Chris Sullivan, is, and has been at various times, a DJ, author, nightclub host, pop star, painter, style commentator, entrepreneur and fashion designer. Coming to London from Merthyr Tydfil in the mid 70s, he went onto to study art at St Martins then fronted the high-concept Virgin-signed Latin funk band, Blue Rondo A La Turk whose original album and a CD of remixes by Any Weatherall, Faze Action , Blue Rondo and Youth is released on June 16th 2014.
He began DJing aged 14 at local youth clubs and, after spinning at his self promoted clubs such as Le Kilt and St.Moritz, he was the founder , host ,director and DJ at of the world famous Wag Club in London where the likes of Sade, Prince and Lee Perry played live . During the early to mid eighties he DJ’d every club and party worth talking about in London with gigs in Tokyo, New York, La, Paris ,Barcelona, Milan including the Mint bar ,Danceteria, Plastic and Ibiza’s Ku Klub .In 1987 he opened Afters in Clink St (4am-12 mid day) where, using one deck and a cassette player, he was one of the first UK DJ’s to play pure Chicago House .
In the nineties he DJ’d at parties for amongst many others, Elton John, Jean Paul Gaultier , Comme Des Garcons, Madonna, GQ and Italian Vogue and continued at clubs such as Browns, Pacha , The Limelight and the Cafe de Paris. As a writer he first worked for The Face in it’s infancy in 1981, became a Loaded columnist in ‘94 and then GQ style editor.
In 2001 ,he became a full time freelance journalist filing for among others, The Times, Esquire, Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, and L’Uomo Vogue and is now the Associate Editor for the spirited men’s style ,film and music mag Jocks and Nerds. Since, his books, the international best seller, Punk (with Stephen Colegrave) and the definitive chronicle of club culture of the 80s, We Can Be Heroes (with Graham Smith), have been heralded as the true stories of the eras.
He has a weekly Sunday DJ residency at Novikov Mayfair, London and a first Friday of the month residency at The Record Club Camden called Swag and supplies iPod mixes for shops, bars and hotels the world over. He often plays film premier parties and art openings in the city while his film script, Anarchy In The UK, is being developed by a Hollywood’s Hacienda Films. Most recently he conceived and co wrote a 9 part TV documentary series Gangs of Britain presented by his old chums Martin and Gary Kemp for the Crime and Investigation Channel and is writing a book entitled Sullivan’s Travels for Unbound Press.
He lives in Maid Vale with his long suffering spouse Leah, Nine year old son Finbar and a cat called Tuesday.
Clare Lynch