Customer Reviews

Blitzed!: The Autobiography of Steve Strange

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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!

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!