Limelight

GEORGE MICHAEL, BOY GEORGE, LEIGH BOWERY, BELINDA CARLISLE, LEMMY FROM MOTORHEAD, BANANARAMA, DEREK JARMAN, MALCOLM MCLAREN, RUN DMC AND THE BEASTIE BOYS CAPTURED AT “BRITAIN’S MOST FAMOUS NIGHTSPOT” IN NEW PHOTOBOOK LIMELIGHT

PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID KOPPEL OPENS HIS ARCHIVE FOR THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF LIMELIGHT NIGHTCLUB CAPTURING THE CULTURAL EXPLOSION AT 80’S BRITAIN’S MOST ICONIC LONDON CLUB

Photographer David Koppel became a titan of paparazzi photography with era-defining photographs that broke headlines around the world.

But his journey started when he was Limelight’s house photographer, capturing regulars like Boy George, George Michael, Johnny Rotten, Leigh Bowery, Nile Rogers, Belinda Carlisle, Brian May, Kim Wilde, Iggy Pop, Jeff Beck, Bananarama, Malcolm McLaren, Lemmy from Motorhead, Billy Idol and Shane MacGowan.

In new photobook Limelight, published September 2025, David Koppel captures the characters and the club that shaped 80s pop culture at its most candid, including many previously unseen images.

“With fame comes money, adulation – and David Koppel. He shoots from the hip, hoping for a more candid shot than his rivals. He is the celebrity’s private nightmare.” – London Evening Standard

Forty years ago, notorious nightclub Limelight transformed an abandoned 1880s Presbyterian church into what The Times hailed “Britain’s most famous nightspot”. Opened in 1985, the club soon became the beating heart of London nightlife for 1980s pop culture and a magnet for its most influential figures.

Musicians and actors of the moment, many on the cusp of superstardom, would rub shoulders with 80’s London’s most stylish and influential clubbers, with Koppel there to document it all. It was Thatcher’s Britain, a time of bankers and big hair. New Romantics and US rap legends shared the dancefloor with British TV stars, comedians, punk rockers, film stars and fashionistas.

In 1986, Bob Geldof had his stag do at the Limelight before marrying Paula Yates. Even King Charles spent a night there in the late 1990s. It’s where David Koppel captured rare photos of Boy George and George Michael together. Limelight eventually closed in 2003.
The club was so dark, Koppel would often ask guests to hold a match to their faces so he could see to focus. The black and white photographs were of the moment, Koppel recalls “every newspaper and most pop magazines hadn’t yet discovered colour. There was no internet, no mobile phones, no digital cameras. It seems unthinkable now.”

“I said I didn’t like nightclubs, I didn’t drink, I wasn’t interested in celebrities, and I was a ‘serious’ photographer. They said, ‘We’ll pay you for one night.’ That one night lasted a year and paved the way for a decade on Fleet Street.” Koppel continues

“If everybody is dressed in Armani, it's boring. If everybody is super-sequins, it's boring. The most important thing you can do in a club is to draw an eclectic crowd. In the end, they entertain each other” – Limelight proprietor Peter Gatien

Brought together for the first time, Koppel’s Limelight archive provides a fascinating social history of an influential moment in London club culture. “This small collection of works is a celebration of the nightlife of a time gone by, the start of a personal journey and an evocation of the irrepressible spirit of the 1980s.” Limelight by David Koppel is available September 2025.

“The book really captures the spirit of the club” – John Moss, Culture Club

“The perfect artist for our celebrity-obsessed age, catching our gods without their minders, their make-up and the airbrush and reminding us that they, too, have feet of clay.” - The Sunday Times on David Koppel