understand music memorabilia, I have some stuff at home, just things collected from concerts, but I would not spend real money on collectibles. But there is memorabilia and memorabilia. Sid Vicious’ red swastika t-shirt was on sale for £10,000 on this website, and was sold!
The memorabilia dealer Helen Hall who was selling it has described the item as follows:
‘This iconic piece of clothing has impeccable provenance and is perhaps one of the most memorable worn by Sid Vicious. It sums up everything that Punk and the Sex Pistols stood for – rebellion, controversy and provocation.’
Also from her Twitter account:
‘People are getting very excited about the Sid Vicious Swastika t-shirt for sale on my site. Glad you all think it’s as cool as I do…’
I don’t know when Nazism, totalitarianism, racism, fascism and genocide began to represent rebellion and coolness!
And I have never really understood why Malcolm McLaren, the Jewish Sex Pistols’ manager who died earlier this year, designed shirts flanked of a swastika. McLaren was fascinated by Nazi memorabilia and in awe of the symbolism of the swastika. I can understand self-irony to a certain extend but the message of irony can be easily lost if you play that game.
Of course, you can always say it is an empowering act, the same way Chris Rock saying ‘I hate niggers’ is. Talking about or representing a taboo has of course a high shocking value, and it is something punk rock has always wanted to do.
Obviously the person who wrote this web page will swallow any version of history without doing research on what it actually means
Sid vicious wasn’t a racist. Nancy who he loved implicitly was Jewish! He was being ironic wearing the T-shirt. Basically putting two fingers up to nazis by wearing their symbol and being with a Jewish girl.
Whoever bought it in 2010 for only £10,000 made a great profit…..It sold again in 2019 for $45,000 https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/313/lot/124763