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Yesterday the worldwide punk community were shocked at the passing of Pamela Rooke a.k.a. Jordon Mooney but best known of all just 'plain' Jordan. As iconic and as identifiable with British punk of the 1976 vintage as Johnny Rotten himself Jordan was something else! Her reputation went before her, young visitors to 'Sex' on the Kings Road would by all accounts tremble on the threshold at the idea of encountering this way out there assistant Jordan. Her appearance was extraordinary even by the standards of the first adherents of the London punk scene. No one touched her when it came to her insistence on the right to self-expression, perhaps Siouxsie and Soo Catwoman came close but they were for sure either side of Jordan on that particular podium.
I remember watching a programme with my Dad, quite possibly The Old Grey Whistle Test when Blondie were playing. This would have been 1977 I think and Debbie had the ripped fishnet tights etc on. He said to me, 'Adrian, God forbid that you ever bring a girl home like that' (....as if!). What he would have made of Jordon in her finest finery I cannot guess, but I don't suppose that she ever crossed his conscious mind (neither did punk in general... although in 1976 he would have been only 38!). He bizarrely fancied Princess Anne in the 1970's and would try to tell me and my Mum that she was a good-looking woman!
As outlandish as Jordan's style was it had, well... style. As a dress-maker herself, something that drew her to Vivienne and Malcolm in the first place, she had an eye for what went well together, be it in latex or cheesecloth.
Punk face became punk manager and punk 'singer' when she became involved with Adam & The Ants. This is a recording of the band from the Roundhouse in May 1978 that features Jordon on vocals for the band's assassination song Lou Reed entitled... 'Lou'.
In recent years, Jordan the long term veterinary nurse in her home town of Seaford, reacquainted her with her punk past attending gigs in Brighton and in the wider the Sussex area as well as participating in high profile punk events in London. I never got to meet her but many friends did and all described her as a charming, intelligent and witty woman willing to share her unique insider's view on Year Zero and her key role in the punk wars.
I have to say that I was rather dismayed upon first seeing social media messages that she had died that my regular updating of the BBC new webpage did not reveal the sad truth. In fact 36 hours later and there is still no mention of her passing on the BBC (although I think that 6 Music covered it). But still, are the Pistols and all those associated with those foul mouthed yobs still so reviled by the Corporation that 46 years on the female face of punk does not deserve an obituary? I am sure that there could have been room for both Dot Cotton and Jordan!
Great epitaph! (just a typo in the date...)
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