‘Tramps!’: Flare Review

Dir/scr. Kevin Hegge. Canada. 2022. 103 mins

The sixties in London might have been swinging, a neatly marketable fashion moment which seared the city into the global consciousness. But the peak of creativity in the capital came later, in a post-Punk explosion which harnessed the anarchism and nihilism of the mid ’70s and adorned it with hedonism, “individualism and a ton of makeup”, a direct response to the crushing conservatism of the Thatcher years. The media tried out several names for the movement – Peacock Punks was one – before settling on New Romantics. But as this thrilling, far-reaching kaleidoscopic collage of a documentary suggests, this was never a scene which could be contained beneath a single umbrella label. Spanning the club scene from the Blitz to Taboo to Kinky Gerlinky; shaping – and linking – the worlds of fashion, music, dance and art, it was a pivotal and influential cultural moment, one which, in London at least, is unrepeatable.

Simultaneously an account of street fashion’s evolution, an LGBTQ+ historical document and a deep dive into the degenerate corners of ’80s underground culture

TRAMPS! is the first full feature from Canadian director Kevin Hegge, whose previous work includes the mid-length documentary She Said Boom: The Story Of Fifth Column, about a group of radical female artists working in Toronto in the early 1980s. The picture benefits from vast amounts of archive footage – from the Blitz kids onwards, this was always a scene populated by individuals who were unashamedly slutty in their pursuit of the camera – and revealing interviews from many of the survivors of the era. Witty, wildly entertaining and, at times, coruscatingly bitchy, this should find a receptive audience at further festivals following its premiere in the closing night slot at BFI Flare. It is also a picture with theatrical potential. The overview approach broadens the audience appeal – it is simultaneously an account of street fashion’s evolution, an LGBTQ+ historical document and a deep dive into the degenerate corners of ’80s underground culture – bringing a key period of uninhibited London-based creativity to a whole new generation.

The most successful documentaries about a particular cultural moment or a creative voice are those in which the filmmaking is in dialogue with the subject. Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui achieved it elegantly with McQueen; more recently last year’s BFI Flare break out Rebel Dykes, by Harri Shanahan and Siân A. Williams, captured the uninhibited and feisty feelgood energy of its scene with a scrappy, punky approach. And from the very start, with huge, extravagant name titles which take up the whole screen and slyly funny editing choices, Hegge goes all out to capture the combination of showy excess and playfulness which characterised the moment.

In fact, it was much more than a moment. Unlike the punk movement’s rapid burn out, what followed was more chameleonic, all about reinvention and exploration, collaboration and olympic levels of showing off. “I love an audience, that’s for sure.” says club promoter Philip Sallon. Given that Sallon’s outfits for his interview segments include a shirt with a paper coffee cup stapled to it and a fishnet onesie decorated with an appliqued penis, it is one of the more redundant statements of the film. But this is a scene which was powered by big personalities. Alongside Sallon is a host of fascinating interviewees including DJ Princess Julia, artist/filmmaker John Maybury, dancer Les Child, Mark Moore (of S’Express fame) and the late Judy Blame on deliciously waspish form. Anecdotes include the apocryphal tale of DJ Jeffrey Hinton getting so wasted at Taboo that he played the turntable slip mat rather than a record, and horrifying stories about squat bathrooms that required wellies or platform shoes to avoid the quagmire of pee-sodden paper. Toilet-mulch aside, you rather wish you had been there.