DJ and singer Princess Julia with George O’Dowd aka Boy George.
Billy’s was a nightclub in Soho, London, where every Tuesday for most of 1978 two young men—Steve Strange and Rusty Egan—ran a club night playing tracks by David Bowie, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk. The club was in a basement underneath a brothel. From this small cramped space a new generation of artists, writers, performers and DJs first met up and planned the future together. Punk was dead. It was uncool. It had gone mainstream. The teenagers who came to Billy’s wanted to create their own music, their own style and make their own mark on the world.
Among this small posse of teenagers were future stars like Boy George, Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama), Marilyn, Martin Degville (Sigue Sigue Sputnik), DJ Princess Julia, Jeremy Healy (Hasyi Fantayzee), Andy Polaris (Animal Nightlife) and an eighteen-year-old Nicola Tyson who would go onto become one of the world’s leading figurative painters.
It’s rare that someone is savvy enough to ever take photographs of a nascent cultural revolution. But Nicola took her camera along to Billy’s and she documented the teenagers who frequented the club that launched the New Romantics and a whole new world of pop talent.
A blonde-haired Siobhan Fahey with at friend at Billy’s long before she joined Bananarama and later Shakespeare’s Sister.
Club host Steve Strange (in cap) with an unknown friend.
Sixteen-year-old Peter Robinson (aka Marilyn) sandwiched between two friends.
A teenage Martin Degville long before he became lead singer with Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
Looking like they’ve just come straight from school Jeremy Healy (Haysi Fantayzee) in v-neck and tie and Andy Polaris (Animal Nightlife) in yellow t-shirt.
Boy George in top hat with unknown friend.
Two cat Billy’s.
Steve Strange and friend.
Martin Degville, Boy George and friend.
Marilyn, Princess Julia and Boy George consider their future.
Clubbers Ashley, Kate, Robert and Claire.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Nightclubbing’: A collection of photos of London’s New Romantics scene, 1979-1981
‘Posers’: Vintage doc takes a stroll down the King’s Rd. looking for New Romantics, 1981
Steve Strange & Chrissie Hynde offend all of England as punk band The Moors Murderers, 1978
H/T the Guardian.