60 Fun Facts About New Romantics

The Blitz wine bar, birthplace of the New Romantic scene, was in which part of London?

The Tuesday-night 'Club for Heroes' moved there in 1979 when the crowd outgrew its previous home.

Steve Strange and Rusty Egan ran their 1978 Bowie and Roxy Music nights at which Soho club?

Billy's was on Dean Street, and the crowd outgrew it within a year.

What job at the Blitz club let Steve Strange decide who was dressed well enough to get in?

He turned people away for not looking creative or subversive enough to fit in with the crowd inside.

Which rock star was famously refused entry to the Blitz because Steve Strange judged him unsuitable?

The drunken Rolling Stone was sent away in one of the club's most repeated stories.

Steve Strange and other Blitz Kids appeared in the video for which 1980 David Bowie UK number one?

At the time it was the most expensive music video ever made.

Before finding fame, Boy George and Marilyn both worked at the Blitz doing which job?

Boy George later dramatised the whole scene in his stage musical Taboo.

Which musician and producer is credited with coining the term 'New Romantic'?

He said the label fitted the Blitz scene and Spandau Ballet, though most bands tried to distance themselves from it.

Which Birmingham boutique, opened in 1975, largely defined the New Romantic look?

Jane Kahn and Patti Bell mixed futuristic elements with Egyptian, African and Far Eastern influences.

Which Vivienne Westwood collection launched as New Romantics like Adam and the Ants hit the mainstream?

Both bands were managed by Westwood's then-partner Malcolm McLaren.

With i-D, which style title spread the New Romantic look by reviewing club-goers' outfits?

The reviews reached readers outside London with a delay, then began influencing major fashion collections.

Writer Robert Elms suggested the name Spandau Ballet after seeing it as graffiti in which city?

The scrawl referred to Rudolf Hess, the last Nuremberg war criminal held alone in Spandau Prison.

Which Spandau Ballet debut single reached No. 5 in the UK in 1980?

It was the first of ten UK top-10 singles for the band.

Which instrument did Steve Norman play in Spandau Ballet's classic line-up?

He began on guitar and switched to sax around the time of the True album.

Spandau Ballet's 'True' was recorded at Compass Point Studios in which country?

Gary Kemp was listening to Marvin Gaye and Al Green while writing the album, and name-checked Gaye in the song.

Gary and Martin Kemp played which pair of London gangster twins in a 1990 film?

Gary played Ronnie and Martin played Reggie; it premiered in London in April 1990.

Duran Duran took their name from Dr. Durand Durand, a character in which 1968 science-fiction film?

They picked the name the day after the film aired on the BBC in October 1978.

Duran Duran were the resident band at which Birmingham nightclub, whose owners became their managers?

The Berrow brothers paid them to work as doormen, DJs and barmen between rehearsals.

Simon Le Bon was studying what when an ex-girlfriend recommended him to Duran Duran in 1980?

His first gig with the classic line-up was at the Rum Runner on 16 July 1980.

Nick Rhodes made Duran Duran's first recordings above what kind of business run by his parents?

He left school at 16 in 1978 to start the band with John Taylor.

Which Australian director shot Duran Duran's 'Hungry Like the Wolf' and 'Rio' videos?

He also directed the video for Ultravox's 'Vienna' and later the film Highlander.

The 'Hungry Like the Wolf' video was filmed in which country?

EMI spent $200,000 to send the band there on a stopover en route to an Australian tour.

Which artist painted the woman on the cover of Duran Duran's Rio album?

Malcolm Garrett designed the sleeve to resemble 1950s cigar packaging.

The uncensored 'Girls on Film' video, with topless mud wrestling, aired on which US cable network?

MTV got a heavily edited version; the management had asked Godley & Creme for something sensational.

Which 1983 single gave Duran Duran their first UK number one?

'The Reflex' followed as a US and UK number one the next year.

Duran Duran topped the US charts in 1985 with the theme to which James Bond film?

Their third album, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, remains their only UK number one album.

Visage's 'Fade to Grey' is sung in English but also features spoken passages in which language?

The spoken part was recorded by Brigitte Arendt, Rusty Egan's girlfriend, a student from Luxembourg.

'Fade to Grey' peaked at No. 8 in the UK but reached number one in Switzerland and which other country?

It was originally written as an instrumental by Billy Currie and Chris Payne.

Three-fifths of which post-punk band, including John McGeoch, completed Visage's line-up?

Keyboardist Dave Formula was the third; McGeoch later joined Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Before Visage, Rusty Egan and Midge Ure played in which short-lived band with ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock?

Egan was the drummer; the band lasted from March 1977 to December 1978.

Steve Strange, born Stephen Harrington, came from which country?

He grew up in Newbridge and later lived in the seaside town of Porthcawl.

Steve Strange died in 2015 after a heart attack while staying in which Red Sea resort?

Visage completed the album Demons to Diamonds after his death and released it that November.

Ultravox were formed in 1974 under which original name?

They even called themselves The Damned for a few weeks before finding that name was taken.

Who fronted Ultravox from 1974 until leaving for a solo career in March 1979?

Midge Ure took over after working with Billy Currie on the Visage project.

Which novelty single kept Ultravox's 'Vienna' at No. 2 for three of its four weeks there?

Joe Dolce's record kept it off; John Lennon's 'Woman' blocked it the first week.

Midge Ure's stage name is a phonetic reversal of which name?

A bandmate flipped it to avoid two Jims in the band, with a dig at his small stature.

Which 1984 charity single did Midge Ure co-write and produce with Bob Geldof?

Marilyn was among the Blitz-era faces who sang on it.

Which future Culture Club drummer had previously played with the Damned and Adam and the Ants?

Boy George later said 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me' was partly about their relationship.

Culture Club got their first Top of the Pops slot in 1982 after which singer pulled out?

Boy George's appearance made headlines and sent 'Do You Really Want to Hurt Me' up the chart.

Boy George says he wrote 'Karma Chameleon' while on holiday in which country?

His bandmates were initially reluctant to record it because it sounded like a country song; it became the UK's biggest-selling single of 1983 and topped the charts in 20 countries.

Under what name did Boy George briefly perform with Malcolm McLaren's band Bow Wow Wow?

He was born George Alan O'Dowd in Kent and raised in Eltham.

Which Grammy did Culture Club win in 1984?

The same year they took Brit Awards for Best British Group and Best British Single.

Adam Ant was born with which real name?

He played bass in Bazooka Joe, the band the Sex Pistols supported at their first gig.

Adam and the Ants' second line-up famously used drums from which African country?

Bow Wow Wow, formed from the original Ants, used the same rhythm.

Which British film star appeared as the Fairy Godmother in the 'Prince Charming' video?

Lulu played the damsel in distress in the later 'Ant Rap' video.

Under what name did the band Japan briefly reform in 1991?

David Sylvian and company released one album under the name.

Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love' covered a 1965 Northern soul record by which singer?

Jones was Marc Bolan's girlfriend at the time of his death; Ed Cobb of the Four Preps wrote it.

Marc Almond was the DJ at which Leeds club, the heart of that city's early New Romantic scene?

Leeds developed its own scene around 1979, largely overlooked next to London and Birmingham.

Marilyn, the Blitz regular born Peter Robinson, had his big 1983 hit with which single?

It reached No. 4 in the UK and topped charts in Europe, Japan and Australia.

At which Sheffield nightclub did Phil Oakey spot Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley dancing before recruiting them?

'Don't You Want Me' then went to number one for five weeks over Christmas 1981.

Which 1979 single by Gary Numan's Tubeway Army topped the UK chart and kicked off the synth-pop boom?

Numan, born Gary Webb, had it boosted by a Lee Cooper jeans advert.

What trade did A Flock of Seagulls singer Mike Score work in before buying a Korg synthesizer?

The Liverpool band won a Grammy in 1983 for their instrumental 'D.N.A.'.

Which singer answered a Melody Maker ad to front Classix Nouveaux?

He was the only original member left by the time the band split in 1985.

Which July 1985 event did Dave Rimmer see as the peak for the New Romantic acts?

After it, he wrote, everyone seemed to take hubristic tumbles.

Which future star was in the Axiom fashion collective that staged a New York show with Spandau Ballet in 1981?

The Blitz Kids' trip was '21 in number and 21 their average age'.

What was the short-lived mid-1990s scene, championed by Melody Maker, that tried to revive New Romantic style?

None of its bands made the UK top 75 on their own; Orlando reached 65 on a soundtrack EP.

The 2021 documentary 'Blitzed: The 80's Blitz Kids' Story' was first shown on which channel?

Boy George, Rusty Egan and Marilyn all appeared, and La Roux discussed the movement's influence.

What was Boy George's 2002 stage musical about the London club scene called?

Marilyn was also a character; Freddie Fox later played him in the BBC film Worried About the Boy.

On which Covent Garden thoroughfare was the Blitz wine bar located?

Strange and Egan moved there from Billy's in Dean Street in 1979 and ran a Tuesday 'Club for Heroes'.

Which keyboardist likened calling OMD New Romantics to 'calling a Scotsman English'?

His bandmate Andy McCluskey was even blunter about the 'Southern New Romantic' scene in a 2010 interview.

Which Guardian writer labelled Spandau Ballet 'the sound of Thatcherism'?

The New Romantics' escapist, aspirational stance contrasted with the social commentary of 2 Tone bands like the Specials and the Beat.