When the Sex Pistols‘ TV interview with the journalist Bill Grundy broke up in a barrage of four-letter words in November 1976, the incident and its aftermath filled the front pages of Britain’s tabloid press for an entire week. From this moment Punk entered the British consciousness and quickly spread around the world.
It is this genre and movement that Sydney’s SunStudios will be celebrating from today with a new exhibition – Punkulture – a photographic exhibition from renowned music photographer Adrian Boot that highlights the musical revolution whose repercussions and reverberations of cultural change can still be felt nearly forty years later.
Boot is a long time music photographer from the UK, and throughout his career has shot for NME, Melody Maker, The Times, The Guardian and The Face. And during the heydays of the Punk Movement was the staff photographer at Melody Maker. He was also the chief photographer for Live Aid; for Nelson Mandela – Freedom at 70; for Roger Water’s The Wall in Berlin and for Greenpeace in the Soviet Union.
The exhibition comprises sixty-two images, some of which are never previously been exhibited in Australia. These photos are a veritable who’s who of the punk scene with images of iconic legends such as The Clash, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Blondie and The Buzzcocks.
Punk’s legacy is perhaps now often taken for granted or overlooked, yet its “do it yourself” ethos has arguably proven to be a precursor to the birth and rise of independent music. It is this ethos and spirit that has been visually captured by Boot in this exhibition.
Punkulture, showcases the punk style and attitude as it closed the gulf between musicians and their audience, as it rejected musical virtuosity and grabbed music back for young people.The exhibition offers a glimpse into a style and dress sense that when it first exploded into view shocked, scared and dismayed many.
Punkulture is exhibiting at SunStudios, 42 Maddox Street, Alexandria NSW 2015 from the 4th April until 13th May. The Gallery will be open from 9am – 5pm weekdays. For more information and to access some of the exhibition images visit the exhibition website.
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