The Taboo crowd was certainly less precious. They were happy to end up in a pile of vomit and booze at the end of the night. It was antifashion, in a sense. They were just as obsessive as the New -Romantics but they acted like they didn't care.

Part of me looks at the gay movement now and worries that we're losing our individuality.

I don't get all this Speedo stuff actually, I mean, whatever happened to the feather boa?

Leigh [Bowery] would make up stories about people committing suicide or going on hunger strikes because they were refused entry at the door.

When I first went to New York, I didn't really go out to clubs. It was the height of Culture Club so I didn't really have a social life. It was only after I had been to New York a few times that I started going out.

Separation penetrates the disappearing person like a pigment and steeps him in gentle radiance.

When you go onstage, you go on there to have a good time, and you smile and you engage with the audience and you invite them in.