Billy Idol has recently given his thoughts on the use of the swastika throughout the punk movement, describing it as “part of punk performance art”.
Speaking on the Turned Out A Punk podcast, the Generation X singer reflected on his time travelling with The Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees throughout the 1970s.
Recalling a specific gig in 1976, Idol explained how a trip to Paris with the two bands almost led to a violent incident due to Sioux wearing a swastika.
The ‘Rebel Yell’ singer said: “Siouxsie was wearing her night porter gear, where she had the swastika on, and she was driving these left-wing French people crazy because they didn’t really get that it’s a performance art kind of thing.
“They just thought she was – because they were practically communists – they were thinking she was an anti-communist and they didn’t realise it’s part of punk performance art.”
Idol recalled how the audience members in Paris were “really upset by Sioux’s decision to wear the swastika as a fashion statement”, saying: “We sort of escaped across the stage. Pistols had come up across the stage and we went backstage to escape from the audience. They were getting really upset.”
The use of controversial symbolism was a constant theme throughout the punk scene, with Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols most notably often wearing swastikas as a statement against authority, as well as fashionista Vivienne Westwood including inverted crucifixes in her designs.
Although this symbolism was big in the UK scene that Siouxsie Sioux and co. were used to, Idol explained how cultural differences between London and Paris at the time led to the anger: “They just didn’t understand the sort of London fashion performance art aspect of punk. We were reflecting back on the British society what they were doing to us by wearing these sort of political symbols.”
He concluded by saying: “It was kind of a reflection back on the powers that be. ‘This is what you want us to be? You want us to be fascist? Oh, how about we dress like that to frighten you?’ And it worked.”
Speaking in the 1991 Jon Savage book ‘England’s Dreaming’, Siouxsie Sioux explained her personal reasoning for the use of swastikas in the punk movement, saying: “It was always very much an anti-mums-and-dads thing.
“We hated older people. Not across the board, but generally the suburban thing, always harping on about Hitler, and, ‘We showed him’, and that smug pride. It was a way of saying, ‘Well, I think Hitler was very good, actually’; a way of watching someone like that go completely red-faced.”
Billy Idol, who turns 70 this November, recently released his first album in over a decade. Hitting the shelves last month, ‘Dream Into It’ includes collaborations with Avril Lavigne and Joan Jett. Check out the full album below.
