Department S

By mid-1978, the punk scene in London was all but dead in the water. The initial burst of energy and creativity was a spent force. Although great bands such as Buzzcocks and Generation X had only just released their debut albums, these were made up largely of material that was 18 months old. It had just taken the A&R men time to cotton onto something that had come from the streets.

Punk had served its purpose. The Pistols had exploded into a freak show circus. Like all the best youth culture phenomenon, they burned bright, outshone all around them, and called it a day. Sadly, a section of the scene couldn't move on and the door was left open for groups such as Discharge, Anti-Pasti, and Crass who were regurgitating the same old themes and sounds of the previous two years, only without the style of The Clash or creativity of a Lydon or Weller. No fun.

Once punk had become a cliché of King's Road poseurs acting out the part for tourists, other scenes started to spring up in various corners of the city. These included a club called Billy's on Dean Street in Soho This was a club run by Rusty Egan and Steve Harrington, who later went onto fame with the band Visage. The theme was Bowie, Lou Reed, Roxy, Kraftwerk, and Euro disco. The look was to dress up. 

An antidote to the onsetting punk uniform of the likes of The UK Subs. Punk had been about self-expression and individuality, now it had become the regimented uniform of leather jacket, ripped up jeans, and a dog on a string! Fuck that! Billy's pulled in no more than 30 punters on Tuesday nights, but this was the scene that was to spawn the legendary Blitz club. Meanwhile, another group of disaffected punks had started listening to their old Small Faces, Creation, and Who records...

The sharp dress ethos, as well as the snappy guitar driven power pop sounds, had inspired them to create something new from the past. Two bands instigated the new Mod scene: The Purple Hearts from Romford and The Chords from Deptford. They started playing regular gigs at The Wellington pub at Waterloo. Again, at first there were only a handful of followers, but this was soon to spawn a nationwide explosion of new Modernism.