Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren’s son Joe Corré plans to burn his entire collection of punk memorabilia — worth £5 million — to celebrate punk's 40th anniversary, as Crack reports.
Corré, who co-founded Agent Provocateur, plans to head down to Camden on November 26 (the 40th anniversary of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The UK”) for the outburst of destruction having got sick of seeing punk’s legacy co-opted by the establishment in the intervening years.
“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.”
Institutions like the BFI, Museum of London, and the Roundhouse have all come under his ire for running 40th anniversary events celebrating punk's legacy after Punk London received a £99,000 grant from the Lottery Fund.
Corré also likens the mood of 2016 to that of 1976. “A general malaise has now set in amongst the British public,” he says, “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.”
He encourages anyone else keen to destroy their collections to join him.
