From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Blitz Kids were a group of unknown people that frequented the Blitz nightclub in the early 1980s. Among their number were Steve Strange, Leigh Bowery, Boy George and his friend Marilyn, Princess Julia, Philip Sallon and Martin Degville (later to be the frontman of Tony James' Sigue Sigue Sputnik).

The Blitz Kids had found themselves bored with the whole punk genre and, in an effort to find something new, took to wearing bizarre home-made costumes and clothing and excessive amounts of make-up. They were often extremely androgynous in nature. Leigh Bowery was perhaps the oddest of the bunch, and would often wear a different ensemble every night. One of his most striking props was several rivulets of melted candle wax that ran down his head and sometimes across his candelabra.

Steve Strange and Boy George later became famous in their own right with their musical outings Visage and Culture Club respectively.

Boy George celebrated the Blitz Kids scene in his recent musical Taboo, in which he played the part of Leigh Bowery.

Following the demise of the Blitz and Taboo, a new night called Kinky Gerlinky started in Central London in the late 1980s, retaining much of the same style and attitude, and became a very popular Drag (clothing) and Transvestite haunt, with a door policy that meant only the more outrageous would often be allowed in.

The Blitz Kids, Taboo and Kinky Gerlinky foundation lives on, having been embraced by the current London club scene, in clubs such as Kashpoint and Nag Nag Nag.

• Steve Strange
• Rusty Egan
• Boy George
• Leigh Bowery
• Martin Degville
• Tony James
• Philip Sallon
• Marilyn
• Isabella Blow
• Princess Julia
• Pete Burns
• Trojan
• Michael Clark
• Alison Hierlehy
• Perri Lister

[1] - History and pictures of the Blitz Kids, and related such as Kinky Gerlinky, Way Out.