Joe Corré, the son of late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, announced back in March that he planned to burn millions of dollars worth of Sex Pistols memorabilia “in protest” and he’s actually followed through with it.
Corré was annoyed that the City Of London was throwing a series of events to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Punk. It sounds innocent enough, but Corré didn’t like that a genre that started as anti-establishment was being celebrated by the establishment.
As BBC report, On the 40th Anniversary of the Sex Pistols first single Anarchy In The UK, he took to the middle of the River Thames and torched the items.
“Punk was never, never meant to be nostalgic – and you can’t learn how to be one at a Museum of London workshop,” he told the crowd at the torching event.
“Punk has become another marketing tool to sell you something you don’t need. The illusion of an alternative choice. Conformity in another uniform.”
Among the Sex Pistols items, said to be worth more than $8 million, were dummies of British political figures like the former Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Corré’s mother Vivienne Westwood attended the protest, watching from the top of a double decker bus parked on the side of the river.
She took the opportunity to tell onlookers to switch to green energy.
“This is the first step towards a free world. It’s the most important thing you could ever do in your life,” she said.
Watch: Sex Pistols Memorabilia Burnt
https://youtu.be/n1i61zzeiQo