Memorabilia to Forget (Naked City)

We live in a world where the loss of a few crummy old jewels from the Louvre in Paris is considered more newsworthy than the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and Ukraine. There’s no real sense to the value we attribute to both real life experiences and certain prized items of so called historical or cultural significance. Last week in London we witnessed another of those over bloated auctions of rock memorabilia where the filthy rich were encouraged to outlay ridiculous amounts for items such as a pair of John Lennon’s ‘Lost Weekend’ sunglasses and Michael Jackson’s white fedora.

From my personal perspective, that’s the type of trash I wouldn’t give you 50 cents for at the local op shop, but will attract bids in the hundreds of thousands.

And what about the morality of it all? Whilst Michael Jackson was never convicted of child sexual abuse, he faced numerous allegations during the latter part of his career. You can speculate if he had been convicted, whether his much sought after memorabilia would still bring the prices it does today. Garry Glitter and Rolf Harris were both jailed for violating under aged girls, and whilst their pop stardom was nowhere near Jackson’s, it seems there is a still a collectors market for their memorabilia. Check out eBay and you’ll discover items such as an Australian Garry Glitter tour poster for $300.00 and a Rolf Harris autograph and doodle for $150.00. Cheapo stuff, but nevertheless creepy — would you want it in your house?

One of the highest items of rock memorabilia auctioned in recent years was a guitar once owned by the ill-fated Kurt Cobain – a 1959 Martin D-18E played during Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance. The obviously cashed up owner of Rode Microphones, Peter Freedman, paid nearly US $6 million for it at the time. Cobain was not noted for his guitar artistry, like a Jimi Hendrix for example, so you can only assume it was his singing, songwriting and celebrity that elevated the price.

The cynics might say that the price reflected Cobain’s tragic demise and his grisly suicide by shotgun. Had he lived to 95 and died from dementia in a nursing home, the guitar might never have realised such a value. It seems some music fans have a perverse interest in the early exit of their rock heroes with Elvis being the gold standard. Is that mawkish devotion one of the major factors in driving the price of memorabilia so high?

With that in mind, may I suggest a couple of post-mortem celebrity goodies that might well surface at the next big auction of rock ‘n’ roll artefacts. Keeping in mind, one of John Lennon’s molars sold for $31,000 (US) in 2011 — anything is possible.

Jimi Hendrix died of asphyxiation, supposedly choking on his own vomit. His guitars have sold for millions but what about a piece of his solidified chunder carved into the shape of a miniature Fender Strat?

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones drowned in his own swimming pool but surely he was not the only thing found floating at the time. A few rubber duckies and a swim ring could easily surface at auction as a sombre memento of this tragic event.

The above could well be fantasy but in 2020 an album that John Lennon actually signed for his assassin Mark Chapman was sold for $900,000 (US). Despite numerous parole applications, Chapman, aged 70, is still incarcerated but his notoriety still generates big bucks. Only last year a bullet fired from the gun that killed John Lennon went under the hammer in the UK. It was not the bullet that killed Lennon but one fired by a Northumbrian police officer, who visited the NYPD in the US. They allowed him to shoot Chapman’s gun and keep the bullet. Sick!

Finally you might have seen vision of our music loving Prime Minister, DJ Albo alighting from his aircraft, following his feel-good trip to buddy up with Trump.

He was sporting a Joy Division t-shirt, and obviously has some affection for the UK doom and gloom rock band, popular in the late 70s. Then again, it may well have been a thinly disguised cry of angst, a true indication of his flirtation with the mad monster of MAGA.

Susan Ley obviously missed a huge media opp when she called for the resignation of Kevin Rudd after Trump’s condemnation. Maybe she’s a closet Joy Division fan herself, but surely a crack at Albo for not celebrating an Aussie band like Chisel or AC/DC on his t-shirt would have had the tabloids frothing.

The real interest of course is whether a Joy Division t-shirt, once donned by our PM, would bring any reward if it were to enter the collectors market.

I put this question to a well known Sydney music journalist and expert on rock ephemera, who claimed it would be lucky to realise $5 in a Canberra Salvos.

He did however suggest that had Albo made a real statement and exited his plane in a ‘Slugfuckers’ t-shirt, reflecting his own Inner West allegiances, the shirt could well realise the big auction dollars.