Image of Nicola Linza (left) with a friend in the yard of a private estate on North Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA. Photo is from a private family collection. All rights reserved.
A personal memoir by Nicola Linza
There are some men of my age and background who may well remember, and understand what I mean when I say, that the early to mid-1980s was a special time to be a young man coming of age. I am not writing about the stereotypical mass 80s. I am writing here about the very best of the time, that is now rarely talked about as few experienced it, as I did. There were many great things happening at once then in fine art, music, and design, but a few specific aspects of those things, during a small window of time, stand out to me because they forever changed my world.
If you read the rest of this personal memoir, play the videos to each portion. I hope you get a sense of why I say that these particular days were the halcyon days of my youth.
The special things that encapsulated my world during this summer included a single pal, one particular British novel, Brideshead Revisited, ( the grand television adaptation,) and the early music of the hyper-talented Paul Weller of The Jam, who in the early 1980s (along with Mick Talbot) created the legendary band, The Style Council. Those few things influenced so much for me, it is hard to put into words.
Yes, I came out of the era of teenage Hard Rock, Disco and Punk to early Techno and New Wave, but in music by 1984, besides the usual suspects of preferred music and Classical music standards, TSC is the band whose first two albums Introducing The Style Council (1983) and Café Bleu (US title: My Ever Changing Moods) (1984) stand to this day as icons of that period for me. This music precisely set the tone for that time when all that was great of old (and new) literature, film and music were coming together in highly unique ways unseen then, and since.
I always reflect upon that summer of 1984 when British
music, (the second great wave of UK music,) those great new English sounds filled
the airwaves. It was a time when great authentic personal style, great Italian, French and
English-influenced styles (both old and new) affected everything we were doing. My small social circle, heavily seduced of mind, body and spirit by the
original 1981 British television serial of Brideshead Revisited produced
by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network, became obsessed with personal style.
Nevertheless, we sought out stylistic timelessness and uniqueness, and then the magical summer of 1984 hit us. There was for the first time a complete high-quality mesh of very old style with some very new music, and it was precisely what we sought out. It was truly wonderful and we were drunk on it. What I now find sad in an almost beautiful sense, much like the Waugh classic itself, is that we came of age in an elegant and privileged way at a time when things were changing. We did not even realise how special and good it was or would be to us until far later in life and a part of it all still lingers in my mind, in a very haunting manner, each time I reconsider it.
Moreover, the band that takes me straight back to those halcyon days of my life is The Style Council. The song Long Hot Summer was the tune of the moment in my circle, during that summer of 1984, and more than any other, it still brings me to that other place in time.
It has taken some time for me to put this down into words, and looking back, thinking of that time, watching these videos again, our style was Classic laid back English-style, with a nod to Italy. That was our ideal style of the moment, and the orchestration of the song Long Hot Summer, in its nearly Renaissance-like dream quality, alongside the visuals of the video (where Mick Talbot in his double breasted navy blazer is dancing on the grass with Paul Weller,) today still precisely encapsulates the general mood of my male friends and me during that incredible time.
I write this with conflicting emotions as over 25 years have passed. I own the DVD version of Brideshead Revisited and watch it often, with great melancholy. I am partial to all things Classical now, yet while I play my LP collection of Classical recordings I still find myself putting The Style Council tunes on my Bang & Olufsen turntable. I am thankful for having this period in my life, and the way of life we were privileged to live. I would not be who I am today without it.
That life period created a standard for a way of life. We often took roles in our own Brideshead drama back then that to this day sustain my fondest memories.
2011 is a very sad time for young men coming of age. The past two decades of technology addicted, PC damaged, social media based aspirational dreamers is entirely devoid of the unique level of extreme quality that we experienced back then. Today the interest expressed by young men who are now coming of age, interested in finding their own masculine style is all too often tainted by fraud.
The pecuniary interests of a few have cheapened the best of brands, lowered overall quality and eaten into the public's sensibility misleading the masses with the idea that junk is good and they too are special and equal, when nothing could be farther than the truth. The same people have even ruined the culture and concept of honest Prep in the past 25 years. A few young men today seek true high quality, but I hate to inform them they have a steep uphill climb. I cannot figure out what has taken place but overall many young men I see today even from once good families, sadly lack good taste, ironically lack good breeding, and surely lack proper etiquette. It is a pathetic and tragic state of affairs.
Therefore, there is scant true personal style today among young men, and what often passes as personal style is often just mass street inspired, cheap and horrible taste. I see a lot of copying and many followers but I do not see the extreme individual passion for quality and exclusivity that brings with it that magic intoxication we knew, that has forever remained with me. Weller predicted what was to come when he wrote:
"Evil turns to statues and masses form a line
But I know which way I'd run to, if the choice was mine
The past is knowledge, the present our mistake
And the future we always leave too late"
Our 1980s was one of good taste, high quality and yes, exclusivity. We were addicted to Brideshead Revisited for its
characters and style reflected the style and sensibilities of our own ancestors. It ruled our lives from
the day it was released. We read the book, and threw parties to celebrate
the novel yet moreover it must be first understood that for me and my one pal, we were just two young men at the time, really still Southern California boys, just on the verge of
becoming men. We studied that film, bought the same clothes, travelled, hunted down vintage Italian leather and English Tweeds, European
cars, read the Classics; drank the same liquor, ate the same foods, in short,
being gilt-edged as we were re-living the Edwardian-era in our own
time.
Nevertheless, we sought out stylistic timelessness and uniqueness, and then the magical summer of 1984 hit us. There was for the first time a complete high-quality mesh of very old style with some very new music, and it was precisely what we sought out. It was truly wonderful and we were drunk on it. What I now find sad in an almost beautiful sense, much like the Waugh classic itself, is that we came of age in an elegant and privileged way at a time when things were changing. We did not even realise how special and good it was or would be to us until far later in life and a part of it all still lingers in my mind, in a very haunting manner, each time I reconsider it.
Moreover, the band that takes me straight back to those halcyon days of my life is The Style Council. The song Long Hot Summer was the tune of the moment in my circle, during that summer of 1984, and more than any other, it still brings me to that other place in time.
It has taken some time for me to put this down into words, and looking back, thinking of that time, watching these videos again, our style was Classic laid back English-style, with a nod to Italy. That was our ideal style of the moment, and the orchestration of the song Long Hot Summer, in its nearly Renaissance-like dream quality, alongside the visuals of the video (where Mick Talbot in his double breasted navy blazer is dancing on the grass with Paul Weller,) today still precisely encapsulates the general mood of my male friends and me during that incredible time.
I write this with conflicting emotions as over 25 years have passed. I own the DVD version of Brideshead Revisited and watch it often, with great melancholy. I am partial to all things Classical now, yet while I play my LP collection of Classical recordings I still find myself putting The Style Council tunes on my Bang & Olufsen turntable. I am thankful for having this period in my life, and the way of life we were privileged to live. I would not be who I am today without it.
That life period created a standard for a way of life. We often took roles in our own Brideshead drama back then that to this day sustain my fondest memories.
2011 is a very sad time for young men coming of age. The past two decades of technology addicted, PC damaged, social media based aspirational dreamers is entirely devoid of the unique level of extreme quality that we experienced back then. Today the interest expressed by young men who are now coming of age, interested in finding their own masculine style is all too often tainted by fraud.
The pecuniary interests of a few have cheapened the best of brands, lowered overall quality and eaten into the public's sensibility misleading the masses with the idea that junk is good and they too are special and equal, when nothing could be farther than the truth. The same people have even ruined the culture and concept of honest Prep in the past 25 years. A few young men today seek true high quality, but I hate to inform them they have a steep uphill climb. I cannot figure out what has taken place but overall many young men I see today even from once good families, sadly lack good taste, ironically lack good breeding, and surely lack proper etiquette. It is a pathetic and tragic state of affairs.
Therefore, there is scant true personal style today among young men, and what often passes as personal style is often just mass street inspired, cheap and horrible taste. I see a lot of copying and many followers but I do not see the extreme individual passion for quality and exclusivity that brings with it that magic intoxication we knew, that has forever remained with me. Weller predicted what was to come when he wrote:
"Evil turns to statues and masses form a line
But I know which way I'd run to, if the choice was mine
The past is knowledge, the present our mistake
And the future we always leave too late"
Well, there you have it, in my view Weller's lyrics weren't wrong. It is 2011. The great pal of my youth and I parted ways under tragic circumstances in late 1984 and the world in terms of style, and culture since to me has been on a continual downward spiral.
When I reflect upon that important time I refer to as my youthful "Brideshead" days it deeply saddens me to think that time is now gone forever. When I reflect on that summer, that isolated knoll of friendship, and how I now sense the scent of our sincere platonic male bonding, the sweet turf that remains with me is not unlike what was written by Waugh so long ago
"On a sheep-cropped knoll under a clump of elms we ate the strawberries and drank the wine – as Sebastian promised, they were delicious together – and we lit fat, Turkish cigarettes and lay on our backs, Sebastian’s eyes on the`leaves above him, mine on his profile, while the blue-grey smoke rose, untroubled by any wind, to the blue-green shadows of foliage, and the sweet scent of the tobacco merged with the sweet summer scents around us and the fumes of the sweet, golden wine seemed to lift us a finger’s breadth above the turf and hold us suspended." - Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
I have not seen my old friend since but I have never forgotten him or that important period of our lives, we shared. I hope that in some way afterwards he too had thoughts of that time, and me. I will never forget the summer of 1984. I often cry inside for those halcyon days long passed, but in a way, I like to believe that for me they never really ended.
When I reflect upon that important time I refer to as my youthful "Brideshead" days it deeply saddens me to think that time is now gone forever. When I reflect on that summer, that isolated knoll of friendship, and how I now sense the scent of our sincere platonic male bonding, the sweet turf that remains with me is not unlike what was written by Waugh so long ago
I have not seen my old friend since but I have never forgotten him or that important period of our lives, we shared. I hope that in some way afterwards he too had thoughts of that time, and me. I will never forget the summer of 1984. I often cry inside for those halcyon days long passed, but in a way, I like to believe that for me they never really ended.
