Kings Road punks vs New Romantics - Captain Zip 1981

Extract from Citizens Banned (1981) Courtesy of Phil Munnoch
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Punks find their turf invaded by New Romantics in the final part of Captain Zip's seminal Video Trip.
The last in Phil Munnoch aka Captain Zip's series of 8mm portraits of the London punk scene captures the movement in decline - and Chelsea's last gasp as a bohemian enclave. Zip's extended family of young punks - including Katie Thunder and Wobble - are still a close-knit bunch, defiantly living it up on the Kings Road. But by 1981 they were a tourist attraction, posing for photos with curious straights for a few quid. This final chapter in Zip's Video Trip also captures an important transition in outsider fashion, the punks competing for pavement space with a new breed of 80s dandy later dubbed the New Romantics.
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[@glamnesianouveaux2039]

EVERYTHING about this is just EVERYTHING. WHat a beautiful, creative world there was once.

[@mussolinninevergowell9281]

Homologation was then and now. It's just aesthetic

[@aliadidondiaa8024]

@@mussolinninevergowell9281 lol no it is culture roots and experience

[@vantastroganoff4370]

So true

[@NOWtheband]

@Glamnesia Nouveaux - Agreed / Understood.

[@alanbbrady8196]

How gay is that?

[@AnInsideJob-mynewbook]

Loved Kings Road and all the different groups in the 1970s and 80s. I was a Rockabilly but had many friends who were Skinheads, Punks and Mods. Great times!

[@guardianoftheduat]

I envy u

[@enrage6073]

I know a place where you still can enjoy this freedom: the Wave Gotik Treffen in Germany

[@barryhossin1222]

I worked on the Kings Road from 1980 until 1985 ,at American Classics, it was Fantastic back then

[@aliadidondiaa8024]

@@enrage6073 a bit different lol

[@enrage6073]

@@aliadidondiaa8024 But that’s all we have left 😞

[@clairepeace5783]

One of the best times which also shows how Great British music was and always will be xx

[@captainarcher2]

British Music is the best !!

[@danielnewton5867]

I remember the punks, New Romantics and goths. They were everywhere and people loved them! In fact they became tourists attractions!

[@nickiperkins3839]

0.29 sure the pink hair guy is an irish guy from dundalk called Spuk. I went out with his best mate for a while. Keeping a lookout for Dave Fergy (Ferguson) he was always on Kings Rd n 1 of my best friends. Anyone know him or where he is now?? He was the "spokesman" wen a tv camera appeared!!! Miss those days n all the amazing people i had so much fun with. Things were often tough but we were free....no employers no parents no teachers no landlords. Wouldnt change a thing. Wd b fun if we cd all meet up......

[@harbourdogNL]

lol, and sadly see how fat and middle-class and boring everyone has become...Cool that you recognised someone, tho!

[@vantastroganoff4370]

So true Survive on nothing I cant travel from here to corner with 20 But i sure went across kanada with 20 Now in f mansion and bored.life life sure have its up n down.stocks & shares may kill you Simplicity was more fun

[@robjones2408]

Studio 21 and the Camden Palace in the very early 1980s was the place to be. David Bowie, Iggy, early Simple Minds, Associates, Japan, Was (Not Was), Roxy Music, Bauhaus, The Banshees, the Bunnymen. was the soundtrack to my life. They were my Golden Years. A great snapshot of a long-vanished time.

[@michaelearthling]

well...was it or wasn't it?

[@jimmyriddles]

Agreed.... 100% loved all these bands and more. Great times being a NR, visited the Camden Palace a few times when I got down to London.

[@r.pneumo7337]

Unique footage! Thank you.

[@jeffgreen7629]

What an amazing piece of archive film.

[@jimmyriddles]

I bloody loved the New Romantic era and the music that went with it, and was a NR myself. Take ma back, it does not seem so long ago, how times flies...

[@benedettobruno1669]

Ditch the internet: yes Bring back the 1980s and the Berlin Wall: yes.

[@JRStephens5005]

But........we wouldn't be able to see all of this if we didn't have the internet. There's that.

[@NOWtheband]

One of those three is fairly easy to achieve. The other two are a tad trickier....... ;-)

[@keith-leecastle6700]

I turned 13 in 1981 and even at that tender age I was fixated with this lot! Even moved to nick my mums make-up. Eventually graduated to Boots and Superdrug. Still enthralled by the look, the age and music.

[@starmichaelz4721]

Tokky and Jane, adorable. I Used to live in Royal avenue.....which was scandalous having punks actually living on a posh street!! Wonderful times.

[@aliadidondiaa8024]

many lived in squats or cheap houses in posh streets

[@RazSux]

It's such a shame that there is no youth cult to unite the kids nowadays!

[@baldieman64]

There is - and the cult leader is called "Greta".

[@moosemcgroose7261]

baldieman64 shut up you utter nob

[@baptist.01]

thats a lie

[@gavinreid5387]

@@moosemcgroose7261 what is todays youth fashion?

[@andriuslblck6770]

@@gavinreid5387 today's youth fashion is influenced by social media's eboy fashion maybe

[@JRStephens5005]

Bet most of them are Nanas and Grandads now. This footage is awesome.

[@Scotty-P]

And the area would be "diversified".

[@dirkbogarde44]

@@Scotty-P Haven't been down the Kings Road since the early 90's ...I imagine all those little clothes shops have long gone, priced out of existence. I used to go there looking for second-hand Levi's and 50's stuff which you could get at reasonable prices then.

[@grahamherbert9328]

Amazing times I grow up down the kings road Chelsea... unbelievable david bowie look alikes.. every where you went... loved it

[@rushshukla4636]

Oh the good old days. I was briefly a New Romantic in the summer of 81.

[@jaradh67]

takes me back !

[@80snewwavemusic-synthpostp80]

Jeeeez... My consumer generation sucks (I'm 18). They all look the same. I love the new wave generation: punks, post-punks, new romantics, goths, dark/cold wave people. You were amazing

[@aliadidondiaa8024]

what were

[@Scotty-P]

Split between the two I was. More on the New Romantic side, though, of course.

[@didiervidry7687]

WEIMAR in LONDON. Fantastique !!!

[@davehoward22]

Used to hang around there before gigs

[@badasseal3001]

Why am I so young dang it

[@markwright9887]

me and my best mate sean,yellow leapoard skin trews - 0:12 in. on a day trip from brum to kings road...... yea yea - tourist - but it was fun - still go to see the bands and gigs... my kids still think i dress weird, rather than other way round!! i was 16 now 56 - great times...

[@johnpresnell]

I think that’s Alison Moyet who appears at 0:30 in!

[@hansmoser989]

gone, damned gone these times. today there is nothing more than i-phones and start-ups ( and corona plus brexit ). folks are formated and plastic-minded. that time i believe it couldn´t get much more worse, i was wrong. h.m.

[@NewAristocrats]

Great Video, Great Era, Great Styles. Thanks For posting :)

[@Steve-bo6ht]

Not 100% sure but is the girl at 1:06 Beth Rigby from Sky News?

[@metaldetectingengland]

I wonder how many are grandmas and grandads ...like me lols I was a mod and a skin and have had 4 scooters over the years ...I lived in Camden/kentish town london and a grandad now with a lambretta ! Awsome days !

[@pantelaja6528]

Even the air was different...

[@Boilingfrogg]

Less chem-trails

[@petems3283]

It's funny. The New Romantics make the Punks look quite dated.

[@arontxuofthenewchurch]

❤️

[@myfragilelilac]

I can only imagine how the ppl growing up in the 30s 40s would have a heart attack at the time.

[@jesteronetime]

Never sounded so good

[@stephanvenner2939]

Why is there no music in the background?

[@Misskittenfish71]

Because it was filmed with a potato.

[@stephanvenner2939]

@@Misskittenfish71 that's true punk art 😆

[@Misskittenfish71]

@@stephanvenner2939 I love it!

[@DiogenesOfCa]

Use the music in your brain....

[@stephanvenner2939]

@@DiogenesOfCa I use it every day.

[@Angel-nr8td]

I was a punk in 1980 different times

[@fasthracing]

Bloke at 46 secs in the red & black ensemble out shopping with mum so she can pay for everything.

[@michaelcolello2735]

Holy Kazagoogoo, Batman 0:46

[@Kkidzz]

Sal Solo this....

[@paularmstrong2306]

I was a Punk but if you're saying "youth" today are doing nothing you must have you're head in the sand. 'Grime' came of the estates of East London in the early 2000's and 'Drill' is massive at present. Surely the 'Roadmen' are today's Punx?

[@kendavid891]

I was a new romantic!!

[@NOWtheband]

I wonder who won.... (the video doesn't reveal that) ;-)

[@alber.a1232]

Trendies VS trendies

[@chrysalis72]

Oh look 39 years ago, anyone feeling old yet?

[@Reprodestruxion]

Some of those punks look more goth / post punk

[@warrick109]

wonder how many are looking back 40 years on wondering what was i thinking lol

[@markwright9887]

im in there 7 secs in with my best mate whose wering yellow leopard skin trousers... im thinking we had a great time!!

[@Boilingfrogg]

Thinking now what I we're thinking then. Fk the system!!

[@jimmyriddles]

I was one and I say now what a bloody great time and it does not seem so long ago. Can;t believe how time has flown. Music was great and new and exciting and loved the dressing up....

[@leeneale8776]

fook me....i was 12 :)

[@GEOindustries0]

I wonder how many of them there “punks” became lawyers or accountants or estate agents.

[@dagmarmedabrejlova8825]

wow

[@user-ie2gb4tm3s]

サムネがジャガーさん。

[@sexobscura]

it makes you wonder if these people think their children dress ridiculously

[@jimmyriddles]

I doubt it, I think most true NRs of old will always have that spark of individuality and understand their kids and grandkids need to express themselves. I know I am.

[@sexobscura]

@@jimmyriddles understood, but the opinion of one doesn't really speak for many

[@deafanddestructiononthepis3149]

I was not even 1 yet, probably. cool

[@stayjit1]

Oh yes, the good old days. I look back and wonder "What the hell were we thinking !"

[@JRStephens5005]

You weren't and that's the beauty of it. You just did what you wanted and to hell with everyone else.

[@toppertruthio]

people say they go to london now,and its changed.It hasnt,its still the same.Its just the clothes,and fashion that have changed

[@Boilingfrogg]

Ueah it's the same as it always was. Knife crime is just an illusion

[@keithrobinson9077]

2 of the shortest fads ever

[@vantastroganoff4370]

I remember those days ROMANTIC GIRLS HAVE GOOD PARENTS a place to eat Eh toronto

[@neilhumphrey4197]

Kings rd belongs to Chelsea when there was no firm to fight Chelsea use to go down the kings rd and wind the punks romantics who ever was available never it them how could you but use to wind them up it's only fun

[@jeffgreen7629]

It’s such a pity that the people in this video are now targeted by Alan Titchmarsh trying to sell them life insurance …. At least get Rusty Egan or Boy George to sell it 😜

[@Boilingfrogg]

Titchmarsh looked almost like a new romantic in the 90s lol

[@gestapo81]

"-I'm making a statement by wearing this this." -What's the statement? -Please look at me!"

[@fasthracing]

1981 punk was dead what you are seeing here is fashionistas of the time.

[@gezbo66]

Unfortunately none of this will happen again. The youth today are weak, soppy, woke and hiding in safe spaces plus there has been ethnic replacement going on and Multiculturalism never Brought about musical or cultural revolutions ever.Whether you like it or not punk is a working class phenomenon and led by young white English kids ,like the music and fashions before them. Now before you all call me a Racist & Son of Hitler and ride around on your Moral high horse I lived through this time as a brown immigrant, second generation. I just wish to state fact and the fact is I am right and if I am wrong then please tell me where is the new music or fashion or culture of today at the height of this sickening Multicultural paradise were are all living in ? NOWHERE!!! That said I loved to watch this and I remember it well. Great days.

[@bert6806]

I think that most of this mob were going to an uglybugs ball.

[@Daniel48203]

ahahhah.. this is dope

[@OriginalGrasshopper]

Punks > New Romantics

[@JRStephens5005]

DEFINITELY

[@thetruthk5138]

News Romantics really they are now on Ru Paul's drag race 😂

[@aliadidondiaa8024]

lol i don´t think anyone from the culture would go kardashian make-up

[@petems3283]

They do make the punks look outdated. New Romantics didn't last though, 2 years really. It seemed more about fashion than music. Some of the bands were decent, Visage of course. Duran and Spandau were very mainstream. The 'movement' didn't really have any cause, anything to say, it just withered away. Am I missing the point?

[@marcelofrancisco8884]

Lady gaga??

[@Boilingfrogg]

She was in purgatory waiting to be reborn. Evil

[@sabinefischer9361]

😂 dieses Make up … grauenvoll.

[@schmutz3]

all of you are crying couse "things like this dont happen today" what about getting your old jacket and do it? young people are way less then the older ones, so whoe is the group that should go in the streets and say "we dont want this shit any more" ? Whoes fault is it, that things like in the video arent happening any more? Couse everybody is telling you to be normal and dont fuck arround with anybody. It was your job zo show us how its done but you didnt

[@ianwhitehead691]

First phase punk was the best 1976-78, You know before it became a bloody uniform. 🧷🇬🇧