Steve Strange

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Steve Strange (March 2014)

Steve Strange (born May 28, 1959 in Porthcawl , South Wales , † February 12, 2015 in Sharm El-Sheikh , Egypt ; real name Steven John Harrington ) was a British musician and pop star. He became known as the singer of the band Visage . He is seen as an important representative of the New Romantic , his influence on the British music and club scene is still felt today.

Life

At 15, he left native Wales to move to London . Allegedly Billy Idol invited him there. Since he could not make up his mind at first, he did not join his band Generation X as planned . He first worked for Malcolm McLaren and befriended Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols . He designed posters, choreographed videos and ran several nightclubs, including Camden Palace , Billy's and the legendary pop temple Blitz . Bored by the punk movement, Strange invited to a David Bowie and Roxy Music night at Billy's from the end of 1978 , and later at Blitz regularly on weekends . Strange acted as a bouncer there and only allowed guests with the most extreme and unusual outfits possible to enter: The rush of visitors turned out to be enormous. He was thus considered a pioneer of the New Romantic .

In the flash he got to know David Bowie , who on the one hand, with the fictional character Ziggy Stardust, was a stylistic role model from Stranges' youth, on the other hand was now impressed by the aesthetics of the New Romantic. Bowie's iconic 1980 video Ashes to Ashes also features Strange and other club-goers. Strange writes in his autobiography that Bowie's Pierrot costume in the video was more or less a copy of Stranges' outfit.

In the early 1980s, Strange became known outside the London club scene with the band Visage . First he tried his hand at the power pop band The Photons , until Midge Ure and Rusty Egan brought him to their newly formed band in 1978 after they had dissolved their predecessor, Rich Kids . At the end of 1980 the first album Visage was released , on which the title Fade to Gray was, with which the band gained recognition all over Europe. In 1981 he worked alongside Gillian Scalici in the television film Pommi Stern . Visage's success, however, could not be sustained for long; so the band broke up in the spring of 1985. Strange then formed the band Strange Cruise with Wendy Wu , which also only existed for a short time.

He went to Ibiza in 1985 and became part of the developing trance scene there, organizing exotic parties for stars and running clubs, went to India and worked in Scotland.

As a close friend of Michael Hutchence from INXS , he was severely affected by his death. Before that, he had lost all his belongings in a fire. Strange subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and went back to South Wales, where he was temporarily homeless. He was also caught shoplifting several times - among other things, he had tried to steal a teletubby for his nephew , which was picked up by the tabloids. In 2002 his autobiography Blitzed! . He also confessed that while he was with Visage, he first used cocaine and later heroin .

From 2004 Strange was again musically active as part of the re-establishment of Visage and recorded several new albums. He mainly appeared at retro festivals and was occasionally seen in television shows such as The Ultimate Chart Show , in which he gave information about the time of the New Romantics. Strange died in February 2015 at the age of 55 after a heart attack in a hospital in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Discography

Steve Strange (February 2014)

Studio albums

  • Visage (1980)
  • The Anvil (1982)
  • Beat Boy (1984)
  • Strange Cruise (1986)
  • Hearts & Knives (2013)
  • Orchestral (2014)
  • Demons To Diamonds (2015)

Singles and EPs

  • Tar (1979)
  • Fade to Gray (1980)
  • Mind of a Toy (1981)
  • Visage (EP, 1981)
  • The Damned Don't Cry (EP, 1982)
  • Night Train (EP, 1982)
  • Pleasure Boys (EP, 1982)
  • Love Glove (EP, 1984)
  • Beat Boy (EP, 1984)
  • Rebel Blue Rocker (1986)
  • The Beat Goes On (1986)
  • Cross: Manipulator (1988)
  • Bolan Esq (1991)
  • Rock Masters: In Your Bed (2005)
  • Punx Soundcheck feat. Steve Strange: In The Dark Remixes (2008)
  • Shameless Fashion (2013)
  • Dreamer I Know (EP, 2013)
  • Frequency 7 (reissue) (2013)
  • Never Enough (EP, 2013)
  • Never Enough (Remixes, 2014)
  • Hidden Sign (2014)
  • She's Electric (Coming Around) (EP, 2014)
  • Fade to Gray (Orchestral) (2014)
  • Bottin feat. Steve Strange: Poison Within (2014)

Filmography

  • The Punk Rock Movie (1978)
  • Urban Cowboy (1980)
  • Pommi Star (1981)
  • Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders? (2005)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Severin Mevissen: “Fade To Gray”: Visage's Steve Strange is dead. February 13, 2015. On RollingStone.de, accessed on January 12, 2019.
  2. ↑ Felix Bayer: On the death of Visage singer Steve Strange - First punk, then a bird of paradise. February 13, 2015. From Spiegel.de, accessed on January 12, 2019.
  3. ↑ Gerrit Bartels: Super hit "Fade To Gray" - Visage singer Steve Strange is dead. February 13, 2015. On Tagesspiegel.de, accessed on January 12, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Steve Strange, Visage lead singer, dies aged 55. February 13, 2015. From BBC.com, accessed January 12, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Strange, Steve
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harrington, Steven John (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Porthcawl
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 2015
Place of death Sharm El Sheikh , Egypt