Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange [Paperback]

Steve Strange (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Steve Strange was head boy of the New Romantic movement. He ran the best clubs in London - Billy's, Blitz and Camden Palace - which defined the glitzy banality of the era; places where Spandau Ballet and Boy George came to life. He formed, with Midge Ure, Visage, which became one of the biggest bands of the time, selling millions of records and gaining tabloid notoriety. BLITZED! recounts the rise and fall of the Blitz Kid from the excess of the early eighties - the clubs, the people, the music, the money - to his time spent recovering in Ibiza and India, the subsequent steady decline into cocaine and heroin abuse and his rise back to sanity. Steve recounts how he lost all his possessions in a house fire and days later learned of the death of his close friend Michael Hutchence. Within a couple of years Paula Yates had also committed suicide and Strange had ended up back in South Wales, homeless, mentally unstable and facing a court order for shoplifting. He recounts how he pulled himself back from the brink. He now manages a band, is clean, is re-recording Visage tracks and is ready to tell his amazing story.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Steve Strange is taking part in this year's Here & Now Tour from 12th to22nd December. The publicity achieved for the paperback of Blitzed! so far, includes: BBC Breakfast interview - live on New Year's EveMel & Sue Show - BBC LondonInterview in Daily Mirror - 13/12Interview to appear in Now MagazineInterview to appear in Heat MagazineChris Moyles Show - BBC Radio 1Interview to appear in Sunday Times Culture Steve Strange has also started regional radio interviews, heavily plugging Blitzed! and will continue these in the New Year, following the completion of the Here & Now tour. Steve is also signing copies of Blitzed! at the various venues Here & Now is appearing aro

About the Author

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Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Orion (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752849360
• ISBN-13: 978-0752849362
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing, dishy page-turner - Dig the Now Crowd!, September 26, 2005

By 

G. Mitchell "greggmitch" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange (Paperback)

If you're a fan of the early 80s London scene - especially the New Romantic movement, i.e. Blitz, Club for Heroes, Visage, Boy George, Bowie, glam, punk, Vivienne Westwood, etc - this is for you - Strange is actually a fairly good writer - he comes off a bit arrogant and self-absorbed at tinmes, but as the leader who gave birth to a new youth/culture/fashion movement, who wouldn't be?! He balances his bravado and ego with moments that are often revealing, self-deprecating, and just plain honest. At turns cheeky, shocking, funny, tart, sweet, and sad, BLITZED takes its ranks alongside Boy George's TAKE IT LIKE A MAN and his recent STRAIGHT as a well-crafted insider's look at a now rather innocent era in pop history - though I am sure Strange himself would bristle at the comparison. Great photos, too! And Strange still has it - rockin' Westwood and a magnolia on the cover jacket!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Mind of a Toy, March 20, 2006

By 

Damon Devine (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange (Paperback)

Steve Strange is a man who never grew up. In this book he takes very little responsibility for anything that went wrong in his life. There was always somethng or someone to blame for "making" him do heroin or steal. And he hasn't an OUNCE of self-deprication, so I am unclear where in this book the reviewer 'G Mitchell' finds that. Steve Strange was GREAT in Visage and visually creative, but we must be honest, in that his success was very limited. Few people outside of the UK or Germany ever knew he ever had a song outside of Fade to Grey! And even they might not be so sure! But if we are to believe the extreme boasts of Mr. Strange (and there are hundreds), we would suspect he wrote the Bible! He takes credit for the discovery of EVERYthing, from the entire New Romantic scene, to Sade and even for "bringning London alive again." He completely side-steps Boy George's world-wide fame, and only mentions George before his fame and then during his downfall in 1986!

I live in Hollywood, and I notice the shorter and less important the fame, the bigger the ego is! The boastfulness can get so extreme, one cringes, and soon questions the reliability of these claims. Like Steve Strange saying "Prince was still following me everywhere." Yea right...we believe that. I was STUNNED when Strange attempts to say at one time, that his schedule was 'so busy' and he had become 'so famous' that he went to France, Germany and back to England to do interviews and television spots...all in a matter of hours! That is ludicrous and not how show business works. DAYS are inbetween such publicity tour dates.

By page 155, one starts to realize Steve Strange was more a club promoter and door man, than he ever was a musician in Visage. By books end, the reader feels a bit of sadness for this clown performing LONG AFTER the circus has left town. Strange's arrogance is long gone by that time, but this late in the game, no one cares. It appears the days when he turned "hopeful scenesters" away at the door of his Blitz club (for he held a mirror in front of their faces and asked, "Would YOU let yourself in looking like that?") came back to bite him in the [...].

I AM a big Visage fan, and for that reason, wish I had not read this book. It will be hard now, to separate the great music from the delusional character behind it.

I give it 3 stars, only because his incessant name dropping is actually somewhat interesting, in that it gives insight into how interesting OTHER people were at the time.
You will not get that "nostalgiac" 80's feeling from this book, like you would reading Boy George's book. Mind you, George's book has 300 more pages in it, if that tells you anything!