Pamela Rooke (23 June 1955 – 3 April 2022), (known as Jordan) was an English model and actress known for her work with

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, ''Sky Arts'' ranked her the ...

and the Sex boutique in the

Kings Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents) is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

area of London in the mid-1970s, and for attending many of the early

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

performances. Her style and dress sense—a bleached platinum-blonde

bouffant A bouffant ( ) is a type of puffy, rounded hairstyle characterized by hair raised high on the head and usually covering the ears or hanging down on the sides. Etymology The word ''bouffant'' has its etymological origin in the French word ''bouf ...

hairdo with dark raccoon-like eye make-up—made her a highly visible icon of the London

punk subculture The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of Punk rock, music, Punk ideologies, ideologies, Punk fashion, fashion, and other forms of expression, Punk visual art, visual art, dance, Punk literature, literature, and film. La ...

. Along with

Johnny Rotten John Joseph Lydon ( ; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a British-born singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. He was the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, which was ...

Soo Catwoman Susan Lucas, better known as Soo Catwoman, was a member of London's early punk subculture. Lucas was active in the London punk scene between 1976 and 1978, where she became a muse of photographer Bob Gruen and befriended the members of the Sex P ...

, and

Siouxsie Sioux Susan Janet Ballion (born 27 May 1957), better known by her stage name Siouxsie Sioux (, ), is an English singer and songwriter. She came to prominence as the leader and main lyricist of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, who w ...

, she is credited with creating the London punk look.

Biography

Rooke took the single name "Jordan" at the age of 14, in

Seaford, East Sussex Seaford is a town in East Sussex, England, east of Newhaven, East Sussex, Newhaven and west of Eastbourne.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. I ...

. When Jordan first walked into 430 King's Road, London, wearing gold stilettos, a see-through net skirt, with a white bouffant hairstyle, it had just changed to

Sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

, Rooke commuted for two hours each day to London from Seaford. She recalled that her punk image caused problems for her: In the late 1970s, she served as an early manager for

Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants were an English Rock music, rock band that formed in London in 1977. The band existed in two versions, both fronted by Adam Ant, between 1977 and 1982. The first phase began when the band were founded in May 1977 and were call ...

. She recorded the track "Lou" (about

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

) as a guest lead vocalist with the band for

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

Peel Sessions John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

and often performed the song live with them from mid-1977 up to May 1978 when she left the band. In the 1980s, she managed the band

Wide Boy Awake WIDE or Wide may refer to: *Wide (cricket), a type of illegal delivery to a batter *Wide and narrow data, terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data *WIDE Project, Widely Integrated Distributed Environment *Wide-angle Infi ...

, in which her then-husband

Kevin Mooney Kevin Paul Mooney (born 5 May 1962) is an English-Irish bassist and guitarist who has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, and others. Career Born in the Greenwich area of London, Mooney began his musical career in 1977 with the English-Ir ...

was a guitarist. Mooney had previously been the bassist in Adam and the Ants. She made a cameo appearance in

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...

's debut film ''

Sebastiane ''Sebastiane'' is a 1976 Latin-language British historical film directed by Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress and written by Jarman, Humfress and James Whaley. It portrays the events of the life of Saint Sebastian, including his iconic martyrdom by ...

'', and played the lead role in his follow-up film ''

Jubilee A jubilee is often used to refer to the celebration of a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term comes from the Hebrew Bible (see, "Old Testament"), initially concerning ...

'' as the punk "anti-historian" Amyl Nitrate (named after the drug

amyl nitrite Amyl nitrite is a chemical compound with the formula C5H11ONO. A variety of isomers are known, but they all feature an amyl group attached to the nitrite functional group. The alkyl group (the amyl in this case) is unreactive and the chemical ...

). She can also be seen in

Julien Temple Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953) is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll ...

's '' The Great Rock and Roll Swindle'' wearing an "Only anarchists are pretty" T-shirt and appearing on stage with the

during their first live television performance of "

Anarchy in the U.K. "Anarchy in the U.K." is a song by English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's debut single on 26 November 1976 and was later featured on their album ''Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols''. "Anarchy in th ...

" in August 1976.

Maisie Williams Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams (born 15 April 1997) is an English actress. Williams made her acting debut in 2011 as Arya Stark, a lead character in the HBO epic medieval fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019). She g ...

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. In 1984, after divorcing Mooney, she returned to Seaford, breeding

Burmese cat The Burmese cat (, , or , or , meaning copper colour) is a cat breed, breed of domestic cat, originating in Myanmar, Burma, believed to have its roots near the Myanmar–Thailand border, Thai–Burma border and developed in the United Sta ...

s and working as a veterinary nurse. Rooke's autobiography, ''Defying Gravity: Jordan's Story'', written with

Cathi Unsworth Cathi Unsworth (born 11 June 1968) is an English writer and music journalist. She has written for magazines including ''Melody Maker, Dazed & Confused'' and '' Bizarre,'' and has released several novels. Biography Unsworth was born on 11 Jun ...

, was published by Omnibus Press in 2019. Rooke died in East Sussex on 3 April 2022 from

cholangiocarcinoma Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a type of cancer that forms in the bile ducts. Symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma may include abdominal pain, yellowish skin, weight loss, generalized itching, and fever. Light colored stoo ...

, aged 66.

Notes

External links

Women in Punk: Jordan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rooke, Pamela 1955 births 2022 deaths English female models Actors from Seaford, East Sussex British punk music Bromley Contingent 20th-century English actresses Women in punk Deaths from cancer in England Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma English music managers Adam and the Ants members Actresses from East Sussex Models from Sussex