Rusty Egan Presents BLITZED!

Various Artists – Rusty Egan Presents BLITZED! (Demon)

At last, the DJ who soundtracked a revolution is ready to share his secrets. Just don’t ask him if he invented the 80s.

One word sums up a 4CD boxset of the music played at the Blitz club: finally. No, really, that’s all you need to know about the Blitz’s resident founding DJ Rusty Egan belatedly getting to assemble his favourite Blitz moments: it’s all here. Go and buy it right now and we’ll see you back here for more hoopla once you’re done. Come on, what are you waiting for?

Oh alright, if you will insist on some context: considering the Blitz’s importance to Britain’s cultural life, it’s bizarre that it hasn’t been fully documented before. If Egan doesn’t quite accept that the Blitz invented the 80s as we know it, then by fomenting the likes of Spandau Ballet and Culture Club – not to mention having Grayson Perry, John Galliano, Siobhan Fahey, Philip Sallon and Stephen Linard among its regulars – Blitz absolutely played host to some  pretty damn important figures.

Egan’s ambivalence towards what followed the Blitz is natural. In every respect, his Visage bandmate Steve Strange was more of the club’s public face. Ever since, the occasional idea for a Blitz compilation has involved Egan having to reject offers from chancers wanting him to churn out AN Other 80s rip-off featuring Don’t You Want Me and Tainted Love, forgetting that the Blitz had been sold off in 1980 to become a restaurant before its founders had
the chance to enjoy what they’d spawned.

Read More: The Story Of The New Romantics

Instead, Egan’s 66 tracks accurately reflect what was played when David Bowie came in, Mick Jagger was turned away and Boy George was working in the cloakroom. There are big hitters: it starts out with Being Boiled, and naturally showcases Fade To Grey alongside Radioactivity, To Cut A Long Story Short, Pop Muzik, Japan, OMD, Sparks and Tubeway Army.

But where Egan’s compilation excels is in being absolutely true to his Blitz spirit. Here are the European electronic offerings the DJ hoovered up on trips to Düsseldorf, Paris and Berlin: Gina X Performance, La Düsseldorf, Amanda Lear. Mixed in are avant-garde experiments that would never have been spun at a regular nightclub: Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire, Suicide.

Just as importantly, Egan is keen to remind 80s students that the club was never intended to be exclusively a bolthole for futurists. If deranged fun like Jeff Wayne’s The Eve Of The War, Lulu’s melodramatic take on The Man Who Sold The World or the heightened frenzy of I’m An Indian Too by Don Armando’s 2nd Avenue Rhumba Band sounded as glamorous as the clubbers looked, then on it went. It might not have invented the 80s, but the Blitz showed the way for Classic Pop. Thanks, Rusty.

5/5

To buy Rusty Egan Presents BLITZED! click here

Read More: Top 40 New Romantic songs