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TASTY TIM E A R L Y      D A Y S

"The dressing-up came at about five" , He grew up in Tunbridge Wells and had two ambitions; to wear make-up and work in a record shop.  Constant absence from school eventually ahd the desired effect - a premature end to deducation.  the front cover of Record Mirror featuring Steve Strange, had an equally destructive influence - the birfth of an obsession with make-up.  Years of Bowie  and '70's glam rock had already sown seeds of androgyny,  but that was just the foundation. The mascara was yet to come. For the teenage, Tasty, celebrity extravagance proved a confussing concept. "I couldn't differentiate between the fact that they were on television.... and I was just a TV "  Working in a hippie record shop, he helped create the punk section by ordering the latest releases from Stiff and Rough Trade. Naturally, he outgrew Kent's twee gardens and wound up working at Chapels on Bond Street.  Tasty soon became a regular at the New Romantic mecca,  blitz.  It was passport to a world of the beautiful and beyond. Yvete worked the bar, Boy George did the coat check and Steve Strange was the ringmaster extrodinaire.

Working at the club opened a doorway onto the wider gay world. It was a world undergoing a massive shift in conciousness and fashion. The early 80's saw the death of macho clones and the birth of gender bending club kids.   ' I must say, my first big moment at a gay disco was going from Cha Cha's,  through those doors, and into  Heaven. It was amazing; the lightening bolts, the High NRG and the men. It didn't o cur to me that we had sexuality in common.  We thought we were so 'it'.  It's weird to go there now, it loos so small to me. It was cavernous then and the lights were fantastic - thank god thy haven't change them. It's still as exciting for the children today, as it was for us then '

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