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Whispers at the No.1 party

Photos by Fraser Gray and Tony Mottram

“No.1 is 1. You are invited to the first birthday party of Britain’s best selling pop weekly at Busby’s, Tottenham Court Road, on Tuesday, May 1,7.30 till late.”

That’s what the invite said — and that’s where most of Britain’s pop people were to be found last week. As some wit remarked, if you’d put a bomb under Busby’s on Tuesday you’d have wiped out the entire music business at a stroke.

Who was there? Easier to say who wasn’t — those stars who either weren’t in the country or were out on tour. And even some of them made it…

Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet actually flew home from Germany especially to help No.1 celebrate, while The Shillelagh Sisters hammered back from a gig in Birmingham only to arrive at the club’s door just as it was closing around 2.30!

Meanwhile The Thompson Twins, on tour in the States, kindly sent a specially inscribed silver disc (for ‘Into The Gap’) in their place!

But the full cast list in attendance that starry night — deep breath — read something like this:

Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Nick Heyward, Wham, The Belle Stars, New Order, Jim Kerr of Simple Minds, Tom Robinson, Captain Sensible, Blancmange, Helen Terry, Animal Nightlife, JoBoxers, Haircut 100, Imagination, Sade, Bourgie Bourgie, Orange Juice, Jerry Dammers of The Special AKA, Depeche Mode, Shirlie Holliman and Dee C. Lee, Spider, Thor, Jocelyn Brown, Freur, Blue Rondo, Mari Wilson, Marillion, The Truth, Modern Romance, Matt Bianco, Edwin Starr, Helen And The Horns, Phil Fearon, Yvonne French, Steve Strange, Pat Nevin of Chelsea FC… and that was only the ones we spotted in the ladies’ room.

No wonder No.1’s pneumonia-struck Paul Simper climbed out of his hospital bed to boogie on down!

Nick Heyward was looking cute in a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, and shocked us all by actually laughing and chatting with Haircut Les Nemes.

The Wham boys turned up covered in mossy bites after shooting the video for George’s ‘Careless Whisper’ (not about us, surely?) in Miami. Turning up at all was quite a feat — they’d only got off the plane at Heathrow that morning, and were still going strong after a 30-hour day!

Miranda Belle Star spent the evening canoodling with Frankie’s teen idol Mark O’Toole, while Paul Rutherford generated the heat on the dance floor.

Siouxsie arrived late, nattering away to Animal Nightlife’s Andy Polaris.

(cont.)
Bourgie Bourgie left early — they had an LP to record in Bavaria.

  • A clash of the titans (well, they chinked glasses anyway). Thor prepares to kick ass onstage while No.1 editor Phil McNeill threatens to kick ass if the staff aren’t in on time next morning.
  • Dee C. Lee, make-up artist Lynne Easton (left) and former Switch presenter Yvonne French (right) do the locomotion, Meanwhile out on the dance floor they’re breaking (their necks, that is).
  • So that’s what friends are for! Nasher, Ped and Paul from Frankie Goes To Hollywood support each other. What a nice girl like Helen Terry was doing with this lot we can’ imagine. And we never did identify the jolly moustachioed gent on the end. Perhaps he was Frankie.
  • Gary Crowley, DJ of Capital Radio and Earsay, amazes partygoers with his ability to spin discs, introduce PAs, conduct three different conversations and spot someone who isn’t dancing — all at the same time.
  • Orange Juice’s Edwyn Collins takes the salute for the passing out parade.
  • Thor and Dee C. Lee demonstrate the muscleman’s method of picking up girls at parties.
  • Oooh, he is awful. But we like him anyway. And so does Helen Terry, judging by the way she’s snuggling up to Blancmange bad boy Stephen Luscombe…
  • Making up is hard to do. But head Haircut Les Nemes was later caught chatting to his old friend and foe Nick Heyward.
  • In the absence of Bryan Ferry, Bourgie Bourgie’s supersmooth socialite Paul Quinn does a passable imitation.