Description: British youth culture at its finest
In 1980 a youth movement began reshaping Britain. Its stars didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did. This writer was there and these words and pictures tell the tale.
◼︎ As a decade, the 1970s spelt doom. British youth culture had been discredited by punk. A monumental recession followed the Labour government’s “winter of discontent”, threatening the prospect of no jobs for years ahead.
Yet from this black hole burst an optimistic movement the press dubbed the New Romantics, based on a London club called the Blitz. Its deejay Rusty Egan promoted the deliberately un-rock sounds of synthesised electro-pop with a beat created for the dancefloor, while drumming in a studio seven-piece called Visage, fronted by the ultimate poser, Steve Strange. He and other fashionista Blitz Kids were picked by Bowie to represent their movement in his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes ( above ). But the live band
Beyond ‘There’s always a black issue Dear’
Cover Our Tracks
Like Punk Never Happened - Brian McCloskey's Smash Hits archive
Like Punk Never Happened - Brian McCloskey's Smash Hits archive
Dolores Delargo Towers - Museum of Camp