Bromley Contingent
Encyclopedia
The Bromley Contingent is a label invented by journalist Caroline Coon
about a group of followers and fans of the Sex Pistols
. They owed their name to Bromley
, a suburb of London
, in the county of Kent
, where some of them lived. They helped popularize the fashion
of the early UK punk
movement. Most of them were fans of David Bowie
.
The group included Siouxsie Sioux
, Jordan
, Soo Catwoman
, Simon 'Boy' Barker, Debbie Juvenile (née Wilson), Linda Ashby, Philip Salon, Simone Thomas, Bertie 'Berlin' Marshall, Tracie O'Keefe, Steve Severin, Billy Idol
, and Sharon Hayman.
The Bromley Contingent attained a degree of notoriety when Siouxsie, Severin, Thomas and Barker appeared on ITV
with the Sex Pistols to be interviewed by television journalist Bill Grundy
in December 1976. Goaded by Grundy, Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten
used the word "shit
" on Thames Television
's early evening television programme Today. Siouxsie then teased the presenter by telling him "I've always wanted to meet you." The presenter did not understand the joke and replied her "We shall meet afterwards then". This was the start of the action that provoked guitarist Steve Jones
to call Grundy a "dirty sod", a "dirty old man", a "dirty bastard", a "dirty fucker" and a "fucking rotter". That was the first time in the history of UK television that viewers had heard swearing at this hour of the day. Although the programme was only seen in the Thames Television
region, the ensuing furor occupied the tabloid newspapers for days and shortly after the Sex Pistols were dropped by their record label, EMI
. This episode changed the face of music in Britain. Up until December 1976, punk rock was in a relative low-key fashion, apart from appearing from time to time in small parts in music papers.
In the following week, Siouxsie appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror with the legend "Siouxsie a punk shocker". In February 1977, she stopped attending Pistols concerts and started to tour with her friend Severin under the name of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The notoriety of the Bromley Contingent in the press continued in June 1977, when Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren
rented a boat for the band and fans to sail down the Thames river during Queen Elizabeth II
's Silver Jubilee
anniversary celebration. When the police forced the boat to dock, several Pistols fans were arrested and injured in the melee. Bromley Contingent members Debbie Juvenile and Tracie O'Keefe (both employees of McLaren in his Kings Road
clothing boutique Seditionaries
) were charged with obstruction and assaulting a police officer. While Juvenile was acquitted of the charges, O'Keefe was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, although later acquitted on appeal. O'Keefe died unexpectedly in early 1978 of bone marrow cancer at the age of 18.
Many of the Bromley Contingent went on to form bands themselves including The Banshees and Generation X
. Arguably they had greater influence than Malcolm McLaren
's shops and Vivienne Westwood
's designs in shaping the development and look of the early UK punk movement. The fashion statements made by Siouxsie, in particular, incorporating fetish
and bondage
clothing, and her innovative style of makeup
, continue to live on.
Simon Barker became a photographer, using the nickname 'Six'. Bertie 'Berlin' Marshall became a writer, publishing a novel, Psychoboys in 1999 and a memoir Berlin Bromley in 2001 which received favorable reviews from The Guardian
and Time Out London magazine. Philip Salon became a fixture of the British New Romantic
club scene in the early 1980s alongside the likes of Steve Strange
and Boy George
.
Sid Vicious
, the bassist who replaced Glen Matlock
in the Sex Pistols, claimed he despised the Bromley Contingent, despite having played drums for the Banshees' debut live appearance at the 100 Club Punk Festival in 1976. In a 1977 interview for BBC Wales, Vicious claimed to have invented the Pogo
as a means to knock them over at the 100 Club.
Caroline Coon
Caroline Coon is an English artist, journalist and political activist. Her artwork, which often explores sexual themes from a feminist standpoint , has been exhibited at many major London galleries, including the Saatchi Gallery and the Tate.Coon was born to a family of Kent landowners and had...
about a group of followers and fans of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
. They owed their name to Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
, a suburb of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, in the county of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, where some of them lived. They helped popularize the fashion
Punk fashion
Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including...
of the early UK punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
movement. Most of them were fans of David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
.
The group included Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer of the critically acclaimed rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees and of its splinter group The Creatures . The Banshees produced eleven studio albums and a string of hit singles including "Hong Kong Garden",...
, Jordan
Jordan (Pamela Rooke)
Jordan , is a model and actress noted for her work with Vivienne Westwood and the SEX boutique in the Kings Road area of London in the mid-1970s, and for being a fixture at many of the early Sex Pistols performances...
, Soo Catwoman
Soo Catwoman
Soo Lucas, better known as Soo Catwoman , is an icon of the London punk subculture that sprang up around the mid-1970s.-History:...
, Simon 'Boy' Barker, Debbie Juvenile (née Wilson), Linda Ashby, Philip Salon, Simone Thomas, Bertie 'Berlin' Marshall, Tracie O'Keefe, Steve Severin, Billy Idol
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad , better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. A member of the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, Idol first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X...
, and Sharon Hayman.
The Bromley Contingent attained a degree of notoriety when Siouxsie, Severin, Thomas and Barker appeared on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
with the Sex Pistols to be interviewed by television journalist Bill Grundy
Bill Grundy
William "Bill" Grundy was an English television presenter and former host of Today, a regional news programme broadcast on Thames Television...
in December 1976. Goaded by Grundy, Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
used the word "shit
Shit
Shit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
" on Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
's early evening television programme Today. Siouxsie then teased the presenter by telling him "I've always wanted to meet you." The presenter did not understand the joke and replied her "We shall meet afterwards then". This was the start of the action that provoked guitarist Steve Jones
Steve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
to call Grundy a "dirty sod", a "dirty old man", a "dirty bastard", a "dirty fucker" and a "fucking rotter". That was the first time in the history of UK television that viewers had heard swearing at this hour of the day. Although the programme was only seen in the Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
region, the ensuing furor occupied the tabloid newspapers for days and shortly after the Sex Pistols were dropped by their record label, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. This episode changed the face of music in Britain. Up until December 1976, punk rock was in a relative low-key fashion, apart from appearing from time to time in small parts in music papers.
In the following week, Siouxsie appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror with the legend "Siouxsie a punk shocker". In February 1977, she stopped attending Pistols concerts and started to tour with her friend Severin under the name of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The notoriety of the Bromley Contingent in the press continued in June 1977, when Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
rented a boat for the band and fans to sail down the Thames river during Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
's Silver Jubilee
Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth realms...
anniversary celebration. When the police forced the boat to dock, several Pistols fans were arrested and injured in the melee. Bromley Contingent members Debbie Juvenile and Tracie O'Keefe (both employees of McLaren in his Kings Road
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
clothing boutique Seditionaries
SEX (boutique)
SEX was a boutique run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at 430 King's Road, London between 1974 and 1976. It specialized in clothing that defined the look of the punk movement.-History:...
) were charged with obstruction and assaulting a police officer. While Juvenile was acquitted of the charges, O'Keefe was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, although later acquitted on appeal. O'Keefe died unexpectedly in early 1978 of bone marrow cancer at the age of 18.
Many of the Bromley Contingent went on to form bands themselves including The Banshees and Generation X
Generation X (band)
Generation X was a British punk rock band, formed on 21 November 1976 by Billy Idol, Tony James and John Towe.-History:...
. Arguably they had greater influence than Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
's shops and Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
's designs in shaping the development and look of the early UK punk movement. The fashion statements made by Siouxsie, in particular, incorporating fetish
Sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
and bondage
Bondage (BDSM)
Bondage is the use of restraints for the sexual pleasure of the parties involved. It may be used in its own right, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage, or as part of sexual activity or BDSM activity.- Private bondage :...
clothing, and her innovative style of makeup
Cosmetics
Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...
, continue to live on.
Simon Barker became a photographer, using the nickname 'Six'. Bertie 'Berlin' Marshall became a writer, publishing a novel, Psychoboys in 1999 and a memoir Berlin Bromley in 2001 which received favorable reviews from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and Time Out London magazine. Philip Salon became a fixture of the British New Romantic
New Romantic
New Romanticism , was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and new wave music...
club scene in the early 1980s alongside the likes of Steve Strange
Steve Strange
Steve Strange , is a Welsh pop singer, best known as the lead singer and frontman of the 1980s pop group Visage...
and Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
.
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
, the bassist who replaced Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock is an English bass guitarist most famous for being in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Drummer Paul Cook has said that Matlock came up with much of the music for the band's songs and most of the lyrics, while lead singer Johnny Rotten made some adjustments...
in the Sex Pistols, claimed he despised the Bromley Contingent, despite having played drums for the Banshees' debut live appearance at the 100 Club Punk Festival in 1976. In a 1977 interview for BBC Wales, Vicious claimed to have invented the Pogo
Pogo (dance)
The pogo is a dance in which the dancers jump up and down, while remaining in the same location; the dance takes its name from its resemblance to the use of a pogo stick, especially in a common version of the dance, where an individual keeps their torso stiff, their arms rigid, and their legs close...
as a means to knock them over at the 100 Club.
External links
- Bill Grundy interview with The Sex Pistols and the Bromley Contingent
- Punk 77 website article on The Bromley Contingent
- Berlin, Bromley - an extract from Marshall's book on SpikeMagazine.com
- an interview with Bertie Marshall by Andrew Gallix in 3:AM Magazine, October 2001
- an interview with Six/Simon Barker by Andrew Gallix in 3:AM Magazine, August 2002