"I was the freak of the village, long before Matt Lucas started doing those sketches. I was banned from school but I was a grade A student. It was ridiculous. I wasn't going to be a rugby player and I wasn't going to go down the pit, I was a creative spirit and so I ran away."
"I [became] known as the strictest door whore in London!"
"I don’t think there’s anything as pioneering now as there was in the ‘80s... [The] whole Blitz scene was incredibly pioneering. No one was doing what we were doing."
It is a very sad day for those of us who lived through that magical era that was the early 80s - dressing-up to go to the most selective of clubs, the mix of electronica and (Northern) soul dance music, the carefree toying with the notion of "style" as an antidote to punk, the outpouring of artistic creativity not seen since the rise of David Bowie and Roxy Music - for the man who did more than any other to bring us that world is dead.
Rest in peace, Mr Steve Strange. We all owe you an incredible debt of gratitude.
Steven John Harrington, aka Steve Strange (28th May 1959 - 12th February 2015)
I am so sad to learn of his death.
ReplyDeleteHe was so fascinating and a trail blazer. To die so young is really unfair.
I remember drooling over my older sister's The Face and other British magazines where Steve and the gorgeous Vivienne Lynn would often appear in and wonderfully made up by Richard Sharrah. I could not take my eyes off them. Steve and Viv seemed to come from another planet. One day I met painter Duggie Fields and I asked him whatever happened to his muse Vivienne but he said he lost touch as she quietly went to Sussex one day and he never heard from her again. Although I never met them Steve and Vivienne really marked my adolescence.
Rest in peace Steve...I sincerely thank you for the visual impact you had on me.
He was indeed a huge influence on us all. A great loss. Jx
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