Matthew Worley

We need something to kind of save it.

it did the opposite of everything that was the prevailing tropes of the time.

So as albums were usurping singles, punk was back to short songs released on seven-inch singles.

The fact that it was short songs, not long songs, the fact that it was rough and ready, not well produced, the fact that it didn't put an emphasis on musical sophistication, the rougher the better, the rougher the better.

British punk takes on a particular form, I think, again relating to some of the politics and the aesthetic and the way in which bands like The Clash spoke to peculiarly British concerns.

So if you listen to the first Clash album, it's full of references to the Bakerloo line and the career opportunities working for the BBC.

It's very kind of specific to its place.

The most important thing that punk did was make people think the cliche is, you know, do it themselves, do it yourself.

And you see that very quickly.

The Sex Pistols play and people think either they're rubbish, I could do better than that, or they're brilliant, I want to do that.

And as we all know, there's also a load of people just thought it was terrible and didn't want anything to do with it, which is great as well because it creates a kind of frisson that can blow things up.

But that sense of agency, to not be spectators but to participate, to do it rather than consume it, that's where, when people talk about the politics of punk, that's the politics of punk.

It created the impulse to do something.

It gave people a belief that they could do something themselves.

The importance of people like Malcolm McLaren and Vivian Westwood was in framing what the Sex Pistols were doing.

They gave it a point and a purpose.

They kind of conceptualized it, really.

A lot of people talk about that they were a manufactured band.

I don't think they were manufactured.

I think they were conceptualized.