The Human League were due to give Kitec a taste of 1980s synth-pop nostalgia on Thursday. Before joining the group, Philip Oakey (below) was working as a hospital porter with no inclination towards a musical career. He was approached purely because he 'already looked like a pop star'. Later, Oakey's avant-garde hairstyle became a trademark of the band, famous for hits such as Don't You Want Me and Fascination. The severe fringe he adopted in 1982 was a copy of that of the 'replicant' Rachael in the film Blade Runner ...
Despite being a box-office flop - the film grossed a mere US$6 million on its opening weekend - Ridley Scott's rendering of a dystopian Los Angeles set in 2019 (which the director wanted to resemble 'Hong Kong on a very bad day') has become a cult classic. The film was nearly shelved when the production company withdrew funding and would not have seen its rain-soaked light of day had it not been for 11th-hour investor Run Run Shaw ...
The 103-year-old has achieved much in his career. In 1976, Time eulogised, 'Shaw Brothers' films, produced at Shaw's Movietown, shot in Shawscope color and shown in 143 Shaw-owned theaters, attract 250,000 people a day from Hong Kong to Jakarta.' Television Broadcasts, which Sir Run Run co-founded in 1967, grew into one of the top five television producers in the world, based on output. The British acknowledged his philanthropic work with a knighthood in 1977 and 'Uncle Six' is a member of London club White's ...
Established in 1693, White's is one of the world's oldest gentlemen's clubs. With a membership made up of the rich and idle, the club quickly became a notorious gambling house, described by Jonathan Swift as the 'bane of half the English nobility'. When it moved to its current location, in St James' Street, in 1778, a hierarchy among members was established by a 'throne' set at the table in front of the main window. The man who first occupied this covetable seat was the most socially influential in all of London, Beau Brummell ...
A dandy who shined his shoes with champagne and claimed to take five hours to dress, Brummell invented the modern suit by eschewing the gaudy embroidered outfits of the time in favour of super-tight breeches and tailcoats. After he died a penniless, syphilitic death, his sartorial legacy proved a challenge for polite Victorian society. To accommodate it, men resorted to piercing their unmentionables so that the penis could be discreetly 'hooked' to one side. The metal ring used was dubbed the 'Prince Albert' ...
Despite his tireless efforts to rid the world of slavery and inspired reform of education and the military, Queen Victoria's husband was not a popular figure in Britain until his untimely demise at the age of 42. The piercing he lent his name to today attracts a somewhat different crowd, among it Sheffield's po-faced 80s innovator Phil Oakey of the Human League.