“When the Queen gives a fucking nod to punk’s 40th Anniversary Year, you know something has gone seriously wrong”
According to a press release, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s son, Joe Corré, plans to burn his entire £5 million punk memorabilia collection in Camden on 26 November to commemorate the 40th anniversary of punk.
The Agent Provocateur and Illamasqua businessman, who had a tumultuous relationship with his father before he passed in 2010, has expressed his disgust at The BFI, the British Library, the Design Museum, ICA, Museum of London, The Photographers’ Gallery, Rough Trade, and the Roundhouse for running “40th anniversary of Punk” events after Punk London received a £99,000 grant from the Lottery Fund.
“The Queen giving 2016, the Year of Punk, her official blessing is the most frightening thing I’ve ever heard,” he says. “Talk about alternative and punk culture being appropriated by the mainstream. Rather than a movement for change, punk has become like a fucking museum piece or a tribute act”.
In the press release, it seems Corré believes 2016 harbours the same atmosphere that triggered punk’s explosion in 1976. “A general malaise has now set in amongst the British public. People are feeling numb. And with numbness comes complacency. People don’t feel they have a voice anymore,” he says. “The most dangerous thing is that they have stopped fighting for what they believe in. They have given up the chase. We need to explode all the shit once more”.
He is encouraging others to join him in destroying their punk collections in Camden on 26 November – the 40th anniversary Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols.
Correction: A spokesperson for the ICA has pointed out that the press release we received wrongly associates the forthcoming Dennis Morris: PiL – First Issue to Metal Box exhibition with the Punk London celebrations. The ICA is apparently not involved with the 40th anniversary celebrations.