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BLITZ IN AMERICA MENU

In the late 70’s & early 80’s most of America had either embraced or alienated punk. I grew up in Philadelphia and was deep into freak punk wearing safety pins ripped clothing even drawing cuts and blood with ink markers on my face. I was a twisted angry young rebel until my friends had told me about the New Romantic movement in London. It was my third year in high school I was surrounded with rockabilly‘s, punk‘s & romantics. I loved David Bowie, Garry Newman, & Blondie, still do. At that time I wore my hair in the classic flaming orange with a fuchsia red streak and asymmetrical. A friend who had spent time living in Germany was educating me in Italian cinema and Fellini’s 8 1/2 became my favorite. Nietzsche & Dostoefsky were must reads and clove cigarettes filled the air while D.A.F and Xmal Deutschland played on the stereo. I can remember sitting out on the stoop in front of school one day when my friend Nicholas had told me he was replacing Elizablitz the dj at Black Banana.

He insisted I come to hear him spin. I knew the BB was an after hours private club where new romantics hung out! My life took a turn that night and I spent the next 10 years working at Black Banana. Originally the BB was opened in the mid 70’s as a restaurant and euro disco. The owners Garrick and ZaZa , who was half French, loved French music and created a very euro disco atmosphere. My two life long best friends Nick & GiGi just happened to be French & very handsome. Both were born in America and schooled in France. The owners loved them and gave them full time positions in the club as dj’s, bartenders and managers. I eventually also started working at the club full time as a dj, video artist and coat check. The atmosphere of the 2nd level art deco style club was very La Cage. The owners were very decadent and wealthy. Lovers who had reputations for being nasty and liked to drink in those early years. They would insist we play French music so we always included Telex, Taxi Girl and Serge Ginsburg in our sets. On nights when Garrick would drink he would make Nick play cheesy 70’s gay porn on the tv’s which had patterned mannequin legs attached. Sometimes when the dance floor was packed Garrick would invade our dj booth and insist we play a Winnie The Pooh song. We were just kids and laughed most of it off. As we were given more freedom we started creating special nights at the club. The first night we created was a Blitz night. Black Banana already had a new romantic following so the party was a great success. As time passed and music changed so did our taste. Sometimes we took the last evening train to New York on our nights off. It took about an hour and we arrived at Area at the height of the evening. All of us were influenced by dj’s like Mark Kamins, Jelly Been Baneatez &.Johnny Danell. In one night we would go to Danceteria, the Roxy and even the Saint which was originally a planetarium converted into a nightclub. It was such a care free time for us because we still lived with our parents. The Black Banana was our place of experimentation and we had a ball! We embraced all the trends and created our own. I can even remember dressing up friends like freaks and inventing names for them and paying them to host special nights like FunkOsheen, a 70’s night. Nicholas & GiGi always had beautiful woman around them so there was always hot It girls dancing and hanging around the club. In those days models and artist freaks all mingled together dressing up and looking amazing. We didn’t ever consider ourselves club kids, that was something created by the media, we were stars and star makers. Later in the 80’s we were joined by people like dj Josh Wink , King Brit, Blink & Lovely Natasha & Coco who became our entertainers as we started to create our own video. When the 90’s arrived we began to separate with some of us moving to New York. Nicholas, Josh Wink and others started a traveling rave called Vagabond which lasted 6 years. The owner of the Black Banana became ill and sadly died of AIDS. With him he took all of the spontaneity and genius of the club which only lasted 4 years after his death. A mysterious fire crippled it and it never recovered. I think this for me was one of the best times of my life even though I was living in America I experienced European culture from the young American Europeans who loved the blitz and being part of the ever changing face of fashion, music and nightlife in the 80’s. Text & Photos by Nicky London Some Photos by Daniel Perry & Cleo Sullivan

NICKY LONDON BLITZ IN AMERICA  MENU