Photo by Steve Schroyder
Paul Simon once sang that there were ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ but for Zeus B Held and Claudia Brücken, there are ‘4 Ways To The Blitz’.
Originally making his name as the keyboard player of psychedelic rock band BIRTH CONTROL between 1973 – 1978, Zeus B Held is the producer, remixer and collaborator who can count GINA X PERFORMANCE, FASHION, DEAD OR ALIVE, ALPHAVILLE, DIE KRUPPS, SIMPLE MINDS, TRANSVISION VAMP, DREAM CONTROL and GURU GURU as well as John Foxx and Gary Numan among his credits.
Meanwhile Claudia Brücken undoubted queen of electronic avant-pop as the lead singer of PROPAGANDA, ACT, ONETWO and xPROPAGANDA as well as an acclaimed solo career and collaborations with Andrew Poppy and Jerome Froese to her name.
While the two Germans had not met until 2025, they came together to present an unofficial ode to The Blitz Club to coincide with an exhibition running at London’s Design Museum. ‘4 Ways To The Blitz’ offers 4 takes on the song ‘Dream Of The Blitz’. Recorded in London, Freiburg and Milano, Zeus B Held found he was bursting with ideas as to how this tune could sound, so created 4 different versions for a standalone release on his own newly inaugurated label Cisum Suez.
Zeus B Held and Claudia Brücken spoke to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their own ‘Dream Of The Blitz’…
You had not met before making ‘Dream Of The Blitz’, but how did you become aware of the other musically for the first time?
Claudia: I heard the Gina X tracks, cool production and melodies. I especially like the ‘No GDM’ track. It’s amazing that I only found out now that this track was inspired by and dedicated to Quentin Crisp and ‘The Naked Civil Servant’ – when I was in ACT, Thomas Leer and I did a song called ‘Snobbery & Decay’ which came out as a single and we released a 12″ which we named ‘(The Naked Civil) Snobbery & Decay’, it featured Quentin Crisp on the cover artwork.
Zeus: In 1984, I worked with JJ Jeczalik on the fourth Gina X album ‘Yinglish’ – at the same time he worked with Trevor Horn on PROPAGANDA’s first album – that’s when I heard the first time of the band – I remember, for me Claudia was the voice and the face of the project.
Photo by Steve Schroyder
What track is your favourite involving the other?
Zeus: I remember very vividly ‘Dr Mabuse’ and its song / melody, voices und production – and I love Claudia’s voice on ‘Duel’. I listened to it earlier on , it’s a damn Ohrwurm…
Claudia: It’s gotta be ‘No GDM’.
As Germans, how did you become you aware of The Blitz Club, did it remind you of scenes that you were involved in closer to home?
Claudia: Growing up in Düsseldorf, I spent a lot of time in the Ratinger Hof – which in a way was a parallel to The Haçienda in Manchester.
Zeus: Towards the end of the 70s, I got a bit bored with rock music and the typical clichés – so the GINA X PERFORMANCE started as a pure studio project – looking for new expression in sound and melodic approach – I heard the 1st time of The Blitz when EMI Cologne told me that tracks from the ‘Nice Mover’ album were played at this club. That’s when I also heard the name Rusty Egan for the first time.
What particularly influenced ‘Dream Of The Blitz’ musically and lyrically in the compositional process?
Zeus: Claudia and I spent some time of mutual brainstorming via phone – a lot of lyrical and melodic ideas ended up in the bin…
Claudia: Once we started working together in Zeus’ Freiburg studio, the breakthrough came with a mutual musical picture – and melody lines fitting to the words.
How did you filter all the ideas for the various different versions for this release? How would you describe them?
Claudia: When Zeus was doing a few dub mixes, we phoned and he said “pity we didn’t do a recording of you just reading the lyrics “ – well, so I went to work and became the story teller – I overdubbed my voice at my home studio – that became the Poetic Mix.
Zeus: Those were mainly different rhythmic and dynamic approaches – including half-time sections and more experimental outbursts. We also enjoyed changes in the harmonic content in various sections.
Photo by Steve Schroyder
The DREAM CONTROL Mix sees you reunite with Steve Schroyder? What was the concept for this version?
Zeus: Steve paid us a visit in the studio when we were in the middle of chasing a result – guess, he was the first person to hear a sketch of the song. And he also had the pleasure (and pressure) to do a spontaneous photo session of Claudia and me –
Claudia: With the DREAM CONTROL Mix of ‘Dream Of The Blitz’, we tried to give the song a somehow urgent and sequencer based dance flavour. My initial reaction when I heard it was “…it sounds a bit like DEAD OR ALIVE” – in a good way…
Do you each have a favourite version of ‘Dream Of The Blitz’?
Zeus: I love the Poetic Mix – where Claudia recites the words, tells the story and then launches into the singing…
Claudia: I like all of them….!
Will the two of you do any more music together?
Zeus + Claudia: We hope so, we are under no pressure and we’re both looking for the same thing: magic music transporting us and the listeners into new places.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Zeus B Held and Claudia Brücken
‘4 Ways To The Blitz’ is released as a digital bundle by Cisum Suez, available from https://zeus-b-held.bandcamp.com/album/4-ways-to-the-blitz or https://theremusic.bandcamp.com/album/4-ways-to-the-blitz
https://www.facebook.com/Zeus-B-Held-162448230492382
https://www.instagram.com/zeusbheld/
https://www.claudiabrucken.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaBruckenMusic
https://www.instagram.com/claudiabrucken/
Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
20th March 2026
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