Playlists

Teddy boys, mods, glam rockers but also punks, goths and new romantics: England in the second half of the twentieth century provides the backdrop for the birth of numerous subcultures, and London often represents the epicentre of this phenomenon.

The succession of various “tribes” over the following decades gives way, in the early 2000s, to a genuine reshuffling of the deck, allowing for the birth of disparate scenes and micro-scenes, such as the one that got underway in London's Southend. This is indeed the setting for the Junk Club nights, where a number of indie-rock bands influenced by post-punk, garage-rock and darkwave made their first appearances…

The early Horrors are the driving force behind this club night, also frequented by These New Puritans, a future big thing, and by the lesser-known Neils Children. But straddling the 2000s and 2010s, British stages are also graced by neo-gothic rockers such as O. Children, Ulterior and the very young Terminal Gods; those same years also see the first steps of XX, whose shadowy dream-pop, though sonically distant, is certainly akin in mood to the artists on this playlist. They're still riding high, as are the feisty Savages and the eclectic Toy, but it's also worth revisiting the output of darker outfits like Project: Komakino, Disconcerts, Detachments…

Many of these bands have long since broken up; what remains as testimony to them, however, is a series of releases well worth rediscovering: rather than mere black-clad flashes in the pan, they were worthy heirs to a musical ferment that - from the postwar period to today - has had few equals.

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27/12/2025