Wake Up Punk. (12A.)
Directed by Nigel Askew.
Featuring Joe Corre, Vivienne Westwood, Ben Westwood, Eddie Tenpole Tudor and Jordan Mooney. In Cinemas May 5th and on Demand May 9th. 83 mins
All the old dudes, bemoaning the new. In this documentary a bunch of old punks bellyache about the rebellious nature of punk being co-opted by the establishment and all the anodyne Punk nostalgia there is nowadays and how this is a betrayal of what it was like back in the old days. Angriest of all is Joe Corre, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren’s son and the co-founder of pricey knickers emporium, Agent Provocateur. He’ll show them. He decides to do a KLF and burn punk memorabilia worth around $5 million.
The urgency of the title is surely ironic. All this happened six years ago, prompted by the 40th Anniversary of Punk Exhibition at the Museum of London. If Punk did wake up back in 2016, it’s gone back to sleep now. The suspicion of a piss is being taken constantly lingers over the enterprise. The ritual burning of these priceless historical artefacts/ bits of old tat is performed upon a boat, on the Thames, just like the famous Sex Pistols Jubilee cruise. The footage of old punks arguing about the real meaning of punk is intercut with scenes of Dickensian urchins outlining the inequities of the global banking system and you wonder if that's entirely wise given Westwood's fondness for using unpaid interns. Is this some kind of situationist gesture, or are they all just incredibly lacking in self-awareness?
The film certainly took me back … to the eighties when the fledgling Channel 4 always seemed to be running epic, open-ended late-night discussion programmes about why oh why the young people had abandoned the radicalism of the sixties. And listening to Tariq Ali, an editor of OZ and anybody else who had burned the stars and stripes at Grosvenor Square in ‘68 it was clear that in part it was because these Sixties radicals were all self-absorbed, egomaniacs.
The film tries to use this as a vehicle for an anti-capitalist, climate change (in 2016 it was not being branded crisis) voter apathy tirade. The question of why contemporary protest movements are so impotent and have so little effect is one worth asking. The inequities of the Wilson/ Callaghan era seem minuscule compared to today’s but 70's Britain was incredibly grey and dreary, it was a perfect backdrop to stand out against. In the 21st century, the establishment is so wild and reckless it makes everybody else look a bit square. They wanted Anarchy In The UK, and they got it.
What is most annoying about the film is that all the fury generated about climate change and inequality is a smokescreen; what the film is really protesting about is their fury and indignation at becoming part of history, just like everybody else. The Westwoods find it intolerable that time has passed and they have grown old and their vibrancy has been gently extinguished by the years. They used to be special but now, all in all, they’re just another brick in the wall.
DOA
Sid and Nancy
Directed by Nigel Askew.
Featuring Joe Corre, Vivienne Westwood, Ben Westwood, Eddie Tenpole Tudor and Jordan Mooney. In Cinemas May 5th and on Demand May 9th. 83 mins
All the old dudes, bemoaning the new. In this documentary a bunch of old punks bellyache about the rebellious nature of punk being co-opted by the establishment and all the anodyne Punk nostalgia there is nowadays and how this is a betrayal of what it was like back in the old days. Angriest of all is Joe Corre, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren’s son and the co-founder of pricey knickers emporium, Agent Provocateur. He’ll show them. He decides to do a KLF and burn punk memorabilia worth around $5 million.
The urgency of the title is surely ironic. All this happened six years ago, prompted by the 40th Anniversary of Punk Exhibition at the Museum of London. If Punk did wake up back in 2016, it’s gone back to sleep now. The suspicion of a piss is being taken constantly lingers over the enterprise. The ritual burning of these priceless historical artefacts/ bits of old tat is performed upon a boat, on the Thames, just like the famous Sex Pistols Jubilee cruise. The footage of old punks arguing about the real meaning of punk is intercut with scenes of Dickensian urchins outlining the inequities of the global banking system and you wonder if that's entirely wise given Westwood's fondness for using unpaid interns. Is this some kind of situationist gesture, or are they all just incredibly lacking in self-awareness?
The film certainly took me back … to the eighties when the fledgling Channel 4 always seemed to be running epic, open-ended late-night discussion programmes about why oh why the young people had abandoned the radicalism of the sixties. And listening to Tariq Ali, an editor of OZ and anybody else who had burned the stars and stripes at Grosvenor Square in ‘68 it was clear that in part it was because these Sixties radicals were all self-absorbed, egomaniacs.
The film tries to use this as a vehicle for an anti-capitalist, climate change (in 2016 it was not being branded crisis) voter apathy tirade. The question of why contemporary protest movements are so impotent and have so little effect is one worth asking. The inequities of the Wilson/ Callaghan era seem minuscule compared to today’s but 70's Britain was incredibly grey and dreary, it was a perfect backdrop to stand out against. In the 21st century, the establishment is so wild and reckless it makes everybody else look a bit square. They wanted Anarchy In The UK, and they got it.
What is most annoying about the film is that all the fury generated about climate change and inequality is a smokescreen; what the film is really protesting about is their fury and indignation at becoming part of history, just like everybody else. The Westwoods find it intolerable that time has passed and they have grown old and their vibrancy has been gently extinguished by the years. They used to be special but now, all in all, they’re just another brick in the wall.
DOA
Sid and Nancy
