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Directed by Canadian filmmaker Kevin Hegge, TRAMPS! captures the do-it-yourself, punk attitude of London's New Romantics subculture; a direct response to Thatcherism that retained the anarchism of the 1970s punk scene, and adorned it with “individualism and a ton of makeup.” Gone was Punk's nihilism - the impulse to destroy - rejected by this new collective of artists. Widespread poverty in the United Kingdom during crushing conservatism had instead paved the way to creative expression. No one was going to give these misfits careers, so they were going to create their own.

Andrew Logan's Alternative Miss World was the precursor to the New Romantics movement; an art and fashion event first held in 1972. Accepting and supportive of everyone during an era when not everyone was so acceptive, many of the talking heads - including Duggie Fields, and Michael Costiff - were introduced to each other through these events, and various other parties Logan would orchestrate at his Butler's Wharf studio. By 1976, Malcolm McLaren called Logan with a punk proposal. “I've got this group... They'll be bigger than the Beatles! Can they play at your party?” “Of course,” Logan would reply, agreeing to let the Sex Pistols perform.

"...TRAMPS! has no interest in existing as a nostalgia piece..."

Andrew Czezowski and Sue Carrington, owners of The Roxy in Covent Garden, could sense something exciting was happening, and immediately began booking emerging punk bands like The Clash. But by 1979 the London punk scene was dying... Philip Sallon, a prominent member of the Bromley Contingent in the 1970s - a group of Sex Pistols followers - hated being referred to as punk. Punk had become boring, predictable, and Sallon was into unpredictability! A new wave was about to emerge, with Tuesday nights at the Blitz, a Covent Garden wine bar, unknowingly becoming a creative hub for individualism, and the catalyst for the New Romantics.

Co-hosted by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan, 'Bowie Night' was a celebration of glam, frequently featuring music from David Bowie (obviously!), Roxy Music, and Kraftwerk; with Strange at the door, only letting in freaks that dressed extravagantly! Individuality flourishing through self-made image. Referred to by the tabloids as the “Blitz Kids” - or “Peacock Punk” - the New Romantics were seen as a reaction to the countless imitations of Sid Vicious; flamboyant, equally rebellious, and explicitly queer. A reinvention of the British punk look.

Interestingly, TRAMPS! is as counter-cultural as its subject matter. Whilst prominent “Blitz Kids” would later find success in popular music - notably Strange and Egan with their synthpop band Visage, and Boy George with his new wave band Culture Club - Hegge's documentary instead interviews the misfits who were equally integral to the New Romantics movement, but rarely the focus in other retrospectives. Sallon for example, “because people love reminiscing and glorifying the past, and 'wasn't it fabulous at The Blitz!' Oh, please.”

TRAMPS! has no interest in existing as a nostalgia piece. This documentary is instead a scrapbook of youth culture in motion, carefully crafted with curios from the New Romantics archive, scored by a new generation - Electrelane's Verity Susman and Wire's Matthew Sims - and narrated by the subculture's underground creatives. From fashion stylist Judy Blame and filmmaker John Maybury to DJ Princess Julia and style icon Scarlett Cannon, this 1980s “invert, subvert, pervert kind of culture” thrived through creative freedom, despite Britain's bleak sociopolitical climate and the AIDS epidemic, and remained resilient. To be an artist is to be a survivalist.

Platforming marginal voices in the music industry, Doc'n Roll Film Festival 2022 will be screening TRAMPS! throughout November in the UK.

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More about: Doc-N-Roll-Film-FestivalFilm