I secretly go to ‘rival’ Studio 21, next to Tottenham Court Road station, on Saturday nights. It was a large subterranean club with a sprung dance floor and a mixed crowd. Run by Jock McDonald and DJ Dave Archer, who attracted a sort of ‘clan’ comprising Richard Jobson and Russell Webb from the Skids, John Keeble from Spandau Ballet, John Lydon from Public Image Ltd, Mark Tiplady from Then Jericho and Barry O’Dea, a man from Balham. At one after-party my friend Wendy and I found ourselves sitting cross–legged on the floor of a high-rise apartment with Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, quoting us the lines: “Little girls with painted faces should be seen and not heard” from X-Ray Spex’s “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”
The Blitz exerted a powerful influence on many of us, particularly because we were so assuredly young at the time. In hindsight, it might have helped my future to have gone to school more often. I remember when Wendy and I scuppered our sixth form chances at 6am in St James's Park by bunking our exams later that day after a particularly good night out. Yet, I cannot deny that those incredible nights in London during 1979-81 continue to inform my life in so many ways.
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