Bromley Contingent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bromley Contingent were the group of followers and fans of the Sex Pistols that constituted the core of the fashion avant-garde of the early UK punk rock movement, so named from the Bromley area where some of them lived. The group included Siouxsie Sioux, Jordan, Simon Barker, Debbie Juvenile, Linda Ashby, Philip Salon, Simone Thomas, 'Berlin' (Bertie Marshall), Tracie O'Keefe, Steve Severin, Tony James and Billy Idol. Soo Catwoman was also associated with the Bromley Contingent, although she does not consider herself to have been a member<ref>Oh and I also need to say this; I never was a member of the so-called Bromley Contingent, I just knew them, I have never claimed, nor do I have any connections whatsoever with Bromley - either of them..... Soo Catwoman on Myspace</ref>.

The Bromley Contingent attained a degree of notoriety due to their involvement with the infamous "Bill Grundy incident" in December 1976 wherein goaded by interviewer Bill Grundy, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones used the word "fuck" on Thames Television's early evening television programme Today, as well as calling Grundy a "rotter" after he made a rather inept attempt at "chatting up" Siouxsie. Although the programme was only seen in the Thames Television region (and Glen Matlock had, unnoticed, been the first to utter the word "fuck"), the ensuing furor occupied the tabloid newspapers for days and The Sex Pistols were shortly after dropped by their record label, EMI.

Many of the Bromley Contingent went on to form bands themselves including Siouxsie & the Banshees and Generation X. In the end they were perhaps even more important than Malcolm McLaren's shops and Vivienne Westwood's designs to the development of the early UK punk movement. The fashion statements made by Siouxsie Sioux, in particular, incorporating fetish and bondage clothing, and her innovative style of makeup, continue to live on in punk and goth fashion. Sid Vicious, the bassist that replaced Glen Matlock in The Sex Pistols, allegedly hated the Bromley Contingent. Some credit Vicious with inventing the Pogo as a means to knock them over at the 100 Club. This may not be true, because he frequently associated with them, and was briefly the drummer for Siouxsie and the Banshees.