Blitz Kids

The Blitz Kids were a group of young people who frequented the weekly Blitz club-night in Covent Garden, London in 1979-80, and are credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement.[1] Steve Strange and Rusty Egan co-hosted Tuesday nights and imposed a strict dress code. Among core attendees were Boy George, Marilyn, Alice Temple, Perri Lister, Princess Julia, Philip Sallon and Martin Degville (later to be the frontman of Tony James' Sigue Sigue Sputnik). Crucially, the club lay between two art colleges (St Martin's School and Central School) and it became a testbed for student fashion designers who set London ablaze during the 1980s.[2] These included Stephen Jones, Kim Bowen, Fiona Dealey, Stephen Linard, David Holah, Stevie Stewart, John Galliano, Darla Jane Gilroy and more. The Blitz began making headlines thanks to its outrageous styles of clothes and make-up for both sexes,[3] subsequently documented by Gary Kemp in his 2009 first-person book, I Know This Much.

Andrew Czezowski (ex-manager of The Damned) and Susan Carrington who started The Roxy club with Barry Jones are said to have introduced Strange and Egan to the Blitz. After coming together at Billy's nightclub in Soho in 1978, the post-punk generation found themselves bored with the whole nihilist punk genre. Strange and Egan introduced regular Roxy Music and David Bowie nights at Billy's and, in an effort to find something new and colourful, the denizens took to wearing bizarre home-made costumes and clothing and emphatic make-up, presenting a highly androgynous appearance. After three months, this group of kindred spirits moved on from Billy's – which had effectively formalised the once-a-week club-night – to another every Tuesday at the more elitist Blitz wine bar in Great Queen Street, which is widely considered as home to the New Romantic movement and prompted the "Blitz Kids" epithet in mainstream newspapers, led by the Daily Mirror on 3 March 1980.[4]

Subcultural outcomes

The Blitz club provided roots for several new pop groups, notably Visage with Steve Strange on vocals and Blitz DJ Rusty Egan on drums, then Spandau Ballet who played live gigs there in 1979 and 1980.[5] Later, Blitz cloakroom attendant George O'Dowd was to become internationally famous in his own right as Boy George fronting Culture Club. Marilyn became a singer, but with limited chart success.

Boy George celebrated the Blitz Kids scene in his 2002 musical Taboo, in which he played the part of Leigh Bowery, who hosted the London weekly club-night called Taboo in 1985-87, long after the Blitz closed.

In January 2011, Steve Strange and Rusty Egan threw a one-off reunion party[6] on the site of the original Blitz Club, with performances from Roman Kemp's band Paradise Point and electro punk artist Quilla Constance, plus DJ sets from Egan himself. Egan simultaneously launched an official Blitz Club website[7] incorporating a record label, which published three remixes in as many years.

In 2017 The National Portrait Gallery acquired portraits of Blitz Kids Stephen Linard, David Holah, John Maybury and Cerith Wyn Evans by photographer David Gwinnutt, which were displayed in the exhibition Before We Were Men [8]

List of prominent Blitz Kids

Literature

  • Kemp, Gary (2009). I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 0-00-732330-1.

References

  1. ↑ Johnson, David (October 4, 2009). "Spandau Ballet, the Blitz kids and the birth of the New Romantics". The Observer.
  2. ↑ "BLITZ KIDS | ➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣". Shapersofthe80s.com. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  3. ↑ New York Magazine - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1982-07-26. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  4. ↑ "Blitz Kids let their hair up". Daily Mirror, republished at Shapersofthe80s, 3 March 1980.
  5. ↑ Line, On_The (24 January 1980). "Strange Days, p23". Evening Standard.
  6. ↑ Strange and Egan return to the Blitz, “Shapersofthe80s.com, 2006” accessed 30 May 2015
  7. ↑ "theblitzclub.com:80/about". Internet Archive, Wayback Machine, retrieved 07-04-18.
  8. ↑ Gwinnutt, David. "Before We Were Men". nag.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  9. ↑ Elan, Priya (15 May 2010). "It's Blitz: Birth of the New Romantics". the Guardian. The Guardian, 15 May 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  10. ↑ Hawkins, Stan (2009). The British pop dandy : masculinity, popular music and culture. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7546-5858-0.
  11. ↑ Eve Ferret biography:https://shapersofthe80s.com/tag/biddie-eve/
  12. ↑ Biddie biography:http://www.biddie.co.uk/music.html
  13. ↑ Hawkins, Stan (2009). The British pop dandy : masculinity, popular music and culture. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7546-5858-0.
  14. ↑ Elan, Priya (15 May 2010). "It's Blitz: Birth of the New Romantics". the Guardian. The Guardian, 15 May 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  15. ↑ Elms, Robert (10 November 2012). "The Blitz kids: How the New Romantics made London swing again". The Independent. The Independent, 10 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  16. ↑ Elms, Robert (10 November 2012). "The Blitz kids: How the New Romantics made London swing again". The Independent. The Independent, 10 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  17. ↑ Blitz Kids photograph of Karen O'Connor, Steve Strange, Gene October, Billy Idol:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60798663698511575/
  18. ↑ Hawkins, Stan (2009). The British pop dandy : masculinity, popular music and culture. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7546-5858-0.
  19. ↑ Nikkhah, Roya (November 22, 2008). "The Queen's Diamond Jubilee". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011.
  20. ↑ Elan, Priya (15 May 2010). "It's Blitz: Birth of the New Romantics". the Guardian. The Guardian, 15 May 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  21. ↑ Elms, Robert (10 November 2012). "The Blitz kids: How the New Romantics made London swing again". The Independent. The Independent, 10 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  22. ↑ Elms, Robert (10 November 2012). "The Blitz kids: How the New Romantics made London swing again". The Independent. The Independent, 10 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  23. ↑ Elms, Robert (10 November 2012). "The Blitz kids: How the New Romantics made London swing again". The Independent. The Independent, 10 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  24. ↑ Elan, Priya (15 May 2010). "It's Blitz: Birth of the New Romantics". the Guardian. The Guardian, 15 May 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  25. ↑ Blitz Kids photograph of Karen O'Connor, Steve Strange, Gene October, Billy Idol:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60798663698511575/
  26. ↑ Blitz Kids photograph of Karen O'Connor, Steve Strange, Gene October, Billy Idol:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60798663698511575/
  27. ↑ Blitz Kids photograph of Karen O'Connor, Steve Strange, Gene October, Billy Idol:https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60798663698511575/
  28. ↑ The Dark Carnival: Portraits from the Endless Night, by Derek Ridgers, publ. Carpet Bombing Culture 2015, ISBN 1908211385 – The book includes a photograph of Karen O’Connor and Marilyn together at the Blitz 1979: https://medium.com/cuepoint/punks-goths-disco-queens-rockers-and-ravers-portraits-of-u-k-nightlife-9a2d12d60c91
  29. ↑ The Dark Carnival: Portraits from the Endless Night by Derek Ridgers – video of the book contains various photographs taken at Blitz Club; https://vimeo.com/131204340
  30. ↑ Elms, Robert (10 November 2012). "The Blitz kids: How the New Romantics made London swing again". The Independent. The Independent, 10 November 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  31. ↑ Pink News – Philip Sallon (April 2011)
  32. ↑ Hawkins, Stan (2009). The British pop dandy : masculinity, popular music and culture. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7546-5858-0.
  33. ↑ Tallulah obituary:http://www.david-hudson.co.uk/archive/tallulah.html
  34. ↑ "Alice Temple". Theblitzkids.com. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
  35. ↑ Mark Wardell:The Art of Glitterbox:http://defected.com/news/art-glitterbox/
  36. ↑ Yvette The Conqueror singer:http://www.vinyltap.co.uk/boys-were-there
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