British Library, the BFI and the Museum of London celebrating 40 years of punk

London Calling all music and fashion fans: join our year-long festival of punk culture
Strummer time: The Clash in concert at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park in 1977
Jill Furmanovsky
Robert Dex @RobDexES5 January 2016

London's punk scene is being celebrated with a year of events including gigs, exhibitions and film screenings four decades after it first hit the headlines and the charts.

The British Library, the BFI and the Museum of London are all helping mark 40 years since the Sex Pistols released their debut single Anarchy In The UK, inspiring musicians including The Clash and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

An eight-day music festival starts this week at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, where there will be an exhibition of fanzines, photos and fashions at the Museum of London, and DJ and musician Don Letts will host a season of films at the BFI on the South Bank.

A two-day Punk Fest will take place at the Design Museum on June 25 and 26 — the venue’s final weekend at its Shad Thames site before it moves to the former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington High Street.

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Museum trustee Sebastian Conran, son of designer Sir Terence, was part of the scene at the beginning, booking Sex Pistols gigs at Central St Martins college and working as a Clash roadie. He said: “Some say once a punk always a punk. Initially I saw it as a disruptive style movement along the lines of Dada, it was about throwing out the rulebook.

“When I listen to Anarchy In The UK today it still quickens the pulse. I studied industrial design engineering and graduated in rock ’n’ roll.”

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