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Luke Haines writes the shuk out of rock’n’roll Cold War games

- By Luke Haines

The Cold War was great, wasn’t it? Pop stars loved the Cold War. Big Dave Bowie moved to Berlin with little Iggy Pop, and they took loads of cool drugs by the Berlin Wall and recorded songs like Warszawa. Kraftwerk made an album called Trans-Europe Express and even mentioned Dave and Ig by name. That was cool. Punk liked the Cold War, too. When it wasn’t shouting about “getting nicked”, for “fighting in the road”, it was telling people off for taking a “cheap holiday in other people’s misery” and looking at the Berlin Wall. I don’t think Johnny Rotten was specifically telling Iggy and Dave off for standing near the Berlin Wall, I think he was just telling Johnny Tourist off. It was all a bit confusing.

The New Romantics loved a bit of Cold War chic as well. Witness the young Robert Elms introducing the Spands on BBC2, chillingly intoning, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Spandau Ballet.” In the early 80s, any pop star who wasn’t dabbling in Cold War imagery wasn’t pulling their weight. Everyone suddenly wanted to be German: Cabaret Voltaire sang in, erm, German accents; The Mobiles were Drowning In Berlin; The Birthday Party moved to Berlin to stand by the Berlin Wall; and The Passions were In Love With A German Film Star. It was never specified whether the film star in question was East German; we all assumed he was. Even though it was very unlikely that anyone would be doing anything as decadent as “making films” in East Berlin.