Released: 28th June 2024. London, 1979. From the rubble and ashes of punk a new youth cult was emerging. Divinely inspired by Bowie, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk, a new tribe the press started labelling New Romantics, or Futurists, discarded punk's old-hat claims towards authenticity and protest, in pursuit of glamour, make-up, dressing up and dancing. Their home was The Blitz Club, a tiny wine bar at the edge of Covent Garden and what went on there between 1979 and 1980 would genuinely change the world. The other name for this cult? Blitz Kids. Without necessarily knowing it, The Blitz was birthing the next wave of British pop stars. A young Boy George ran the cloakroom, its host and doorman was a young Steve Strange, soon-to-be the frontman of Visage, Spandau Ballet played their first gig there and on a given night you might find yourself dancing next to a member of Ultravox. Fashion designers in Regency ballgowns mingled with secretaries in rubber, post boys dressed as Biggles danced next to art school kids dressed as Pierrot. David Bowie assembled his extras for the 'Ashes to Ashes' video from the Blitz kids. Mick Jagger was refused entry. Too square. And the club had a mighty soundtrack, assembled painstakingly by its resident DJ Rusty Egan. Rusty's sets brought together heroes like Eno, Iggy, and Lou Reed, cool European electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk, Telex and Yello, the electronic side of disco (Cerrone, Hot Chocolate, Amanda Lear) and cutting-edge film soundtracks from the likes of Vangelis, Giorgio Moroder and Barry De Vorzon. Rusty also span the nascent sounds of Britian's next new wave - Japan, Landscape, the Human League, Visage, Ultravox, Fad Gadget. Compiled exhaustively from his DJ sets, 'Rusty Egan Presents Blitzed!' brings together the sounds of a night at the club circa 1980 on a 36-track 4LP set. Beautifully presented with contemporary photography from Sheila Rock, Peter Ashworth and Terry Smith, the booklets also contain sleeve notes from Alexis Petridis and Rusty himself.
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