up because you never know where it may lead you. Just be careful what you wish for though.