The filth and the fury: 6 Denmark Street (London) and the Sex Pistols

Abstract

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 find graffiti left by a notorious group of popular musicians and probe it for social meaning as earnestly as students of cave art. Their archaeological study finds an underlying driver that is part political, part personal and therefore also part (anti-)heritage.