Oh You Pretty Things

BBC Four and BBC Radio 6 Music present The Sound Of Style, a season celebrating the love affair between fashion and music. Here, a bespoke collection of programmes explore how these two titans of creativity share a passionate, colourful and inextricable relationship.

Set against the backdrop of the economic decline of the 1970s, tonight’s episode tells how fashion designers collaborated with musicians, to create extravagant stage personas, which in turn influenced the fashions worn by their fans. Many of the rock stars played with gender identity and used clothes to create fantastical characters: Bowie, from Ziggy Stardust to The Thin White Duke, was at the fashion vanguard; Rick Wakeman played keyboard for prog rock band Yes in a cape and Queen conveyed a spectacular, theatrical liberation. Punk followed suit, and was even more about image and performance than many of the bands that had gone before.

Suzi Quatro talks about playing her guitar dressed in a leather jumpsuit made by master leather craftsman Nigel Preston. It pioneered the ‘rock chick’ look, which is still a mainstay of women’s fashion today.

Zandra Rhodes and Brian May tell how their creative collaboration gave birth to dramatic and flamboyant designs. Sex Pistol Glen Matlock talks about the band’s shocking emergence onto the scene: styled by creative visionaries Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, the punk look generated a new street fashion of ripped clothes and safety pins. Next came the post-punk era which put individuality ahead of tribe and paved the way for the goth movement, with icons such as Siouxsie Sioux styled by Pam Hogg,

The programme features archive footage including Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Rick Wakeman’s Arthurian concept album filmed at Wembley in 1975, Vivienne Westwood and Siouxsie Sioux. Contributors include Luke Spiller of The Struts, Nick Rhodes, Brian May, Zandra Rhodes, Rick Wakeman, Pam Hogg, and The Kills’ Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince.

6 Music's Lauren Laverne narrates, while fellow 6 Music presenter Stuart Maconie provides the soundtrack, bringing his expertise to showcase the social history, sounds and looks from the decades covered. 6 Music will be playing Stuart’s selections and other gems from the 1970s across the day.

Publicity contact: KA