england's dreaming

Just got on a bit of a Clash tip this week. So, I have been searching out punk stuff and remembering some MA Popular Music Studies seminars where we argued the toss over The Sex Pistols vs The Clash (the Clash always won - on account of their moral high ground - though respect was always given to Johnny Rotten for forming PIL). Well, whilst on my trip around the world of punk I discovered that Jon Savage (of England's Dreaming fame sold his collection of punk memorabilia - which is cunningly referred to as England's Dreaming Punk Archive to none other than John Moore's University, Liverpool. I would love to get my hands on this lot. It is described as:

This eclectic collection - fanzines, ephemera, posters, original letters and documents, photographs, notebooks and much more - covers the history of the punk phenomenon. Purchased from Jon Savage in 2002, this collection has only basic contents listings available.


The archive is just sitting there and no-one seems to have done much with it. It hasn't even been archived electronically. Please please could someone follow this up and get it out in public. Just because Jon Savage did such an amazing job of documenting, summarising and commenting on the impact of punk in England doesn't surely mean the story should end there. I would love to do this job myself but I am afraid I am a bit busy just now writing a PhD about music hall and doing a Theology degree.