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Oasis artist who offended Queen Elizabeth releases landmark punk film

Bang Showbiz on

Published in Entertainment News

A celebrity punk artist and film-maker who created Oasis' official 2025 comeback tour art and infamously offended the Queen has released a star-packed movie celebrating 50 years of punk.

Mark Sloper is famed for being commissioned by Liam and Noel Gallagher to create neon works released to mark their 2025 reunion tour, and for annoying the late Queen Elizabeth by producing a painting of her sporting a neck tattoo.

The artist and documentarian - who has also released a string of superbikes films that have proved hits on Netflix - is behind the new feature film 50 Years of Punk, which will debut in UK cinemas from 18 September.

It features astonishing footage of performances from the punk era, as well as appearances from Glen Matlock (the Sex Pistols), Rat Scabies (the Damned), Terry Chimes (the Clash), Steve Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees), and Hugh Cornwell (the Stranglers.)

Mark said: "To celebrate this momentous 50th anniversary of punk, my new documentary traces the explosion of punk on London's Kings Road and is the most authentic insider account of punk's evolution and legacy, by the artists and people who lived it.

"Fifty years on, punk's core values of individuality, creativity, authenticity and freedom, are more relevant than ever. Punk was never about the music -- it is a way of life."

The Guardian has already given it a four-out-of-five stars rating, with the publication's film reviewer praising it for also featuring the women who were also behind the punk movement.

Its review said: "Some interesting details emerge: how the Sex Pistols' early gigs coincided with the sweltering heatwave of 1976, which contributed - literally - to their pressure-cooker atmosphere; how early punk mix-and-match style emerged as a result of Westwood and Malcolm McLaren getting stuck with unsold stock from their shop's previous incarnations; and, as writer Jon Savage explains, how the use of the word "punk" itself was debated.

"Inevitably, perhaps, it's the more peripheral figures who offer the freshest takes, particularly David Barbarossa, drummer for Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, who talks somewhat regretfully about how McLaren winkled him and his bandmates away from the former to form the latter.

"All in all, this is an entertaining way to mark the half-century, and one to stick the kids in front of too."

Even though the punk wave was not known for giving women voices, Mark's documentary highlight how Gaye Advert (from the Adverts) and Viv Albertine (the Slits) are given air time.

Recognition is also paid to one of Mark's favourite designers, Vivienne Westwood, as one of punk's founding spirits.

Don Boyd, who produced the Sex Pistols' movie The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle along with the late Jeremy Thomas, is featured in Mark's film stating she "was punk and is punk".

The movie comes as Mark continues to sell £4,000-a-piece art works celebrating the Oasis reunion.

 

They were available at all the band's official pop-up stores which opened in each city the band played during their 2025 tour run.

Mark said about being the group's official tour artist at the time his pieces launched: "Noel Gallagher clearly loves the punk aesthetic, and I's overjoyed to be part of the reunion tour as Oasis still have that punk spirit."

The classically trained oil painter is also behind one of the most infamous portraits of the late Queen Elizabeth.

In 2020 he created a portrait of the monarch with blue hair and a nose ring.

He gave her loveheart tattoo with 'Phillip' written across the middle.

Even though Her Majesty laughed at the piece, she wanted to change the tattoo.

Mark said he was given the news the Queen wanted it altered from an irate cavalry officer after he placed the piece in the window of his gallery near Buckingham Palace.

The artist says he passed a copy of the print to a friend, who happened to know the Queen's lady in waiting.

Mark was then told by a guardsmen that the painting was in poor taste and demanded he remove the offending tattoo.

The painter and neon canvas expert, who exhibits under the name Mark Illuminati, said: "The message was she said it was really good but didn't like the Philip tattoo and would prefer the lion and unicorn crest.

"I never got the print back so assume it may be hanging in her toilet.

"When I was told she had been shown the portrait, I was happy to make the change."

50 Years of Punk is in UK cinemas nationwide from 18 September in select Odeon cinemas, with the trailer now live on YouTube.


 

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