73 Magazine

Issue 3. My trip to London to see the Reunion 79 - 21: Revisiting Black Queer Clubland exhibition and the incredible V&A Storehouse in the QE Olympic Park.

David Sullivan dancing at The Lift Party at The Fridge in 1984. Photo by Dave Swindells.

As featured in The Reunion 79 - 21 exhibition, at the Great Pulteney Street Gallery which ran from Jan 21st - 25th.

I opened my first club night The Lift on Thursdays at the legendary Gargoyle Club in the summer of 1982. It was an instant success and featured two of the finest gay DJs in London, John (white) and Mel (black). The music was mostly imported 12” records from New York, The West Coast, Miami and Chicago, many of which were funky black remixes of British electronic acts such as Depeche Mode, Human League and Soft Cell, to name a few, along with amazing tracks by people like Chaka Khan, Gwen Guthrie, Loose Ends, Parliament Funkadelic, Marvin Gaye and underground American Hip-hop and Jamaican Roots Reggae. It was a heady mix - and the atmosphere was electric.

Me and Dave at The Reunion 79- 21 exhibition, bonding over his 1984 photo of me kissing my then boyfriend as our sister Jo looks on.

There were 25 photos by Dave on display, along with 12 by Jason Manning, with two half-hour video interviews by Shaun Wallace, one with DJ and producer Mark Moore and the other with myself, on loop.

Me being interviewed (in my kitchen-diner) on video

On the Friday there was a very moving-yet-entertaining illustrated talk by the gay, black author and activist Vernal Scott (you can also see a photo of him attending my Lift reunion party with Peter Tatchel at Queer Nation back in 2014, where they both made a rousing double speech).

On Saturday Dave and his lovely wife Kamala drove me and fellow house guest Leon to The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to see the huge permanent exhibition at the V&A Storehouse. On the walk, from where they parked at their allotment near The London Stadium, we passed the soon to be opened V&A East.

What an amazing building. I wonder who designed it? A Google search revealed that it was Irish architects O'Donnell + Tuomey.

Leon, Kamala and Dave in The Olympic Park.

There was also this large, sculptural installation of blocks of wood decorated by local kids. Very engaging.

Then came the massive mirror sculpture outside The Copper Box Arena.

We also passed the rather imposing, somewhat Brutalist building housing UCL (University College London) East.

Then we reached the V&A Storehouse, which is housed in the former Media Centre of the 2012 Olympics.

Pretty slick exterior, I’d say.

Once inside, the decidedly minimalist, industrial, interior also nods to The Bauhaus, in the cafe. Clever, deliciously elegant and ergonomic design. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic of the cafe.

However, here’s an absolute architectural and interior design treat. A faithful reconstruction of all the elements and constituents of this magnificent office designed by ‘starchitect’ Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1930s.

The V&E Storehouse is an absolute joy to visit - and it’s free. It’s a huge treasure trove of design, artistic and cultural innovations and inventions from, mostly, fairly recent history. A few hundred years of crafty arts and crafts.

This lovely painting is of a facade of one of the apartment buildings in the iconic, visionary modernist mid-century Robin Hood Estate in East London. There are also extensive architectural drawings and photos of both interiors and exteriors

I love this pic-of-a-pic of bro Dave photographing Leon against the gigantic backdrop initially painted by Picasso (he approved of it, because he signed it) by the artistic director of Ballet Russe in Paris in the 1920s (I think).

Then finally, here’s me posing against a video of ‘Changes’ in the amazing and comprehensive gallery devoted to David Bowie. Beautifully curated, it captures all his alter-egos and explores the creative backgrounds and foregrounds of all his genius concepts and conceits, along with costumes and extensive and comprehensive memorabilia.

Unmissable.

Here are four relatively contemporary music albums by me (along with a housey EP from 1997, featuring Gospel Girl') : steveswindells.bandcamp.com - free to stream, but I would love it if you took up the special offer to download them all for a bargain, package price .

Anyone who subscribes to my Substack this month will receive a limited-edition, signed and numbered, A4 print of one of one my artworks, upon receipt of their address.

How about this one?

‘In Your Eyes Two’. A digital mashup of a photo and an ‘iPhone Phinger Painting’ which I created in January this year. You can find many of my works on plogixgallery.com and even more on steve-swindells.pixels.com

© Steve Swindells 2026, all rights reserved.