Steve Strange - Personal Life and Recent Years

Personal Life and Recent Years

Strange has always been somewhat ambiguous about his sexuality, although he has made it known he has had relationships with both men and women.

For many years, Strange battled a heroin addiction. In later years he suffered a nervous breakdown and was also arrested for shoplifting. In court, he was found guilty and given a three-month suspended sentence as the British media had a field day publicising the case of a pop star who had fallen on hard times.

In 2002, Strange published his autobiography, Blitzed!, in which he speaks about his heroin addiction, his nervous breakdown, his sexuality, and the ongoing attempts to get his life back together.

Strange was portrayed in Boy George's 2002 stage musical Taboo which reflected on the New Romantic scene of the early 1980s.

In 2005, Strange appeared in a Channel 4 documentary called Whatever Happened to the Gender Benders?, which reflected on the advent of the New Romantic movement of the early 1980s and the prominent roles that Strange, Boy George and Marilyn each played within it. In stark contrast to the relative glamour of the New Romantic era, interviews with all three stars in the present day highlighted the sheer devastation that fame, fortune and drug addiction had taken on each of them during the past 25 or so years, with Strange and Marilyn in particular being openly candid about the mental health problems they now try to cope with every day.

In November 2006, Strange took part in, and went on to win, the BBC reality series for Children in Need Celebrity Scissorhands (featuring top celebrity hairdresser Lee Stafford). He returned to the show in 2007 and 2008 as Assistant Manager/Image Consultant. In that role, he was in charge of the catwalk, showing all of the best haircuts of the series and also people dressed in 80's style clothing and make-up.

In 2008, Strange (and Visage II keyboardist Sandrine Gouriou) made an appearance in the BBC drama series Ashes to Ashes which is set in 1981. In it, they performed the song "Fade to Grey" in a scene set in the "Blitz" nightclub.

In 2009, Strange and Rusty Egan appeared in Living TV's Pop Goes the Band, a series in which pop stars from the 1980s are given a complete makeover in return for a one-off performance. The Visage episode aired on 16 March 2009, and was the first time that the two men had spoken in over 20 years. The episode focussed (like others in the series) more on getting them fit in the gym than on the current state of their relationship, though they appeared to get on well enough. At the culmination of the episode, they performed "Fade to Grey".

In 2010, Strange was portrayed by actor Marc Warren in the BBC programme Worried About The Boy, a dramatisation of Boy George's rise to fame. Although the programme was set in the early 1980s, when Strange was in his early 20s, Warren was 43 at the time of production.

In January 2011, Strange and Rusty Egan reopened the "Blitz" Club for one night, with performances from Roman Kemp's band Paradise Point and electro punk artist Quilla Constance plus DJ sets from Egan himself.

In January 2013, Strange appeared on the Channel 4 News discussing the forthcoming release of David Bowie's album The Next Day. He also confirmed the new Visage album was to be released in Spring 2013.