Rebel Yell | Punk’s Battle Cry Against the Establishment

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We begin this story in England in the mid-1960s, counterculture had started to sweep its way across the nation, inspiring a whole swathe of teenagers and young people to rally against the political and social systems they had previously been born into. These ‘Baby-Boomers’ had come fresh out of the greyness of post-war Britian, bombsites still littered cities like London and Manchester, food rationing had only just ended in 1954 and there was major unemployment everywhere, overall, things were looking very bleak. Enter the Mods and the Hippies. These technicolour movements were the catalysts that were needed to break down the walls of austerity and add some electricity to, well, everything.

Not only were youngsters listening to new kinds of music and dressing in new fashions, but they were also thinking differently and re-evaluating everything that had gone before. There were protests against nuclear war and student riots in Paris. However, what seemed like the beginning of a new chapter was a short-lived affair, the once ‘Swinging Sixties’ was not so swinging anymore. Music became convoluted and pretentious thanks to the ever-expanding ‘Prog Rock’ genre and the Labour government at the time had failed to hold onto their position, allowing for the Conservatives to lead the country into an entanglement of three-day weeks, energy shortages and mass unemployment.

^{A rare group of punk rock magazines and flyers (£800-1,200)}

By the beginning of the 1970s, Britain was at a standstill again, socially, economically and politically. It was in desperate need of a wake-up call… and fast. Along came a spider called Punk. As with many subcultural revolutions, fashion dictates the attitude of it and out of a small shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea called ‘SEX’, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood birthed a cultural reset. Initially called ‘Let It Rock’, the couple sold clothing, records and objects for the burgeoning Teddy Boy revival scene in the early 1970s, however, wanting a change in pace and artistic direction, they renamed it ‘Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die’ which sold 1960s ‘Rocker’ inspired leather clothing.

^{A Seditionaries muslin bondage top (£400-600)}

In 1973 they visited New York and began a partnership with the proto-punk band The New York Dolls, dressing them for their shows and crafting their look. By the spring of 1974, the shop had rebranded again, this time as ‘SEX’. The interior walls of the shop were covered in graffiti from the iconic ‘SCUM Manifesto’, published in 1967, the floors furnished with red carpet and the curtains were fashioned from rubber. The interior design of the boutique and its clothing challenged and confronted certain social and sexual attitudes of the time. McLaren, Westwood and Punk opened up a whole new dialogue for younger generations to be more confident individuals and challenge authority. It stripped away the affectations of the hippie generation, distilling it down to the core values of anti-establishment and free thought with a DIY aesthetic. SEX sold many controversial and provocative designs for the time such as clear plastic jeans and bleached shirts adorned with patches of the father of Communism, Karl Marx.

^{A rare group of punk rock magazines and flyers (£800-1,200)}

From the infamous clothing, spawned equally pioneering musicians, artists and writers. Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders and Glen Matlock (the original bass player in the Sex Pistols) were employees there and early patrons included Adam Ant and Siouxsie Sioux. Eventually, in August 1975, John Lydon auditioned to become the lead singer of the Pistols and the rest, as they say, is history. The band toured up and down the country, equipped with a stripped-down sound, acerbic wit and outfits pierced with safety pins. They provided young people with a new lease of life, telling them that it was okay to express yourself as you wished and fight systemic oppression without fear. This culminated in a famous gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1976, where, in a small room, young Punks gathered to watch ‘the filth and the fury’. This show would be so influential that it would lead to the formation of the bands Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Smiths and The Fall. Even Mick Hucknall of the later formed Simply Red attended.

Punk’s footprints can be felt through every subsequent decade since, it’s almost like a single golden thread of creativity that has touched popular culture from Post-Punk to Grunge, Grime and beyond. Even if Punk may technically be dead, it lives on through every part of popular culture, influencing film, art, fashion and shifting social norms. It paved the way for people to freely present themselves the way they want, on their terms. Arguably, Punk is the closest thing we have experienced to a Renaissance in modern times.

Out of the Ordinary 

Tuesday 19 August | 10am

outoftheordinary@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778

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