So what kind of story do we get here? There is some
well-trodden ground – the influence of the Ramones and New York Dolls (the
latter disintegrated ‘due to commercial indifference and unwise lifestyle
choices’ we are told – I love that deadpan curatorial language!), the sweary TV
interview with Bill Grundy, and McLaren and Westwood’s clothes shop SEX.
But there are also some gems for connoisseurs – a demo
version of Anarchy in the UK played to record companies by Malcolm McLaren (a
version rejected by the band); the 1977 contract releasing bassist Glen Matlock;
and a 1974 Sex T-shirt made out of a pillowcase with the first known mention of
the Sex Pistols (‘Katie Jones and his SEX PISTOLS ‘). ‘You’re gonna wake up one
morning and know what side of the bed you’ve been lying on,’ screams the shirt,
giving a list of loves and hates. Hates include the National Front and ‘antiques
of any sort’ as well as ‘John Osborne Harry Pinter Max Bygraves Melvyn Bragg
Philip Jenkins the ICA and its symposiums’. In the loves are Walt Whitman, peace
campaigner Pat Arrowsmith and Simone De Beauvoir.
Punk scholarship is a weird concept but you can’t go far in
punk without meeting contradictions. It’s unclear what side of the bed Vivienne
Westwood is lying on now, for example; she is a committed environmental activist but in 2015 was voted off a speaking tour (called ‘We Are the Revolution’) by the Executive of the National Young
Greens because of tax avoidance by her fashion company. Her son with Malcolm
McLaren, Joe Corré, sold his Agent Provocateur lingerie chain to a private
equity company for £60m in 2007, while on his website he slates those who
‘consume punk in pursuance of profit’, reported last month’s Private Eye.
But I do miss that irreverence (am I the only one to think
how docile commentary on the Royal Family is these days?). But in many ways we
are not as shockable now, partly because we are more tolerant – and punk played
its part in that, as the exhibition acknowledges, with sections on Rock against
Racism and an audio of Linton Kwesi Johnson talking about how punk made young
blacks readier to identify with whites. (‘I was going to say [the white]
working class,’ says Johnson ‘… but a lot of punks were middle-class actually.’).
Since it’s the British Library, there is more of a focus on documents and
artwork, especially that of Jamie Reid, who designed many of the Pistols record
covers.
And what about the women? Well, they are represented in the
exhibition – by video interviews with women punks 40 years later (tucked away
in a corner), a huge picture of Poly Styrene in an in-your-face costume like a
cross between a space suit and a lampshade – and lots of music. This is key to
the success of the exhibition – lots of listening stations and an alcove
dedicated to punk tracks and record sleeves. There is always a muted racket
going on as you walk round, reminding you what it was all about, at least at
first.
But it is 40 years later and the early days of punk are
moving towards legend. These first two years tend to get much more coverage than
the less sexy, less cool, more political wave of anarcho-punk which followed,
with bands like Crass, and people in various corners of the globe leading alternative
lives and trying to live outside mainstream capitalism. It would be much harder
to put together an exhibition on that, not least because it’s still happening.
‘Even more than the boys, the girls were making it up as
they went along,’ says Viv Goldman of the Flying Lizards. Punk meant, and still
means, an awful lot to loads of people, from Morrissey to Kathy Burke to the
exhibition visitor in bleached jeans, braces and porkpie hat looking intently
at every display case while giving a running commentary to his companion, to
everyone who felt liberated from school rules or suburbia or… well, just
liberated. Says Gina Birch of The Raincoats, ‘It was really profound to be
listened to.’
Open until October 2, free
Picture credits:
Sniffin‘ Glue cover photo © Mark Perry
https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2016/may/punk-1976-78-at-the-british-library
Roxy Club flyer from:
https://www.bl.uk/events/punk-1976-78