Pop music, the Swastika and the Third Reich

Some of rock ‘n’ roll’s most celebrated figureheads have flirted with the imagery and theatre of the Third Reich. From Keith Moon and Vivian Stanshall kitting themselves out in Nazi uniforms to Siouxsie Sioux and Sid Vicious brandishing swastikas in the pomp of punk, performers have associated themselves in troubling ways with the aesthetics, mass hysteria and even ideology of Nazism. Whether shock factor, stupidity, or crass attempt at subversion, rock ‘n’ roll has indulged these associations in a way not accepted by any other artform.

In his new book This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll award-winning music historian Daniel Rachel considers why so many have been drawn to the imagery of a movement responsible for the twentieth century’s worst atrocities.

For this vital conversation, hosted by Pauline Black (The Selecter), he is joined by acclaimed cultural commentator and journalist Jon Savage, author of the classic England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock and This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division, the Oral History.

Followed by a book signing.