,_4_Great_Queen_Street,_Covent_Garden,_London,_WC2,.jpg/1424px-The_former_home_of_Blitz_nightclub_(1979),_4_Great_Queen_Street,_Covent_Garden,_London,_WC2,.jpg)
Recent from talks
Blitz Kids (New Romantics)
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Blitz Kids (New Romantics)
The Blitz Kids was a group of people who frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, London in 1979–1980, and is credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement.
Steve Strange and Rusty Egan co-hosted these exclusive nights without giving them a name, according to Strange's autobiography, and publicised them solely by word of mouth. An emphasis on style was ensured by enforcing a strict dress code at the door. Crucially, the Blitz lay between two art colleges (St Martin's School and Central School) and it became a testbed for student fashion designers during the 1980s.
These included Stephen Jones, David Holah, Stevie Stewart, Darla Jane Gilroy, Michele Clapton, Stephen Linard, among others. The Blitz began making headlines thanks to its patrons' styles of clothes and make-up for both sexes, subsequently documented by Gary Kemp in his 2009 first-person book, I Know This Much; by Graham Smith and Chris Sullivan in their 2011 book We Can Be Heroes: London Clubland 1976-1984; and ultimately by David Johnson’s nationwide survey, Nightlife Rebels: How New Romantics Ignited the 80s, Featuring photographs by Derek Ridgers.
Other core attendees included 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), Siobhan Fahey (later a member of Bananarama), Biddie and Eve (long-standing cabaret act at the Blitz as wine bar), Perry Haines (who became co-editor of the earliest issues of i-D magazine) and Chris Sullivan (who founded and ran the Wag club in Soho for 19 years).
Strange, as greeter, and Egan, as DJ, came together at Billy's nightclub in Soho in autumn 1978, when the post-punk generation found themselves bored with the nihilist punk genre, as Smith and Sullivan record. 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, disagreements with the owner prompted them to move on from Billy's – which had effectively formalised the once-a-week club-night. Helen Robinson, who ran the shop PX as the flagship for New Romantic ready-to-wear in Covent Garden, employed Strange as an assistant and it was she who encouraged him and Egan to transfer their energies in 1979 to the more elitist Blitz wine bar in Great Queen Street. Over the next 20 months their fashion-led Tuesday club-night was gradually acknowledged in the media 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.
In mid-1980, David Bowie visited the club and asked Strange and three other Blitz regulars to appear in the video for his single "Ashes to Ashes", which helped to propel the New Romantic movement into the mainstream.
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. Later, Blitz cloakroom attendant George O'Dowd became internationally famous in his own right as Boy George fronting Culture Club. Marilyn became a singer, but with limited chart success.
Hub AI
Blitz Kids (New Romantics) AI simulator
(@Blitz Kids (New Romantics)_simulator)
Blitz Kids (New Romantics)
The Blitz Kids was a group of people who frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, London in 1979–1980, and is credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement.
Steve Strange and Rusty Egan co-hosted these exclusive nights without giving them a name, according to Strange's autobiography, and publicised them solely by word of mouth. An emphasis on style was ensured by enforcing a strict dress code at the door. Crucially, the Blitz lay between two art colleges (St Martin's School and Central School) and it became a testbed for student fashion designers during the 1980s.
These included Stephen Jones, David Holah, Stevie Stewart, Darla Jane Gilroy, Michele Clapton, Stephen Linard, among others. The Blitz began making headlines thanks to its patrons' styles of clothes and make-up for both sexes, subsequently documented by Gary Kemp in his 2009 first-person book, I Know This Much; by Graham Smith and Chris Sullivan in their 2011 book We Can Be Heroes: London Clubland 1976-1984; and ultimately by David Johnson’s nationwide survey, Nightlife Rebels: How New Romantics Ignited the 80s, Featuring photographs by Derek Ridgers.
Other core attendees included 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), Siobhan Fahey (later a member of Bananarama), Biddie and Eve (long-standing cabaret act at the Blitz as wine bar), Perry Haines (who became co-editor of the earliest issues of i-D magazine) and Chris Sullivan (who founded and ran the Wag club in Soho for 19 years).
Strange, as greeter, and Egan, as DJ, came together at Billy's nightclub in Soho in autumn 1978, when the post-punk generation found themselves bored with the nihilist punk genre, as Smith and Sullivan record. 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, disagreements with the owner prompted them to move on from Billy's – which had effectively formalised the once-a-week club-night. Helen Robinson, who ran the shop PX as the flagship for New Romantic ready-to-wear in Covent Garden, employed Strange as an assistant and it was she who encouraged him and Egan to transfer their energies in 1979 to the more elitist Blitz wine bar in Great Queen Street. Over the next 20 months their fashion-led Tuesday club-night was gradually acknowledged in the media 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.
In mid-1980, David Bowie visited the club and asked Strange and three other Blitz regulars to appear in the video for his single "Ashes to Ashes", which helped to propel the New Romantic movement into the mainstream.
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. Later, Blitz cloakroom attendant George O'Dowd became internationally famous in his own right as Boy George fronting Culture Club. Marilyn became a singer, but with limited chart success.
Recent media