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.

History

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.