Steve Strange

Stephen John Harrington (28 May 1959 – 12 February 2015), known professionally as Steve Strange, was a Welsh singer.

From the late 1970s, he was a nightclub host and promoter.

After attending a Sex Pistols concert at the Castle Cinema in Caerphilly in 1976, Harrington befriended the bass player Glen Matlock.

He then arranged gigs for punk bands in his home town and got to know Jean-Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers before leaving for London.

Here he worked for Malcolm McLaren and formed a punk band called the Moors Murderers with Soo Catwoman.

Additional members included future Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, future Clash drummer Topper Headon, future Psychedelic Furs drummer Vince Ely and The Kid (who was formerly in Adam and the Ants, as Mark Ryan).

They recorded a song called "Free Hindley".

After several gigs, the band split up around early 1978.

Later in 1978, Harrington briefly joined the punk/new wave band the Photons (originally from Liverpool) as vocalist and co-songwriter at the behest of David Littler (ex-Spitfire Boys).

The band were managed by punk impresario Andy Czezowski.

Shortly after leaving the Photons, and using the alias Steve Strange, Harrington joined Visage, with Rusty Egan and Midge Ure from Rich Kids, Billy Currie from Ultravox, and Barry Adamson, John McGeoch and Dave Formula from Magazine.

In 1978, before their success with Visage, Strange and Visage partner Rusty Egan began to make a name for themselves as a nightclub host and DJ respectively.

Intended as a studio-based side project, they signed to the small label Radar Records and released their first single "Tar" in 1979.

The single was not a success, but the following year, Strange appeared in the video for David Bowie's No. 1 hit "Ashes to Ashes", a song which helped to propel the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement into the mainstream.

Later that year, Visage signed a new record deal with the major label Polydor and released their second single, "Fade to Grey".

The single became a top 10 hit in the UK and several other European countries, reaching number one in Germany and Switzerland.

As the public face of the band, Strange shot to stardom in Britain and other parts of Europe.

They began organising "Bowie nights" on Tuesdays at Billy's club in Soho, before taking over Tuesdays at the Blitz wine bar in London's Covent Garden in 1979, which became the iconic Blitz Club.

Adhering to Strange's strict door policy of admitting only "the weird and wonderful", the club took off and became an essential location in the rise of what would become the New Romantic movement.

Strange's door policy was so strict that he famously once refused admittance to Mick Jagger, though Strange would later claim this was because the club was filled to capacity on the night in question and they had already been warned about breaching fire regulations.

He became famous as the leader of the new wave synth-pop group Visage, best known for their single "Fade to Grey", and was one of the most influential figures behind the New Romantic movement of the early 1980s.

Harrington was born in Newbridge, Wales.

His grandfather moved with his family to Aldershot, Hampshire, where his father was serving in the British Army as a paratrooper.

The family moved back to Wales and lived in Rhyl, Denbighshire, on the north coast, where his parents bought a large guest house and opened sea front cafes.

His parents divorced and Harrington moved back to Newbridge with his mother, where he attended Newbridge Grammar School.

The school merged with a secondary school to form Newbridge Comprehensive School, a year after he arrived there, and he subsequently lost interest in all subjects but art.

Later in the 1980s, Strange went to Ibiza, Spain, and became an integral part of the budding trance club movement and hosting parties for celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone.

Following the Blitz, Strange and Egan then fronted the "Club for Heroes" in London's Baker Street on Tuesdays and Thursdays in 1981, before moving to the Camden Palace nightclub in 1982 for two years, which became one of the most famous venues of the era, attracting major celebrities on a regular basis.

Their next club venture, "The Playground" in 1984, was less successful.

Visage enjoyed a string of hit singles and two hit albums before later commercial disappointments led to their break-up in 1985.

After the dissolution of Visage, Strange formed the short-lived band Strange Cruise with Wendy Wu (formerly of the Photos).

The group signed with EMI Records and released two singles and an album in 1986, though failed to gain any chart success.

In the early 1990s, he was the host at the "Double Bass" club in Ibiza.

In 2002, Strange took part in the Here and Now Tour, which featured a revival of various 80s pop acts.

In 2004, he then formed a new version of Visage, dubbed Visage Mk II, with various musicians from modern electronic bands.

None of the other original members were involved in the project.

With a plan to re-record some of the older, classic Visage tracks as well as produce some new material, the project never seemed to fully get off the ground despite some television appearances.

In 2006, Strange collaborated with electronic music duo Punx Soundcheck for their album When Machines Rules the World, co-writing and performing on the track "In the Dark".

The first Visage Mk II song was called "Diary of a Madman", which was made available for download in 2007 in return for a donation to the Children in Need appeal.

However, after this, no further material from this version of the band surfaced.