If Punk is Dead, Who Killed it?
Joe Corré and ‘Wake up Punk’ director Nigel Askew attend the 2022 Glasgow Film Festival at the Film Theatre. Photography Credit: Megan O’Farrell
On the 26th of November 2016, Joe Corré, businessman, activist, and son of punk legends Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren, did something that shocked people around the globe. Stood atop a boat in the middle of the Thames, Corré set alight effigies of politicians and a trunk filled with over £5m worth of punk memorabilia while onlookers and the media watched in awe...or contempt.
Corré was protesting a year-long anniversary of punk held within London that year, announced by the (then) Mayor, Boris Johnson. The festivities included art shows, gigs, films, and exhibitions to commemorate 40 years of punk in the UK. One hotel even offered a punk themed afternoon tea, dubbing the event ‘anarch-tea in the UK’.
The provocative act instantly went viral, the story reaching over 1bn people worldwide. Suddenly, Corré was branded ‘selfish’ by online commenters and ‘attention-seeking’ by the media. Corré said: “The people that were upset, were upset about the £5m, they didn’t know the value of the items and what any of it actually meant.” Which was precisely his point that night back in 2016.
Despite the snubbing from the media, Corré proceeded with his plan of making a documentary about the punk movement and its modern-day commodification, directed by fellow activist pal, Nigel Askew.
‘Wake Up Punk’ premiered five years later at Glasgow Film Festival 2022 on Saturday the 12th, ahead of its release to the UK and Ireland on the 9th of May.
The stylistic documentary from Askew explores the origins of the punk subculture, safety pins and all. When discussing how the film came to be, Askew said: “It started when the government announced the year of punk, somebody asked Joe [Corré] was he was going to do about it and he said ‘well, I’m gonna burn it’.”
Corré agreed and said: “That’s the point of the film, really. It asks what you think is really valuable. I was getting it in the street at the time.
“They (the general public/media) went crazy with the idea of ‘how dare he’, they were fixated of the £5m figure. That’s how it began.”
Joe Corré, taken from the Wake Up Punk Twitter
The documentary introduces Corré as somewhat of an antagonist, playfully shown by the Oliver Twist-like accounts in which he plays a Fagan character. A clear metaphor for how the media views him.
However, this is quickly contrasted by the intimate commentary between Corré, his mother, Vivienne, and brother, Ben, reminiscing on a time when punk was in its heyday, the family at the forefront of the movement in London alongside the boys’ father, Malcolm.
During the documentary’s filming, the Covid-19 outbreak hit. However, the activist duo said it didn’t disrupt the project. Discussing the timeframe for the film, Askew said: “There was no reason for us to rush it and we didn’t want to put it out until it was right.”
Corré added: “We started it because of that burning action and after that it took its own natural organic path.
“We started to look at what punk was really about and what relevance, if any, that had today.
“It wasn't scripted, and we didn’t have any clear plan. It all came together depending on what your point of view was.”
The film touches on a lot of other important social topics. For example, climate change comes up often throughout the documentary, although Corré and Askew admit it wasn't on their agenda back in 2016; it’s something that organically became an important part of the overall message they wished to send throughout the filming process.
Askew said: “When we started it wasn't on the agenda, and now it is. For the same reason fake news wasn't a topic yet became one.
“It’s almost laughable, considering the main point of the film is making a mockery of the news. You know, printing stories without really checking them?”
The climax of the film focuses on the day the memorabilia got burned. Corré is joined by his mother and entourage on a double-decker bus that reads ‘Extinction - Your Future.’ (Note, Extinction Rebellion wasn't around then.)
Dame Vivienne Westwood, taken from the Wake Up Punk Twitter.
Surrounded by onlookers and the press, leaning out the back window of the bus, Dame Vivienne addressed the crowd, she said: “This is the first step towards a free world. It’s the most important thing you could ever do in your life.
“I never knew what to say before, ever since punk, we never had a strategy then. That’s why we never got anywhere. This is so ridiculously easy.
“Let’s all have a laugh and stay alive.” A motto I’m sure we can all agree on.
In the next shot we’ve transitioned to Corré on the now-iconic boat on the Thames, surrounded by his brother, Ben and, assumably, fellow activists. There’s an excitement captured in those shots that radiates through the screen.
In those same shots, Ben says to the camera: “Joe’s the only thing that’s punk here.” This is one of the lines in the documentary that really resonates the message that punk, as it was back in the 70s, is over.
Discussing the movement with Corré and Askew, Askew seems to have a more optimistic stance on the future of the subculture. He said: “I think punk still has a future, he [Corré] doesn’t. I think it’s dead in the form it originally came out in, which is more of an aesthetic form.
“It lives on in young people, in their mental attitude. Being rebellious and questioning things evolves and moves forward. It’s still a movement.”
Corré disagreed and said: “If there was a spirit in terms of how it started, I wouldn’t say that that’s what started it and still lives on, it’s what it became that’s dead. To me it’s just like how the teddy boys were in the 70s, music mad and saying, ‘I want to kick your head in, because you look a bit different to me.’
“That’s what punk’s turned out to be, it’s just a caricature of that. But it’s not even that anymore - it’s McDonalds, and car insurance, bondage trousers from Louis Vuitton. If you’re talking about an alternative lifestyle, it’s one thing to be alternative and another to actually educate and inform yourself about things.
“Those who like the intelligent part of punk. I just don’t think should be trapped inside that box of punk anymore.”
As the documentary draws to a conclusion, we’re invited to watch the remnants of the trunk burn. The media and onlookers can be heard, jeering for answers.
Going into the documentary, I was sceptical. I could think of so many better reasons to keep the memorabilia untouched. Almost 5m of them.
However, after watching it and learning from Corré’s point of view without the filter of the media, I too would be filled with a burning (sorry) rage at the notion of punk bank cards, punk beer, and punk tea parties.
Maybe punk is dead in the way Corré was surrounded by growing up, or maybe it died the day Virgin made a Sex Pistols bank card. We’ll never know.
What I do know from the documentary and from speaking to the duo is that the heart of punk, the need to protest governmental wrongdoings or to fight for the climate, lives on.