#Rusty Egan

[theunderestimator-2]

Bette Bright with Glen Matlock on bass at the Music Machine in London, as captured by Mick Mercer in 1979.

Bette Bright released a series of new wavey-pop/reggae singles, mostly covers of 60’s girl group songs, between '78-'79 with The Illuminations, a backing band that at the time included Henry Priestman, formerly of the Yachts, Rusty Egan, a former member of the Rich Kids and the DJ at the new romantic temple Blitz, along with Glen Matlock, already an ex-Pistol and a former Rich Kid as well.

"This was around the time that Blondie broke big in the UK, so suddenly lots of singles were being released by women who sounded like Debbie Harry for a quick cash-in, but I don’t think that this was the intent with this one. Also around this time... Bette appeared on the cover of Record Mirror. She also toured around this time and was certainly starting to grab an increasing amount of people’s attention, it now only seemed to be a matter of time before she would finally have some chart success. This was followed in November 1981 by the album “Rhythm Breaks The Ice”, also featuring a few original songs, but it wasn’t a hit. By this point, Bette had started to date Graham “Suggs” McPherson, the frontman of Madness, and in 1981 they got married. They have had two children, and almost 40 years later they are still together..." adamnostalgia.wordpress.com/

(via)

[spilladabalia]

Visage - Fade To Grey

[sk8rambler]

i have no words..

[jaynedolluk]

Got the latest issue of Classic Pop which had a fantastic piece on The Blitz nightclub (to tie with the new compilation curated by Rusty Egan based on the music he used to play at The Blitz). Plus they had pieces on New Jack Swing and the best 20 comeback singles (Ordinary World by Duran Duran was at No 1)

Also got Uncut as they had a big feature on one of my all-time favourite bands, Royal Trux as well as a little piece on the Cornish folk scene and a review of the new documentary on Anita Pallenberg, Catching Fire.

[therealslimshakespeare]

Hello love!

Could you please give a sneak peek of the day Rosie proposed to Ida and how she reacted?

Thank you !

Proposal #1 -for there were many

Thank you for this sweet request, how I adore these two and being given the nudge to finally dig into their fledgling dynamic. Thank you for your patience as I scribbled this out over weeks

Warnings: pretty fluffy, next to none besides a tiny bit of suggestive thoughts and a vague reminiscence of sexual abuse = brief thought process that being alone with a man is courting violence

Rosie x Ida

Date: fall of 1945

This apartment had hardwoods, cherry with perfectly straight painted crown molding and a fireplace. The city screeched and buzzed out the windows, a dizzying drop downward.

“Two doors down, you said?” she asked Robert again, not having in any way, shape or form forgotten how close his apartment was to this prospective new home of hers. It was downright scandalous, and Ida found herself half enjoying that, the look of affronted decorum the bellkeep gave them when Robert snagged the keys to show her -unescorted- the rooms for lease.

“Yeah, two down on the left.” Robert was leaning against the kitchen counter and watching her unproductively trail her fingertips over the hallways paint job. “We could go in together on it.” he added, and that sort of voice of his made her shiver. In a nice way, a panicked sort of nice. When Robert Rosenthal tested the limit it was always with finesse. “Or you could check mine out. It’s got a better fireplace.”

Ida was rusty at flirting but banter she knew. She stalwartly kept her back to him lest those blue eyes make her foolish and continued to stroke the paint. “Does it have hardwoods, though? Mm?”

“I’ve got hardwoods.” his voice had reached a new low and Ida’s spine was alight from it.

She hardly recognized this creature toeing the line with him, inviting scandal, enjoying a man in pursuit, asking to see his apartment. What did she hope to inspire? Presumption? Ruination? Violence, even? There were so many reasons not to enter a bachelor’s apartment alone, and yet Ida asked, “May I see them?”

Robert never denied her anything. That was what was intoxicating about him. Nothing of himself was off limits. Poor behavior and bad decisions? He halted them in her as unwaveringly as her father but of himself? He was a wellspring of generosity. “Of course.”

His apartment was beautiful, if a little bare. Cluttered more than homey, records and case files scattered about but it was clean in the ways that mattered. And it smelled of him, his soap and his cologne and whatever invention he used to maim his curls into submission. She had treasured those scents on his scarf and now she had a whole location to breathe him in. It was staggering.

Robert watched her in his space the same as he had in the empty one, closely, yearningly, from a distance. For Ida to have come at all meant a great deal, she’d told Egan as much in excuse for not going and he’d told her in return she was ready. And here she was, feeling very rash, very torn and not at all like an intern reviewing prospective housing in a new city.

It was never going to be just that. Not with Rosie. She knew that and it terrified her.

“Want coffee?” He offered, breaking the stillness, that’s something she loved about his company, the way he never had to fill the space with more than what they brought to it. “You’re here now.” he cajoled and was already scooping grounds before she gave him a shy nod.

“Coffee would be lovely.”

He hummed as he filled up the pan, tinkering around in a not fully sterile kitchen. It had elements and food products and Ida was glad to see he was taken care of. “Choose a record.” he told her as she spaced out, intrigued beyond reason at the rolled up sleeves along his forearms.

“What?” she startled.

“Put on a record.”

Out of mischief alone she put on Tommy Dorsey. They’d had arguments over this, but he shouldn’t have owned any of he didn’t want her to play a jest. The pumping beginnings of Sunny Side of the Street began to tug into melody when she felt him, so close it would have been reason for spooking except she caught his approach in the reflection of the great glass windows, it was growing dark outside and she was still here and he was making her coffee and his hand on her waist suggested he intended to dance with her.

They were very good at dancing together. She loved their easy flow, missed the feeling of his strength with every spin and turn, his shoulder during a sway, agile hands when he tossed her off. He’d never asked when they were alone. The intimacy was unlike anything she’d ever felt as the coffee gurgled in the background and Dorsey’s trumpets blared and Rosie Rosenthal swayed her beneath his hands and a heavy lidded gaze.

“—Grab your coat, don’t forget your hat but leave your worries, leave ‘em on the doorstep, life’s sweet, just direct your feet to the su-sunny side of the street—“

Ida folded her hand over the soft fabric of his shoulder and laid her cheek there, knowing with a lesser man she’d be asking for trouble. Robert had some in store for her, but not the sort to dread. “I’d make a great to do about this if I didn’t think you’d just up and leave a nice dinner in the middle of my speech—“ he began to talk and she closed her eyes, just breathing him in and feeling him move her in tiny steps along his living room rug. Perhaps his mother had picked it out for him. Ida liked his mother and she liked Ida and she had told her to look after her soon in that grand apartment building. Robert couldn’t budge her from Brooklyn— “so I’m doing it now and I don’t want an answer right now either. But Ida, you know, y-you know this is coming and I’ve got to say it. I want you to marry me.”

Maybe she knew but still, it was startling. She felt her eyes smart and that alone was a surprise, not a sort of response she anticipated of herself. She screwed them shut all the tighter and pressed her cheek nearer to him. He knew so much -how could he ever want this.

“I’ve applied, Ida, to be an assistant council. For the trials over in Germany.” his voice was professional, gentle, she tried to breathe, “The way I see it, you haven’t even begun exams yet, you’ll learn more as my assistant over there than a whole year here floundering without contacts. It wouldn’t be a waste even on the professional level, you know? But that’s not all, you know it’s not all.”

“Robert.” she breathed.

“If they accept me that’s a year apart, that’s me over in Germany and calling you every day and it being too many hours apart and-“ he sounded genuinely panicked himself at the thought, “there’ll be censors and I’ll only get to tell you about the bratwurst I had for breakfast and how we really did a number on the architecture and -Ida, I don’t know about you but I can’t do it. I can’t be without you that long. The you, I mean the you I call and I know and who sorts my day out every evening with your laughs and anecdotes. Ida think on it.”

Oh she’d only ever hoped he felt the same but now he did, it was the most dreadful thing. Because he was right and that was always hard to argue with, but he also seemed genuine and that meant when she declined him he’d only be hurt, genuinely hurt. “I could go, Robert,” she thought it out, “and there’d be no need to marry.”

He shook his head, vehemently and she didn’t have to raise her own to know his eyes were wild and blue, “No, no stay or go I’ve gotta marry you, Ida. You’re it.”

“You like what we have?”

“It’s everything to me.”

“Then let’s not ruin it.” she begged. “It’ll be horrible and awful and if you think you can manage it now that’s all very sweet but one day you’ll not feel the same, and when you do then I won’t be able to take it. I’ll hold you to it, I’ll tell you I told you so. I can’t look the other way, I’m not that sort but you’re young and why won’t you? And I won’t stand for it. Don’t -let’s not ruin it, Robert. You’re too dear to me.”

He cupped a hand under her chin and lifted her face to his, smile lines crunching as he tucked his chin, she loved when he directed her like this. God she loved it. “I’m not wanting to ruin anything.” he replied levelly, “I’m trying to preserve what we have. I want this forever, Ida, forever. This, just this. Doesn’t ever need to be more, I want this.”

The record had begun to skip. “You know so much-“ she choked, “why would you ever want-“

“I love you.” it was always that simple, “And I won’t ever not. And you’re no charmer so you know when your boys and your girls love you it’s for you and you don’t doubt them and I don’t deserve that either, you’re everything good and right and what I believe in, and I wanna wake up next to you in Nuremberg Germany or Victor, New York and I wanna be reminded I’ve got a reason to go on and I wanna slip in beside you at the end of the day in our pajamas and tell you what justice we’ve done and who we’ve locked up -Ida, look me in the eyes and tell me you can do without me. Even if you can, I can’t without you. I can’t. I want you. Think on it, please sweetheart; think on it.”

He was thumbing tears away now and his own cheeks seemed to glisten. “I can’t promise you anything.” she cried, “I don’t even know if I can sleep next to you.”

“Then we’ll buy matching sofas.” he argued, “Or the adjoining apartment.”

“That’s not a wife, that’s a roommate.”

“That’s a wife -a companion.”

“A companion? What are you, ninety five? Did you have mumps as a child, Robert? Is this where this is coming from?”

“Ida, I don’t expect a damn thing from you. You know it. I think you know it.”

“Yes, which is perturbing.” she hit back, “And if you think I will progress faster with someone breathing down my neck and tapping their foot in impatience -you’re more fool than I thought.”

“This, Ida.” he was implacable, “I want this. What we have right now.”

She pulled away from his embrace, realizing how long she had allowed his arms to cradle her after their dance had ended. How heatedly they had begun to discuss this, how close he was. How handsome he looked, how well he argued—“Arguments.” she scoffed, “You want arguments?”

“I wanna marry you.” he grinned back.

“Ah yes, no see,” Ida took to pacing, a habit picked up from him and there's the rub, “that’s where we differ. Marrying me would be quite the mistake and ruin -well I can’t take credit for your life, I don't think I’ve that much power, but I do think I could manage to ruin a decent portion of your late twenties and that would be most unfair for a man of your standing and…sweetness.”

“S’long as it’s you doin’ the ruining.” Rosie rejoined lazily from his steadfast position atop Till Death Do Us Part Hill. “How ‘bout that coffee?”

“I didn’t agree to anything!” she chased after him as he ambled into the kitchen, his back looked so broad in this domestic scene.

“And I didn’t ask for an answer.”

“You’re infuriating sometimes, Robert.”

“You called me sweet five seconds ago.”

“Case in point.”

“You’re going to love law school, Ida. They train you to snap professionally, you’ll take to it like a fish to water.”

“Truly insufferable.”

“You’d like Germany in the fall.”

“Robert!”

“Here’s your coffee; black, one sugar.”

“You remembered.”

“Ida. Please.”

💋 Hope you enjoyed! Feedback is a writer’s lifeblood, please feel free to scream in comments or the inbox, I love it and wanna hear it all. Trust me, nothing is “too dumb”. Your thoughts mean the world to me.

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[whirlpool-blogs]

“Less than a hundred miles to the west, the main body of Darr Alkire's column had just reached Moosburg's Stalag VIIA. Gale Cleven was no longer with them. He had escaped the evening the marchers reached the Danube, after telling Alkire that he was convinced the Germans planned to fall back into the Alps and stage a desperate stand, using American airmen as negotiating pawns. His friend John Egan agreed with him, but had to stay behind; Alkire had put him in charge of security operations on the march.

That night, Cleven and two other men had crawled through an open stockade filled with manure, with Egan providing cover by priming a rusty old pump, the squealing and scraping drawing the attention of the guards.”

Masters of the Air | Chapter 17

[middlingmay]

Going through my drafts and found this alternative scene for when John and Gale got together in TODCL. In this version, after Gale and John made up, Gale hinted that he'd like to go on a date, hoping John would take the hint and ask him out on one. But John took it as a different hint altogether:

Curt parked haphazard over the entrance to the lot. All the better. He didn't need nobody interrupting the reaming Bucky had coming for him. Inside, despite the pathetic fragment of hope Curt held that he'd gotten it all wrong, he saw Bucky wrist deep in an old tool box that should have been thrown out long ago. He was all dirtied up in his overalls. “Goddamn it, Bucky what have you done?”

Bucky looked up, the bags under his eyes heavy and dark despite having mostly gotten over that rotten cold he'd been fighting. “What do you want?” Short and brusque. “You wanna tell me why Buck is going on a date, and it's not with you?” Bucky gripped a rusty, unrecognisable tool like he wanted to throw it. Curt almost wanted him to try, but instead he took a breath and turned back to the tool box. “Because he asked me to set him up on one.” “Really? Buck said, I want you, Bucky Egan, who I’ve been eye fucking for months, to set me up on a date with another man?” “We agreed to be friends, and he said he wanted a date. Friends set friends up all the time. It's not a big deal.” Curt didn't have Bucky's self control, and wasn't that just all the proof he needed of how far these two fuckin' idiots had pushed him. He hefted up an empty oil can and hurled it at Bucky, who dove out the way. "HEY!" “You fuckin’ idiot! You know what, Bucky? I hope this guy is something. I hope he sweeps Gale of his feet! Then you'll realise what a thick skull you’ve got.” John sneered bitterly but his eyes glittered all the same, “Yeah, stick the knife in why don’t you.” “I don't have to! You're doing a great job all by yourself. God damn it Bucky! He thinks he's going on date with you! He's with Marge now, getting ready. He's excited! Or do you know that anyway? And this is payback for what he did? He breaks your heart so you break his? Get the ledgers even? You son of a bitch." But as angry as Curt got, John didn't rise. Curt saw the thick swallow of his throat and the flex of his hand and the short jerk of his head; all signs that Bucky wanted to let loose and reign a little hell with that Egan temper. But something kept his eyes down and his shoulders hunched. “You got it wrong Curt.” “Yeah, we’ll fuckin’ see. Good little Catholic ain’t you? Self flagellating like a pro. Fuck sake.”

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday James “Midge” Ure born October 10th 1953 in Cambuslang.

Born to a working class family Ure attended Cambuslang Primary School and Rutherglen Academy in Glasgow until he was 15 years old. For the first 10 years of his life he lived in a one-bedroom tenement flat. After leaving school Ure attended Motherwell Technical College and then began to work as an engineer, training at the National Engineering Laboratory (NEL), in nearby East Kilbride.

Midge started playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble in 1969, before joining Salvation, a Glasgow-based group that became the bubblegum band Slik in 1974. Upset in the change of direction, Ure left the band to join the Rich Kids, a punk-pop group led by former Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock. The Rich Kids only released one album, 1978’s Ghosts of Princes in Towers, before breaking up later that year. Ure spent a brief time with the Misfits (not the American band) before forming Visage with drummer Rusty Egan and vocalist Steve Strange; he left the group to replace Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy, who had left in the middle of an American tour. After the tour was finished, Ure fulfilled an agreement to join Ultravox as the replacement for John Foxx.

Once he joined the band in 1980, Ure helped make Ultravox a mainstream success; during this time he also worked as a producer, making records with Steve Harley and Modern Man. In 1982, Ure released a solo single, a cover of the Walker Brothers’ hit “No Regrets”; it climbed into the U.K. Top Ten. Ure and Bob Geldof formed Band Aid, a special project to aid famine relief efforts in Ethiopia, in 1984. The two wrote the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and assembled an all-star band of musicians to record the single; it sold millions of copies over the 1984 holiday season.

In 1985, Ultravox was put on hiatus and Ure began to pursue a full-time solo career. Recorded entirely by Ure, his 1985 solo debut, The Gift, launched the number one single “If I Was,” as well as the minor hits “That Certain Smile” and “Call of the Wild.” The following year, he recorded the final Ultravox album; in 1987, the band broke up and he began recording his second solo album. The resulting record, 1988’s Answers to Nothing, was less successful than The Gift in the U.K., yet it charted in the U.S., which is something Ure’s previous album failed to do. Three years later, Ure released his third album, Pure; while it didn’t do any business in America, the album featured the Top 20 British hit “Cold, Cold Heart.” He attempted a comeback in 1996 with Breathe, which went ignored by both the American and British markets. Four years later, his score for the Jon Cryer drama-comedy Went to Coney Island was issued by the Evenmore label.

Ure’s recording activity during the 2000s began with Move Me, which featured some surprisingly hard rocking material. A few years later, he published an autobiography, If I Was, and then, with Geldof, arranged the Live 8 concerts.

Following the release of the covers-oriented 10 IN 2008, Ure participated in an Ultravox reunion and continued to record as a solo artist. Fragile was issued in 2014, and featured the Moby collaboration “Dark, Dark Night.” In 2017, he collaborated with composer Ty Unwin on the album Orchestrated, which featured orchestral reworkings of Ultravox songs, as well as songs from his solo career.

In 2020 Midge released an album Soundtrack 1978-2019, he was one of the lucky artists to have completed his tour promoting this in February that year.

Midge has recently revealed why he turned down an offer to join the Sex Pistols, telling The Telegraph that he considered that taking up the invitation from the band's manager Malcolm McLaren would have been like "joining a slightly edgier Bay City ­Rollers". He received the offer to join the fledgling punk band back in 1975, while on a visit to McCormack’s instrument hire shop in Glasgow.

In an interview published in the Telegraph he said;

"I was stopped in the street by the Clash’s manager, Bernie Rhodes, who then introduced me to Malcolm McLaren, I didn’t know who either of them was, but they literally asked me to join the Sex Pistols without even asking what I did. To me it would have been like joining a slightly edgier Bay City Rollers, so I turned them down.

Last October Midge celebrated seven decades of music with a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Concerts coming up for Midge are, 24th October: Tvonica Culture - Zagreb , 31st October: Stadfeestzaal - Aarschot, Belgium with Lena

Lovich, before 27 dates in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales ending in December, he then travels to United Arab Emirates for a gig in February, March sees the hard working Scot play 11 nights in Sweden and Germany.

Midge Ure is one of Scotland’s all-time most successful musicians. He is married with four daughters and lives in Somerset.

The video is Midge, with Pilot,s David Paton from a Live Hogmanay show in 1995.

[libertineangel]

Holy shit fuck damn apparently I just missed one of the coolest nights I've ever heard of

Had no idea it was happening until I saw a post on Reddit a moment ago but a few days ago a club in London put on a benefit night raising money for UNICEF in Gaza, whole host of DJs including fucking Paul Simonon, Jerry Dammers, Suggs, Paul Cook, Glen Matlock and Rusty Egan

God I can't believe I missed that, would've been there in a fucking heartbeat, advertised time was 8 hours long and I'd've been there every damn minute

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Photo of Grace Jones, Drury Lane Theatre, London, England, 10th October 1981 by David Corio

* * * *

The haters of Madonna are saying No Band on stage is just Karioke

I have posted many times the Malcolm McClaren Keynote " Karaoke Culture "

Having seen Grace Jones in 1981 and the songs of her Nightclubbing album were all in my Club for Heroes DJ Sets. Chris Blackwell came in many times asking me what is this song ?

"Private Lives" by "The Pretenders" "Nightclubbing" By Iggy Pop "Warm Leatherette" by The Normal and his own Roxy Music Love is the drug 12" were all big tracks. Seeing Grace jones performance her clothes her stage show and the stage set of 26 TV's . TV's later I bought them all for the stage set of The Playground Club with a Video Mixer Bruno. We showed Videos and mixed the audio like they were records. Madonna presented a stage show and Like Grace Jones the performance and the performers was not about a band it was about Madonna. Who wrote all her music and who . Grace Jones was before Madonna and before Lady Gaga as a performer and she continued the concept that the Drag Queens used lip sync to old songs that I saw at ROMY HAAG club in Berlin . A floor show was not about who could sing , it was about the whole show , costumes and dancers lights and costumes. Madonna carried that on with her own music in sound and vision.

I was there it was amazing , Inspirational and this review By Paul Morley mates with Trevor Horn of her Hampton Court 2022 says " ‘pop music has been tattooed with Jones’s influence for 45 years.’"

[Rusty Egan]

[spilladabalia]

Rich Kids - Live Birmingham 1978

Rich Kids + Ghosts Of Princes In Towers

[sk8rambler]

happy birthdays, alex and glen !!

[allgoodmusic]

Found this for 44¢ at a thrift store in Aspen, Colorado! I only knew them for Fade To Grey, but this is sort of a New Romantic supergroup led by Midge Ure (Ultravox, Rich Kids) and Rusty Egan (Rich Kids). John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees), Billy Currie (Ultravox), and Dave Formula (Magazine) were no slouches, either! Frontman Steve Strange does a good job, as well.

[julietsbody]

i havent written in forever wow i am so rusty😞😞…. more major john egan fics coming fr

[bobbybones23]

In the early 80s, I briefly stayed with Judith Frankland @judithfrankland in London, a fantastic designer who made outfits for Steve Strange and appeared in David Bowie’s “Ashes To Ashes” video alongside Bowie himself with other “Blitz Kids” and fashion luminaries, Steve Strange, Darla Jane Gilroy and Elise Brazier. She told me tales of the Blitz Club and of her days of designing for Steve Strange and using him as her model. The Blitz Club was in Covent Garden, London from 1979 - 80 and was home to the “Blitz Kids” who were nightclubbers there on Tuesday nights. The club was located between two art colleges (St. Martins and Central School). As a result of its proximity to the art colleges, it attracted many students who were aspiring fashion designers there. The hosts were Steve Strange and Rusty Egan @rustyegan of Visage and the club was responsible for launching the New Romantic movement in London. Many notable fashionistas and dandies who later became big stars, were regulars there. A dress code of the “the weird and wonderful” was strictly enforced at the door, a policy that was put in place by Steve Strange. This was not an elitist system like Studio 54 in NYC, but rather for the protection of the nightclubbing guests against homophobic thugs. The hosts had previously done “Roxy Music and David Bowie nights” on Tuesdays at Billy’s club in Soho and later took over at the Blitz wine bar which gained much better success as an iconic club. David Bowie, gender-bending, cutting edge fashion and a desire to express it with rebellious fervor, were the common themes and passions of the Blitz Kids and the New Romantics. Some other noteworthy attendees aside from the aforementioned included Boy George, Marilyn, Siobhan Fahey, Sade, Spandau Ballet, Midge Ure, Philip Sallon, Stephen Linard, Stephen Jones, Princess Julia, Martin Degville, Scarlet Cannon, i-D magazine co-editor Perry Haines, and many others. Derek Ridgers @derekridgers, Andrew Holligan and Terry Smith were responsible for most of the photos… 📷 1/10: Sheila Rock @sheila_rock_photographer 👨🏻‍🎤⚡️🖤⚜️👩🏻‍🎤 🔲 🔳 🔲 #BlitzClub #BlitzKids #NewRomantic #NewRomantics #SteveStrange #RustyEgan #PostPunk (at Covent Garden) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoEZGFgukl5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=