This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
And Finally Artist News Education & Events
Son of Malcolm McLaren to burn £5 million punk collection
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 16 March 2016
Joe Corré, the son of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, has announced plans to burn his collection of punk memorabilia in protest at what he sees as a state-sanctioned celebration of the 40th anniversary of the musical movement. Corré claims that the collection is worth over £5 million. Because nothing says ‘anti-establishment’ like a man with vast personal wealth wilfully destroying a minor asset.
Still, he has a point. This year’s Punk London campaign of events, funded by lottery money and supported by the Mayor of London, does seem to make something of a mockery of what punk stood for in the first place.
“The Queen giving 2016, the Year Of Punk, her official blessing is the most frightening thing I’ve ever heard”, says Corré, co-founder of the Agent Provocateur lingerie brand. “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”.
You could argue that, if history is written by the winners, then the fact that punk is now a celebrated part of our history is a positive thing. Or you could assume that the establishment likes to hold it up as an example of how little anyone can achieve, regardless of how much they shout about it.
Corré reportedly continues: “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. 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”.
The rich man with nothing to lose will set fire to some stuff he found lying around the place in Camden on 26 Nov, the 40th anniversary of The Sex Pistols’ ‘Anarchy In The UK’ single. He invites others to set fire to their punk-related valuables too. I’m sure the Queen is quaking in her boots.
