Pamela Rooke

Pamela Rooke (23 June 1955 – 3 April 2022),[1] (known as Jordan) was an English model and actress known for her work with Vivienne Westwood and the SEX boutique in the Kings Road area of London in the mid-1970s, and for attending many of the early Sex Pistols performances. Her style and dress sense—a bleached platinum-blonde bouffant hairdo with dark raccoon-like eye make-up—made her a highly visible icon of the London punk subculture.[2] Along with Johnny Rotten, Soo Catwoman and Siouxsie Sioux, she is credited with creating the London punk look.

Not to be confused with Pamela Rooks.

Pamela Rooke
Rooke in 1978
Born(1955-06-23)23 June 1955
Seaford, East Sussex, England
Died3 April 2022(2022-04-03) (aged 66)[1]
Seaford, East Sussex, England
Other namesJordan, Jordan Mooney
Occupation(s)Model, actress, band manager, author, veterinary nurse
Era1970s London Punk scene
Employer(s)Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren
Known forContributions to Punk fashion
Notable workJubilee
Spouse
​
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(m. 1981; div. 1984)​

Biography

She took the single name Jordan at the age of 14, in Seaford, East Sussex.[3] When Jordan first walked into 430 King's Road, London,[4] wearing gold stilettos, a see-through net skirt, with a white bouffant hairstyle,[5] it had just changed to SEX,[3]

but there wasn't a position at the time so I got a job in Harrods, on the third floor in a place called Way In. ... A few weeks later I then got a call from Michael [Collins, the manager] asking if I could come in... Malcolm [Maclaren] had been in New York with The New York Dolls when I was hired.[3]

Rooke commuted for two hours[6] each day to London from Seaford.[7] She recalled that her punk image caused problems for her:

I commuted for about two years. I had some real bad dos on the train. I had tourists trying to pay me for my photo ... worse than that, mothers saying that I'm upsetting their children and debauching them and how dare I get on a train looking like that. Somebody tried to throw me off the train one day, literally out the door, so British Rail told me to go sit in first class, get out of trouble.[8]

In the late 1970s, she served as an early manager for Adam and the Ants. She recorded the track "Lou" (about Lou Reed) as a guest lead vocalist with the band for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel's Peel Sessions and often performed the song live with them from mid-1977 up to May 1978 when she left the band.[3] In the 1980s, she managed the band Wide Boy Awake, in which her then-husband Kevin Mooney was a guitarist. Mooney had previously been the bassist in Adam and the Ants.[9]

She made a cameo appearance in Derek Jarman's debut film Sebastiane, and played the lead role in his follow-up film Jubilee as the punk "anti-historian" Amyl Nitrate (named after the drug amyl nitrite).[10] She can also be seen in Julien Temple's The Great Rock and Roll Swindle wearing an "Only anarchists are pretty" T-shirt and appearing on stage with the Sex Pistols during their first live television performance of "Anarchy in the U.K." in August 1976.[11][12]

Maisie Williams plays Rooke in the FX Network series Pistol, which portrays Rooke's political influence and her ethos of turning the male gaze in on itself, weaponizing the male gaze.[13]

In 1984, after divorcing Mooney, she returned to Seaford, breeding Burmese cats and working as a veterinary nurse. Rooke's autobiography, Defying Gravity: Jordan's Story, written with Cathi Unsworth, was published by Omnibus Press in 2019.[14][15]

Rooke died in East Sussex on 3 April 2022 from cholangiocarcinoma,[1] aged 66.

Notes
  1. Linazasoro, Nick (4 April 2022). "Punk Legend Jordan has Passed Away". Brighton and Hove News. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  2. JP (7 October 2010). "The Filth & the Fashion – Vivienne Westwood's '70s sex rag revolution". Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  3. Baron, Katie (17 August 2016). "A rare interview with Jordan, punk's enigmatic frontwoman". Dazed. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  4. Lister, Kat (26 October 2015). "Anarchy In The UK: A Brief History Of Punk Fashion". Marie Claire.
  5. Oliver, Mark (6 February 2004). "Jordan: exclusive interview". The Guardian.
  6. "Seaford, UK to The Clockhouse". Google Maps.
  7. "Fury's fashion people: The sartorial genius of Jordan (no, not that one)". The Independent. 30 November 2013. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022.
  8. Colegrave & Sullivan, Punk: A Life Apart, Cassell & Co, 2004, p. 127.
  9. "3am Interview: The World's Forgotten Boy". 3:AM Magazine.
  10. "Pamela Rooke, punk rock fashion icon known as Jordan, dies aged 66". The Guardian. 4 April 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  11. "The Anarchy Shirt". Dazed and Confused. May 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  12. Beaumont, Mark (24 November 2021). "Anarchy in the UK: How the Sex Pistols' snarling manifesto changed the face of punk". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  13. Adekaiyero, Ayomikun. "'Game of Thrones' star Maisie Williams says she was hesitant to take on her new role because it had a lot of nudity". insider. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  14. "Jordan Mooney autobiography - Defying Gravity". www.facebook.com.
  15. Tierney, Paul (23 April 2019). "Interview - Jordan, the face of punk: 'The things I wore made people apoplectic'". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
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