As reported by The Associated Press, Christie's in New York City will be hosting an auction titled Pop Culture: Punk/Rock, with the primary focus of getting even more money from the Punk Brand. With the music, lifestyle, and fashion already bought, sold, marketed, and distilled, why not start cashing in on useless relics of a bygone era? Personally, I love the idea of a “Punk Auction”; it’s a great chance for all those stodgy squares to get their minds blown by an anti-authoritarian youth culture. Yeah!
Some of the 300 items going on sale: a flier for one of The Clash’s first shows, publicity photos signed by The Sex Pistols, a rare poster for a 1976 Ramones show in London (which, as we all know, everyone involved in British Punk, ever, attended), a copy of the first press release for The Sex Pistols (!), and a press packet from 1966 wherein a young David Jones made it known that, from that point on, he would only respond to the name David Bowie.
The auction also features records, press materials, promotional junk, and photos for other “punk” bands, like Nirvana, The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, The Ramones, David Bowie, New Kids on the Block*, Blondie, The Cure, and The Smiths. Most of the stuff is expected to earn anywhere from $300 to $6,000 apiece. That’s a small price to pay for “real life rock ‘n’ roll history,” though, right? Why not just own the records? Why not just listen to the music? Why do we value junk so much? Is anyone listening?
Christie's “pop culture chief” Simeon Lipman had this to say about the whole farce: “Ten years ago, punk memorabilia probably wouldn't be something we'd be auctioning here. But now, people of a certain age have a certain ability to splurge on this material." In other words: If people have money to spend, we’ll make something seem valuable, outlandishly valuable.
The auction is scheduled for November 24.
* Kidding