Blitz Club Blitz Kids is a series of images taken in 1980 by the photographer Homer Sykes in the famous London club the Blitz Club.
"In the 1970s Great Britain was still in the midst of an economic crisis, the three-day week had been established and unemployment was growing rapidly. There were many strikes and a galloping inflation.
Steve Strange, a young Welsh entrepreneur, had just arrived in London where he was making a name for himself by organizing concerts for punk bands. Associated with his friend drummer Rusty Eagan, they established themselves as promoters of evenings by instituting the "Nights Bowie" on Tuesday night, in a sordid club located in the basement of a brothel of Soho. In 1979 they had become too big for the place, so they settled on Great Queen Street in Covent Garden, in a shabby wine bar where there were posters of the Second World War and a photo of Premier Winston Churchill . During their weekly evenings on Tuesday, while Rusty was doing the DJ, Steve remained unstoppable at the door and allowed entry only to "strange and wonderful" people. Mick Jagger himself was driven back.
The Blitz Club began to make headlines. As of course, the popular press was outraged by these art students and those revelers who, for the most part, disguised themselves and, what a horror! Made up makeup. The newspapers have nicknamed the regulars of the box, the Blitz Kids. Most importantly, the new venue was between the two most important art schools in London, St Martins and Central School. She was frequented by many fashionable students who had grown tired of the punk style. They wanted to express themselves differently and for many, much more androgynous. The Blitz Club was a test bed for their clothing ideas. Later, this new trend was going to be known as the New Romantic Movement.
In 1981, the infatuation had dissipated, the Blitz Club had been a sublime ephemeral bubble in which a dress style was born and had disappeared. But it has never been forgotten, and it has remained an inspiration for the following generations. "
– the author
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Published by Poursuite Editions, 32 pgs, 21.5 × 16.5 cm, Softcover, 2017, 978-2-918960-95-9
