NewsRusty Egan presents Blitzed!
CD & Vinyl box sets of Rusty’s 1979-1980 Blitz Club classics
The music of London’s Blitz Club is celebrated with a new box set curated by Rusty Egan the man who, with Steve Strange, started the weekly club which soundtracked a transition from the gloom of the UK in the late 70s into the new decade of the 1980s with the sounds, sights and glamour to go with it.
Strange would work the door/front of house, while Egan handled DJ duties in the club. The pair had originally met briefly backstage at an early 1978 gig, in Wales, with Rich Kids – the short-lived post-punk band put together by ex-Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock and featuring Egan on drums, Steve New on guitar and Midge Ure on vocals. The band split, and at 19 and 21 respectively, Strange and Egan started the club in a wine bar in Covent Garden called Blitz (having started out at Billy’s in Soho the year before).
“The ethos was that everybody in that club could be heroes, just for one day and my DJ set lists at the Blitz were designed to make YOU the star – on the dancefloor, at the bar or just standing there in your finest on a dreary Tuesday night,” remarks Egan of the innovative music he has compiled for this new box-set. “You could be whoever you wanted to be – your life was going to be great and the ‘80s were here. The late ‘70s had been so grey and drab and I wanted the music I played each week to instantly transport you somewhere else – maybe to Europe with a few film noir references or to Japan via some exciting new electronic sounds. Of course there were lots of robotic vocals sung in German, Russian, French and English too.”
Rusty Egan
The Blitz Club quickly became the place to be and be seen and would regularly host designers, artists, and especially musicians, or aspiring musicians. Many of what would soon to become British pop’s most innovative early Eighties exports would be there on a regular basis, including the Blitz Club’s cloakroom manager Boy George, Sade, Spandau Ballet, Billy Idol, Ultravox, Visage, Adam And The Ants, Bananarama, Marilyn, Gary Numan, Siouxsie and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
Spandau Ballet actually played their first gig at the Blitz Club (the Christmas party!) in early December 1979. Gary Kemp recalls: “The Blitz Club, with Steve Strange’s curated ragamuffins and Rusty Egan’s electro soundtrack, was the engine room for the ‘80s. Spandau Ballet was forged from that heat. We were determined to make our own advances into the new culture we wanted to lead. Vinyl was just one of our mediums. Here are the tunes we danced to, planned over, posed and gazed to. Energy poured out of this backing track.”
As well as a host of electronic classics, this new Rusty Egan Presents Blitzed! box-set includes many hard to find extended remixes and edits from artists like Grace Jones, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk (a scarce promo edit of the Düsseldorf band’s seminal track ‘Radioactivity’ is included).
This release is available as a deluxe 4CD set (66 tracks) and across four vinyl LPs (36 tracks). Both including extensive sleeve notes by The Guardian’s chief rock & pop critic (and occasional SDE reviewer) Alexis Petridis as well as an introductory essay by Rusty Egan.
A Amazon-exclusive limited 4CD signed edition comes with a colour print of Rusty Egan DJing at the Blitz Club. This is a previously unseen photo taken in 1979 by legendary music photographer Peter Ashworth and personally autographed by Rusty.
Rusty Egan presents Blitzed! will be released on 28 June 2024 via Demon Music.
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Tracklisting
Rusty Egan – Blitzed! Various Artists /
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CD 1
- The Human League – Being Boiled (Fast Product version)
- Tubeway Army – Down In The Park
- Magazine – Permafrost
- Vice Versa – New Girls Neutrons
- Fad Gadget – Back To Nature
- Pretenders – Private Life
- Iggy Pop – Nightclubbing
- The Normal – Warm Leatherette
- Throbbing Gristle – Hot On The Heels Of Love
- Thomas Leer & Robert Rental – Day Breaks, Night Heals
- Shock – R.E.R.B.
- The Glitter Band – Makes You Blind
- John Foxx – Burning Car
- Yello – Bostich (album version)
- Dalek I – Dalek I Love You (Destiny)
- Cowboys International – Thrash
- Joy Division – Shadowplay
- Cabaret Voltaire – Nag Nag Nag
- Ultravox! – Hiroshima Mon Amour
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CD 2
- Sparks – The Number One Song In Heaven (long version)
- Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Electricity (1980 Dindisc version)
- Ultravox – Passing Strangers
- Kraftwerk – Radioactivity (edit)
- Lulu – The Man Who Sold The World
- Jeff Wayne – The Eve Of The War (disco re-mix)
- Don Armando’s 2nd Avenue Rhumba Band – I’m An Indian Too
- Japan – Life in Tokyo (short version)
- Blondie – Heart Of Glass (12” version)
- Amanda Lear – Follow Me
- Wolfgang Riechmann – Wunderbar
- Eno, Moebius, Roedelius – Broken Head
- M – Pop Muzik (12” version)
- Barry De Vorzon – Theme From ‘The Warriors’
- Roxy Music – Angel Eyes (extended remix)
- Suicide – Dream Baby Dream (long version)
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CD 3
- Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose
- Throbbing Gristle – Hamburger Lady
- The Walker Brothers – No Regrets
- Hot Chocolate – Put Your Love In Me
- The Men – I Don’t Depend On You
- Metro – Criminal World
- Billy Cobham – Spanish Moss – A Sound Portrait: Storm
- Cerrone – Supernature (12” full length version)
- Garçons – French Boy
- Lori And The Chameleons – Touch
- Visage – Moon Over Moscow
- Kraftwerk – Schaufensterpuppen
- Mick Ronson – Only After Dark
- Landscape – Japan
- La Dusseldorf – Rheinita (single version)
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CD 4
- The Cure – A Forest (album version)
- The Regents – 7 Teen
- Zaine Griff – Ashes And Diamonds
- Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short
- Telex – Moskow Diskow
- Taxi-Girl – Mannequin
- Silicon Teens – Memphis Tennessee
- The Slits – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
- Simple Minds – Changeling
- Skids – Animation (edit)
- Giorgio Moroder – Chase (from ‘Midnight Express’ soundtrack)
- Rinder And Lewis – Willie And The Hand Jive (12” version)
- Visage – Fade To Grey (1980 Dance Mix)
- Gina X Performance – No G.D.M.
- Vangelis – Chung Kuo
- Lou Reed – Perfect Day
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CD 1
Tracklisting
Rusty Egan – Blitzed! Various Artists /
-
-
LP 1
SIDE A
- The Human League – Being Boiled (Fast Product version)
- Tubeway Army – Down In The Park
- Fad Gadget – Back To Nature
- Vice Versa – New Girls Neutrons
- Throbbing Gristle – Hot On The Heels Of Love
SIDE B
- The Normal – Warm Leatherette
- Cabaret Voltaire – Nag Nag Nag
- John Foxx – Burning Car
- Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Electricity (1980 Dindisc version)
- Shock – R.E.R.B.
-
LP 2
SIDE A
- Ultravox! – Hiroshima Mon Amour
- Magazine – Permafrost
- Hot Chocolate – Put Your Love In Me
- Visage – Moon Over Moscow
SIDE B
- Sparks – The Number One Song In Heaven (long version)
- The Glitter Band – Makes You Blind
- The Regents – 7 Teen
- Roxy Music – Angel Eyes (extended remix)
-
LP 3
SIDE A
- The Men – I Don’t Depend On You
- Barry De Vorzon – Theme From ‘The Warriors’
- Rinder And Lewis – Willie And The Hand Jive (12” version)
- Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose
SIDE B
- Kraftwerk – Schaufensterpuppen
- Ultravox – Passing Strangers
- Iggy Pop – Nightclubbing
- Gina X Performance – No G.D.M.
-
LP 4
SIDE A
- Mick Ronson – Only After Dark
- Simple Minds – Changeling
- Skids – Animation (edit)
- Japan – Life In Tokyo (short version)
- Amanda Lear – Follow Me
- Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short
SIDE B
- Yello – Bostich (album version)
- Giorgio Moroder – Chase (from ‘Midnight Express’ soundtrack)
- Visage – Fade To Grey (1980 Dance Mix)
- Lou Reed – Perfect Day
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LP 1
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By Paul Sinclair
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