Rusty Egan

Jazz, and those experiences probably formed you... and gave you something along the way.

So it probably prepared you to a certain extent, you know, such as working with Rusty Egan, for example, and then understanding that machines can impact a song and add to the texture of the song.

Then going to America to write, you know, and you were very young when you went to LA to write, didn't you? You wrote for Martha Reeves and you, I think, The Drifters as well.

And just tell me about those two very different experiences and how they actually changed your perspective of what you wanted.

So many people I've met, or so many, but quite a few people I've met who had success, for want of a better word, had big careers early and hard, later had a bit of a...

I think of Rusty Egan I was interviewing the other day.

He started the Blitz Club.

Rusty kind of went off the rails in that way.

We did an amazing one with DJ Paulette.

I was so happy with that because in James Hamilton's Record Mirror column, they did... for a short period of time what they called a futurist or electro disco chart it was all the stuff like Soft Cell Human League Ultravox Cabaret Voltaire you know that kind of side of what was being played by DJs like Rusty Egan the Blitz Club and stuff and Pips in the Roxy Bowie room and Paulette You know, she was a teenager going out to the clubs then, absolutely absorbed in this music.

And, you know, she was so engaged in it and everything.

It meant so much, her passion about the whole thing.

We specialise in drummers because they tend to be better looking and more intelligent.

Today we've got Rusty Egan who I've known for 50 years.

He's always been around.

He's an interesting character.

He's played with loads of bands like Ultravox and Visage and Rich Kids and a bunch of others.

He's done a lot of DJing as well.

Well, here we are with Rusty Egan, whom we've known each other for 50 years.

50 years!

George Michael was down there.

You know, Rusty Egan on the decks.

Steve Strange at the door turning people away, going, "No, sorry, you don't look quite right." [laughs] Just from, turned away Mick Jagger one night.

It was ridiculous.

to go

and see Midyear nobody wanted to go and see Glenn Matlock on guitar but we went and was it Rusty Egan on drums so it rings a bell but we all piled in for that because if you got that the BBC didn't charge for those gigs so you got your free ticket so that was probably the most enjoyable I'm still in touch with the lads I played football with and so forth and we all had a good time um one that i was worst gig from my point of view was um got to see rory gallagher at birmingham university okay and the reason it's the worst gig ever is i've met so many people telling you lucky person and the reason it's the worst gig i've had too much to drink as an 18 year old

you don't remember a lot about it i peaked early

So I missed, I just remember there was a lot of noise and a lot of very happy people around and I thought I'd better go home now.

And I'm saying, "No, it's, it's not about that.

It's about one or two notes and textures and ambience and all of that." Um, but Rusty, Rusty Egan, the drummer-

Uh-huh

... and I loved it.

And she was like, oh, you should get a job working with them, Tony.

And I was like, yeah, Rusty, Kevin Millins and Rusty Egan came in for a meeting.

I was in there and I said to Rusty, you know, I'm opening a club on the same night as you.

And he was like, well, I'm opening

I was listening to it the other day.

And then I got into the electronic music movement through my meeting with a guy called Rusty Egan, who was in a band called Visage and the Rich Kids, but the Visage part of it was really fundamental to me.

So I wanted to combine soul and funk with electronica, which was not being done so much then.

I was a big fan of Rick James, so he was kind of, he was my lightning rod.