Marx-Lenin-Rotten-Strummer: British Marxism and Youth Culture in the 1970's

This article uses the debate on youth culture that took place in the pages of Marxism Today (1973–75) to explore the ways by which cultural changes and identity politics began to challenge, complement and redefine the British left. The debate revealed much about the tensions that ultimately pulled the Communist Party of Great Britain apart. But it also uncovered faultlines that had ramifications for the left more generally and, perhaps, the wider British polity

Punk, Politics and British (fan)zines, 1974-84:'While the world was dying, did you wonder why?

This article recovers and contextualizes the politics of British punk fanzines produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It argues that fanzines – and youth cultures more generally – provide a contested cultural space for young people to express their ideas, opinions and anxieties. Simultaneously, it maintains that punk fanzines offer the historian a portal into a period of significant socio-economic, political and cultural change. As well as presenting alternative cultural narratives to the formulaic accounts of punk and popular music now common in the mainstream media, fanzines allow us a glimpse of the often radical ideas held by a youthful milieu rarely given expression in the political arena

Whose culture? Fanzines, politics and agency

This chapter offers a case study of three punk-related fanzines. The three ‘zines considered – JOLT, Anathema and Hard As Nails – each, in their different ways, sought to inform and (re)direct the cultures of which they formed part. They voiced opinion and contributed to a conversation. Beneath any prevailing cultural narrative, be it defined in newsprint or captured on film to be replayed over-and-over as disembodied spectacle, lay alternate interpretations scribbled, typed and held together with glue and staples. In fanzines we find cultures recorded from the bottom-up rather than the top-down

Guitars give way to guns: a commentary on an interview with Jean-Marc Rouillan

This short commentary reflects on Luis Velasco-Pufleau’s interview with Jean-Marc Rouillan. Picking up on the connections made between musical practice and political struggle, it locates Rouillan’s life and thoughts in relation to punk and the subversive charge more general to rock ‘n’ roll. By so doing, questions of freedom, action and commodification are considered, relating how cultural revolution may feed into political insurrection

CRASH! – A Better Britain

Scott King ha sviluppato questo progetto come CRASH!, insieme a Matthew Worley, storico e scrittore, in occasione della Map Marathon alla Serpentine Gallery. CRASH!, progetto ispirato nel nome al periodico Blast! di Wyndham Lewis e progettato per “move against the grain of existing cultural preoccupations”consiste in una serie di pubblicazioni e di attività che King e Worley hanno intrapreso dopo che il primo ha lasciato il lavoro di art director presso i-D Magazine, e principalmente in una rivista pubblicato in maniera indipendente – ne sono usciti tre numeri monografici: Death To The New, n.1 1997, Britstop, n.2 1997, Prada Meinhof, n.12 1999 – e in diversi lavori presentati all’interno di altre riviste commerciali, eventi, sticker e magliette. Tutta la grafica e l’art direction del progetto è stata seguita da King, mentre Worley ha lavorato sui testi, idee e concetti sono stati sviluppati insieme dal duo. Una mostra dedicata a questo progetto, il Corporatism & Complicity, è stato inoltre organizzata nel 1999 presso l’ICA di Londra. A Better Britain è una serie di 12 progetti, pubblicata originariamente all’interno del programma per la Maps Marathon, fianco a fianco con le informazioni riguardanti l’evento. Ogni progetto è presentato attraverso un’immagine, realizzata da Scott King con un’estetica da collage povero, simile a una fotocopia, e un testo scritto da Matthew Worley per presentare un’idea, di volta in volta affrontando un tema specifico riguardante la Gran Bretagna contemporanea attraverso una proposta utopica/distopica e spesso satirica.Scott King developed this project as CRASH!, with historian and writer Matthew Worley, for the the Serpentine Map Marathon event. CRASH!, named after Wyndham Lewis periodical Blast!and designed to “move against the grain of existing cultural preoccupations”consisted in a series of publications and activities the pair undertook after King left i-D Magazine, and consisted mainly in a self-published magazine – three monographic numbers came out: Death To The New, n.1 1997,Britstop, n.2 1997 and then Prada Meinhof, n.12 1999 – and in many works presented in other commercial magazines as well as events, stickers, T-shirts. All the graphic design and art direction was by King, while Worley worked on the texts; the ideas and concepts were developed together. An exhibition dedicated to this project, Corporatism & Complicity, was also organized at the ICA in London, 1999. A Better Britain is a series of 12 projects, published inside what appeared to be the programme for the Maps Marathon and along with the informations about the event. Each project featured an image, designed by Scott King with a xerox, collage aesthetic, and a text written by Matthew Worley to present the idea, which always addressed with a utopian/dystopian and often satirical proposal a specific theme regarding contemporary Britain

Bloody revolutions, fascist dreams, anarchy and peace: Crass, Rondos and the politics of punk, 1977–84

This article compares the politics and approach for two punk bands: Crass from the UK and Rondos from the Netherlands. It examines how they used the cultural space opened up by punk to develop a critical culture informed by their respective context

White youth: the Far Right, Punk and British youth culture

‘White Youth’ recovers and explains the relationship between far-right organisations and British youth culture in the period between 1977 and 1987. In particular, it concentrates on the cultural spaces opened up by punk and the attempts made by the National Front and British Movement to claim them as conduits for racist and/or ultra-nationalist politics. The article is built on an empirical basis, using archival material and a historical methodology chosen to develop a history ‘from below’ that takes due consideration of the socio-economic and political forces that inform its wider context. Its focus is designed to map shifting cultural and political influences across the far right, assessing the extent to which extremist organisations proved able to adopt or utilise youth cultural practice as a means of recruitment and communication. Today the British far right is in political and organisational disarray. Nonetheless, residues tied to the cultural initiatives devised in the 1970s–80s remain, be they stylistic, nostalgic or points of connection forged to connect a transnational music scene

"Does it threaten the status quo?" Elite responses to british punk, 1976–78

The emergence of punk in Britain (1976-78) is recalled and documented as a moment of rebellion, one in which youth culture was seen to challenge accepted values and forms of behaviour, and to set in motion a new kind of cultural politics. In this article we do two things. First, we ask how far punk’s challenge extended. Did it penetrate those political, cultural and social elites against which it set itself? And second, we reflect on the problem of recovering the history and politics of moments such as punk, and on the value of archives to such exercises in recuperation. In pursuit of both tasks, we make use of a wide range of historical sources, relying on these rather than on retrospective oral or autobiographical accounts. We set our findings against the narratives offered both by subcultural and mainstream histories of punk. We show how punk’s impact on elites can be detected in the rhetoric of the popular media, and in aspects of the practice of local government and the police. Its impact on other elites (e.g. central government or the monarchy) is much harder to discern. These insights are important both for enriching our understanding of the political significance of punk and for how we approach the historical record left by popular music

Intervista a / An interview with Scott King & Matthew Worley - CRASH! Londra, 05.07.2013

Intervista al collettivo CRASH!, composto da Scott King e Matthew Worley, realizzata a Londra da Marco Scotti in occasione della donazione del progetto A Better Britain a MoRE.An interview with CRASH!, Scott King and Matthew Worley, taken in London by Marco Scotti on the occasion of the donation of the A Better Britain project to MoRE