Punk is dead - again

In a classic case of "like father, like son", Joe Corre has echoed the verdict of his late father, Sex Pistols svengali Malcolm McLaren, that punk is dead. Yawn.

McLaren made the declaration in 2000, and now his son has followed suit - and is planning to go further on Saturday by staging a ceremonial torching of punk memorabilia including rare Sex Pistols records and clothing worn by the chief protagonists.

Needless to say, Corre's contention that punk has become irrelevant and corporatised, no longer a credible attack on the status quo, crumbles at the merest mention of Pussy Riot. What's more, he's defenceless against accusations of blatant hypocrisy - to raise the capital to found Agent Provocateur in the 1990s, he sold much of his memorabilia, thereby profiting from exactly the corporatisation he's railing against.

John Lydon has dismissed the proposed pyre in typically forthright terms as the actions of a "selfish fucking lingerie expert" - and the fact that Corre has rejected suggestions that the items to be torched could be auctioned off for charity certainly encourages that judgement.