A Quarterly Review of World Archaeology

Edited by Martin Carver

Research
Return to Franchthi Cave, Greece Late Bronze Age miners in Austria Bone-working in Shang dynasty Anyang Introduction of board games to Britain Pongo symbolism and Ugandan rock art The Sex Pistols grati

Method
Remote mapping of Stavnsager harbour, Denmark Dog-hair blankets in North America

December 2011 Number 330

Project Gallery
A horse engraving from Bruniquel, France Viking chamber graves in Poland Soil, Anglo-Saxons and pigs

Debate Volume 85
Gordon Childe is cheerful A new Egyptology ISSN 0003 598X

The lth and the fury: 6 Denmark Street (London) and the Sex Pistols
Paul Graves-Brown1 & John Schoeld2
In case readers are wondering whether this paper is written tongue in cheek or with tongue sticking out it is worth recalling that modern archaeology includes recent periods in its remit, and uses recent materiality to help understand more ancient times as well as a critique on modernity itself. Here the authors nd grafti left by a notorious group of popular musicians and probe it for social meaning as earnestly as students of cave art. Their archaeological study nds an underlying driver that is part political, part personal and therefore also part (anti-)heritage.

Keywords: Britain, twentieth century, grafti, cave art

Introduction
In spring 2010 a chance remark by a listener to Steve Lamacqs show on BBC Radio 6 hinted at the survival of an iconic piece of the 1970s musical heritage. The tabloid press once claimed that early Beatles recordings discovered at the BBC were the most important archaeological nd since Tutankhamuns tomb. The original and intact Sex Pistols (hereafter Pistols) grafti at 6 Denmark Street surely ranks alongside this and to our minds usurps it. The immediacy and freshness of the grafti, combined with the fact that some are hidden behind cupboards and that we had to work to uncover them, meant we could almost feel the Pistols in this place; we could sense their presence as unruly ghosts, lounging on the sofas and writing on the walls. The fact that the grafti could be considered rude, offensive and uncomfortable merely enhances their status and signicance. That, after all, is what punk was all about. In this paper we describe our exploration of this historic site, the
1 2

88 Trallwm Road, Llwynhendy, Llanelli SA14 9ES, UK (Email: slightly.muddy@virgin.net) Department of Archaeology, University of York, Kings Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK (Email: john.schoeld@york.ac.uk)

Received: 20 September 2010; Accepted: 17 November 2010; Revised: 9 December 2010

ANTIQUITY

85 (2011): 13851401

http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/085/ant0851385.htm

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methods by which we recorded it and what it all means for archaeology, heritage and recent cultural history.

Punk, archaeology and anti-heritage

In spite of the emergence of archaeologies of the contemporary past (e.g. Graves-Brown 2000; Buchli & Lucas 2001; Harrison & Schoeld 2010) and more inclusive, socially diverse interpretations of heritage (Council of Europe 2009), some things apparently still do not quite t within conventional or even acceptable approaches to the past. Sometimes though refreshingly rarely one still hears the refrain Yes, but is it archaeology? or What has that got to do with heritage? Given that we consider archaeology an approach, a means by which to study past human activity through material remains, punk as archaeology is barely contentious. Punk as heritage is a different matter. Even suggesting that punk-related sites or artefacts might constitute heritage will be considered by some an anathema: punk even. Punk was unquestionably anti-establishment (OHara 1995). Whatever it was, punks were against it. Anarchy ruled and was represented in what the establishment considered antimusic. Punks anti-fashion transformed everyday items into accessories with safety-pins worn through ears and lips, razor-blades as earrings and bin liners as dresses (Hebdige 1979). Punks were rude, loud, offensive and working class. They couldnt play their instruments and didnt know how to dress or behave. As Steve Jones of the Pistols put it, Actually, were not into music. Were into chaos (Spencer 1976; Temple 2007). And in December 1976, the nal straw: the Pistols swore openly on prime-time television and the inconvenience of punk was transformed into a national scandal. With few exceptions, heritage is of the establishment: for example Smiths (2006) authorised heritage discourse, and perhaps that is why punk cannot t conservative models of management and appropriation (Schoeld 2000). But, as Jon Savage (1991: 541) says in the nal sentence of his book, Englands Dreaming, History is made by those who say No and Punks utopian heresies remain its gift to the world. This, then, is what we might term anti-heritage: it contradicts what agencies and heritage practitioners typically value or wish to keep, and even what we think of as landscape and place. This, despite the Council of Europes recognition that heritage processes must move beyond the preoccupations of experts in government ministries . . . and include the different publics who inhabit our cities, towns and villages (Palmer 2009: 8), even those we would argue who seek to subvert these places and make areas of them their own.

Music and heritage

There is a view that music is only connected to places because someone wrote about them (e.g. Liverpools Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane); because they featured in artwork or promotional videos (e.g. Londons Heddon Street from David Bowies Ziggy Stardust album); or because someone lived or died there (e.g. Elvis Presleys Graceland home in Memphis, Tennessee, English Heritages ofcial blue plaque to Jimi Hendrix in Brook Street, London, and Jim Morrisons grave in P`re Lachaise Cemetery, Paris). But there are e too many exceptions for it to be that clear-cut. There are places that hold signicance because of the music made or performed there. As well as Londons Abbey Road, there
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are other recording studios such as the building in Chicago used by Chess Records, one of the principal labels associated with the development of American blues and rock n roll (Samuelson & Peters 1995). It was here in 1958 that Chuck Berry recorded Johnny B. Goode. Both recording studios are now protected. One could add concert venues to the list of site types, though many are associated with multiple artists and most have been altered or demolished over the years. The 1970 Isle of Wight festival site is an example of a performance space that has surviving (archaeological) remains, being a greeneld site used once and then returned to agriculture. And the space has signicance, being the site of Jimi Hendrixs penultimate performance (Schoeld 2000). But how might we characterise the punk landscape, and what of punk places? Savage (1991: 3734) refers to the underground, specically the London Underground, as the landscape most closely associated with punk, and one represented repeatedly in lyrics, being both a cheap mode of transport and a metaphor for Punks drive to the subconscious. . . . Hidden, yet omnipresent in Londons centre, the tubes rapid, occluded transits were perfect for those who wished to burrow beneath the culture. There are exceptions, such as the locations of New York clubs CBGB and Maxs Kansas City, which were strongly associated with the birth of punk, but punk is largely placeless. One reason for this is that punk was essentially an ephemeral, transient movement, a subculture characterised by bedsits and squats. People were on the move, in and out of places that barely existed anyway, and subverting authority by spending time in places they were not supposed to be. Leading the way, in the UK at least, were the Pistols: societys arch-enemy, out to provoke and offend at every turn. So, to nd a place occupied by the Pistols spanning the peak of their notoriety, and bearing their grafti, is as signicant as it is surprising.

Background
Denmark Street, in the West End of London, is a surviving fragment of seventeenth-century urban expansion: terraced houses which were built between 1686 and 1689 by Samuel Fortrey and Jacques Wiseman (Figure 1). The street runs between what was Broad Street, St Giles and Hogg Lane, now Charing Cross Road. At its eastern end stands St Giles-in-theFields, initially a leper hospital founded in 1101, rebuilt in its present form between 1730 and 1734 by architect Henry Flitcroft. In the nineteenth century, the Rookeries between the church and Great Russell Street, and the Seven Dials area, were amongst the most notorious in London for prostitution, poverty and squalor (Ackroyd 2000). By the early twentieth century, the street had become a centre for music publishers and music shops, coming to be known as Londons Tin Pan Alley. The Rolling Stones recorded their rst album at Regent Sound, 4 Denmark Street, the Melody Maker had its ofces at No. 19 and it is said that, in the late 1960s, David Bowie lived there in a camper van. Street directories indicate that between 1843 and 1856, 6 Denmark Street, a Grade II listed building No. 477051, was occupied by John Wilmin Figg, a silversmith. Subsequently the building was owned or occupied by the rm of Smith & Co., described as church furnishers who made silverware for ecclesiastical clients. We believe that the building at the rear of the house or shop was constructed as a silversmiths workshop. The wide, segmental arched windows with cast-iron frames are typical of those employed in jewellery workshops of the
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Figure 1. Location plan of 6 Denmark Street (drawing: Eddie Lyons, English Heritage).

time; the small section of glazing at the top opened to allow ventilation without the risk of valuable silver or gold lings being blown out of the windows. The narrow courtyard served as a light-well as silversmiths require an even north light to work by (see Cattell et al. 2002). In the nineteenth century, many houses in the street were used for small-scale industrial purposes such as joinery and frame-making. The adjacent 5 Denmark Street where the pioneer of the diving helmet Augustus Siebe (17881872) lived and worked is one example and is commemorated by an English Heritage blue plaque. By 1921, part of No. 6 was used by lithographers The Grosvenor Press, Ltd and by 1938 the property had three occupants: Kantaro Ohshima, a hairdresser; Azakami & Co., a Japanese import/export company; and Miss Iris Ross, a dance teacher. In 1944, the retail frontage became Zenos Greek Bookshop, which it remained until many of the small Charing Cross Road bookshops were forced out of the area in the late 1990s. From 19681983, the upper two storeys of the main building were rented by the design company Hipgnosis whose principals, Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, famously designed album covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis. At some time in the late 1960s the building at the rear was leased and converted to a music rehearsal studio by Bill Collins, the manager of the increasingly successful group Badnger, who were the rst artists signed to The Beatles Apple label in 1968. In April 1975, the groups lead singer and guitarist Peter Hamm, depressed and beset by nancial problems, committed suicide, leading to the groups dissolution, at which point Collins began to seek a new occupant for the building (Matovina 2000).

The Sex Pistols and Denmark Street

The Pistols began as a band formed by Steve Jones (vocals), Paul Cook (drums) and Warwick Wally Nightingale (guitar) in 1972. Variously known as The Strand or The Swankers, the
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Figure 2. The Sex Pistols at home, 1976 ( c Bob Gruen www.bobgruen.com).

group had other occasional members and is believed to have played one gig in a room above Tom Salters Caf on Kings Road in Chelsea. Jones and Cook frequented the shop Let e it Rock at 430 Kings Road later to become Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die and then Sex run by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, and attempted to persuade McLaren to manage the band. In 1974 McLaren introduced Glen Matlock, who then had a Saturday job in the shop, as permanent bass player (Matlock 2006) and, in 1975, returning from his brief and abortive stint as manager of the New York Dolls, McLaren agreed to manage the band. Nightingale was sacked, possibly at McLarens insistence, Jones moved to playing guitar and a search was begun for a new singer. After a series of attempts to nd a suitable recruit, McLaren and the band auditioned John Lydon, also known as Johnny Rotten, possibly at the suggestion of McLarens friend and colleague, Bernie Rhodes. In early 1975, the group had been rehearsing at a location called The Crunchy Frog, which was either a pub or a theatre in Rotherhithe, but a more permanent rehearsal space was needed. In September 1975 Glen Matlock noticed Bill Collins advert in Melody Maker and was instructed by McLaren to phone Collins and offer him 1000, presumably for the lease. The nature of the nal deal is unclear; several band members recount paying rent on the building and equally that Collins never received payment, which seems unlikely. Manitova (2006) states that payment of 650 and a Fender Rhodes piano was made. This seems plausible, because when McLaren returned from the USA in 1975 he had with him a white Gibson Les Paul guitar (later used by Jones), an amplier and a Fender Rhodes piano,
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Figure 3. Composite drawing of the Denmark Street grafti (drawing: P. Graves-Brown).

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all of which belonged to Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls (Bob Gruen in Strongman 2007b). Steve Jones was homeless and took up permanent residence in the upper room at 6 Denmark Street. Cook and Matlock also lived there at various times, as did a large number of other people involved in the early punk scene (Figure 2). The Pistols played their rst concert at St Martins School of Art in Charing Cross Road, just opposite Denmark Street, on 6 November 1975. Glen Matlock was then a student at St Martins and there is now an unofcial blue plaque on the building commemorating the event. The group continued to rehearse at 6 Denmark Street throughout 1976 and most of 1977. On 3 April 1976, the Pistols met Dave Goodman who provided the PA system for their rst gig at the Nashville. Subsequently Goodman became the groups permanent engineer and, on 13 July 1976, he moved into Denmark Street, equipped with a Teac A3340 4track tape recorder, a mixing desk and microphones (Goodman 2006; Strongman 2007b). Using the upper room as a studio Figure 4. Cartoon of Paul Cook and Banarama grafti. control room, Goodman and the group made a series of recordings which were to form the basis of the infamous Spunk bootleg record and of some of the groups later legitimate recordings. If The Beatles had Abbey Road and George Martin, then the Pistols have Denmark Street and Dave Goodman (Ray Morrisey quoted in Strongman 2007a: 119). The building appears to have remained in the possession of either or both the Pistols and McLarens company Glitterbest until 1986, when Lydons law suit against Glitterbest led to the companys liquidation. It was used as a rehearsal space by The Rich Kids, formed by Matlock after he left the Pistols (Goodman 2006) and possibly by the post-punk band 4 Be 2. In 198081 the building became the home of Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin of Bananarama at the suggestion of Paul Cook, whom they had met at the club, Taboo (Bananarama 2009).

Methodology
Initial online research furnished some background on the recent history of 6 Denmark Street, in particular footage on YouTube, which later proved to derive from Temple (2007), of visits to the building by Paul Cook, Glenn Matlock and Steve Jones, concurrent with
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the Pistols concerts at the Brixton Academy in November 2007. Their lmed accounts of the location and the grafti provided insight into its interpretation (see below) and a clear impression of what had survived. It became clear that the site warranted a visit. Although pre-arranged with the owner, the site visit, on 28 April 2010, was unavoidably rushed. The two-storey building at the rear of 6 Denmark Street consists of two rooms connected by an open staircase on the east side, now used as ofces by Vintage & Rare Guitars. To record the grafti on the south, west and north walls of the rst oor room involved moving furniture. Our presence was clearly an inconvenience and was disruptive, even though the present occupiers were interested and convivial. The methodology therefore took account of these pressures. A systematic approach was adopted so far as was possible, working our way around the room, moving and replacing furniture as we went. Grafti were rst identied and then photographed, ensuring relatively complete coverage. Photographs captured both the detail of the individual grafti while wider contextual shots captured their relative positions. Photography is routinely used now in the documentation of historic buildings, and of the wall art within them Figure 5. The cryptic Hail Ceaseriuce. . . (e.g. Cocroft et al. 2006; Cole 2006). Cole goes so far as to describe photography as the most valuable of recording techniques . . . leaving the viewer free to make their own interpretation of the artists original message or motivation (2006: 39). Photographs of the grafti, supplemented by some stills from Temple (2007), were combined into a montage covering the south, west and north walls. Oblique shots were digitally rectied with respect to other images and an in-shot 0.5m scale where possible. From this, and in order to clarify some of the fainter elements, a complete digitised tracing of the grafti was made (Figure 3).

Bash Street Kids: the grafti and its interpretation

The main body of the grafti (Figure 3, black) consists of eight cartoons or caricatures by John Lydon depicting the following: himself, labelled A Rotten Bastard; John Tiberi, also known as Boogie, labelled Boggie; Malcolm McLaren, Muggerage; Steve Jones, Fatty Jones; Nancy Spungen, Nanny Spunger; John Ritchie, also known as Sid Vicious, Ego Sloshos; and
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Paul Cook, Crawl Crap (Figure 4). The portrait labelled Hail Ceaseriuce Romes only hero remains unidentied and cryptic (Figure 5). As Paul Cook recalls: [We] just had it all done out, we thought wed spend a bit of money on the place and ash it up, cos it was a right dump, and John come in and said dont like it, its all posh so he got the marker out and we was all goin Oh no! Hes ruinin it (Temple 2007). Lydon had always had a talent for visual art. I was artistic. Id draw anything (Lydon 1993: 16) and Johns strength was in painting and drawing. . . (John Gray in Lydon 1993: 36). With the Pistols, he had previously deployed the marker whilst recording at Lansdowne Studios in Holland Park. John got a bit bored, he was going round with his felt tip pen writing obscenities on the walls (Goodman in Strongman 2007b, see also Goodman 2006: 69). The large swastika (Figure 6), with its upper arm drawn the wrong way round, probably belongs to this group of grafti drawn by Lydon: the gure has clearly been drawn and lled in with a black marker. Associated texts include, DEPRESSED MISERABLE TIRED ILL SICK BOOED & BORED and JOHNNY WONT GO TO HEAVEN OR THE SOUTH OF FRANCE. The latter may reect an exchange during an interview, conducted in the same room, in 1976. Janet Street Porter asked Supposin you made a lot of money. . .? How are you gonna be Figure 6. The swastika and adjacent texts. different from the Stones? John Lydon replied I dont need a Rolls Royce, I dont need a house in the country, I dont need to live in the South of France (MacDonald 1976). The group can be dated to the summer/autumn of 1977; Nancy Spungen had only arrived in the UK in March and by that summer Lydon had become disenchanted with John Ritchie. The remaining grafti form four further and tentative groups. 1. The large grafto IS GOD A CUNT (Figure 3, grey & Figure 7 with the word GOD crossed out) is, uniquely, executed in white paint. Undated, its authorship is uncertain although the G of GOD is written in the same way that Lydon forms his Gs, with the horizontal serif as a continuation of the letters curve, moving rst to the left and then back to the right.
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Figure 7. Is God a cunt?

2. The four portraits and associated text above the stairs (Figure 3, blue & Figure 8) appear to form a group dating from c. 197980. The unidentied gure with tartan trousers has 4 Be 2 on his chest. 4 Be 2 were formed by Johns brother Jimmy Lydon in 1979 under the management of promoter Jock McDonald, whose real name was Patrick ODonnell. The gure above is clearly, as labelled, Jah Wobble, real name John Wardle, the bass player of Lydons post-Pistols band, Public Image Limited (PiL). The woman he is embracing is unidentied, but may be his long-time girlfriend and, later, his rst wife, Margaux Tomlinson (Wobble 2009). The womans face above this may also be Ms Tomlinson. Apart from Lydons family connection with 4 Be 2, Jock McDonald had also been the promoter of PiLs rst UK gig at The Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park on 25 December 1978. These grafti may also be attributable to John Lydon: apart from the accomplished style of the drawings, the lettering of Jah Wobble resembles other examples of his handwriting. 3. A distinct group of the grafti (Figure 3, green) is executed in black paint including A FC! [Arsenal Football Club], YOUNGIE IS A TOE RAGG, 4 BE 2, SARAH KEREN and THE BOLLO[CK] BR[OTHERS] A[RE] CUN[TS]. 4 Be 2 included drummer Paul Youngie Young and their second single Frustration (1980) featured backing vocals from Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin (the latters name is misspelt). The Bollock Brothers was a side project from 4 Be 2, formed by McDonald in 1980, which continued to exploit the Lydon connection for several years after Jimmy Lydons departure in autumn 1981. This group of grafti seems to date from 198081. Its authorship is uncertain, but one clue is provided by a set of four left-hand prints in black paint on the south wall. Jimmy Lydon, like his brother but unlike the other members of 4 Be 2, is left-handed and therefore may well have been the author of these grafti. He was, like his brother, an Arsenal fan.
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Figure 8. Jah Wobble (top left) and other grafti above the stairs.

4. Miscellaneous grafti of unknown authorship (Figure 3, red), including Kez and I know my rights. The Clash was another prominent punk band of the time and rivals of the Pistols. Their song White Riot was a popular anthem and the grafti White Bros might refer to this, though we have been unable to nd any other specic reference of this kind. This and the remaining grafti cannot be attributed to any particular time or author.

Discussion
Most interpretations of modern grafti concentrate on their deviant and counter-cultural role (Frederick 2009). The grafti described here clearly t into this pattern stylistically; indeed grafti epitomise the transgressive ethos of punk rock, as they have done more recently with hip hop. However, in this instance, Lydon et al. were defacing a private space. As Paul Cook remarked, it was Lydons reaction to the Denmark Street rooms becoming too posh. According to Frederick (2009: 213) grafti may be more effectively aligned with ideas of how human beings perceive and interact with their living environment; how they signal their
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inhabitation of or transit through place; and how they gesture to ownership, occupation and even, or especially, arrival. Given that Lydon was the only original member of the band not to live in Denmark Street, and the reaction of the others (Oh no! Hes ruinin it), we might regard the work as Lydons assertion of his power, and ownership, of the Pistols. John Lydons use of cartoon and caricature continues a long tradition in grafti. The drawings, particularly that of McLaren (Figure 9), owe a considerable historical debt to political cartoonists such as Gilray, and particularly to Honor Daumier and Max Beerbohm through their use of an e exaggerated head and tiny body, but are also inuenced by childrens comic characters. In particular, the caricature of John Ritchie/Sid Vicious (Figure 10) with its tube-like ears, and the mouth of Lydons self-portrait (Figure 11), bear a strong resemblance to the character of Plug from the Bash Street Kids strip in The Beano, created by Leo Baxendale in 1954. The exceptions are the portrait of John Lydons friend Jah Wobble, and the separate one of an unidentied female, possibly his girlfriend, which are more naturalistic although still in caricature form. We believe that the cartoons can be divided into two categories, reecting Lydons attitude to the individuals involved. The self-portrait, and images of Jones and Cook, is humorous but essentially affectionate: Lydon ridicules Steve Jones fatness (Figure 12) but also mocks himself, colouring in his notoriously rotten teeth. Figure 9. Malcolm McLaren. The I know my rights speech bubble is a later addition. Conversely, the caricatures of Ritchie, Spungen, Tiberi and particularly McLaren are more biting and satirical, often underscored by their punning titles. John Lydon had been suspicious of Malcolm McLaren virtually from the outset and continued to dislike him: Lets just say that if Malcolm breathes, its too much for me to stomach (Lydon quoted in Baker 1979). John Tiberi (Figure 13), as one of Mclarens staff at Glitterbest, was regarded in a similar light, perhaps justiably since he was later sent by McLaren to covertly lm Lydon in Jamaica after the breakup of the Pistols. Lydon had taken an immediate dislike to Nancy Spungen, who apparently tried to seduce him before turning her attentions to Ritchie (Lydon 1993). The fact that she drew John Ritchie into heroin addiction exacerbated this situation. Spungen was also disliked by the other members of the Pistols and banned from visiting the Denmark Street HQ. Finally, John Ritchie, whom Lydon had met at Hackney and Stoke Newington College of Further Education in 1972, was, by the summer of 1977, becoming distanced from Lydon, not least due to the inuence of Nancy Spungen. In particular, John Ritchie was growing
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ever closer to Malcolm McLaren who, along with Vivienne Westwood, would later claim that they had originally wanted him, not Lydon, as the Pistols front man. Ritchie, for his part, was increasingly upstaging Lydon during performances: He was the star, ultimately (Malcolm McLaren in Strongman 2007b). All this being said, Lydon continued to care for Sid/John, attempting to cure his heroin addiction during the Pistols ill-fated US tour (Lydon 1993). It may be then that the caricature of Ego Sloshos is also somewhat affectionate, particularly in contrast to that of McLaren: Good one of Malcolm there, holding the cash (Steve Jones in Temple 2007). The large swastika (Figure 6) described earlier is a signicant piece of symbolism, widely adopted by punks and worn on T-shirts and arm-bands. Hebdige (1979: 116) sees the swastika as reecting the punks interest in a decadent and evil Germany a Germany which had no future. For the British, the swastika also represented the enemy and it was this rather than any reference to fascism and the far right that made it attractive to punks. Vivienne Westwood and McLaren were making use of the swastika in their clothes, and had a stock of Nazi memorabilia. Jordan explains how Malcolm was in awe of the symbolism, not just the swastika but a lot of artefacts from that era (Savage 1991: 188). If we assume that the swastika drawn in Denmark Street was the work of Lydon, then there is an interesting contradiction. Lydon says (cited in Savage 1991: 242) that Siouxsie (Sioux) and Sid (Vicious) were quite foolish to wear a swastika, although I know the idea behind it was to debunk all this crap from the past, wipe history clean and have a fresh approach. The later grafti, which we tentatively attribute to Jimmy Lydon, are more typical in style and content of the street grafti of the time, exemplied by AFC!. The use of the A is signicant. Although rst used by Spanish anarchists in 1868, the symbol became familiar in UK popular culture Figure 10. Sid Vicious. when adopted by the anarchist punk band Crass, formed in 1977. 4 Be 2 were contemporaries of this second wave anarcho-punk movement. Here again we might detect a social intent. In several places these grafti
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Figure 11. John Lydons self-portrait.

overwrite their predecessors, possibly reecting Jimmys desire to assert himself in respect of his elder brother. In this context it is notable that the published assertion that John produced the records of 4 Be 2 is strenuously denied (Fodderstompf 2010).

Conclusion
On being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, the surviving Pistols issued an ofcial announcement, dated 24 February 2006 and probably written by Lydon. It began Next to the SEX PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Like Filippo Marinettis Futurists, and later high modernists such as Lewis Mumford (1940), the Pistols are clearly contemptuous of museums and monuments. Therefore, while the Victoria and Albert Museum now collects the punk fashions and designs of Dame Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid there is a legitimate question as to whether conserving and monumentalising the legacy of punk is appropriate. Should the building at the rear of 6 Denmark Street be preserved, or would this be a betrayal of the iconoclastic spirit of punk and of rock music more generally (Graves-Brown 2009)? Here, we feel justied in sticking our tongues out at the heritage establishment and suggesting that punks iconoclasm provides the context for conservation decision-making. Our call is for something that directly follows punks attitude to the mainstream, to authority; contradicting norms and challenging
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convention. Most people, as well as bodies, committees and organisations, espouse the value of mainstream heritage. But our concern is for the exceptional and the marginal, of which punk is a relevant, albeit extreme, example. For this is not so much heritage as anti-heritage. True, even punk bands reform and reperform, and punks themselves can grow old gracefully. But we think it is the spirit of the movement that matters more and the grafti in Denmark Street is a direct and powerful representation of a radical and dramatic mo[ve]ment of rebellion. And if not conventional heritage, is an archaeological approach valid here, or does this suggestion merely play into the hands of those calling for a more sensible archaeology? Part of our answer to that is why not? Why should grafti and interior spaces from 1975 not be approached with the same seriousness as those from a thousand years earlier? As authors we remember 1975 but surely that is the only difference. Deconstruction of the grafti reveals feelings and relationships, Figure 12. Steve Jones and Nancy Spungen personal and political. It informs us of their context the room as semiprivate and semi-group, and it presents a layering of time and of changing relations over time. Whilst some of this is documented in published biographies and captured in lms and documentary, this very archaeological record offers something visceral and immediate and generates unique insight. And therein lies a dilemma. This is an important site, historically and archaeologically, for the material and evidence it contains. But should we retain it for the benet of this and future generations? In our view, with anti-heritage different rules apply. What is perhaps surprising is that the grafti have survived at all, the building having had several occupants since 1986. Although the ofces Figure 13. John Tiberi aka Boogie. were being redecorated as we visited, the current occupants stated that they had no intention of removing the grafti. The building is undoubtedly important, and could meet criteria for listing or for a blue plaque, if not
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now then in time. But in this instance we recoil from the suggestion. There appears to have been an informal consensus as to the importance of the site, underlined by the more recent mural on one of the courtyard walls entitled Mother of Punk. In the spirit of punk perhaps this DIY approach to heritage management is all that the site needs. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Chris Trigg and Adam Newman of Vintage and Rare Guitars for allowing us to visit 6 Denmark Street, John Cattell and Peter Guillery of English Heritage for advice on the building and its parallels in Birminghams Jewellery Quarter, and the three referees for their helpful comments and advice. Eddie Lyons of English Heritage produced Figure 1, while Figure 2 is reproduced here by kind permission of Bob Gruen. Figure 3 was drawn by PG-B. All other photographs are by the authors.

References
ACKROYD, P. 2000. London: a biography. London: Chatto & Windus. BAKER, B. 1979. The private life of Public Image. New Musical Express 16 June 1979. BANANARAMA. 2009. Biography. Available at: http://www.bananarama.co.uk (accessed 13 August 2010). BUCHLI, V. & G. LUCAS. 2001. Archaeologies of the contemporary past. London: Routledge. CATTELL, J., S. ELY & B. JONES. 2002. The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter: an architectural survey of the manufactorie. London: English Heritage. COCROFT, W.D., D. DEVLIN, J. SCHOFIELD & R.J.C. THOMAS. 2006. War art: murals and grafti: military life, power and subversion (Council for British Archaeology research report 147). York: Council for British Archaeology. COLE, S. 2006. Images of war: the photographic recording of wall art, in J. Schoeld, A. Klausmeier & L. Purbrick (ed.) Re-mapping the eld: new approaches in conict archaeology: 3942. Berlin: Westkreuz. Council of Europe. 2009. Heritage and beyond. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. FODDERSTOMPF. 2010. Discography: miscellaneous John Lydon releases. Available at: http://www.fodderstompf.com/ DISCOGRAPHY/SOLO/jlmisc.html (accessed 14 August 2010). FREDERICK, U.K. 2009. Revolution is the new black: grafti/art and mark-making practices. Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress 5(2): 21037. GOODMAN, D. 2006. My amazing adventures with the Sex Pistols. Liverpool: Bluecoat Press. GRAVES-BROWN, P. 2000. Matter, materiality and modern culture. London: Routledge.

2009. Nowhere Man: urban life and the virtualisation of popular music. Popular Music History 4(2): 22041. HARRISON, R. & J. SCHOFIELD. 2010. After modernity: archaeological approaches to the contemporary past. Oxford: Oxford University Press. HEBDIGE, D. 1979. Subculture: the meaning of style. London: Methuen. LYDON, J. 1993. Rotten: no Irish, no blacks, no dogs. London: Hodder & Stoughton. The London Weekend Show: Punk Rock [DVD], directed by B. MacDonald. London: MacDonald Brothers, 1976. MATLOCK, G. 2006. I was a teenage Sex Pistol. London: Reynolds & Hearn. MATOVINA, D. 2000. Without you: the tragic story of Badnger. San Mateo (CA): Frances Glover. MUMFORD, L. 1940. The culture of cities. New York: Secker & Warburg. OHARA, C. 1995. The philosophy of punk: more than noise. Edinburgh: AK Press. PALMER, R. 2009. Preface, in Heritage and beyond: 78. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. SAMUELSON, T. & J. PETERS. 1995. Landmarks of Chicago blues and gospel: chess records and First Church of Deliverance, in D. Slaton & R.A. Shiffer (ed.) Preserving the recent past: 11722. Washington (DC): Historic Preservation Education Foundation. SAVAGE, J. 1991. Englands dreaming: the Sex Pistols and punk rock. London: Faber & Faber. SCHOFIELD, A.J. 2000. Never mind the relevance? Popular culture for archaeologists, in P.M. Graves-Brown (ed.) Matter, materiality and modern culture: 13154. London: Routledge. SMITH, L. 2006. Uses of heritage. London: Routledge. SPENCER, N. 1976. Dont look over your shoulder but the Sex Pistols are coming. New Musical Express 21 February 1976.

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STRONGMAN, P. 2007a. Pretty vacant: a history of punk. London: Orion. Chaos! Ex-Pistols secret history: the Dave Goodman story [DVD], directed by P. Strongman. London: Universal, 2007[b]. Therell always be an England [DVD], directed by J. Temple. London: Freemantle, 2007. WOBBLE, J. 2009. Memoirs of a geezer: the autobiography of Jah Wobble: music, mayhem, life. London: Serpents Tail.

Discography
Among other things, the rooms at 6 Denmark Street are signicant for the seminal recordings of the band made by Dave Goodman in July 1976, with overdubs made at Riverside Studios in Chiswick.

Singles
I wanna be me. B-side of Anarchy in the UK (EMI 2566, 26 November 1976). No feeling. B-side of God save the Queen (A&M AMS 7284, 11 March 1977) (of which c. 100 copies survive).

Album: Spunk
The bootleg album appeared in September/October 1977 on the Blank Label (BLA 169). Now released on compact disc, with bonus tracks, by Castle/Sanctuary Records (CMRCD1376). Tracks recorded at Denmark Street include: Anarchy in the UK, I wanna be me, No feeling, Pretty vacant, Satellite, Seventeen.

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