Abstract

Burchill is a British journalist who was involved in the punk-rock explosion and has contributed to such mainstream and esteemed organs as The Sunday Times and New Society. The punk-rock scene has now passed. Any remnants of The Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned, The Dead Kennedys and their followings have been co-opted and tamed by media and fashion: New Wave, as the name suggests, is now little more man a hair style; and Burchill feels mat the punk soul was always more theatrical, lazy and liberal than the dogmatic radicals of The Socialist Workers Party with whom the punks worked in the Rock Against Racism and Anti-Nazi League pressure groups