Rusty Egan

The 25th anniversary celebration of Club Anvil continues with a truly unique, not-to-be-missed event: we are proud to host DJ Rusty Egan, the DJ and co-founder of the original New Romantic club nights, including the fabled Blitz Club, and the drummer of legendary group Visage; as well as Jori Hulkkonen, the internationally acclaimed DJ, producer and musician. Rusty Egan and Steve Strange's ground-breaking clubs arguably set the direction for a good part of the 1980's. What started in 1978 as Bowie Nights on Tuesday evenings at Billy's, a basement club at the corner of Dean Street and Meard Street in Soho, quickly ballooned into a scene for the non-conformist, the queer, and the creative young beings of London on the cusp of the 1980's. Moving to the eponymous wine bar in Covent Garden gave this set their name, and the "Blitz Kids" became a phenomenon. Colourful, fantastic, romantic, the Blitz kids charted a course towards a more interesting future, after the decline and crisis of the 1970's and the nihilistic, grimy explosion of punk, and amidst the rise of the prim, boring austerity of Thatcherism. Egan and Strange drew on the glamour of Bowie, the DIY ethos of punk (they had all been punks), and the new European electronic music of Kraftwerk and Moroder, to mix a heady cocktail of style and sound which mushroomed into a whole scene of club nights and new bands. Soon, what was initially a safe haven for the freaks and weirdoes unexpectedly took over the mainstream and nailed down the sound of the Eighties. The Duran Durans and Depeche Modes were soon playing stadium concerts. The scene also mainstreamed queer lifestyles, with Boy George (a one-time cloakroom attendant at Blitz) helping even granny come to terms with sexual non-conformism and gender ambiguity. Egan (who had previously been drummer of The Rich Kids) and Strange also started the band Visage (together with Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Geoff McGeogh, Dave Formula and Barry Adamson) to push their unique vision and to make more tracks for the Blitz dancefloor -- being immediately propelled to global recognition by the hypnotic melancholy of 'Fade to Grey'. The echoes of the Blitz Club reverberated throughout the 1980's and into the 1990's, having made pop more imaginative, deviancy more fashionable, and public attitudes more permissive. By 2000, being a bit of a freak was no longer a blood sport. Yet the Blitz and its eclecticism, both in terms of musical selection and a welcoming attitude towards all who had trouble finding a place to belong to, were the main inspiration for Club Anvil, founded in February 2000 and running non-stop, once a month, ever since. Indeed, Club Anvil is itself named after a Visage track (itself named after a famous New York City gay club)! Thus it is a particular honour to have DJ Rusty Egan play at Club Anvil in this year of our 25th anniversary. It feels like some circle suddenly closing. Rusty Egan will be joined behind the decks by Jori Hulkkonen, as well as your humble hosts Avalon and Maxine. The music, movement and light will never stop. Come celebrate these decades of nightlife with us – in high style! TICKET INFO COMING SOON...