Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s son, Joe Corré, has issued a press release stating his plans to burn his £5 million punk memorabilia collection in Camden on 26 November, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of punk. The designer said; “When the Queen gives a fucking nod to punk’s 40th Anniversary Year, you know something has gone seriously wrong”.

The successful businessman who owns the Agent Provocateur (underware) and Illamasqua (make-up) labels, had a difficult relationship with his father before he died in 2010. The designer has expressed his distain at The BFI, the British Library, the Design Museum, ICA, Museum of London, The Photographers’ Gallery, Rough Trade, and the Roundhouse for running “40th anniversary of Punk” events after Punk London received a £99,000 grant from the Lottery Fund.

“The Queen giving 2016, the Year of Punk, her official blessing is the most frightening thing I’ve ever heard,” he says. “Talk about alternative and punk culture being appropriated by the mainstream. Rather than a movement for change, punk has become like a fucking museum piece or a tribute act”.

The press release said this was in the same spirit that triggered punk’s explosion in 1976. “A general malaise has now set in amongst the British public. People are feeling numb. And with numbness comes complacency. People don’t feel they have a voice anymore,” he says. “The most dangerous thing is that they have stopped fighting for what they believe in. They have given up the chase. We need to explode all the shit once more”. He is asking others to join him in destroying their punk collections in Camden on  26 November – the 40th anniversary Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols.

The ceremonial protest burning will take place in Camden on 40th anniversary of ‘Anarchy in the UK’