To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols, Joseph Corré had a laugh on the river Thames.
He decorated a boat with grim reapers and political effigies. In large bold letters he wrote the words “Extinction!” which he explained on Instagram was a new band featuring “Dodgy Dave, Bullingdon Boris, Theresa Mayhem & Jeremy Hunt Dr Death”.
Then, after a small speech, he delivered on a promise made earlier this year and set fire to £5 million ($6.3 million) worth of punk memorabilia, along with effigies of UK politicians David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and Jeremy Hunt.
His reasons? “Punk was never, never meant to be nostalgic and you can’t learn how to be one at a Museum of London workshop,” he said. “Punk has become another marketing tool to sell you something you don’t need. It’s time we threw it all on the fire and started again.”
The son of two punk legends, the late Malcolm McLaren and designer Vivienne Westwood, Corré is an entrepreneur who founded the Agent Provocateur lingerie label. Westwood was with her son on the boat. Corré thinks his father, had he been alive to watch the burning, would have found it “hilarious.”