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, Sue Catwoman , Simon Barker, Debbie Juvenile, Linda Ashby, Philip Salon, 'Berlin' (Bertie Marshall), Steve Severin and Billy Idol.

The Bromley Contingent attained a degree of notoriety due to their involvement with the infamous 'Bill Grundy incident' in December 1976 wherin 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 London ITV region (and although Glen Matlock had, unnoticed, been the first to utter the word, fuck), the ensuing furore occupied the tabloid newspapers for days and the band were shortly after dropped by their record label EMI.

Many of the Bromley Contingent went on to form bands themselves including Siouxsie and 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.

External link

• Bill Grundy interview with The Sex Pistols and the Bromley Contingent
• Punk 77 website article on The Bromley Contingent