Soo Catwoman | |
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Born | Susan Lucas |
Occupation(s) | Actor, model |
Susan Lucas, better known as Soo Catwoman, was a member of London's early punk subculture. [1] Lucas was active in the London punk scene between 1976 and 1978, where she became a muse of photographer Bob Gruen and befriended the members of the Sex Pistols. Her distinctive, cat-influenced hairstyle is an iconic image within punk, and has led to her being featured in publications including the Guardian and News of the World . Her image has influenced other pop culture figures such as Keith Flint, and fashion designers including Junya Watanabe, Chanel, Obey and Mugler.
She began developing her distinctive hairstyle in 1972, when she began to spike up the sides of her hair in reference to Bride of Frankenstein, while also having a pink-striped fringe. Displeased with always having to style this hair, in 1976 she had the middle of her head shaved in an Ealing barbershop. [2] She used Vicks VapoRub to style this cut. [3] This haircut led to her and Marco Pirroni being approached by a woman in summer 1976 to join Club Louise, [4] a lesbian club on Poland Street, where she befriended the members of London's early punk scene. [5] It was also at the club that she also met photographer Bob Gruen, whom she soon became a muse for. [2]
In the following years, Lucas became an increasingly prominent figure within the scene, being featured on the front cover of punk zines Society Today and Society Today, bands' t-shirts, record sleeves, posters, flyers and was used by some mainstream news publications as an example of punk's effect on the youth. [2] One prominent example of this was a few weeks before the 100 Club Punk Special, when Lucas along with Simone Thomas, Debbie Wilson and Big Sharon were approached on Park Lane by a photographer and paid £15 to be photographed. These photos were then published in a Sunday issue of the News of the World as a part of a moral panic article claiming the four were prostitutes. [6] She was particularly close with Sex Pistols members John Lydon and Sid Vicious, [4] sharing a flat with Vicious during this period. [2] Lucas was frequently pictured by Ray Stevenson posing with members of the original fans of the Sex Pistols known as the Bromley Contingent such as Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin and Billy Idol. [7] While she was also associated with the Bromley Contingent by all the journalists, she later claimed not to have been a member. [8] By 1978, she was a mother of two, leading to her becoming less involved in the scene. [2]
As punk enter mainstream knowledge, Lucas became one of its most iconic images, [9] [10] with NME crediting her as one of the creators of punk fashion. [11] In The Filth and the Fury , John Lydon singles her out among the early London punks, citing her "skill, style, and bravery". [12] She appeared in the Sex Pistol's 1980 mockumentary the Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle , she was portrayed by Judy Croll, [13] and in the FX miniseries Pistol (2022), portrayed by Iris Law. [14]
Lucas's fashion style has been referenced by fashion boutiques and designers including Junya Watanabe, Chanel, Obey and Mugler. [2] Her distinctive hairstyle influenced the Prodigy's Keith Flint to adopt a similar haircut in the 1990s, which in turn briefly became popular during 2021 under the name "hair horns". [15]
Appearances
Portrayals
Punk rock is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record labels.
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became one of the most culturally influential acts in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspired many later punk, post-punk and alternative rock musicians, while their clothing and hairstyles were a significant influence on the early punk image.
Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewellery, and body modifications of the punk counterculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited to the dressed-down look of North American hardcore. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including glam rock, skinheads, greasers, and mods have influenced punk fashion. Punk fashion has likewise influenced the styles of these groups, as well as those of popular culture. Many punks use clothing as a way of making a statement.
Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, Sky Arts ranked her the 4th most influential artist in Britain of the last 50 years.
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English impresario, Visual artist, Musician, Fashion designer, Music Manager and Music businessman. He was promoter and manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, and was an early commercial architect of the punk subculture.
Simon John Ritchie, better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols.
The Bromley Contingent were a group of followers of the Sex Pistols. The name was coined by Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon, after the town of Bromley where some of them lived. They helped popularise the fashion of the early UK punk movement.
Glen Matlock is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only officially released studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, although he had left the band early in the recording process, credited as bassist and backing vocalist on only one song on the album, "Anarchy in the U.K.". However, on the bootleg album Spunk, Matlock played bass on all the songs, which included earlier studio recordings of 10 of the 12 songs that later appeared on the Bollocks album.
The 100 Club Punk Special was a two-day event held at the 100 Club venue in Oxford Street, London, England on 20 and 21 September 1976. The gig showcased eight punk rock bands, most of which were unsigned. The bands in attendance were each associated with the then evolving punk rock music scene of the United Kingdom. Historically, the event has become seen as marking a watershed moment for punk rock, as it began to move from the underground and emerge into the mainstream music scene.
The Punk Rock Movie is a British 1978 film that was assembled from Super 8 camera footage shot by Don Letts, the disc jockey at The Roxy club during the early days of the UK punk rock movement, principally during the 100 days in 1977 in which punk acts were featured at The Roxy club in London.
Julien Temple is a British film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a 1980 British mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas. It centres on the British punk rock band Sex Pistols and, most prominently, their manager Malcolm McLaren.
Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni frequently credited simply as Marco, is a British guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with Adam Ant, Sinéad O'Connor, Siouxsie and the Banshees and many others from the late 1970s to the present day.
Sex was a boutique run by Vivienne Westwood and her then partner Malcolm McLaren at 430 King's Road, London between 1974 and 1976. It specialised in clothing that defined the look of the punk movement.
Who Killed Bambi? was to be the first film featuring the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and was due to be released in 1978. Russ Meyer and then Jonathan Kaplan were due to direct from a script by Roger Ebert and Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren.
Bernard Rhodes is a designer, band manager, studio owner, record producer and songwriter who was integral to the development of the punk rock scene in the United Kingdom from the middle 1970s. He is most associated with two of the UK's best known and influential punk bands, the Sex Pistols and The Clash. According to John Lydon, Rhodes was responsible for discovering him in the Kings Road and arranging the audition which led to his joining the Sex Pistols. Rhodes introduced Joe Strummer to Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, who with Keith Levene then formed The Clash.
The history of the punk subculture involves the history of punk rock, the history of various punk ideologies, punk fashion, punk visual art, punk literature, dance, and punk film. Since emerging in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia in the mid-1970s, the punk subculture has spread around the globe and evolved into a number of different forms. The history of punk plays an important part in the history of subcultures in the 20th century.
Pamela Rooke, was an English model and actress known for her work with Vivienne Westwood and the Sex boutique in the Kings Road area of London in the mid-1970s, and for attending many of the early Sex Pistols performances. Her style and dress sense—a bleached platinum-blonde bouffant hairdo with dark raccoon-like eye make-up—made her a highly visible icon of the London punk subculture. Along with Johnny Rotten, Soo Catwoman and Siouxsie Sioux, she is credited with creating the London punk look.
Anti-fashion is an umbrella term for various styles of dress which are explicitly contrary to the fashion of the day. Anti-fashion styles may represent an attitude of indifference or may arise from political or practical goals which make fashion a secondary priority. The term is sometimes even used for styles championed by high-profile designers, when they encourage or create trends that do not follow the mainstream fashion of the time.
Pistol is a British biographical drama miniseries created by Craig Pearce for FX that follows Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and the band's rise to prominence and notoriety. The series was announced in January 2021, and was directed by Danny Boyle. It premiered on Hulu on 31 May 2022. The series was removed from Hulu and Disney+ internationally including the UK on May 26, 2023.
Anarchy in the UK No. 1 used exclusive images taken by Ray Stevenson of the Pistols as well as The Clash and Suburban Sect in performance at the 100 Club. Most striking was a sequence shot of revels at the St James's apartment of Sex customer and dominatrix Linda Ashby featuring members of the Bromley Contingent. These resulted in the front-cover portrait of the young Pistols superfan Susan Lucas, known as Soo Catwoman for her feline haircut.
The other person who thought she was a part of the Bromley Contingent was someone called Sue Cat Woman [sic]. What could one say about such a creature? Well, she fucked everyone's boyfriend and, like Philip, barged her way into the milieu. Rotten apparently thought she was interesting - his faux pas - she thought she could replace Jordan but didn't have the charisma or the originality, she was in the right place at the right time with that one look. She used Vicks mentholated rub on her hairdo, so she stank
Gruen broke the return to the US from a visit to continental Europe with a stay in the British capital. Eager that his American friend should document the burgeoning social scene around the Pistols, McLaren found Gruen a place in a rooming house in west London and took him directly to Club Louise, the Soho lesbian bar which had been adopted by the group and their followers – including Jordan, Siouxsie, Soo Catwoman, Marco Pirroni and Philip Sallon – as a late-night haunt.
A few week before the 100 Club thing Soo, Debbie Wilson, big Sharon and Simone (who is the black girl with the peroxide hair on the Grundy thing) were paid fifteen quid by the News of the World to have their photos taken standing about on Park Lane pretending to be hookers which was used in a Sunday shock horror piece by the papers. None of them were hookers at the time but Debbie and big Sharon became streetwalkers later on. No one was shocked as it was quite normal for girls on the scene to dabble in this "looking for Trade down the Dilly" is what they did after Louise's.
Soo Lucas, better known as Soo Catwoman, whose self-created hairstyle became punk's most distinctive female look"
Soo Catwoman, one of the original icons of punk.