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PEOPLE PALACE

Jon Savage went to the People's Palace and watched Blitz Culture go public. In a corner opposite the entrance Richard Young, the photographer, has set up his stall.  It has a simple backdrop of white cloth - this is, after all,  a quick turn-around,  high turn-over operation - in which various 'typical' , i.e. extraordinary, celebrants are encouraged, flies to the web, to pose in their coats of many colours, Not that encouragement is neede : at the drop of a hat, or rather a perrique, they twist in the requisite shapes - those that say, not that I am tough, but that I am exquisite, that Iam a work of art because I have worked at it. They remind me of the kids I saw at The Roxy in April 1977 - set up for Elle - and in Covent Garden "B" in June same year - for the Phonogram "New Wave" album cover ;  the same desire for self-promotion, the same self-conscious assurance that they have the Now, for they have read the magazines and, quite rightly, want to be in them, except that the sneers are swapped for pouts, the bondage pants for culottes, messing up for dressing up. The result at the Peoples Palace was at first dazzling, ultimatelv dulling.  It's nice in theory to allow everybody to express their fantasies, but the sad fact is, like the history of fanzines, like the parade of bedroom bands, most people's fantasies aren't that interesting. JON SAVAGE - THE FACE - APRIL 1981