Overview
The single was released on 27 May 1977, and was regarded by much of the general public to be an assault on Queen Elizabeth II and the monarchy. The title is taken directly from "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem. At the time it was highly controversial, firstly for its equation of the Queen with a "fascist regime", and secondly for the apparent claim that England had "no future".
Although many believe it was created because of the Jubilee, the band denies it, Paul Cook saying that, "It wasn't written specifically for the Queen's Jubilee. We weren't aware of it at the time. It wasn't a contrived effort to go out and shock everyone."[1] Johnny Rotten has explained the lyrics as follows: "You don't write a song like 'God Save The Queen' because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them, and you're fed up of seeing them mistreated."[2] His intentions were apparently to evoke sympathy for the English working class, and a general resentment for the monarchy.
On June 7, 1977 - the Jubilee holiday itself - the band attempted to play the song from a boat on the river Thames, outside the Palace of Westminster. After a scuffle involving attendee Jah Wobble and a cameraman, eleven people were arrested when the boat docked, including several members of the band's entourage.[3]
The song peaked at number 2 (behind Rod Stewart's I Don't Want To Talk About It) on the official UK Singles Chart used by the BBC, though there have been persistent rumours - never confirmed or denied - that it was actually the biggest-selling single in the UK at the time, and was kept off number 1 because it was felt that it might cause offence. It did hit number 1 on the unofficial NME singles chart. It was banned by the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority which regulated Independent Local Radio, effectively denying it any media exposure. It was also not stocked by some shops. Since the official singles chart at the time was compiled using sales returns from a number of outlets amongst a wider participating roster, it is in theory possible that the single's number 2 position was not the result of disregarding sales figures as such, but of the selection for that week's chart source data of a number of stores which were not selling the record.
The phrase "no future", the song's closing refrain, became emblematic of the punk rock movement. The lyric provided the title of Jon Savage's award-winning 1991 history of the Sex Pistols and punk rock, England's Dreaming.
Before the group signed to Virgin, a small number of copies of "God Save the Queen" had been pressed on the A&M label. These are now among the most valuable records ever pressed in the UK, with a resale value as of 2006 of between £500 to £13,000 a copy, depending on condition of the disc.[4] The B-side of the A&M single was "No Feeling" (without an s), an early rough mix or performance of "No Feelings." (A later version was released on the Pistols' debut album.)
The song also features on the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and several compilation albums.
Rolling Stone ranked "God Save the Queen" number 173 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of the group's two songs on the list along with "Anarchy in the U.K.". Sounds magazine made it their Single of the Year in 1977.[5] In 1989 it was 18th in the list of NME writers all time top 150 singles.[6] Q Magazine in 2002 ranked it first on their list as "The 50 Most Exciting Tunes Ever..."[7] and 3rd in their list of "100 Songs That Changed The World" in 2003.[8] In 2007 NME launched a campaign to get the song to number 1 in the British charts and encouraged readers to purchase or download the single on October 8. However it only made #42.
[edit] Cover Artwork
The record cover, depicting a defaced picture of Queen Elizabeth II, was designed by Jamie Reid and in 2001 was named #1 in a list of 100 Greatest Album Covers of All Time by Q Magazine.[9]
[edit] Cover versions
[edit] Motörhead version
"God Save the Queen"
Single by Motörhead
from the album We Are Motörhead
B-side One More Fucking Time/God Save the Queen (Enhanced Video)
Released 2000
Format CD single
Recorded June to August, 1999
Karo Studios, Brackel, Germany
Genre Punk rock, heavy metal
Length 3:19
Label Steamhammer
Writer(s) John Lydon
Steve Jones
Glen Matlock
Paul Cook
Producer Motörhead
Bob Kulick
Bruce Bouillet
Duane Barron
Motörhead singles chronology
"Born to Raise Hell"
(1994) "God Save the Queen"
(2000)
A cover version by the heavy metal band Motörhead was released as a single in 2000 to promote their album We Are Motörhead.
The cover art gives further reference to the Sex Pistols by using the same cut-out words to form the title as the Sex Pistols' single cover.
A performance of the song recorded during the band's 25th anniversary concert at Brixton Academy, on October 22, 2000 appears on their 25 & Alive Boneshaker DVD.
[edit] Single track listing
"God Save the Queen" (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, John Lydon, Glen Matlock)
"One More Fucking Time" (Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Mikkey Dee)
"God Save the Queen (Enhanced Video)" (Cook, Jones, Lydon, Matlock)
[edit] Personnel
Guitars, vocals - Phil Campbell
Drums - Mikkey Dee
Bass, lead vocals - Lemmy
[edit] Other covers
Madonna samples the song during "Dress You Up" in her 2009 Sticky & Sweet Tour.
The song was covered by Anthrax on their Armed and Dangerous EP in 1985.
Part of the song was played by the Foo Fighters in the 2007 MTV Europe Music Awards.
It was also covered by Bathory on their final box set.
UK punk rock band The Enemy performed the song live as part of their two homecoming gigs at Coventry's Ricoh Arena in 2008.
In 2009 Nouvelle Vague released a cover of the song on their album 3.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sid Vicious
Early life
Sid Vicious was born John Simon Ritchie in London to John and Anne Ritchie. Anne was a hippie, whereas his father was a guard at Buckingham Palace.[4] Shortly after Simon's birth, John Ritchie left the family. John ("Sid") and his mother moved to the island of Ibiza. She married Christopher Beverley in 1965 before setting up a family home back in Kent. Sid had taken his stepfather's surname and became John Beverly.
His stepfather died six months later, and by 1968 Ritchie and his mother were living in a rented flat in Tunbridge Wells where he attended Sandown Court School. In 1971, the pair moved to Hackney in East London. He also spent some time living in Somerset, where he was a pupil at Clevedon Secondary Modern.
According to the band's photographer, Dennis Morris, Ritchie was "deep down, a shy person."[5] However, he did assault NME journalist Nick Kent with a motorcycle chain with help from Jah Wobble.[6] On another occasion, at The Speakeasy (a London nightclub popular with rock stars of the day) he threatened BBC DJ and Old Grey Whistle Test presenter Bob Harris.
Ritchie was given the nickname "Sid Vicious" by John Lydon, after Lydon's pet hamster. The hamster had bitten Ritchie, who said that "[Rotten's] Sid is really vicious!" [7] The animal was described by Lydon as "the softest, furriest, weediest thing on earth."[8] At the time, Ritchie was squatting with Lydon, John Wardle and John Gray.
According to John Lydon, the two of them would often busk for money with Sid playing the tambourine. They would play Alice Cooper covers, and people gave them money to be quiet.[9]
[edit] Music career
[edit] The Flowers of Romance, and The Banshees
Vicious began his musical career in 1976 as a member of The Flowers of Romance along with former co-founding member of The Clash Keith Levene (who later co-founded John Lydon's post-Pistols project Public Image Limited) and Palmolive and Viv Albertine, who would later form The Slits. He appeared with Siouxsie & the Banshees, playing drums at their notorious first gig at the 100 Club Punk Festival in London's Oxford Street. According to members of The Damned, Sid, along with Dave Vanian, was considered for the position of lead singer for The Damned but failed to show up for the audition.[10]
[edit] Sex Pistols
Before joining the band, Sid had associations with The Bromley Contingent, the fashion avant garde that followed the Sex Pistols. According to various publications (such as the biography England's Dreaming by John Savage) and films (namely The Filth and the Fury) Ritchie was asked to join the group after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977 due to his being present at every gig. Manager Malcolm McLaren once claimed "if Rotten is the voice of punk, then Vicious is the attitude."
McLaren also said in person and in a documentary that if he'd met Sid before he had hired Johnny to be the singer, Sid would have been the Sex Pistols front man, because he had the most charisma of anyone on that stage. Alan Jones described Sid as "[having] the iconic punk look (...) Sid, on image alone, is what all punk rests on."[11] His nails would be painted in a sloppy manner with purple nail polish [12]. Ritchie played his first gig with the Pistols on 3 April 1977 at the Screen on the Green in London. His debut was filmed by Don Letts and appears in Punk Rock Movie.
In November 1977, Ritchie met American groupie Nancy Spungen, and they immediately began a relationship (Spungen had come to London looking for Jerry Nolan of The Heartbreakers). She was a heroin addict, and Ritchie, who already believed in his own "live fast, die young" image, soon shared the dependence. Although they were deeply in love, their often violent and rocky relationship had a disastrous effect on the Sex Pistols. Both the group and Ritchie visibly deteriorated during their 1978 American tour. The Pistols broke up in San Francisco after their concert at the Winterland Ballroom on 14 January 1978. With Spungen acting as his "manager," Ritchie embarked on a solo career during which he performed with musicians including Mick Jones of The Clash, original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, Rat Scabies of The Damned and the New York Dolls' Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, and Johnny Thunders. Ritchie performed the majority of his solo performances at Max's Kansas City and drew large crowds. His final performances as a solo musician took place at Max's.[13]
[edit] Musicianship
Sid was not recognized as a competent bass player. During an interview for Guitar Hero III, when Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was asked why he instead of Vicious recorded the bass parts of Never Mind the Bollocks, Jones responded, "Sid was in a hospital with yellow Jaundice so he couldn't really play, not that he could play anyway."[14] Sid asked Lemmy, the bassist of Motörhead, to teach him how to play bass with the words, "I can't play bass," to which Lemmy replied "I know." In another interview Lemmy stated, "Yeah. It was all uphill. And he still couldn't play bass when he died."[15]
According to Paul Cook, in the few months between joining the band and meeting Nancy, Sid was a dedicated worker and tried his hardest to learn to play; indeed, this period was Cook's favorite in the band.[16] Viv Albertine went further in defense of his ability, saying that one night she "went to bed, and Sid stayed up with a Ramones album and a bass guitar, and when I got up in the morning, he could play. He'd taken a load of speed and taught himself. He was so quick." [17] Keith Levene, a member of The Flowers of Romance with Sid and later a member of The Clash and then Public Image Ltd, also recounts a similar story: "Could Sid play bass? I don't know, but one thing I do know was that Sid did things quickly. One night, he played the first Ramones album nonstop, all night, then next morning, Sid could play the bass. That was it; he was ready! I told you Sid did things quickly!"[18]
[edit] Nancy Spungen's death
On the morning of 12 October 1978, Vicious claimed to have awoken from a drugged stupor to find Nancy Spungen dead on the bathroom floor of their room in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, New York. She had suffered a single stab wound to her abdomen and apparently bled to death. The knife used had been bought by Sid on 42nd Street and was identical to a collector's knife given to punk rock vocalist Stiv Bators by Dee Dee Ramone. According to Dee Dee's wife at the time,[19] Vera King Ramone, Sid had bought the knife after seeing Stiv's.
On 22 November 1978, Sid was arrested and charged with her murder. Vicious said they had fought that night but gave conflicting versions of what happened next, saying "I stabbed her, but I didn't mean to kill her", then saying he didn't remember and at one point arguing Spungen had fallen onto the knife.
Bail of $50,000 was covered by his record company.
On 22 October, ten days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slicing his wrist and subsequently became a patient at Bellevue Hospital. He was charged with assault after an altercation with Todd Smith (singer Patti Smith's brother). Vicious was arrested 9 December 1978 and sent to Riker's Island jail for 55 days. He was released on bail on 1 February 1979.
One theory regarding the murder is that Spungen was killed in a robbery or drug deal gone wrong, in which one of those involved was the later comedian Rockets Redglare. Redglare steadfastly denied any involvement in the murder of Nancy Spungen throughout his life. He stated that the other dealer known to have been there that evening had left before him to obtain more heroin, and was due back after he had left the building. He said he believed that the other dealer returned, found Vicious out cold, and attempted to steal the remaining drugs, leading to a confrontation with Spungen[20].
Also unusual was that Neon Leon had Vicious' leather jacket and two gold records in his room. He said he had been given them by Vicious for "safe keeping" the night of October 11–12, 1978.
[edit] Death
On the evening of 1 February 1979, a small gathering to celebrate his having made bail was held at the home of his new girlfriend, Michele Robinson, with whom he'd started living the day he got out of Bellevue Hospital the previous October. Vicious was clean, having been detoxed from heroin during his time at Riker's Island. However, at the dinner gathering, his mother had some heroin delivered, against the wishes of his girlfriend. The person who delivered it, Peter Kodick, came and stayed for a while. Sid overdosed later that night. Robinson revived him, though she had never seen an OD before nor had any experience in that area.[21] Much later that night, the couple fell asleep together. Vicious was discovered dead late the next morning. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon, and heroin residue were discovered near the body.
A few days after Vicious' cremation, his mother found a suicide note in the pocket of his jacket:
"We made a death pact, and I have to accomplish my part of the deal. Please bury me next to my baby. Please bury me with my leather jacket, my jeans and my biker boots. Goodbye. With love, Sid." [22]
A television documentary entitled "Biography: The Sex Pistols" on the Biography Channel made the following statement, based on an apparent confession from Vicious' mother Anne Ritchie.
“ On February 2nd, 1979 -- only days after his release from Bellevue and just before he was about to stand trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen -- Sid Vicious' mother injected him with heroin and he died in bed. She later admitted that she knowingly gave her son enough drugs to kill two people. In a bizarre deathbed confession, Anne Ritchie justified taking her son's life by saying, 'There was no way that Sid would have been able to cope with life behind bars.' ”
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
"My Way" (30 June 1978) - (B-side Chatterbox)
"Something Else" (9 February 1979)
"C'mon Everybody" (22 June 1979)
[edit] Albums
Sid Sings (15 December 1979)
[edit] Various pressings and bootlegs
My Way/Something Else/C'mon Everybody (1979, 12", Barclay, Barclay 740 509)
Live (1980, LP, Creative Industry Inc., JSR 21)
Vicious Burger (1980, LP, UD-6535, VD 6336)
Love Kills N.Y.C. (1985, LP, Konexion, KOMA)
The Sid Vicious Experience – Jack Boots and Dirty Looks (1986, LP, Antler 37)
Vicious White Kids (1991, CD)
The Idols with Sid Vicious (1993)
Never Mind the Reunion Here’s Sid Vicious (1997, CD)
Sid Dead Live (1997, CD, Anagram, PUNK 86)
Sid Vicious Sings (1997, CD)
Vicious & Friends (1998, CD, Dressed To Kill Records, Dress 602)
Better (to provoke a reaction than to react to a provocation) (1999, CD, Almafame, YEAAH6)
Probably His Last Ever Interview (2000, CD, OZIT, OZITCD62)
Better (2001, CD)
Vive Le Rock (2003, 2CD)
Too Fast to Live... (2004, CD)
Naked & Ashamed (7”, Wonderful Records, WO-73)
Sid Live at Max’s Kansas City (LP, JSR 21)
Sid Vicious (LP, Innocent Records, JSR 23)
Sid Vicious McDonald Bros. Box (3CD, Sound Solutions)
Sid Vicious & Friends
(Don’t You Gimme) No Lip/ (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (1989, 7”, SCRATCH 7)
Sid Vicious & Friends (1998, CD, Cleopatra, #251, ASIN: B0000061AS)
Sid Vicious/Eddie Cochran
Sid Vicious v’s Eddie Cochran – The Battle Of The Rockers (LP, Jock, LP 7)
Sid Vicious/Elvis Presley
Cult Heroes (1993, CD)
[edit] Films that include Sid Vicious
Sex Pistols Number One (1976, dir. Derek Jarman)
Will Your Son Turn into Sid Vicious? (1978)
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979, dir. Michael O'Donoghue)
The Punk Rock Movie (1979, dir. Don Letts)
The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle (1979, dir. Julien Temple; Julien Temple's The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle features famous Sid Vicious footage, such as his videos for "My Way" and "Something Else," along with various live Sex Pistols footage. There is also a video for "C'mon Everybody," of which only snippets are shown in the film; VHS/DVD)
DOA (1981, dir. Lech Kowalski)
Buried Alive (1991, Sex Pistols)
Decade (1991, Sex Pistols)
Bollocks to Every (1995, Sex Pistols)
Filth to Fury (1995, Sex Pistols)
Classic Chaotic (1996, Sex Pistols)
Kill the Hippies (1996, Sex Pistols, VHS)
The Filth and the Fury (2000, dir. Julien Temple, VHS/NTSC/DVD)
Live at the Longhorn (2001, Sex Pistols)
Live at Winterland (2001, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (2002, Sex Pistols, VHS/DVD)
Punk Rockers (2003, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Blood on the Turntable: The Sex Pistols (2004, dir. Steve Crabtree)
Music Box Biographical Collection (2005, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Punk Icons (2006, Sex Pistols, DVD)
American Hardcore (2007, DVD)
Chaos! Ex Pistols Secret History: The Dave Goodman Story (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Pirates of Destiny (2007, dir. Tõnu Trubetsky, DVD)
Rock Case Studies (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Sid & Nancy (1986, dir. Alex Cox, DVD)
Sid Vicious was born John Simon Ritchie in London to John and Anne Ritchie. Anne was a hippie, whereas his father was a guard at Buckingham Palace.[4] Shortly after Simon's birth, John Ritchie left the family. John ("Sid") and his mother moved to the island of Ibiza. She married Christopher Beverley in 1965 before setting up a family home back in Kent. Sid had taken his stepfather's surname and became John Beverly.
His stepfather died six months later, and by 1968 Ritchie and his mother were living in a rented flat in Tunbridge Wells where he attended Sandown Court School. In 1971, the pair moved to Hackney in East London. He also spent some time living in Somerset, where he was a pupil at Clevedon Secondary Modern.
According to the band's photographer, Dennis Morris, Ritchie was "deep down, a shy person."[5] However, he did assault NME journalist Nick Kent with a motorcycle chain with help from Jah Wobble.[6] On another occasion, at The Speakeasy (a London nightclub popular with rock stars of the day) he threatened BBC DJ and Old Grey Whistle Test presenter Bob Harris.
Ritchie was given the nickname "Sid Vicious" by John Lydon, after Lydon's pet hamster. The hamster had bitten Ritchie, who said that "[Rotten's] Sid is really vicious!" [7] The animal was described by Lydon as "the softest, furriest, weediest thing on earth."[8] At the time, Ritchie was squatting with Lydon, John Wardle and John Gray.
According to John Lydon, the two of them would often busk for money with Sid playing the tambourine. They would play Alice Cooper covers, and people gave them money to be quiet.[9]
[edit] Music career
[edit] The Flowers of Romance, and The Banshees
Vicious began his musical career in 1976 as a member of The Flowers of Romance along with former co-founding member of The Clash Keith Levene (who later co-founded John Lydon's post-Pistols project Public Image Limited) and Palmolive and Viv Albertine, who would later form The Slits. He appeared with Siouxsie & the Banshees, playing drums at their notorious first gig at the 100 Club Punk Festival in London's Oxford Street. According to members of The Damned, Sid, along with Dave Vanian, was considered for the position of lead singer for The Damned but failed to show up for the audition.[10]
[edit] Sex Pistols
Before joining the band, Sid had associations with The Bromley Contingent, the fashion avant garde that followed the Sex Pistols. According to various publications (such as the biography England's Dreaming by John Savage) and films (namely The Filth and the Fury) Ritchie was asked to join the group after Glen Matlock's departure in February 1977 due to his being present at every gig. Manager Malcolm McLaren once claimed "if Rotten is the voice of punk, then Vicious is the attitude."
McLaren also said in person and in a documentary that if he'd met Sid before he had hired Johnny to be the singer, Sid would have been the Sex Pistols front man, because he had the most charisma of anyone on that stage. Alan Jones described Sid as "[having] the iconic punk look (...) Sid, on image alone, is what all punk rests on."[11] His nails would be painted in a sloppy manner with purple nail polish [12]. Ritchie played his first gig with the Pistols on 3 April 1977 at the Screen on the Green in London. His debut was filmed by Don Letts and appears in Punk Rock Movie.
In November 1977, Ritchie met American groupie Nancy Spungen, and they immediately began a relationship (Spungen had come to London looking for Jerry Nolan of The Heartbreakers). She was a heroin addict, and Ritchie, who already believed in his own "live fast, die young" image, soon shared the dependence. Although they were deeply in love, their often violent and rocky relationship had a disastrous effect on the Sex Pistols. Both the group and Ritchie visibly deteriorated during their 1978 American tour. The Pistols broke up in San Francisco after their concert at the Winterland Ballroom on 14 January 1978. With Spungen acting as his "manager," Ritchie embarked on a solo career during which he performed with musicians including Mick Jones of The Clash, original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, Rat Scabies of The Damned and the New York Dolls' Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, and Johnny Thunders. Ritchie performed the majority of his solo performances at Max's Kansas City and drew large crowds. His final performances as a solo musician took place at Max's.[13]
[edit] Musicianship
Sid was not recognized as a competent bass player. During an interview for Guitar Hero III, when Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was asked why he instead of Vicious recorded the bass parts of Never Mind the Bollocks, Jones responded, "Sid was in a hospital with yellow Jaundice so he couldn't really play, not that he could play anyway."[14] Sid asked Lemmy, the bassist of Motörhead, to teach him how to play bass with the words, "I can't play bass," to which Lemmy replied "I know." In another interview Lemmy stated, "Yeah. It was all uphill. And he still couldn't play bass when he died."[15]
According to Paul Cook, in the few months between joining the band and meeting Nancy, Sid was a dedicated worker and tried his hardest to learn to play; indeed, this period was Cook's favorite in the band.[16] Viv Albertine went further in defense of his ability, saying that one night she "went to bed, and Sid stayed up with a Ramones album and a bass guitar, and when I got up in the morning, he could play. He'd taken a load of speed and taught himself. He was so quick." [17] Keith Levene, a member of The Flowers of Romance with Sid and later a member of The Clash and then Public Image Ltd, also recounts a similar story: "Could Sid play bass? I don't know, but one thing I do know was that Sid did things quickly. One night, he played the first Ramones album nonstop, all night, then next morning, Sid could play the bass. That was it; he was ready! I told you Sid did things quickly!"[18]
[edit] Nancy Spungen's death
On the morning of 12 October 1978, Vicious claimed to have awoken from a drugged stupor to find Nancy Spungen dead on the bathroom floor of their room in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, New York. She had suffered a single stab wound to her abdomen and apparently bled to death. The knife used had been bought by Sid on 42nd Street and was identical to a collector's knife given to punk rock vocalist Stiv Bators by Dee Dee Ramone. According to Dee Dee's wife at the time,[19] Vera King Ramone, Sid had bought the knife after seeing Stiv's.
On 22 November 1978, Sid was arrested and charged with her murder. Vicious said they had fought that night but gave conflicting versions of what happened next, saying "I stabbed her, but I didn't mean to kill her", then saying he didn't remember and at one point arguing Spungen had fallen onto the knife.
Bail of $50,000 was covered by his record company.
On 22 October, ten days after Spungen's death, Vicious attempted suicide by slicing his wrist and subsequently became a patient at Bellevue Hospital. He was charged with assault after an altercation with Todd Smith (singer Patti Smith's brother). Vicious was arrested 9 December 1978 and sent to Riker's Island jail for 55 days. He was released on bail on 1 February 1979.
One theory regarding the murder is that Spungen was killed in a robbery or drug deal gone wrong, in which one of those involved was the later comedian Rockets Redglare. Redglare steadfastly denied any involvement in the murder of Nancy Spungen throughout his life. He stated that the other dealer known to have been there that evening had left before him to obtain more heroin, and was due back after he had left the building. He said he believed that the other dealer returned, found Vicious out cold, and attempted to steal the remaining drugs, leading to a confrontation with Spungen[20].
Also unusual was that Neon Leon had Vicious' leather jacket and two gold records in his room. He said he had been given them by Vicious for "safe keeping" the night of October 11–12, 1978.
[edit] Death
On the evening of 1 February 1979, a small gathering to celebrate his having made bail was held at the home of his new girlfriend, Michele Robinson, with whom he'd started living the day he got out of Bellevue Hospital the previous October. Vicious was clean, having been detoxed from heroin during his time at Riker's Island. However, at the dinner gathering, his mother had some heroin delivered, against the wishes of his girlfriend. The person who delivered it, Peter Kodick, came and stayed for a while. Sid overdosed later that night. Robinson revived him, though she had never seen an OD before nor had any experience in that area.[21] Much later that night, the couple fell asleep together. Vicious was discovered dead late the next morning. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon, and heroin residue were discovered near the body.
A few days after Vicious' cremation, his mother found a suicide note in the pocket of his jacket:
"We made a death pact, and I have to accomplish my part of the deal. Please bury me next to my baby. Please bury me with my leather jacket, my jeans and my biker boots. Goodbye. With love, Sid." [22]
A television documentary entitled "Biography: The Sex Pistols" on the Biography Channel made the following statement, based on an apparent confession from Vicious' mother Anne Ritchie.
“ On February 2nd, 1979 -- only days after his release from Bellevue and just before he was about to stand trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen -- Sid Vicious' mother injected him with heroin and he died in bed. She later admitted that she knowingly gave her son enough drugs to kill two people. In a bizarre deathbed confession, Anne Ritchie justified taking her son's life by saying, 'There was no way that Sid would have been able to cope with life behind bars.' ”
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
"My Way" (30 June 1978) - (B-side Chatterbox)
"Something Else" (9 February 1979)
"C'mon Everybody" (22 June 1979)
[edit] Albums
Sid Sings (15 December 1979)
[edit] Various pressings and bootlegs
My Way/Something Else/C'mon Everybody (1979, 12", Barclay, Barclay 740 509)
Live (1980, LP, Creative Industry Inc., JSR 21)
Vicious Burger (1980, LP, UD-6535, VD 6336)
Love Kills N.Y.C. (1985, LP, Konexion, KOMA)
The Sid Vicious Experience – Jack Boots and Dirty Looks (1986, LP, Antler 37)
Vicious White Kids (1991, CD)
The Idols with Sid Vicious (1993)
Never Mind the Reunion Here’s Sid Vicious (1997, CD)
Sid Dead Live (1997, CD, Anagram, PUNK 86)
Sid Vicious Sings (1997, CD)
Vicious & Friends (1998, CD, Dressed To Kill Records, Dress 602)
Better (to provoke a reaction than to react to a provocation) (1999, CD, Almafame, YEAAH6)
Probably His Last Ever Interview (2000, CD, OZIT, OZITCD62)
Better (2001, CD)
Vive Le Rock (2003, 2CD)
Too Fast to Live... (2004, CD)
Naked & Ashamed (7”, Wonderful Records, WO-73)
Sid Live at Max’s Kansas City (LP, JSR 21)
Sid Vicious (LP, Innocent Records, JSR 23)
Sid Vicious McDonald Bros. Box (3CD, Sound Solutions)
Sid Vicious & Friends
(Don’t You Gimme) No Lip/ (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone (1989, 7”, SCRATCH 7)
Sid Vicious & Friends (1998, CD, Cleopatra, #251, ASIN: B0000061AS)
Sid Vicious/Eddie Cochran
Sid Vicious v’s Eddie Cochran – The Battle Of The Rockers (LP, Jock, LP 7)
Sid Vicious/Elvis Presley
Cult Heroes (1993, CD)
[edit] Films that include Sid Vicious
Sex Pistols Number One (1976, dir. Derek Jarman)
Will Your Son Turn into Sid Vicious? (1978)
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979, dir. Michael O'Donoghue)
The Punk Rock Movie (1979, dir. Don Letts)
The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle (1979, dir. Julien Temple; Julien Temple's The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle features famous Sid Vicious footage, such as his videos for "My Way" and "Something Else," along with various live Sex Pistols footage. There is also a video for "C'mon Everybody," of which only snippets are shown in the film; VHS/DVD)
DOA (1981, dir. Lech Kowalski)
Buried Alive (1991, Sex Pistols)
Decade (1991, Sex Pistols)
Bollocks to Every (1995, Sex Pistols)
Filth to Fury (1995, Sex Pistols)
Classic Chaotic (1996, Sex Pistols)
Kill the Hippies (1996, Sex Pistols, VHS)
The Filth and the Fury (2000, dir. Julien Temple, VHS/NTSC/DVD)
Live at the Longhorn (2001, Sex Pistols)
Live at Winterland (2001, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (2002, Sex Pistols, VHS/DVD)
Punk Rockers (2003, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Blood on the Turntable: The Sex Pistols (2004, dir. Steve Crabtree)
Music Box Biographical Collection (2005, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Punk Icons (2006, Sex Pistols, DVD)
American Hardcore (2007, DVD)
Chaos! Ex Pistols Secret History: The Dave Goodman Story (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Pirates of Destiny (2007, dir. Tõnu Trubetsky, DVD)
Rock Case Studies (2007, Sex Pistols, DVD)
Sid & Nancy (1986, dir. Alex Cox, DVD)
John Lydon
1956-1975: Early life
John Lydon was born in London to Irish Catholic immigrants, his father from Tuam, County Galway, and his mother from Shanagarry,County Cork.[citation needed] He grew up on a council estate in Finsbury Park, North London with three younger brothers. At the age of seven, he contracted spinal meningitis, putting him in and out of comas for half a year and erasing most of his memory. The disease left him with a permanent curve in his spine and also damaged his eyesight, resulting in his characteristic stare. He attended St. William of York School in Islington, North London, where his friends included David Crowe, Tony Purcell and John Gray. David Crowe went on to become involved with Public Image whilst John Gray became a school teacher and Tony Purcell went on to become a pioneer of the Internet industry in Scotland.[2]
[edit] 1975-1978: Sex Pistols and the Punk movement
Main article: Sex Pistols
In 1975, Lydon was among a group of youths who regularly hung around Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's fetish clothing shop SEX. McLaren had returned from a brief stint travelling with American proto-punk band the New York Dolls, and he was working on promoting a new band formed by Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook called Sex Pistols. McLaren was impressed with Lydon's ragged look and unique sense of style, particularly his orange hair and modified Pink Floyd T-shirt (with the band members' eyes scratched out and the words I Hate scrawled in felt-tip pen above the band's logo). After tunelessly singing Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" to the accompaniment of the shop's jukebox, Lydon was chosen as the band's frontman.[citation needed]
The origin of the stage name Johnny Rotten has had varying explanations. One, given in a Daily Telegraph feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that "he was given the name in the mid '70s, when his neglect of oral hygiene saw his teeth turning green".[3] Another story says the name was allegedly given to him by Steve Jones, after Jones saw his teeth and exclaimed "You're rotten, you are!"[citation needed]
In 1977, the band released "God Save the Queen" during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. The song was a hit, but caused so much controversy that Lydon was attacked in the streets by an angry mob. They stabbed him in his left hand, his leg, and nearly gouged out his eye with a beer bottle. Since then, he has not been able to properly make a fist with his left hand.[citation needed]
Lydon was also interested in dub music. McLaren was said to have been upset when Lydon revealed during a radio interview that his influences included progressive experimentalists like Magma, Can, Captain Beefheart and Van der Graaf Generator.[4]
Tensions between Lydon and bassist Glen Matlock arose. The reasons for this are disputed, but Lydon claimed in his autobiography that he believed Matlock to be too white-collar and middle-class and that Matlock was "always going on about nice things like the Beatles". Matlock stated in his own autobiography that most of the tension in the band, and between himself and Lydon, was orchestrated by McLaren. Matlock quit and as a replacement, Lydon recommended his school friend John Simon Ritchie. Although Ritchie was an incompetent musician, McLaren agreed that he had the look the band wanted: pale, emaciated, spike-haired, with ripped clothes and a perpetual sneer. Rotten dubbed him "Sid Vicious" as a joke, taking the name from his pet hamster, a finger-biting creature named Sid the Vicious.[citation needed]
Vicious' chaotic relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and his worsening heroin addiction, caused a great deal of friction among the band members, particularly with Lydon, whose sarcastic remarks often exacerbated the situation. Lydon closed the final Sid Vicious-era Sex Pistols concert in San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978 with a rhetorical question to the audience: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Shortly thereafter, McLaren, Jones, and Cook went to Brazil to meet and record with former train robber Ronnie Biggs. Lydon declined to go, deriding the concept as a whole and feeling that they were attempting to make a hero out of a criminal who attacked a train driver and stole "working-class money". Lydon was abandoned in San Francisco virtually penniless.[citation needed]
The Sex Pistols' disintegration was documented in Julian Temple's satirical pseudo-biopic, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, in which Jones, Cook and Vicious each played a character. Matlock only appeared in previously-recorded live footage and as an animation and did not participate personally. Lydon refused to have anything to do with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, feeling that McLaren had far too much control over the project. Although Lydon was highly critical of the film, many years later he agreed to let Temple direct the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury. That film included new interviews with band members hidden in shadow, as if they were in a witness protection program. It featured an uncharacteristically emotional Lydon choking up as he discussed Vicious' decline and death. Lydon denounced previous journalistic works regarding the Sex Pistols in the introduction to his autobiography, Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, which he described as "as close to the truth as one can get".[5]
[edit] 1978-1993: Public Image Limited, Time Zone and Copkiller
This section biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2008)
(Find sources: John Lydon – news, books, scholar)
Main article: Public Image Ltd.
In 1978, John Lydon formed the post-punk outfit Public Image Limited (PiL). PiL lasted for 14 years with Lydon as the only consistent member. The group enjoyed some early critical acclaim for its 1979 album, Metal Box (a.k.a. Second Edition), and influenced many bands of the later industrial movement. The band was lauded for its innovation and rejection of traditional musical forms. Musicians citing their influence have ranged from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Massive Attack.[citation needed]
The first lineup of the band included bassist Jah Wobble and former Clash guitarist Keith Levene. They released the albums Public Image (also known as First Edition), Metal Box and Paris in the Spring (live). Wobble then left and Lydon and Levene made The Flowers of Romance. Then came This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get featuring Martin Atkins on drums (he had also appeared on Metal Box and The Flowers of Romance); it featured their biggest hit, "This Is Not A Love Song", which hit #5 in 1983.
In 1983, Lydon co-starred with Harvey Keitel in the movie thriller Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death. While the film was generally panned, Lydon won some praise for his role as a psychotic rich boy. Lydon would act again very occasionally after that, such as a very small role in the 2000 film, The Independent, and as the host of the skateboard film, Sorry, featuring the Flip Skate Team.
In 1984, Lydon worked with Time Zone on their best-known single, "World Destruction". A collaboration between Lydon, Afrika Bambaataa and producer/bassist Bill Laswell, the single was an early example of "rap rock" predating Run-DMC. The song appears on Afrika Bambaataa's 1997 compilation album, Zulu Groove. It was arranged by Laswell after Lydon and Bambaataa had acknowledged respect for each others' work, as described in an interview from 1984:
Afrika Bambaataa: "I was talking to Bill Laswell saying I need somebody who's really crazy, man, and he thought of John Lydon. I knew he was perfect because I'd seen this movie that he'd made (Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death), I knew about all the Sex Pistols and Public Image stuff, so we got together and we did a smashing crazy version, and a version where he cussed the Queen something terrible, which was never released."
John Lydon: "We went in, put a drum beat down on the machine and did the whole thing in about four-and-a-half hours. It was very, very quick."[6]
The single also featured Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis and Aïyb Dieng, all of whom would later play on PiL's Album; Laswell also played bass and produced.
Then in 1986 Public Image Limited released Album (also known as Compact Disc and Cassette). Most of the tracks on this album were written by Lydon and Bill Laswell. The musicians were session musicians including bassist Jonas Hellborg, guitarist Steve Vai and Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Like the previous album, this also featured a hit, the anti-apartheid anthem "Rise".
The band's performance on the dance/concert TV show American Bandstand saw Lydon giving up on lip synching not long into the performance and dancing with audience members instead.[citation needed]
In 1987 a new lineup was formed consisting of Lydon, former Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Armoury Show guitarist John McGeoch, Alan Dias on bass guitar in addition to drummer Bruce Smith and Lu Edmunds. This lineup released Happy? and all except Lu Edmunds released the album 9 in 1989. In 1992 Lydon, Dias and McGeoch were joined by Curt Bisquera on drums and Gregg Arreguin on rhythm guitar for the album That What Is Not. This album also features the Tower of Power on two songs and Jimmie Wood on harmonica. Lydon, McGeoch and Dias also wrote the song "Criminal" for the movie Point Break. After this album, in 1993, Lydon put PiL on indefinite hiatus, in which state they remain today.
[edit] 1993-2006: Solo Album, Autobiography and Celebrity Status
John Lydon's book Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs Picador, 1995. ISBN 0-312-11883-X.In 1995, Lydon published his autobiography, Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, which dealt with his early life and career in the Sex Pistols. In December 2005, Lydon told Q that he is working on a second autobiography to cover the PiL years.[1]
In the mid-1990s, Lydon hosted Rotten Day, a daily syndicated US radio feature written by George Gimarc. The format of the show was a look back at events in popular music and culture occurring on the particular broadcast calendar date about which Lydon would offer cynical commentary. The show was originally developed as a radio vehicle for Gimarc's book, Punk Diary 1970-79, but after bringing Lydon onboard it was expanded to cover notable events from most of the second half of the 20th century.
In 1997 Lydon released a solo album on Virgin Records called Psycho's Path. He wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. In one song, "Sun", he sang the vocals through a toilet roll.[7] It did not sell particularly well and received mixed reviews from critics. The U.S. version included a Chemical Brothers remix of the song "Open Up" by Leftfield with vocals by Lydon. This song is heard during the title menu of the computer game All Star Baseball 2000 (Acclaim Entertainment). The song was also a club hit in the U.S. and a big hit in England. John Lydon has recorded a second solo-album but it has not been released. One song from the album was released on The Best of British £1 Notes.
In November 1997, Lydon appeared on Judge Judy fighting a suit filed by his former tour drummer Robert Williams for breach of contract, and assault and battery.[8] Lydon won the case, although Judge Judy Sheindlin wasn't overly impressed with Lydon's antics and did advise Lydon to keep quiet several times.[episode needed]
In 2000, Lydon hosted Rotten TV, a short-lived show on VH1. The show offered his acerbic commentary on American politics and pop culture. In one segment he took Neil Young to task for not appearing on the show, making fun of Young's singing style and pointing out that Young had once proclaimed Johnny Rotten "the king" in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)".
In 2003 Lydon appeared as a panelist on an episode of Richard Belzer's ill-fated conspiracy-themed panel show, The Belzer Connection. The episode in question posed the query, "Was there a conspiracy involved in the death of Princess Diana?" For his part, Lydon proved as witty and scurrilous as ever, responding to suggestions of Royal Family involvement by proclaiming "If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago." The series ran for only two episodes.
In January 2004, Lydon appeared on the British reality television programme, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which took place in Australia. He proved he still had the capability to shock by calling the show's viewers "fucking cunts" during a live broadcast. The television regulator and ITV, the channel broadcasting the show, between them received 91 complaints about Lydon's use of bad language. In a February 2004 interview with the Scottish Sunday Mirror, Lydon said that he and his wife "should be dead", since on 21 December 1988, thanks to delays caused by his wife's packing, they missed the doomed Pan Am Flight 103.[9] During this interview, Lydon said that the real reason for him leaving Get Me Out of Here! was his fear over the Pan Am incident and the "appalling" refusal of the programme makers to let him know whether his wife had arrived safely in Australia.In an interview previous to the show's first episode, he had described it as "moronic", and throughout the show's run he had displayed an indifferent attitude to staying and threatened to walk out on numerous occasions. 30 hours following ex-football star Neil Ruddock's departure, Lydon left the show for unclear reasons, although he had been very visibly angry both to and about fellow star Jordan. British newspapers claimed that Lydon had won a £100 bet with Ruddock over who would stay in the longest. Lydon, however, stated on air that he felt he would win outright and that it would be unfair to the other celebrities for him to win.
After I'm a Celebrity..., he presented a documentary about insects and spiders called John Lydon's Megabugs that was shown on the Discovery Channel. [10] Radio Times described him as "more an enthusiast than an expert". He went to present two further programmes: John Lydon Goes Ape in which he searched for gorillas in Central Africa, and John Lydon's Shark Attack in which he swam with sharks off South Africa.
In 2005, he appeared in Reynebeau & Rotten, a five episode documentary on Canvas, the cultural channel of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, in which Lydon guided Belgian journalist Marc Reynebeau through Great Britain in a chauffeured Rolls Royce, having a go at things typically 'British'. When asked why he was chosen as a guide, he answered that he was the cheapest one available. After the show had been broadcast, Lydon claimed in an interview with the popular Belgian magazine HUMO that he was very unhappy with the way they handled post-production and was very angry with the way they depicted him in this particular show. He claimed that the creators mainly showed his humorous, sometimes clownish antics, instead of focusing on his personal opinions and arguably philosophical conversations he had with Marc Reynebeau. Lydon was also infuriated that the production company used songs from the Sex Pistols' catalogue, without consulting all the remaining members of the band, including him.
Lydon broadcast a short pod on Current TV in which he critiqued The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's previously broadcast pod. Manzarek's advice to young people had been to "fuck your brains out." He emphasized this especially for 25-year-old women, saying that "it won't last." Lydon had several choice words for Manzarek and told young people that the best thing they could do was get an education because knowledge is free. Lydon also suggested that at one point Manzarek had asked him to work on a project together and that he did not do it because it would negatively affect his career.
In late 2008 Lydon appeared in an advertising campaign for Country Life, a popular brand of butter, on British television. Lydon was widely mocked as a sell-out for this move.[11] The advertising campaign proved to be highly successful, with sales of the brand raising 85% in the quarter following, which many in the media attributed to Lydon's presence in the advert.[12]
[edit] 2006-2009: Sex Pistols Revival
Lydon with the Sex Pistols at Hammersmith Odeon in 2008Although Lydon spent years furiously denying that the Sex Pistols would ever perform together again, the band re-united (with Matlock returning on bass) in the 1990s, and continues to perform occasionally. In 2004, Lydon publicly refused to allow the Rhino record label to include any Sex Pistols songs on its box set No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. In 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Sex Pistols, but the band refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge the induction, complaining that they had been asked for large sums of money to attend[13] and stating that it went against everything the band stood for.
In June 2007, Lydon, Jones and Cook re-recorded "Pretty Vacant" in a Los Angeles studio for the video game Skate and, in a radio interview in the same month, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols may perform again over the Christmas period. They also re-recorded "Anarchy in the UK" for the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In September 2007, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols would play a concert for the 30th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks at the Brixton Academy on 8 November 2007. Due to popular demand, four additional concerts were added, as well as further shows in Manchester and Glasgow.
The Sex Pistols appeared at the Isle Of Wight Festival 2008 as the headlining act on Saturday night. They also appeared at the Peace and Love Festival in Sweden, Electric Picnic in Ireland, the Live at Loch Lomond Festival in Scotland, Heineken Open'er Festival in Gdynia (Poland), Paredes de Coura Festival in Portugal, Traffic Free Festival in Turin (Italy) and EXIT festival in Serbia the same summer.
[edit] 2009 - PiL Reformation
In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform, including earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, for a number of Christmas shows in the UK.[14]
[edit] Controversy
John Lydon (2008)
[edit] 2008 Ritz Carlton Hotel incident
On 23 January 2008 Lydon was reportedly involved in a string of offences, including battery, sexual abuse, sexual assault and physical assault in Marina del Rey. Roxane Davis, who was Lydon's personal assistant on the television program Bodog Battle Of The Bands, claimed that she was punched in the face by Lydon after being called a "cunt" several times. It is believed that Lydon wished for a door between his hotel room and his male friend's room at the hotel Ritz Carlton, but was given a separate room without a dividing door. Lydon reportedly became infuriated with the hotel staff, before assaulting his own employee who was staying in the same hotel. Upon being questioned by journalists over the incident, Lydon was unavailable. Davis has taken legal action against Lydon.[15]
[edit] 2008 Summercase incident
Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke claims he was left with severe facial bruising and a split lip following what he alleges was a verbal and physical racist assault by three members of Lydon's entourage. The incident occurred on the evening of 19 July 2008 at the Summercase festival in Barcelona while the bands were socialising backstage.[16]
However in statement to NME, Lydon has denied the allegations of his involvement in this assault.[17] Since the report, Super Furry Animals lead singer Gruff Rhys has come forward in support of Okereke's claim, saying "the statements Kele has said are absolutely true, it did happen."[18]
A British tabloid accused Lydon of racism due to the incident, soemthing he strongly denied during an appearance on The One Show, claiming that they were "atrocious" and "hurtful". He went on to say that:
“ My grand children are Jamaican, right. This is an absolute offence to them and me when I read stories like that, that are allowed to go to print absolutely unfounded and have the liberty to take liberties with a man like me and call me a racist when my entire life has proved exactly the opposite. ”
He went on to say, when asked if he was racist, that:
“ Absolutely not. And any bugger that dares say so is going to have their day in court with me - you understand this?[19] ”
[edit] 2008 Duffy incident
At the 2008 MoJo awards ceremony, Welsh singer Duffy attempted to say hello to Lydon when, according to her; "I was literally slammed against the wall, pinned by his arm at my throat. He called me a cunt." She spent the whole night crying over the incident and felt awful about it for the following week.[20] Other reports indicate a slightly different scenario, that Lydon "was being interviewed and he had his back to door and she banged into him and then grabbed him. He then turned round in no uncertain terms to tell her to back off him".[21] Lydon later claimed he hadn't realised who Duffy was, saying; "people are trying to pin something on me. I don't know who this Duffy person is, or why she'd want to get publicity from this. I was doing an interview and she came up behind me - I didn't see anything. I’ve been with my wife for 30 years and I've been brought up to be polite and have respect for people, especially women."[22]
Adam Sherwin of the Times, who witnessed the attack on Duffy, wrote about the incident, giving an account which differs from that offered by Lydon, but placing the blame for the physical assault on John's minder rather than Lydon himself. [23]
[edit] Personal life
Lydon is married to Nora Forster. They have no children together, but Lydon is stepfather of Forster's daughter, Ari Up, who herself had been the lead singer in the influential postpunk, dub reggae band, The Slits. He currently lives in Los Angeles.[3]
[edit] Discography
All chart positions are UK.
[edit] Sex Pistols
Studio albums
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1977) Platinum
John Lydon was born in London to Irish Catholic immigrants, his father from Tuam, County Galway, and his mother from Shanagarry,County Cork.[citation needed] He grew up on a council estate in Finsbury Park, North London with three younger brothers. At the age of seven, he contracted spinal meningitis, putting him in and out of comas for half a year and erasing most of his memory. The disease left him with a permanent curve in his spine and also damaged his eyesight, resulting in his characteristic stare. He attended St. William of York School in Islington, North London, where his friends included David Crowe, Tony Purcell and John Gray. David Crowe went on to become involved with Public Image whilst John Gray became a school teacher and Tony Purcell went on to become a pioneer of the Internet industry in Scotland.[2]
[edit] 1975-1978: Sex Pistols and the Punk movement
Main article: Sex Pistols
In 1975, Lydon was among a group of youths who regularly hung around Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's fetish clothing shop SEX. McLaren had returned from a brief stint travelling with American proto-punk band the New York Dolls, and he was working on promoting a new band formed by Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook called Sex Pistols. McLaren was impressed with Lydon's ragged look and unique sense of style, particularly his orange hair and modified Pink Floyd T-shirt (with the band members' eyes scratched out and the words I Hate scrawled in felt-tip pen above the band's logo). After tunelessly singing Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" to the accompaniment of the shop's jukebox, Lydon was chosen as the band's frontman.[citation needed]
The origin of the stage name Johnny Rotten has had varying explanations. One, given in a Daily Telegraph feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that "he was given the name in the mid '70s, when his neglect of oral hygiene saw his teeth turning green".[3] Another story says the name was allegedly given to him by Steve Jones, after Jones saw his teeth and exclaimed "You're rotten, you are!"[citation needed]
In 1977, the band released "God Save the Queen" during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. The song was a hit, but caused so much controversy that Lydon was attacked in the streets by an angry mob. They stabbed him in his left hand, his leg, and nearly gouged out his eye with a beer bottle. Since then, he has not been able to properly make a fist with his left hand.[citation needed]
Lydon was also interested in dub music. McLaren was said to have been upset when Lydon revealed during a radio interview that his influences included progressive experimentalists like Magma, Can, Captain Beefheart and Van der Graaf Generator.[4]
Tensions between Lydon and bassist Glen Matlock arose. The reasons for this are disputed, but Lydon claimed in his autobiography that he believed Matlock to be too white-collar and middle-class and that Matlock was "always going on about nice things like the Beatles". Matlock stated in his own autobiography that most of the tension in the band, and between himself and Lydon, was orchestrated by McLaren. Matlock quit and as a replacement, Lydon recommended his school friend John Simon Ritchie. Although Ritchie was an incompetent musician, McLaren agreed that he had the look the band wanted: pale, emaciated, spike-haired, with ripped clothes and a perpetual sneer. Rotten dubbed him "Sid Vicious" as a joke, taking the name from his pet hamster, a finger-biting creature named Sid the Vicious.[citation needed]
Vicious' chaotic relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and his worsening heroin addiction, caused a great deal of friction among the band members, particularly with Lydon, whose sarcastic remarks often exacerbated the situation. Lydon closed the final Sid Vicious-era Sex Pistols concert in San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978 with a rhetorical question to the audience: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Shortly thereafter, McLaren, Jones, and Cook went to Brazil to meet and record with former train robber Ronnie Biggs. Lydon declined to go, deriding the concept as a whole and feeling that they were attempting to make a hero out of a criminal who attacked a train driver and stole "working-class money". Lydon was abandoned in San Francisco virtually penniless.[citation needed]
The Sex Pistols' disintegration was documented in Julian Temple's satirical pseudo-biopic, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, in which Jones, Cook and Vicious each played a character. Matlock only appeared in previously-recorded live footage and as an animation and did not participate personally. Lydon refused to have anything to do with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, feeling that McLaren had far too much control over the project. Although Lydon was highly critical of the film, many years later he agreed to let Temple direct the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury. That film included new interviews with band members hidden in shadow, as if they were in a witness protection program. It featured an uncharacteristically emotional Lydon choking up as he discussed Vicious' decline and death. Lydon denounced previous journalistic works regarding the Sex Pistols in the introduction to his autobiography, Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, which he described as "as close to the truth as one can get".[5]
[edit] 1978-1993: Public Image Limited, Time Zone and Copkiller
This section biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2008)
(Find sources: John Lydon – news, books, scholar)
Main article: Public Image Ltd.
In 1978, John Lydon formed the post-punk outfit Public Image Limited (PiL). PiL lasted for 14 years with Lydon as the only consistent member. The group enjoyed some early critical acclaim for its 1979 album, Metal Box (a.k.a. Second Edition), and influenced many bands of the later industrial movement. The band was lauded for its innovation and rejection of traditional musical forms. Musicians citing their influence have ranged from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Massive Attack.[citation needed]
The first lineup of the band included bassist Jah Wobble and former Clash guitarist Keith Levene. They released the albums Public Image (also known as First Edition), Metal Box and Paris in the Spring (live). Wobble then left and Lydon and Levene made The Flowers of Romance. Then came This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get featuring Martin Atkins on drums (he had also appeared on Metal Box and The Flowers of Romance); it featured their biggest hit, "This Is Not A Love Song", which hit #5 in 1983.
In 1983, Lydon co-starred with Harvey Keitel in the movie thriller Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death. While the film was generally panned, Lydon won some praise for his role as a psychotic rich boy. Lydon would act again very occasionally after that, such as a very small role in the 2000 film, The Independent, and as the host of the skateboard film, Sorry, featuring the Flip Skate Team.
In 1984, Lydon worked with Time Zone on their best-known single, "World Destruction". A collaboration between Lydon, Afrika Bambaataa and producer/bassist Bill Laswell, the single was an early example of "rap rock" predating Run-DMC. The song appears on Afrika Bambaataa's 1997 compilation album, Zulu Groove. It was arranged by Laswell after Lydon and Bambaataa had acknowledged respect for each others' work, as described in an interview from 1984:
Afrika Bambaataa: "I was talking to Bill Laswell saying I need somebody who's really crazy, man, and he thought of John Lydon. I knew he was perfect because I'd seen this movie that he'd made (Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death), I knew about all the Sex Pistols and Public Image stuff, so we got together and we did a smashing crazy version, and a version where he cussed the Queen something terrible, which was never released."
John Lydon: "We went in, put a drum beat down on the machine and did the whole thing in about four-and-a-half hours. It was very, very quick."[6]
The single also featured Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis and Aïyb Dieng, all of whom would later play on PiL's Album; Laswell also played bass and produced.
Then in 1986 Public Image Limited released Album (also known as Compact Disc and Cassette). Most of the tracks on this album were written by Lydon and Bill Laswell. The musicians were session musicians including bassist Jonas Hellborg, guitarist Steve Vai and Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Like the previous album, this also featured a hit, the anti-apartheid anthem "Rise".
The band's performance on the dance/concert TV show American Bandstand saw Lydon giving up on lip synching not long into the performance and dancing with audience members instead.[citation needed]
In 1987 a new lineup was formed consisting of Lydon, former Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Armoury Show guitarist John McGeoch, Alan Dias on bass guitar in addition to drummer Bruce Smith and Lu Edmunds. This lineup released Happy? and all except Lu Edmunds released the album 9 in 1989. In 1992 Lydon, Dias and McGeoch were joined by Curt Bisquera on drums and Gregg Arreguin on rhythm guitar for the album That What Is Not. This album also features the Tower of Power on two songs and Jimmie Wood on harmonica. Lydon, McGeoch and Dias also wrote the song "Criminal" for the movie Point Break. After this album, in 1993, Lydon put PiL on indefinite hiatus, in which state they remain today.
[edit] 1993-2006: Solo Album, Autobiography and Celebrity Status
John Lydon's book Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs Picador, 1995. ISBN 0-312-11883-X.In 1995, Lydon published his autobiography, Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, which dealt with his early life and career in the Sex Pistols. In December 2005, Lydon told Q that he is working on a second autobiography to cover the PiL years.[1]
In the mid-1990s, Lydon hosted Rotten Day, a daily syndicated US radio feature written by George Gimarc. The format of the show was a look back at events in popular music and culture occurring on the particular broadcast calendar date about which Lydon would offer cynical commentary. The show was originally developed as a radio vehicle for Gimarc's book, Punk Diary 1970-79, but after bringing Lydon onboard it was expanded to cover notable events from most of the second half of the 20th century.
In 1997 Lydon released a solo album on Virgin Records called Psycho's Path. He wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. In one song, "Sun", he sang the vocals through a toilet roll.[7] It did not sell particularly well and received mixed reviews from critics. The U.S. version included a Chemical Brothers remix of the song "Open Up" by Leftfield with vocals by Lydon. This song is heard during the title menu of the computer game All Star Baseball 2000 (Acclaim Entertainment). The song was also a club hit in the U.S. and a big hit in England. John Lydon has recorded a second solo-album but it has not been released. One song from the album was released on The Best of British £1 Notes.
In November 1997, Lydon appeared on Judge Judy fighting a suit filed by his former tour drummer Robert Williams for breach of contract, and assault and battery.[8] Lydon won the case, although Judge Judy Sheindlin wasn't overly impressed with Lydon's antics and did advise Lydon to keep quiet several times.[episode needed]
In 2000, Lydon hosted Rotten TV, a short-lived show on VH1. The show offered his acerbic commentary on American politics and pop culture. In one segment he took Neil Young to task for not appearing on the show, making fun of Young's singing style and pointing out that Young had once proclaimed Johnny Rotten "the king" in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)".
In 2003 Lydon appeared as a panelist on an episode of Richard Belzer's ill-fated conspiracy-themed panel show, The Belzer Connection. The episode in question posed the query, "Was there a conspiracy involved in the death of Princess Diana?" For his part, Lydon proved as witty and scurrilous as ever, responding to suggestions of Royal Family involvement by proclaiming "If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago." The series ran for only two episodes.
In January 2004, Lydon appeared on the British reality television programme, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which took place in Australia. He proved he still had the capability to shock by calling the show's viewers "fucking cunts" during a live broadcast. The television regulator and ITV, the channel broadcasting the show, between them received 91 complaints about Lydon's use of bad language. In a February 2004 interview with the Scottish Sunday Mirror, Lydon said that he and his wife "should be dead", since on 21 December 1988, thanks to delays caused by his wife's packing, they missed the doomed Pan Am Flight 103.[9] During this interview, Lydon said that the real reason for him leaving Get Me Out of Here! was his fear over the Pan Am incident and the "appalling" refusal of the programme makers to let him know whether his wife had arrived safely in Australia.In an interview previous to the show's first episode, he had described it as "moronic", and throughout the show's run he had displayed an indifferent attitude to staying and threatened to walk out on numerous occasions. 30 hours following ex-football star Neil Ruddock's departure, Lydon left the show for unclear reasons, although he had been very visibly angry both to and about fellow star Jordan. British newspapers claimed that Lydon had won a £100 bet with Ruddock over who would stay in the longest. Lydon, however, stated on air that he felt he would win outright and that it would be unfair to the other celebrities for him to win.
After I'm a Celebrity..., he presented a documentary about insects and spiders called John Lydon's Megabugs that was shown on the Discovery Channel. [10] Radio Times described him as "more an enthusiast than an expert". He went to present two further programmes: John Lydon Goes Ape in which he searched for gorillas in Central Africa, and John Lydon's Shark Attack in which he swam with sharks off South Africa.
In 2005, he appeared in Reynebeau & Rotten, a five episode documentary on Canvas, the cultural channel of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, in which Lydon guided Belgian journalist Marc Reynebeau through Great Britain in a chauffeured Rolls Royce, having a go at things typically 'British'. When asked why he was chosen as a guide, he answered that he was the cheapest one available. After the show had been broadcast, Lydon claimed in an interview with the popular Belgian magazine HUMO that he was very unhappy with the way they handled post-production and was very angry with the way they depicted him in this particular show. He claimed that the creators mainly showed his humorous, sometimes clownish antics, instead of focusing on his personal opinions and arguably philosophical conversations he had with Marc Reynebeau. Lydon was also infuriated that the production company used songs from the Sex Pistols' catalogue, without consulting all the remaining members of the band, including him.
Lydon broadcast a short pod on Current TV in which he critiqued The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's previously broadcast pod. Manzarek's advice to young people had been to "fuck your brains out." He emphasized this especially for 25-year-old women, saying that "it won't last." Lydon had several choice words for Manzarek and told young people that the best thing they could do was get an education because knowledge is free. Lydon also suggested that at one point Manzarek had asked him to work on a project together and that he did not do it because it would negatively affect his career.
In late 2008 Lydon appeared in an advertising campaign for Country Life, a popular brand of butter, on British television. Lydon was widely mocked as a sell-out for this move.[11] The advertising campaign proved to be highly successful, with sales of the brand raising 85% in the quarter following, which many in the media attributed to Lydon's presence in the advert.[12]
[edit] 2006-2009: Sex Pistols Revival
Lydon with the Sex Pistols at Hammersmith Odeon in 2008Although Lydon spent years furiously denying that the Sex Pistols would ever perform together again, the band re-united (with Matlock returning on bass) in the 1990s, and continues to perform occasionally. In 2004, Lydon publicly refused to allow the Rhino record label to include any Sex Pistols songs on its box set No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. In 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Sex Pistols, but the band refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge the induction, complaining that they had been asked for large sums of money to attend[13] and stating that it went against everything the band stood for.
In June 2007, Lydon, Jones and Cook re-recorded "Pretty Vacant" in a Los Angeles studio for the video game Skate and, in a radio interview in the same month, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols may perform again over the Christmas period. They also re-recorded "Anarchy in the UK" for the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In September 2007, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols would play a concert for the 30th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks at the Brixton Academy on 8 November 2007. Due to popular demand, four additional concerts were added, as well as further shows in Manchester and Glasgow.
The Sex Pistols appeared at the Isle Of Wight Festival 2008 as the headlining act on Saturday night. They also appeared at the Peace and Love Festival in Sweden, Electric Picnic in Ireland, the Live at Loch Lomond Festival in Scotland, Heineken Open'er Festival in Gdynia (Poland), Paredes de Coura Festival in Portugal, Traffic Free Festival in Turin (Italy) and EXIT festival in Serbia the same summer.
[edit] 2009 - PiL Reformation
In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform, including earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, for a number of Christmas shows in the UK.[14]
[edit] Controversy
John Lydon (2008)
[edit] 2008 Ritz Carlton Hotel incident
On 23 January 2008 Lydon was reportedly involved in a string of offences, including battery, sexual abuse, sexual assault and physical assault in Marina del Rey. Roxane Davis, who was Lydon's personal assistant on the television program Bodog Battle Of The Bands, claimed that she was punched in the face by Lydon after being called a "cunt" several times. It is believed that Lydon wished for a door between his hotel room and his male friend's room at the hotel Ritz Carlton, but was given a separate room without a dividing door. Lydon reportedly became infuriated with the hotel staff, before assaulting his own employee who was staying in the same hotel. Upon being questioned by journalists over the incident, Lydon was unavailable. Davis has taken legal action against Lydon.[15]
[edit] 2008 Summercase incident
Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke claims he was left with severe facial bruising and a split lip following what he alleges was a verbal and physical racist assault by three members of Lydon's entourage. The incident occurred on the evening of 19 July 2008 at the Summercase festival in Barcelona while the bands were socialising backstage.[16]
However in statement to NME, Lydon has denied the allegations of his involvement in this assault.[17] Since the report, Super Furry Animals lead singer Gruff Rhys has come forward in support of Okereke's claim, saying "the statements Kele has said are absolutely true, it did happen."[18]
A British tabloid accused Lydon of racism due to the incident, soemthing he strongly denied during an appearance on The One Show, claiming that they were "atrocious" and "hurtful". He went on to say that:
“ My grand children are Jamaican, right. This is an absolute offence to them and me when I read stories like that, that are allowed to go to print absolutely unfounded and have the liberty to take liberties with a man like me and call me a racist when my entire life has proved exactly the opposite. ”
He went on to say, when asked if he was racist, that:
“ Absolutely not. And any bugger that dares say so is going to have their day in court with me - you understand this?[19] ”
[edit] 2008 Duffy incident
At the 2008 MoJo awards ceremony, Welsh singer Duffy attempted to say hello to Lydon when, according to her; "I was literally slammed against the wall, pinned by his arm at my throat. He called me a cunt." She spent the whole night crying over the incident and felt awful about it for the following week.[20] Other reports indicate a slightly different scenario, that Lydon "was being interviewed and he had his back to door and she banged into him and then grabbed him. He then turned round in no uncertain terms to tell her to back off him".[21] Lydon later claimed he hadn't realised who Duffy was, saying; "people are trying to pin something on me. I don't know who this Duffy person is, or why she'd want to get publicity from this. I was doing an interview and she came up behind me - I didn't see anything. I’ve been with my wife for 30 years and I've been brought up to be polite and have respect for people, especially women."[22]
Adam Sherwin of the Times, who witnessed the attack on Duffy, wrote about the incident, giving an account which differs from that offered by Lydon, but placing the blame for the physical assault on John's minder rather than Lydon himself. [23]
[edit] Personal life
Lydon is married to Nora Forster. They have no children together, but Lydon is stepfather of Forster's daughter, Ari Up, who herself had been the lead singer in the influential postpunk, dub reggae band, The Slits. He currently lives in Los Angeles.[3]
[edit] Discography
All chart positions are UK.
[edit] Sex Pistols
Studio albums
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1977) Platinum
The Sex Pistols
Origins and early days
The Sex Pistols evolved from The Strand, a London band formed in 1973 with working-class teenagers Steve Jones on vocals, Paul Cook on drums, and Wally Nightingale on guitar. According to a later account by Jones, both he and Cook played on instruments they had stolen.[4] Early line-ups of The Strand—sometimes known as The Swankers—also included Jim Mackin on organ and Stephen Hayes (and later, briefly, Del Noones) on bass.[5] The band members hung out regularly at two clothing shops on Kings Road, in London's Chelsea neighbourhood: John Krivine and Steph Raynor's Acme Attractions (where Don Letts worked as manager)[6] and Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. The McLaren-Westwood store had opened in 1971 as Let It Rock, with a 1950s revival Teddy Boy theme. It had been renamed in 1972 to focus on another revival trend, the rocker look associated with Marlon Brando.[7] As John Lydon later observed, "Malcolm and Vivienne were really a pair of shysters: they would sell anything to any trend that they could grab onto."[8] The shop was to become a focal point of the punk rock scene, bringing together participants such as the future Sid Vicious, Marco Pirroni, Gene October, and Mark Stewart, among many others.[9] Jordan, the wildly styled shop assistant, is credited with "pretty well single-handedly paving the punk look".[10]
In early 1974, Jones convinced McLaren to help out The Strand. Effectively becoming the group's manager, McLaren paid for their first formal rehearsal space. Glen Matlock, an art student who occasionally worked at Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, was recruited as the band's regular bassist.[11] In November, McLaren temporarily relocated to New York City. Before his departure, McLaren and Westwood had conceived of a new identity for their store: renamed Sex, it changed its focus from retro couture to S&M-inspired "anti-fashion", with a billing as "Specialists in rubberwear, glamourwear & stagewear".[12] After briefly managing and promoting the New York Dolls, McLaren returned to London in May 1975. Inspired by the punk scene that was beginning to emerge in Lower Manhattan—in particular by the radical visual style and attitude of Richard Hell, then with Television—McLaren began taking greater interest in The Strand.[13]
The group had been rehearsing regularly, overseen by McLaren's friend Bernard Rhodes, and had performed publicly for the first time. Soon after McLaren's return, Nightingale was kicked out of the band and Jones, uncomfortable as frontman, took over guitar duties.[14] According to journalist and former McLaren employee Phil Strongman, around this time the band adopted the name QT Jones and the Sex Pistols (or QT Jones & His Sex Pistols, as one Rhodes-designed T-shirt put it).[15] McLaren had been talking with the New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain about coming over to England to front the group. When those plans fell through, McLaren, Rhodes and the band began looking locally for a new member to assume the lead vocal duties.[16] As described by Matlock, "[E]veryone had long hair then, even the milkman, so what we used to do was if someone had short hair we would stop them in the street and ask them if they fancied themselves as a singer."[17] Among those they approached was Midge Ure, who was involved with his own band, Slik. Kevin Rowland—who would cofound Dexys Midnight Runners three years later—auditioned, but except for Matlock, no one was impressed. With the search going nowhere, McLaren made several calls to Richard Hell, who turned down the invitation.[18]
[edit] Johnny Rotten joins the band
In August 1975, Rhodes spotted nineteen-year-old Kings Road habitué John Lydon wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words I Hate handwritten above the band's name and holes scratched through the eyes.[19][20][21] Reports vary at this point: the same day, or soon after, either Rhodes or McLaren asked Lydon to come to a nearby pub in the evening to meet Jones and Cook.[19][22] According to Jones, "He came in with green hair. I thought he had a really interesting face. I liked his look. He had his 'I Hate Pink Floyd' T-shirt on, and it was held together with safety pins. John had something special, but when he started talking he was a real asshole—but smart."[19] When the pub closed, the group moved over to Sex, where Lydon, who had given little thought to singing, was convinced to improvise along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" on the shop jukebox. Though the performance drove the band members to laughter, McLaren convinced them to start rehearsing with Lydon.[19][23]
Lydon later described the social context in which the band came together:
Early Seventies Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment—just about everybody was on strike. Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks...then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all. Out of that came pretentious moi and the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us.[24]
Nick Kent—a writer for the New Musical Express (NME)—used to jam occasionally with the band, but left upon Lydon's recruitment. "When I came along, I took one look at him and said, 'No. That has to go,'" Lydon later explained. "He's never written a good word about me ever since."[25] In September, McLaren again helped hire private rehearsal space for the group, which had been practicing in pubs. Cook, who had a full-time job he was loath to give up, was making noises about quitting. According to Matlock's later description, Cook "created a smokescreen" by claiming Jones wasn't skilled enough to be the band's sole guitarist. An advertisement was placed in Melody Maker for a "Whizz Kid Guitarist. Not older than 20. Not worse looking than Johnny Thunders" (referring to a leading member of the New York punk scene).[26] Most of those who turned up to audition were obviously incompetent, but in McLaren's view, the process created a new sense of solidarity among the four band members.[27] The one talented guitarist who tried out, Steve New, was brought on. Jones, however, was improving rapidly and the band's developing sound had no room for the sort of technical lead work at which New was adept. He departed after a month.[28]
Lydon had been rechristened "Johnny Rotten" by Jones, apparently because of his bad dental hygiene.[21][29] The band also settled on a name. After considering options such as Le Bomb, Subterraneans, the Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel, Kid Gladlove, and Crème De La Crème, they decided on Sex Pistols—a shortened form of the name they had apparently been working under informally.[30] McLaren later explained that the name derived "from the idea of a pistol, a pin-up, a young thing, a better-looking assassin". Not given to modesty, false or otherwise, he added, "[I] launched the idea in the form of a band of kids who could be perceived as being bad."[31] The group began writing original material: Rotten was the lyricist and Matlock the primary melody writer (though their first collaboration, "Pretty Vacant", had a complete lyric by Matlock, which Rotten tweaked a bit); official credit was shared equally among the four.[32][33]
The new quartet's first gig was arranged by Matlock, who was studying at Saint Martins College. The band played at the school on 6 November 1975,[34] in support of a pub rock group called Bazooka Joe, arranging to use their amps and drums. The Sex Pistols performed several cover songs, including The Who's "Substitute", the Small Faces' "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", and "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", made famous by The Monkees; according to observers, they were unexceptional musically aside from being extremely loud. Before the Pistols could play the few original songs they had written to date, Bazooka Joe pulled the plugs as they saw their gear being trashed. A brief physical altercation between members of the two bands took place on stage.[35]
[edit] Building a following
The original lineup of the Sex Pistols, early 1976. Left to right: Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook.The Saint Martins gig was followed by other performances at colleges and art schools around London. The Sex Pistols' core group of followers—including Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and Billy Idol, who would go on to form bands of their own—came to be known as the Bromley Contingent, after the neighbourhood several were from.[36] Their cutting-edge fashion, much of it supplied by Sex, ignited a trend that was adopted by the new fans the band attracted.[37] McLaren and Westwood saw the incipient London punk movement as a vehicle for more than just couture. They were both captivated by the May 1968 radical uprising in Paris, particularly by the ideology and agitations of the Situationists, as well as the anarchist thought of Buenaventura Durruti and others.[38] These interests were shared with Jamie Reid, an old friend of McLaren's who began producing publicity material for the Sex Pistols in spring 1976.[39] (The cut-up lettering employed to create the classic Sex Pistols logo and many subsequent designs for the band was actually introduced by McLaren's friend Helen Wellington-Lloyd.)[40] "We used to talk to John [Lydon] a lot about the Situationists," Reid later said. "The Sex Pistols seemed the perfect vehicle to communicate ideas directly to people who weren't getting the message from left-wing politics."[41] McLaren was also arranging for the band's first photo sessions.[42] As described by music historian Jon Savage, "With his green hair, hunched stance and ragged look, [Lydon] looked like a cross between Uriah Heep and Richard Hell."[43]
The first Sex Pistols gig to attract broader attention was as a supporting act for Eddie and the Hot Rods, a leading pub rock group, at the Marquee on 12 February 1976. Rotten "was now really pushing the barriers of performance, walking off stage, sitting with the audience, throwing Jordan across the dancefloor and chucking chairs around, before smashing some of Eddie and the Hot Rods' gear."[44] The band's first review appeared in the NME, accompanied by a brief interview in which Steve Jones declared, "Actually we're not into music. We're into chaos."[45] Among those who read the article were two students at the Bolton Institute of Technology, Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, who headed down to London in search of the Sex Pistols. After chatting with McLaren at Sex, they ultimately caught the band at a couple of late February gigs.[46] The two friends immediately began organizing their own Pistols-style group, the Buzzcocks. As Devoto later put it, "My life changed the moment that I saw the Sex Pistols."[47]
The Pistols were soon playing other important venues, debuting at Oxford Street's 100 Club on 30 March.[48] On 3 April, they played for the first time at the Nashville, supporting The 101ers. The pub rock group's lead singer, Joe Strummer, saw the Pistols for the first time that night—and recognized punk rock as the future.[49] A return gig at the Nashville, 23 April, demonstrated the band's growing musical competence, but by all accounts lacked a spark. Westwood provided that by instigating a fight with another audience member; McLaren and Rotten were soon involved in the melee.[50] Cook later said, "That fight at the Nashville: that's when all the publicity got hold of it and the violence started creeping in.... I think everybody was ready to go and we were the catalyst."[51] The Pistols were soon banned from both the Nashville and the Marquee.[52]
On 23 April, as well, the debut album by the leading punk rock band in the New York scene, the Ramones, was released. Though it is regarded as seminal to the growth of punk rock in England and elsewhere, Lydon has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that it influenced the Sex Pistols: "[The Ramones] were all long-haired and of no interest to me. I didn't like their image, what they stood for, or anything about them";[53] "They were hilarious but you can only go so far with 'duh-dur-dur-duh'. I've heard it. Next. Move on."[54] On 11 May, the Pistols began a four-week-long Tuesday night residency at the 100 Club.[55] The rest of the month was mostly devoted to touring small cities and towns in the north of England and recording demos in London with producer and recording artist Chris Spedding.[55][56] The following month they played their first gig in Manchester, arranged by Devoto and Shelley. The Sex Pistols' 4 June performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall set off a punk rock boom in the city.[57][58]
The Sex Pistols in performance at the 100 Club, 1976. On the right: Steve Jones (foreground) and Johnny Rotten (background).On 4 July and 6 July, respectively, two newly formed London punk rock acts, The Clash—with Strummer as lead vocalist—and The Damned, made their live debuts opening for the Sex Pistols. On their off night in between, the Pistols (despite Lydon's later professed disdain) showed up for a Ramones gig at Dingwalls like virtually everyone else at the heart of the London punk scene.[59] During a return Manchester engagement, 20 July, the Pistols premiered a new song, "Anarchy in the U.K.", reflecting elements of the radical ideologies to which Rotten was being exposed. According to Jon Savage, "there seems little doubt that Lydon was fed material by Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid, which he then converted into his own lyric."[60] "Anarchy in the U.K." was among the seven originals recorded in another demo session that month, this one overseen by the band's sound engineer, Dave Goodman.[61] McLaren organized a major event for 29 August at the Screen on the Green in London's Islington district: the Buzzcocks and The Clash opened for the Sex Pistols in punk's "first metropolitan test of strength".[62] Three days later, the band were in Manchester to tape what would be their first television appearance, for Tony Wilson's So It Goes. Scheduled to perform just one song, "Anarchy in the U.K.", the band ran straight through another two other numbers as pandemonium broke out in the control room.[63]
The Sex Pistols played their first concert outside Britain on 3 September, at the opening of the Chalet du Lac disco in Paris. The Bromley Contingent accompanied them, with Siouxsie Sioux's swastika armband causing a stir.[64] The following day, the So It Goes performance aired; the audience heard "Anarchy in the U.K." introduced with a shout of "Get off your arse!"[64][65] On 13 September, the Pistols began a tour of Britain.[66] A week later, back in London, they headlined the opening night of the 100 Club Punk Special. Organized by McLaren (for whom the word "festival" had too much of a hippie connotation), the event was "considered the moment that was the catalyst for the years to come."[67] Belying the common perception that punk bands couldn't play their instruments, contemporary music press reviews, later critical assessments of concert recordings, and testimonials by fellow musicians indicate that the Pistols had developed into a tight, ferocious live band.[68] As Rotten tested out wild vocalization styles, the instrumentalists experimented "with overload, feedback and distortion...pushing their equipment to the limit".[69]
[edit] EMI and the Grundy incident
"Anarchy in the U.K."
"Anarchy in the U.K." reached number 38 on the UK singles chart
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On 8 October 1976, the major record label EMI signed the Sex Pistols to a two-year contract.[70] In short order, the band was in the studio recording a full-dress session with Dave Goodman. As later described by Matlock, "The idea was to get the spirit of the live performance. We were pressurized to make it faster and faster."[71] The riotous results were rejected. Chris Thomas, who had produced Roxy Music and, ironically, mixed Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, was brought in to produce.[72] The band's first single, "Anarchy in the U.K.", was released on 26 November 1976.[71] John Robb—soon to be a cofounder of The Membranes and later a music journalist—described the record's impact: "From Steve Jones' opening salvo of descending chords, to Johnny Rotten's fantastic sneering vocals, this song is the perfect statement...a stunningly powerful piece of punk politics...a lifestyle choice, a manifesto that heralds a new era".[73] Colin Newman, who had just cofounded the band Wire, heard it as "the clarion call of a generation."[74]
"Anarchy in the U.K." was not, in fact, the first British punk single, pipped by The Damned's "New Rose". "We Vibrate" had also appeared from The Vibrators, a pub rock band formed early in 1976 that had become associated with punk—though "with their long hair and mildly risqué name, the Vibrators were passers-by as far as punk taste-makers were concerned."[75] Unlike those songs, whose lyrical content was comfortably within rock 'n' roll traditions, "Anarchy in the U.K." linked punk to a newly politicized attitude—the Pistols' stance was aggrieved, euphoric and nihilistic, all at the same time. Rotten's howls of "I am an anti-christ" and "Destroy!" repurposed rock as an ideological weapon.[76] The single's packaging and visual promotion also broke new ground. Reid and McLaren came up with the notion of selling the record in a completely wordless, featureless black sleeve.[77] The primary image associated with the single was Reid's "anarchy flag" poster: a Union Flag ripped up and partly safety-pinned back together, with the song and band names clipped along the edges of a gaping hole in the middle. This and other images created by Reid for the Sex Pistols quickly became punk icons.[78]
The Fucking Rotter
Audio from the 1976 interview conducted by Bill Grundy
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The Sex Pistols' behaviour, as much as their music, brought them national attention. On 1 December 1976, the band and members of the Bromley Contingent created a storm of publicity by swearing during an early evening live broadcast of Thames Television's Today programme. Appearing as last-minute replacements for fellow EMI artists Queen, band and entourage were offered drinks as they waited to go on air. During the interview, Jones said the band had "fucking spent" its label advance, Rotten used the word "shit", and host Bill Grundy, admittedly drunk, flirted openly with Siouxsie Sioux: "We'll meet afterwards, shall we?" This prompted the following exchange between Jones and the host:
Jones: You dirty sod. You dirty old man.
Grundy: Well keep going chief, keep going. Go on. You've got another five seconds. Say something outrageous.
Jones: You dirty bastard.
Grundy: Go on, again.
Jones: You dirty fucker.
Grundy: What a clever boy.
Jones: What a fucking rotter.[79]
Daily Mirror front page, 2 December 1976Although the programme was broadcast only in the London region, the ensuing furore occupied the tabloid newspapers for days. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline "The Filth and the Fury!";[80] other papers such as the Daily Express ("Fury at Filthy TV Chat") and the Daily Telegraph ("4-Letter Words Rock TV") followed suit.[81] Thames Television suspended Grundy, and though he was later reinstated, the interview effectively ended his career.[82]
The episode made the band household names throughout the country and brought punk into mainstream awareness. The Pistols set out on the Anarchy Tour of the UK, supported by The Clash and Johnny Thunders' band The Heartbreakers, over from New York. The Damned were briefly part of the tour, before McLaren kicked them off. Press coverage was intense, and many of the concerts were cancelled by organisers or local authorities; of approximately twenty scheduled gigs, only about seven actually took place.[83] Packers at the EMI plant refused to handle the band's single.[84] London councillor Bernard Brook Partridge declared, "Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups I suppose currently are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating. They are the antithesis of humankind. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it."[85]
Following the end of the tour in late December, three concerts were arranged in Holland for January 1977. The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on 4 January; a few hours later, the Evening News was reporting that the band had "vomited and spat their way" to the flight.[86] Despite categorical denials by the EMI representative who accompanied the group, the label, which was under political pressure, released the band from their contract.[87] As McLaren fielded offers from other labels, the band went into the studio for a round of recordings with Goodman, their last with both him and Matlock.[88]
[edit] Sid Vicious joins the band
In February 1977, word leaked out that Matlock was leaving the Sex Pistols. On 28 February, McLaren sent a telegram to the NME confirming the split. He claimed that Matlock had been "thrown out...because he went on too long about Paul McCartney.... The Beatles was too much."[89] In an interview a few months afterward, Steve Jones echoed the charge that Matlock had been sacked because he "liked The Beatles".[4] Years later, Jones expanded on the matter of the band's issues with Matlock: "He was a good writer but he didn't look like a Sex Pistol and he was always washing his feet. His mum didn't like the songs."[90] Matlock told the NME that he had voluntarily left the band by "mutual agreement".[89] Later, in his autobiography, he would describe the primary impetus as his increasingly acrimonious relationship with Rotten, exacerbated—in Matlock's account—by the rampant inflation of Rotten's ego "once he'd had his name in the papers".[91] Lydon would later claim that "God Save the Queen", the belligerently sardonic song planned as the band's second single, had been the final straw: "[Matlock] couldn't handle those kinds of lyrics. He said it declared us fascists." Though the singer could hardly see how antiroyalism equated with fascism, he claimed, "Just to get rid of him, I didn't deny it."[92] Jon Savage suggests that Rotten pushed Matlock out in an effort to demonstrate his power and autonomy from McLaren.[93] Matlock almost immediately formed his own band, Rich Kids, with Midge Ure, Steve New, and Rusty Egan.
Warner Bros. Records, the Sex Pistols' American label, found this an appropriate image with which to promote Sid Vicious.Matlock was replaced by Rotten's friend and self-appointed "ultimate Sex Pistols fan" Sid Vicious. Born Simon John Ritchie, later known as John Beverley, Vicious was previously drummer of two inner circle punk bands, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Flowers of Romance. He was also credited with introducing the pogo dance to the scene at the 100 Club. John Robb claims it was at the first Sex Pistols residency gig, 11 May 1976; Matlock is convinced it happened during the second night of the 100 Club Punk Special in September, when the Pistols were off playing in Wales.[94] In Matlock's description, Rotten wanted Vicious in the band because "[i]nstead of him against Steve and Paul, it would become him and Sid against Steve and Paul. He always thought of it in terms of opposing camps".[95] Julien Temple, then a film student whom McLaren had put on the Sex Pistols payroll to create a comprehensive audiovisual record of the band, concurs: "Sid was John's protégé in the group, really. The other two just thought he was crazy."[96] McLaren later stated that, much earlier in the band's career, Vivienne Westwood had told him he should "get the guy called John who came to the store a couple of times" to be the singer. When Johnny Rotten was recruited for the band, Westwood said McLaren had got it wrong: "he had got the wrong John." It was John Beverley, the future Vicious, she had been recommending.[97] McLaren approved the belated inclusion of Vicious, who had virtually no experience on his new instrument, on account of his look and reputation in the punk scene.
Pogoing aside, Vicious had been involved in a notorious incident during that memorable second night of the 100 Club Punk Special. Arrested for hurling a glass at The Damned that shattered and blinded a girl in one eye, he had served time in a remand centre—and contributed to the 100 Club banning all punk bands.[98] At a previous 100 Club gig, he had assaulted Nick Kent with a bicycle chain.[99] Indeed, McLaren's NME telegram said that Vicious's "best credential was he gave Nick Kent what he deserved many months ago at the Hundred Club".[89][100] According to a later description by McLaren, "When Sid joined he couldn't play guitar but his craziness fit into the structure of the band. He was the knight in shining armour with a giant fist."[101] "Everyone agreed he had the look," Lydon later recalled, but musical skill was another matter. "The first rehearsals...in March of 1977 with Sid were hellish.... Sid really tried hard and rehearsed a lot".[102] Marco Pirroni, who had performed with Vicious in Siouxsie & the Banshees, has said, "After that, it was nothing to do with music anymore. It would just be for the sensationalism and scandal of it all. Then it became the Malcolm McLaren story".[101]
Membership in the Sex Pistols had a progressively destructive effect on Vicious. As Lydon later observed, "Up to that time, Sid was absolutely childlike. Everything was fun and giggly. Suddenly he was a big pop star. Pop star status meant press, a good chance to be spotted in all the right places, adoration. That's what it all meant to Sid."[101] Westwood had already been feeding him material, like a tome on Charles Manson, likely to encourage his worst instincts.[103] Early in 1977, he met Nancy Spungen, an emotionally disturbed drug addict and sometime prostitute from New York.[101][104] Spungen is commonly thought to be responsible for introducing Vicious to heroin, and the emotional codependency between the couple alienated Vicious from the other members of the band. Lydon later wrote, "We did everything to get rid of Nancy.... She was killing him. I was absolutely convinced this girl was on a slow suicide mission.... Only she didn't want to go alone. She wanted to take Sid with her.... She was so utterly fucked up and evil."[105]
[edit] “God Save the Queen”
On 10 March 1977, at a press ceremony held outside Buckingham Palace, the Sex Pistols publicly signed to A&M Records (the real signing had taken place the day before). Afterward, stoked on booze, they made their way to the A&M offices. Vicious smashed in a toilet bowl and cut his foot (there is some disagreement about which happened first). As Vicious trailed blood around the offices, Rotten verbally abused the staff and Jones got frisky in the ladies' room.[106] A couple of days later, the Pistols got into a rumble with another band at a club; one of Rotten's pals threatened the life of a good friend of A&M's English director. On 16 March, A&M broke contract with the Pistols. Twenty-five thousand copies of the planned "God Save the Queen" single, produced by Chris Thomas, had already been pressed; virtually all were destroyed.[107]
Jamie Reid's "God Save the Queen" sleeve; in 2001, it was named the greatest record cover of all time by Q magazine.[108]Vicious debuted with the band at London's Notre Dame Hall on 28 March.[109] In May, the band signed with Virgin Records, their third new label in little more than half a year. Virgin was more than ready to release "God Save the Queen", but new obstacles arose. Workers at the pressing plant laid down their tools in protest at the song's content. Jamie Reid's now famous cover, showing Queen Elizabeth II with her features obscured by the song and band names in cutout letters, offended the sleeve's platemakers.[110] After much talk, production resumed and the record was finally released on 27 May.[111]
The scabrous lyrics—"God save the queen/She ain't no human being/And there's no future/In England's dreaming"—prompted widespread outcry.[112] Several major chains refused to stock the single.[111] It was banned not only by the BBC but also by every independent radio station, making it the "most heavily censored record in British history".[113] Rotten boasted, "We're the only honest band that's hit this planet in about two thousand million years."[114] Jones shrugged off everything the song stated and implied—or took nihilism to a logical endpoint: "I don't see how anyone could describe us as a political band. I don't even know the name of the Prime Minister."[114] The song, and its public impact, are now recognized as "punk's crowning glory".[2]
The Virgin release had been timed to coincide with the height of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee celebrations. By Jubilee weekend, a week and a half after the record's release, it had sold more than 150,000 copies—a massive success. On 7 June, McLaren and the record label arranged to charter a private boat and have the Sex Pistols perform while sailing down the River Thames, passing Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. The event, a mockery of the Queen's river procession planned for two days later, ended in chaos. Police launches forced the boat to dock, and constabulary surrounded the gangplanks at the pier. While the band members and their equipment were hustled down a side stairwell, McLaren, Westwood, and many of the band's entourage were arrested.[115]
"God Save the Queen"
"God Save the Queen" was originally titled "No Future", but was changed to coincide with the 1977 Jubilee
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With the official UK record chart for Jubilee week about to be released, the Daily Mirror predicted that "God Save the Queen" would be number one. As it turned out, the record placed second, behind a Rod Stewart single in its fourth week at the top. Many believed that the record had actually qualified for the top spot, but that the chart had been rigged to prevent a spectacle. McLaren later claimed that CBS Records, which was distributing both singles, told him that the Sex Pistols were actually outselling Stewart two to one. There is evidence that an exceptional directive was issued by the British Phonographic Institute, which oversaw the chart-compiling bureau, to exclude sales from record-company operated shops such as Virgin's for that week only.[116]
Violent attacks on punk fans were on the rise. In mid-June Rotten himself was assaulted by a knife-wielding gang outside Islington's Pegasus pub, causing tendon damage to his left arm. Jamie Reid and Paul Cook were beaten up in other incidents; three days after the Pegasus assault, Rotten was attacked again.[117] A tour of Scandinavia, planned to start at the end of the month, was consequently delayed until mid-July. During the tour, a Swedish interviewer observed to Jones that "a lot of people" regarded the band as McLaren's "creation". Jones replied, "He's our manager, that's all. He's got nothing to do with the music or the image...he's just a good manager."[4] In another interview, Rotten professed bafflement at the furore surrounding the group: "I don't understand it. All we're trying to do is destroy everything."[118] At the end of August came SPOTS—Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly, a surreptitious UK tour with the band playing under pseudonyms to avoid cancellation.[119]
McLaren had wanted for some time to make a movie featuring the Sex Pistols. Julien Temple's first major task had been to assemble Sex Pistols Number 1, a twenty-five-minute mosaic of footage from various sources, much of it refilmed by Temple off of television screens.[120] Number 1 was often screened at concert venues before the band took the stage. Using media footage from the Thames incident, Temple created another propagandistic short, Jubilee Riverboat (aka Sex Pistols Number 2).[121] During summer 1977, McLaren had been making arrangements for the feature film of his dreams, Who Killed Bambi?, to be directed by Russ Meyer from a script by Roger Ebert. After a single day of shooting, 11 September, production ceased when it became clear that McLaren had failed to arrange financing.[122]
[edit] Never Mind the Bollocks
"Holidays in the Sun"
"Holidays in the Sun", the Sex Pistols' fourth single, is the lead track on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
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Since the spring of 1977, the three senior Sex Pistols had been returning to the studio periodically with Chris Thomas to lay down the tracks for the band's debut album. Initially to be called God Save Sex Pistols, it became known during the summer as Never Mind the Bollocks.[123] According to Jones, "Sid wanted to come down and play on the album, and we tried as hard as possible not to let him anywhere near the studio. Luckily he had hepatitis at the time."[124] Cook later described how many of the instrumental tracks were built up from drum and guitar parts, rather than the usual drum and bass.[125]
Given Vicious's incompetence, Matlock had been invited to record as a session musician. In his autobiography, Matlock says he agreed to "help out", but then suggests that he cut all ties after McLaren issued the 28 February NME telegram announcing Matlock had been fired for liking the Beatles.[126] In fact, Matlock did play as a hired hand on 3 March, for what Jon Savage describes as an "audition session".[127] In his autobiography, Lydon claims that Matlock's work-for-hire for his ex-band was extensive—much more so than any other source reports—seemingly to amplify a putdown: "I think I'd rather die than do something like that."[128] Music historian David Howard states unambiguously that Matlock did not perform on any of the Never Mind the Bollocks recording sessions.[129] It was Jones who ultimately played most of the bass parts during the Bollocks recordings; Howard calls his rudimentary, rumbling approach the "explosive missing ingredient" of the Sex Pistols' sound.[129] Vicious's bass is reportedly present on one track that appeared on the original album release, "Bodies". Jones recalls, "He played his farty old bass part and we just let him do it. When he left I dubbed another part on, leaving Sid's down low. I think it might be barely audible on the track."[130] Following "God Save the Queen", two more singles were released from these sessions, "Pretty Vacant" (largely written by Matlock) on 1 July[131] and "Holidays in the Sun" on 14 October.[132] Each was a Top Ten hit.[133]
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (which includes "Anarchy in the U.K." and another earlier recording, "No Feelings") was released on 28 October 1977.[134] Rolling Stone praised the album as "just about the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies", applauding the band for playing "with an energy and conviction that is positively transcendent in its madness and fever".[135] Some critics, disappointed that the album contained all four previously released singles, dismissed it as little more than a "greatest hits" record.[136] Containing both "Bodies"—in which Rotten utters "fuck" five times—and the previously censored "God Save the Queen" and featuring the word bollocks (popular slang for testicles) in its title, the album was banned by Boots, W. H. Smith and Woolworth's.[137] The Conservative shadow minister for education condemned it as "a symptom of the way society is declining" and both the Independent Television Companies' Association and the Association of Independent Radio Contractors banned its advertisements.[138] Nonetheless, advance sales were sufficient to make it an undeniable number one on the album chart.[137]
U.S. poster for Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex PistolsThe album title led to a legal case that attracted considerable attention: a Virgin Records store in Nottingham that put the album in its window was threatened with prosecution for displaying "indecent printed matter". The case was thrown out when defending QC John Mortimer produced an expert witness who established that bollocks was an Old English term for a small ball, that it appeared in place names without causing local communities erotic disturbance, and that in the nineteenth century it had been used as a nickname for clergymen: "Clergymen are known to talk a good deal of rubbish and so the word later developed the meaning of nonsense."[139] In the context of the Pistols' album title, the term does in fact primarily signify "nonsense". Steve Jones off-handedly came up with the title as the band debated what to call the album. An exasperated Jones said, "Oh, fuck it, never mind the bollocks of it all."[140]
After playing a few dates in Holland—the beginning of a planned multinational tour—the band set out on a Never Mind the Bans tour of Britain in December 1977. Of eight scheduled dates, four were cancelled due to illness or political pressure. On Christmas Day, the Sex Pistols played two shows at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield. Before a regular evening concert, the band performed a benefit matinee for the children of "striking firemen, laid-off workers and one-parent families."[141] These would turn out to be the band's final UK performances.[142]
[edit] US tour and the end of the band
In January 1978, the Sex Pistols embarked on a US tour, consisting mainly of dates in America's Deep South. Originally scheduled to begin a few days before New Year's, it was delayed due to American authorities' reluctance to issue visas to band members with criminal records. Several dates in the North had to be cancelled as a result.[134][143] Though highly anticipated by fans and media, the tour was plagued by in-fighting, poor planning and physically belligerent audiences. McLaren later admitted that he purposely booked redneck bars to provoke hostile situations.[97] Over the course of the two weeks, Vicious, by now heavily addicted to heroin,[144] began to live up to his stage name. "He finally had an audience of people who would behave with shock and horror", Lydon later wrote. "Sid was easily led by the nose."[145]
Early in the tour, Vicious wandered off from his Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee, looking for drugs. He was found in a hospital, having carved the words "Gimme a fix" in his chest with a razor. During a concert in San Antonio, Texas, Vicious called the crowd "a bunch of faggots", before striking an audience member across the head with his bass guitar.[144] In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he received simulated oral sex on stage, later declaring "that’s the kind of girl I like".[146] Suffering from heroin withdrawal during a show in Dallas, Texas, he spat blood at a woman who had climbed onstage and punched him in the face.[145] He was admitted to hospital later that night to treat various injuries. Offstage he is said to have kicked a female photographer, attacked a security guard, and eventually challenged one of his own bodyguards to a fight—beaten up, he is reported to have exclaimed, "I like you. Now we can be friends."[101]
"No Fun"
Sample of "No Fun", a cover version of The Stooges song—studio recording from 1976 or 1977
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Rotten, meanwhile, suffering from flu[147] and coughing up blood, felt increasingly isolated from Cook and Jones, and disgusted by Vicious.[148] On 14 January 1978, during the tour's final date at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, a disillusioned Rotten introduced the band's encore saying, "You'll get one number and one number only 'cause I'm a lazy bastard." That one number was a Stooges cover, "No Fun". At the end of the song, Rotten, kneeling on the stage, chanted an unambiguous declaration, "This is no fun. No fun. This is no fun—at all. No fun." As the final cymbal crash died away, Rotten addressed the audience directly—"Ah-ha-ha. Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night"—before throwing down his microphone and walking offstage.[149] He later observed, "I felt cheated, and I wasn't going on with it any longer; it was a ridiculous farce. Sid was completely out of his brains—just a waste of space. The whole thing was a joke at that point.... [Malcolm] wouldn't speak to me.... He would not discuss anything with me. But then he would turn around and tell Paul and Steve that the tension was all my fault because I wouldn't agree to anything."[150]
On 17 January, the band split, making their ways separately to Los Angeles. McLaren, Cook and Jones prepared to fly to Rio de Janeiro for a working vacation. Vicious, in increasingly bad shape, was taken to Los Angeles by a friend, who then brought him to New York, where he was immediately hospitalized.[151] Rotten later described his own situation: "The Sex Pistols left me, stranded in Los Angeles with no ticket, no hotel room, and a message to Warner Bros saying that if anyone phones up claiming to be Johnny Rotten, then they were lying. That's how I finished with Malcolm—but not with the rest of the band; I'll always like them."[152] Rotten flew to New York, where he announced the band's breakup in a newspaper interview on 18 January.[153] Virtually broke, he telephoned the head of Virgin Records, Richard Branson, who agreed to pay for his flight back to London, via Jamaica. In Jamaica, Branson met with members of the band Devo, and tried to install Rotten as their lead singer. Devo declined the offer.[154]
Cook, Jones and Vicious never performed together again live after Rotten's departure. Over the next several months, McLaren arranged for recordings in Brazil (with Jones and Cook), Paris (with Vicious) and London; each of the three and others stepped in as lead vocalists on tracks that in some cases were far from what punk was expected to sound like. These recordings were to make up the musical soundtrack for the reconceived Pistols feature film project, directed by Julian Temple, to which McLaren was now devoting himself. On 30 June, a single credited to the Sex Pistols was released: on one side, notorious criminal Ronnie Biggs sang "No One Is Innocent" accompanied by Jones and Cook; on the other, Vicious sang the classic "My Way", over both a Jones-Cook backing track and a string orchestra.[155] The single reached number six on the charts, eventually outselling all the singles with which Rotten was involved.[156] McLaren was seeking to reconstitute the band with a permanent new frontman, but Vicious—McLaren's first choice—had sickened of him. In return for agreeing to record "My Way", Vicious had demanded that McLaren sign a sheet of paper declaring that he was no longer Vicious's manager. In August, Vicious, back in London, delivered his final performances as a nominal Sex Pistol: recording and filming cover versions of two Eddie Cochran songs. The bassist's return to New York in September put paid to McLaren's dreaming.[157]
[edit] Post-breakup
After leaving the Pistols, Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name of Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd. (PiL) with former Clash member Keith Levene and school friend Jah Wobble.[158] The band went on to score a UK Top Ten hit with their debut single, 1978's "Public Image". Lydon initiated legal proceedings against McLaren and the Sex Pistols' management company, Glitterbest, which McLaren controlled. Among the claims were non-payment of royalties, improper usage of the title "Johnny Rotten", unfair contractual obligations,[159] and damages for "all the criminal activities that took place".[160] In 1979, PiL recorded the post-punk classic Metal Box. Lydon performed with the band through 1992, as well as engaging in other projects such as Time Zone with Afrika Bambaataa and Bill Laswell.
Vicious, relocated in New York, began performing as a solo artist, with Nancy Spungen acting as his manager. He recorded a live album, backed by "The Idols" featuring Arthur Kane and Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls—Sid Sings was released in 1979. On 12 October 1978, Spungen was found dead in the Chelsea Hotel room she was sharing with Vicious, with stab wounds to her stomach and dressed only in her underwear.[161] Police recovered drug paraphernalia from the scene and Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. In an interview at the time, McLaren said, "I can't believe he was involved in such a thing. Sid was set to marry Nancy in New York. He was very close to her and had quite a passionate affair with her."[161] (Evidence subsequently revealed points strongly to heroin dealer and sometime actor Rockets Redglare as Spungen's killer.)[162] While free on bail, Vicious smashed a beer mug in the face of Todd Smith, Patti Smith's brother, and was arrested again on an assault charge. On 9 December 1978 he was sent to Rikers Island jail, where he spent 55 days and underwent enforced cold-turkey detox. He was released on 1 February 1979; sometime after midnight, following a small party to celebrate his release, Vicious died of a heroin overdose.[163] He was only twenty-one. Reflecting on the event, Lydon said, "Poor Sid. The only way he could live up to what he wanted everyone to believe about him was to die. That was tragic, but more for Sid than anyone else. He really bought his public image."[164]
On 7 February 1979, just five days after Vicious's death, hearings began in London on Lydon's lawsuit. Cook and Jones were allied with McLaren, but as evidence mounted that their manager had poured virtually all of the band's revenue into his beloved film project, they switched sides. On 14 February, the court put the film and its soundtrack into receivership—no longer under McLaren's control, they were now to be administered as exploitable assets for addressing the band members' financial claims. McLaren, with substantial personal debts and legal fees, took off for Paris to sign a record deal for an LP of standards, including "Non, je ne regrette rien". A month later, back in London, he disassociated himself from the film to which he had devoted so much time and money.[165] McLaren went on to manage Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow. In the mid-1980s he released a number of successful and influential records as a solo artist.[166]
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, the soundtrack album for the still-uncompleted film, was released by Virgin Records on 24 February 1979. It is mostly composed of tracks credited to the Sex Pistols: There are the new recordings with vocals by Jones, Vicious, Cook, and Ronnie Biggs, as well as Edward Tudor-Pole, briefly considered as a permanent replacement for Rotten. McLaren himself takes the mic for a couple of numbers. Several tracks feature Rotten's vocals from early, unissued sessions, in some cases with re-recorded backing by Jones and Cook. There is one live cut, from the band's final concert in San Francisco. The album is completed by a couple of tracks in which other artists cover Sex Pistols classics.[167] Four Top Ten singles were culled from the Swindle recordings, one more than had appeared on Never Mind the Bollocks. The 1978 "No One Is Innocent"/"My Way" was followed in 1979 by Vicious's cover of "Something Else" (number three, and the biggest-selling single ever under the Sex Pistols name); Cook singing an original, "Silly Thing" (number six); and Vicious's second Cochran cover, "C'mon Everybody" (number three). Two more singles from the soundtrack were put out under the Pistols brand—Tudor-Pole singing "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" and a Rotten vocal from 1976, "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"; both fell just shy of the Top Twenty.[168] On 21 November 1980, the final "new" studio recordings attributed to the Sex Pistols were released by Virgin: "Black Leather" and "Here We Go Again", recorded by Jones and Cook during the mid-1978 Swindle sessions, were paired as one of a half-dozen 7-inch records (the other five reconfiguring previously released material) sold together as Sex Pack.[169]
The Sex Pistols film was completed by Temple, who received sole credit for the script after McLaren had his name taken off the production. Finally released in 1980, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle still largely reflects McLaren's vision. It is a fictionalised, farcical, partially animated retelling of the band's history and aftermath with McLaren in the lead role, Jones as second lead, and contributions from Vicious (including his memorable performance of "My Way") and Cook. It incorporates promotional videos shot for "God Save the Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" and extensive documentary footage as well, much of it focusing on Rotten. In Temple's description, he and McLaren conceived it as a "very stylized...polemic". They were reacting to the fact that the Pistols had become the "poster on the bedroom wall of the day where you kneel down last thing at night and pray to your rock god. And that was never the point.... The myth had to be dynamited in some way. We had to make this film in a way to enrage the fans".[170] In the film, McLaren claims to have created the band from scratch and engineered its notorious reputation; much of what structure the loose narrative has is based on McLaren's teaching a series of "lessons" to be learned from "an invention of mine they called the punk rock".[171]
Cook and Jones continued to work through guest appearances and as session musicians. In 1980, they formed The Professionals, which lasted for two years. Jones went on to play with the bands Chequered Past and Neurotic Outsiders. He also recorded two solo albums, Mercy and Fire and Gasoline. Now a resident of Los Angeles, he hosts a daily radio program called Jonesy's Jukebox. Having played with the band Chiefs of Relief in the late 1980s and with Edwyn Collins in the 1990s,[172] Cook is now a member of Man Raze. Following The Rich Kids' breakup in 1979, Matlock played with various bands, toured with Iggy Pop, and recorded several solo albums. He is currently a member of Slinky Vagabond.
The 1979 court ruling had left many issues between Lydon and McLaren unresolved. Five years later, Lydon filed another action. Finally, on 16 January 1986, Lydon, Jones, Cook and the estate of Sid Vicious were awarded control of the band's heritage, including the rights to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and all the footage shot for it—more than 250 hours.[173] That same year, a fictionalised film account of Vicious's relationship with Spungen was released: Sid and Nancy, directed by Alex Cox. In his autobiography, Lydon lambastes the film, saying that it "celebrates heroin addiction", goes out of its way to "humiliate [Vicious's] life", and completely misrepresents the Sex Pistols' part in the London punk scene.[174]
[edit] Reunions and later group activities
The original four Sex Pistols reunited in 1996 for the six-month Filthy Lucre Tour, which included dates in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Japan.[175] The band members' access to the archives associated with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle facilitated the production of the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury. This film—directed, like its predecessor, by Temple—was formulated as an attempt to tell the story from the band's point of view, in contrast to Swindle's focus on McLaren and the media.[176] In 2002—the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee—the Sex Pistols reunited again to play the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London. In 2003, their Piss Off Tour took them around North America for three weeks.
On 9 March 2006, the band sold the rights to their back catalogue to Universal Music Group. The sale was criticized by some commentators as a "sell out".[177] In November 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose citation named Vicious as well as the four living members.[1] The band rejected the honour in coarse language on their website. In a television interview, Lydon accompanied a suggestion that the Hall of Fame "Kiss this!" with an obscene gesture.[178] According to Jones, "Once you want to be put into a museum, Rock & Roll's over; it's not voted by fans, it's voted by people who induct you, or others; people who are already in it."[179]
The Sex Pistols reunited again for five gigs at the Brixton Academy and one each in Manchester and Glasgow in November 2007.[180][181] In 2008, they undertook a series of European festival appearances, titled the Combine Harvester Tour. In August, they performed at Budapest's Sziget Festival and at the Dutch festival Lowlands. Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg declared the Pistols' performance "saddening": "They left their swimming pools at home only to scoop up some money here. Really, they're nothing more than that."[182] They later played at the Hammersmith Apollo. That same year, they released the DVD There'll Always Be An England, combining footage from two of the 2007 Brixton Academy appearances.
[edit] Legacy
[edit] Cultural influence
The Trouser Press Record Guide entry on the Sex Pistols declares that "their importance—both to the direction of contemporary music and more generally to pop culture—can hardly be overstated".[183] Rolling Stone has argued that the band, "in direct opposition to the star trappings and complacency" of mid-1970s rock, "came to spark and personify one of the few truly critical moments in pop culture—the rise of punk."[175] In 2004, the magazine ranked the Sex Pistols #58 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[184] Leading music critic Dave Marsh called them "unquestionably the most radical new rock band of the Seventies."[185]
Although the Sex Pistols were not the first punk band, the few recordings that were released during the band's brief initial existence were singularly catalytic expressions of the punk movement. The releases of "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and Never Mind the Bollocks are counted among the most important events in the history of popular music. Never Mind the Bollocks is regularly cited in accountings of all-time great albums: In 2006, it was voted #28 in Q magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever",[186] while Rolling Stone listed it at #2 in its 1987 "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years".[187] It has come to be recognized as among the most influential records in rock history.[180][188] A 2005 Allmusic critique describes it as "one of the greatest, most inspiring rock records of all time".[189]
The Sex Pistols directly inspired the style, and often the formation itself, of many punk and post-punk bands during their first two-and-a-half-year run. The Clash,[190] Siouxsie & the Banshees,[191] The Adverts,[192] Vic Godard of Subway Sect,[193] and Ari Up of The Slits[194] are among those in London's "inner circle" of early punk bands that credit the Pistols. Pauline Murray of Durham punk band Penetration saw the Pistols perform for the first time in Northallerton in May 1976. She later explained their importance,
Nothing would have happened without the Pistols. It was like, "Wow, I believe in this." What they were saying was: "It's a load of shite. I'm going to do what I do and I don't care what people think." That was the key to it. People forget that, but it was the main ideology for me: we don't care what you think—you're shit anyway. It was the attitude that got people moving, as well as the music.[195]
The Sex Pistols' 4 June 1976 concert at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall was to become one of the most significant and mythologized events in rock history. Among the audience of merely forty people or so were many who became leading figures in the punk and post-punk movements: Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto, who organised the gig and were in the process of auditioning new members for the Buzzcocks; Bernard Sumner, Ian Curtis and Peter Hook, later of Joy Division; Mark E. Smith, later of The Fall; and Morrissey, later of The Smiths. Anthony H. Wilson, founder of Factory Records, saw the band for the first time at the return engagement on 20 July.[57] Among the many musicians of a later time who have acknowledged their debt to the Pistols are members of NOFX,[196] The Stone Roses,[197] Guns N' Roses,[198] Nirvana,[199] Green Day,[184] and Oasis.[200]
As described by the Trouser Press Record Guide, "the Pistols and manager/provocateur Malcolm McLaren challenged every aspect and precept of modern music-making, thereby inspiring countless groups to follow their cue onto stages around the world. A confrontational, nihilistic public image and rabidly nihilistic socio-political lyrics set the tone that continues to guide punk bands."[183] Critic Toby Creswell locates the primary source of inspiration somewhat differently. Noting that "[i]mage to the contrary, the Pistols were very serious about music", he argues, "The real rebel yell came from Jones' guitars: a mass wall of sound based on the most simple, retro guitar riffs. Essentially, the Sex Pistols reinforced what the garage bands of the '60s had demonstrated—you don't need technique to make rock & roll. In a time when music had been increasingly complicated and defanged, the Sex Pistols' generational shift caused a real revolution."[201]
An image of Vicious lacrimosa in Madrid, 2006Along with their abundant musical influence, the Sex Pistols' cultural reverberations are evident elsewhere. Jamie Reid's work for the band is regarded as among the most important graphic design of the 1970s and still impacts the field in the 21st century.[202] By the age of twenty-one, Sid Vicious was already a "t-shirt-selling icon".[203] While the manner of his death signified for many the inevitable failure of punk's social ambitions, it cemented his image as an archetype of doomed youth.[204] British punk fashion, still widely influential, is now customarily credited to Westwood and McLaren; as Johnny Rotten, Lydon had a lasting effect as well, especially through his bricolage approach to personal style: he "would wear a velvet colored drape jacket (ted) festooned with safety pins (Jackie Curtis through the New York punk scene), massive pin-stripe pegs (modernist), a pin-collar Wemblex (mod) customised into an Anarchy shirt (punk) and brothel creepers (ted)."[205] Christopher Nolan, director of the Batman movie The Dark Knight, has said that Rotten inspired the characterization of The Joker, played by Heath Ledger. According to Nolan, "We very much took the view in looking at the character of the Joker that what's strong about him is this idea of anarchy. This commitment to anarchy, this commitment to chaos."[206] Ledger's costar Christian Bale has claimed that Ledger drew inspiration from watching tapes of Vicious.[207]
[edit] Conceptual basis and the question of credit
The Sex Pistols were defined by ambitions that went well beyond the musical—indeed, McLaren was at times openly contemptuous of the band's music and punk rock generally. "Christ, if people bought the records for the music, this thing would have died a death long ago," he said in 1977.[208] The degree to which the Pistols' anti-establishment stance resulted from the members' spontaneous attitudes as opposed to being cultivated by McLaren and his associates is a matter of debate—as is the very nature of that stance itself. Deprecating the music, McLaren elevated the concept, for which he later took full credit. He would claim that the Sex Pistols were his personal, Situationist-style art project: "I decided to use people, just the way a sculptor uses clay."[33] But what had he supposedly made? The Sex Pistols were as substantial as pop culture could get: "Punk became the most important cultural phenomenon of the late 20th century", McLaren would later assert. "Its authenticity stands out against the karaoke ersatz culture of today, where everything and everyone is for sale.... [P]unk is not, and never was, for sale."[209] Or they were a cynical con: something with which "to sell trousers", as McLaren said in 1989;[210] a "carefully planned exercise to embezzle as much money as possible out of the music industry", as Jon Savage characterizes McLaren's core theme in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle;[211] "cash from chaos" as the movie repeatedly puts it.[212]
Lydon, in turn, would dismiss McLaren's influence: "We made our own scandal just by being ourselves. Maybe it was that he knew he was redundant, so he overcompensated. All the talk about the French Situationists being associated with punk is bollocks. It's nonsense!"[213] Cook concurs: "Situationism had nothing to do with us. The Jamie Reids and Malcolms were excited because we were the real thing. I suppose we were what they were dreaming of."[214] According to Lydon, "If we had an aim, it was to force our own, working-class opinions into the mainstream, which was unheard of in pop music at the time."[160]
Toby Creswell argues that the "Sex Pistols' agenda was inchoate, to say the least. It was a general call to rebellion that falls apart at the slightest scrutiny."[201] Critic Ian Birch, writing in 1981, called "stupid" the claim that the Sex Pistols "had any political significance.... If they did anything, they made a lot of people content with being nothing. They certainly didn't inspire the working classes."[215] While the Conservative triumph in 1979 may be taken as evidence for that position, Julian Temple has noted that the scene inspired by the Sex Pistols "wasn't your kind of two-up, two-down working class normal families, most of it. It was over the edge of the precipice in social terms. They were actually giving a voice to an area of the working class that was almost beyond the pale."[216] Within a year of "Anarchy in the U.K." that voice was being echoed widely: scores if not hundreds of punk bands had formed across the country—groups composed largely of working-class members or middle-class members who rejected their own class values and pursued solidarity with the working class.[217]
In 1980, critic Greil Marcus reflected on McLaren's contradictory posture:
It may be that in the mind of their self-celebrated Svengali...the Sex Pistols were never meant to be more than a nine-month wonder, a cheap vehicle for some fast money, a few laughs, a touch of the old épater la bourgeoisie. It may also be that in the mind of their chief terrorist and propagandist, anarchist veteran...and Situational artist McLaren, the Sex Pistols were meant to be a force that would set the world on its ear...and finally unite music and politics. The Sex Pistols were all of these things.[218]
A couple of years before, Marcus had identified different roots underlying the band's merger of music and politics, arguing that they "have absorbed from reggae and the Rastas the idea of a culture that will make demands on those in power which no government could ever satisfy; a culture that will be exclusive, almost separatist, yet also messianic, apocalyptic and stoic, and that will ignore or smash any contradiction inherent in such a complexity of stances."[135] Critic Sean Campbell has discussed how Lydon's Irish Catholic heritage both facilitated his entrée into London's reggae scene and complicated his position vis-à-vis the ethnically English working class—the background his bandmates had in common.[219]
Critic Bill Wyman acknowledges that Lydon's "fierce intelligence and astonishing onstage charisma" were important catalysts, but ultimately finds the band's real meaning lies in McLaren's provocative media manipulations.[176] While some of the Sex Pistols' public affronts were plotted by McLaren, Westwood, and company, others were evidently not—including what McLaren himself cites as the "pivotal moment that changed everything",[209] the clash on the Bill Grundy Today show.[220] "Malcolm milked situations", says Cook, "he didn't instigate them; that was always our own doing."[221] It is also hard to ascribe the effect of the Sex Pistols' early Manchester shows on that city's nascent punk scene to anyone other than the musicians themselves. Matlock later wrote that at the point when he left the band, it was beginning to occur to him that McLaren "was in fact quite deliberately perpetrating that idea of us as his puppets.... However, on the other hand, I've since found out that even Malcolm wasn't as aware of what he was up to as he has since made out."[222] By his absence, Matlock demonstrated how crucial he was to the band's creativity: in the eleven months between his departure and the Pistols' demise, they composed only two songs.[223]
Johnny Rotten wearing a Westwood-designed "Destroy" T-shirt, echoing Rotten's yawp at the end of "Anarchy in the U.K."[224]Music historian Simon Reynolds argues that McLaren came into his own as an auteur only after the group's breakup, with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and the recruitment of Ronnie Biggs as a vocalist.[33] Much subsequent commentary on the Sex Pistols has relied on taking seriously McLaren's onscreen proclamations in the film, whether lending them credence or not. As music journalist Dave Thompson noted in 2000, "[T]oday, Swindle is viewed by many as the truth"[225] (despite the fact that the movie purveys, among other things, a completely illiterate Steve Jones, a talking dog, and Sid Vicious shooting audience members, including his mother, at the conclusion of "My Way"). Temple points out that McLaren's characterization was intended as "a big fucking joke—that he was the puppetmeister who created these pieces of clay from plasticine boxes that he modeled away and made Johnny Rotten, made Sid Vicious. It was a joke that they were completely manufactured."[226] (In his final onscreen scene in the film, McLaren declares that he was planning the Sex Pistols affair, "Ever since I was ten years old! Ever since Elvis Presley joined the army!" [1956 and 1958, respectively].)[227] Temple acknowledges that McLaren ultimately "perhaps took this too much to heart."[228]
According to Pistols tour manager Noel Monk and journalist Jimmy Guterman, Lydon was much more than "the band's mouthpiece. He's its raging brain. McLaren or his friend Jamie Reid might drop a word like 'anarchy' or 'vacant' that Rotten seizes upon and turns into a manifesto, but McLaren is not the Svengali to Rotten he'd like to be perceived as. McLaren thought he was working with a tabula rasa, but he soon found out that Rotten has ideas of his own".[229] On the other hand, there is little disagreement about McLaren's marketing talent and his crucial role in making the band a subcultural phenomenon soon after its debut.[176][230] Temple adds that "he catalyzed so many people's heads. He had so many just extraordinary ideas".[231] Though, as Jon Savage emphasizes, "In fact, it was Steve Jones who first had the idea of putting the group, or any group, together with McLaren. He chose McLaren, not vice versa."[232]
[edit] Members
Johnny Rotten – lead vocals (1975–1978, 1996–present)
Steve Jones – guitar, bass (studio), backing vocals (1975–1978, 1996–present)
Paul Cook – drums (1975–1978, 1996–present)
Glen Matlock – bass, backing vocals (1975–1977, 1996–present)
[edit] Former member
Sid Vicious – bass, backing vocals (1977–1978)
[edit] Post-Rotten "Sex Pistols" singers
Lead vocalists, other than Johnny Rotten, on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle tracks credited to the Sex Pistols:
Ronnie Biggs – lead vocals on "No One Is Innocent", "Belsen Was a Gas"
Paul Cook – lead vocals on "Silly Thing"
Steve Jones – lead vocals on "Friggin' In The Riggin'", "EMI (Orchestral)", "Lonely Boy"
Malcolm McLaren – lead vocals on "God Save The Queen (Symphony)", "You Need Hands"
Edward Tudor-Pole – lead vocals on "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle", "Who Killed Bambi?", "Rock Around the Clock"
Sid Vicious – lead vocals on "My Way","Something Else", "C'mon Everybody"
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio album
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (28 October 1977) #1 UK, #106 US
[edit] Compilations, live albums and other official releases
Spunk (early recordings) (bootleg release—1977; official release—24 June 1996, as part of Spunk/This Is Crap, bonus CD included with Never Mind the Bollocks reissue; official stand-alone release—15 August 2006)
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (various artists soundtrack) (2 March 1979) #7 UK
Some Product: Carri on Sex Pistols (interviews and radio spots) (3 August 1979) #6 UK
Flogging a Dead Horse (compilation) (8 February 1980) #23 UK
Sex Pack (compilation) (21 November 1980)
Anarchy in the UK: Live at the 76 Club (live) (bootleg release—1985; official release—13 November 2001)
Kiss This (compilation) (5 October 1992) #10 UK
Filthy Lucre Live (live) (29 July 1996) #26 UK
Jubilee (compilation) (3 June 2002) #29 UK
Sex Pistols (box set) (compilation) (10 June 2002) #160 UK
Raw and Live (live) (15 September 2005)
Agents of Anarchy (compilation) (30 November 2007)
Live & Filthy (live) (26 August 2008)
[edit] Singles
from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
26 November 1976 - "Anarchy in the U.K." #38 UK
27 May 1977 - "God Save the Queen" #2 UK
1 July 1977 - "Pretty Vacant" #6 UK, #93 US
14 October 1977 - "Holidays in the Sun" #8 UK
from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
30 June 1978 - "No One Is Innocent"/"My Way" #6 UK
23 February 1979 - "Something Else" #3 UK
30 March 1979 - "Silly Thing" #6 UK
22 June 1979 - "C'mon Everybody" #3 UK
5 October 1979 - "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" #21 UK
6 June 1980 - "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" #21 UK
from Kiss This
September 1992 - "Anarchy in the U.K." (reissue) #33 UK
December 1992 - "Pretty Vacant" (reissue) #56 UK
from Filthy Lucre Live
June 1996 - "Pretty Vacant" (live) #18 UK
from Jubilee
27 May 2002 - "God Save the Queen" (reissue) #15 UK
from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols—30th Anniversary Edition
1 October 2007 - "Anarchy in the U.K." (2nd reissue) #70 UK
8 October 2007 - "God Save the Queen" (2nd reissue) #42 UK
15 October 2007 - "Pretty Vacant" (2nd reissue) #65 UK
22 October 2007 - "Holidays in the Sun" (reissue) #74 UK
The Sex Pistols evolved from The Strand, a London band formed in 1973 with working-class teenagers Steve Jones on vocals, Paul Cook on drums, and Wally Nightingale on guitar. According to a later account by Jones, both he and Cook played on instruments they had stolen.[4] Early line-ups of The Strand—sometimes known as The Swankers—also included Jim Mackin on organ and Stephen Hayes (and later, briefly, Del Noones) on bass.[5] The band members hung out regularly at two clothing shops on Kings Road, in London's Chelsea neighbourhood: John Krivine and Steph Raynor's Acme Attractions (where Don Letts worked as manager)[6] and Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. The McLaren-Westwood store had opened in 1971 as Let It Rock, with a 1950s revival Teddy Boy theme. It had been renamed in 1972 to focus on another revival trend, the rocker look associated with Marlon Brando.[7] As John Lydon later observed, "Malcolm and Vivienne were really a pair of shysters: they would sell anything to any trend that they could grab onto."[8] The shop was to become a focal point of the punk rock scene, bringing together participants such as the future Sid Vicious, Marco Pirroni, Gene October, and Mark Stewart, among many others.[9] Jordan, the wildly styled shop assistant, is credited with "pretty well single-handedly paving the punk look".[10]
In early 1974, Jones convinced McLaren to help out The Strand. Effectively becoming the group's manager, McLaren paid for their first formal rehearsal space. Glen Matlock, an art student who occasionally worked at Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, was recruited as the band's regular bassist.[11] In November, McLaren temporarily relocated to New York City. Before his departure, McLaren and Westwood had conceived of a new identity for their store: renamed Sex, it changed its focus from retro couture to S&M-inspired "anti-fashion", with a billing as "Specialists in rubberwear, glamourwear & stagewear".[12] After briefly managing and promoting the New York Dolls, McLaren returned to London in May 1975. Inspired by the punk scene that was beginning to emerge in Lower Manhattan—in particular by the radical visual style and attitude of Richard Hell, then with Television—McLaren began taking greater interest in The Strand.[13]
The group had been rehearsing regularly, overseen by McLaren's friend Bernard Rhodes, and had performed publicly for the first time. Soon after McLaren's return, Nightingale was kicked out of the band and Jones, uncomfortable as frontman, took over guitar duties.[14] According to journalist and former McLaren employee Phil Strongman, around this time the band adopted the name QT Jones and the Sex Pistols (or QT Jones & His Sex Pistols, as one Rhodes-designed T-shirt put it).[15] McLaren had been talking with the New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain about coming over to England to front the group. When those plans fell through, McLaren, Rhodes and the band began looking locally for a new member to assume the lead vocal duties.[16] As described by Matlock, "[E]veryone had long hair then, even the milkman, so what we used to do was if someone had short hair we would stop them in the street and ask them if they fancied themselves as a singer."[17] Among those they approached was Midge Ure, who was involved with his own band, Slik. Kevin Rowland—who would cofound Dexys Midnight Runners three years later—auditioned, but except for Matlock, no one was impressed. With the search going nowhere, McLaren made several calls to Richard Hell, who turned down the invitation.[18]
[edit] Johnny Rotten joins the band
In August 1975, Rhodes spotted nineteen-year-old Kings Road habitué John Lydon wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words I Hate handwritten above the band's name and holes scratched through the eyes.[19][20][21] Reports vary at this point: the same day, or soon after, either Rhodes or McLaren asked Lydon to come to a nearby pub in the evening to meet Jones and Cook.[19][22] According to Jones, "He came in with green hair. I thought he had a really interesting face. I liked his look. He had his 'I Hate Pink Floyd' T-shirt on, and it was held together with safety pins. John had something special, but when he started talking he was a real asshole—but smart."[19] When the pub closed, the group moved over to Sex, where Lydon, who had given little thought to singing, was convinced to improvise along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" on the shop jukebox. Though the performance drove the band members to laughter, McLaren convinced them to start rehearsing with Lydon.[19][23]
Lydon later described the social context in which the band came together:
Early Seventies Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment—just about everybody was on strike. Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks...then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all. Out of that came pretentious moi and the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us.[24]
Nick Kent—a writer for the New Musical Express (NME)—used to jam occasionally with the band, but left upon Lydon's recruitment. "When I came along, I took one look at him and said, 'No. That has to go,'" Lydon later explained. "He's never written a good word about me ever since."[25] In September, McLaren again helped hire private rehearsal space for the group, which had been practicing in pubs. Cook, who had a full-time job he was loath to give up, was making noises about quitting. According to Matlock's later description, Cook "created a smokescreen" by claiming Jones wasn't skilled enough to be the band's sole guitarist. An advertisement was placed in Melody Maker for a "Whizz Kid Guitarist. Not older than 20. Not worse looking than Johnny Thunders" (referring to a leading member of the New York punk scene).[26] Most of those who turned up to audition were obviously incompetent, but in McLaren's view, the process created a new sense of solidarity among the four band members.[27] The one talented guitarist who tried out, Steve New, was brought on. Jones, however, was improving rapidly and the band's developing sound had no room for the sort of technical lead work at which New was adept. He departed after a month.[28]
Lydon had been rechristened "Johnny Rotten" by Jones, apparently because of his bad dental hygiene.[21][29] The band also settled on a name. After considering options such as Le Bomb, Subterraneans, the Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel, Kid Gladlove, and Crème De La Crème, they decided on Sex Pistols—a shortened form of the name they had apparently been working under informally.[30] McLaren later explained that the name derived "from the idea of a pistol, a pin-up, a young thing, a better-looking assassin". Not given to modesty, false or otherwise, he added, "[I] launched the idea in the form of a band of kids who could be perceived as being bad."[31] The group began writing original material: Rotten was the lyricist and Matlock the primary melody writer (though their first collaboration, "Pretty Vacant", had a complete lyric by Matlock, which Rotten tweaked a bit); official credit was shared equally among the four.[32][33]
The new quartet's first gig was arranged by Matlock, who was studying at Saint Martins College. The band played at the school on 6 November 1975,[34] in support of a pub rock group called Bazooka Joe, arranging to use their amps and drums. The Sex Pistols performed several cover songs, including The Who's "Substitute", the Small Faces' "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", and "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", made famous by The Monkees; according to observers, they were unexceptional musically aside from being extremely loud. Before the Pistols could play the few original songs they had written to date, Bazooka Joe pulled the plugs as they saw their gear being trashed. A brief physical altercation between members of the two bands took place on stage.[35]
[edit] Building a following
The original lineup of the Sex Pistols, early 1976. Left to right: Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook.The Saint Martins gig was followed by other performances at colleges and art schools around London. The Sex Pistols' core group of followers—including Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and Billy Idol, who would go on to form bands of their own—came to be known as the Bromley Contingent, after the neighbourhood several were from.[36] Their cutting-edge fashion, much of it supplied by Sex, ignited a trend that was adopted by the new fans the band attracted.[37] McLaren and Westwood saw the incipient London punk movement as a vehicle for more than just couture. They were both captivated by the May 1968 radical uprising in Paris, particularly by the ideology and agitations of the Situationists, as well as the anarchist thought of Buenaventura Durruti and others.[38] These interests were shared with Jamie Reid, an old friend of McLaren's who began producing publicity material for the Sex Pistols in spring 1976.[39] (The cut-up lettering employed to create the classic Sex Pistols logo and many subsequent designs for the band was actually introduced by McLaren's friend Helen Wellington-Lloyd.)[40] "We used to talk to John [Lydon] a lot about the Situationists," Reid later said. "The Sex Pistols seemed the perfect vehicle to communicate ideas directly to people who weren't getting the message from left-wing politics."[41] McLaren was also arranging for the band's first photo sessions.[42] As described by music historian Jon Savage, "With his green hair, hunched stance and ragged look, [Lydon] looked like a cross between Uriah Heep and Richard Hell."[43]
The first Sex Pistols gig to attract broader attention was as a supporting act for Eddie and the Hot Rods, a leading pub rock group, at the Marquee on 12 February 1976. Rotten "was now really pushing the barriers of performance, walking off stage, sitting with the audience, throwing Jordan across the dancefloor and chucking chairs around, before smashing some of Eddie and the Hot Rods' gear."[44] The band's first review appeared in the NME, accompanied by a brief interview in which Steve Jones declared, "Actually we're not into music. We're into chaos."[45] Among those who read the article were two students at the Bolton Institute of Technology, Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, who headed down to London in search of the Sex Pistols. After chatting with McLaren at Sex, they ultimately caught the band at a couple of late February gigs.[46] The two friends immediately began organizing their own Pistols-style group, the Buzzcocks. As Devoto later put it, "My life changed the moment that I saw the Sex Pistols."[47]
The Pistols were soon playing other important venues, debuting at Oxford Street's 100 Club on 30 March.[48] On 3 April, they played for the first time at the Nashville, supporting The 101ers. The pub rock group's lead singer, Joe Strummer, saw the Pistols for the first time that night—and recognized punk rock as the future.[49] A return gig at the Nashville, 23 April, demonstrated the band's growing musical competence, but by all accounts lacked a spark. Westwood provided that by instigating a fight with another audience member; McLaren and Rotten were soon involved in the melee.[50] Cook later said, "That fight at the Nashville: that's when all the publicity got hold of it and the violence started creeping in.... I think everybody was ready to go and we were the catalyst."[51] The Pistols were soon banned from both the Nashville and the Marquee.[52]
On 23 April, as well, the debut album by the leading punk rock band in the New York scene, the Ramones, was released. Though it is regarded as seminal to the growth of punk rock in England and elsewhere, Lydon has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that it influenced the Sex Pistols: "[The Ramones] were all long-haired and of no interest to me. I didn't like their image, what they stood for, or anything about them";[53] "They were hilarious but you can only go so far with 'duh-dur-dur-duh'. I've heard it. Next. Move on."[54] On 11 May, the Pistols began a four-week-long Tuesday night residency at the 100 Club.[55] The rest of the month was mostly devoted to touring small cities and towns in the north of England and recording demos in London with producer and recording artist Chris Spedding.[55][56] The following month they played their first gig in Manchester, arranged by Devoto and Shelley. The Sex Pistols' 4 June performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall set off a punk rock boom in the city.[57][58]
The Sex Pistols in performance at the 100 Club, 1976. On the right: Steve Jones (foreground) and Johnny Rotten (background).On 4 July and 6 July, respectively, two newly formed London punk rock acts, The Clash—with Strummer as lead vocalist—and The Damned, made their live debuts opening for the Sex Pistols. On their off night in between, the Pistols (despite Lydon's later professed disdain) showed up for a Ramones gig at Dingwalls like virtually everyone else at the heart of the London punk scene.[59] During a return Manchester engagement, 20 July, the Pistols premiered a new song, "Anarchy in the U.K.", reflecting elements of the radical ideologies to which Rotten was being exposed. According to Jon Savage, "there seems little doubt that Lydon was fed material by Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid, which he then converted into his own lyric."[60] "Anarchy in the U.K." was among the seven originals recorded in another demo session that month, this one overseen by the band's sound engineer, Dave Goodman.[61] McLaren organized a major event for 29 August at the Screen on the Green in London's Islington district: the Buzzcocks and The Clash opened for the Sex Pistols in punk's "first metropolitan test of strength".[62] Three days later, the band were in Manchester to tape what would be their first television appearance, for Tony Wilson's So It Goes. Scheduled to perform just one song, "Anarchy in the U.K.", the band ran straight through another two other numbers as pandemonium broke out in the control room.[63]
The Sex Pistols played their first concert outside Britain on 3 September, at the opening of the Chalet du Lac disco in Paris. The Bromley Contingent accompanied them, with Siouxsie Sioux's swastika armband causing a stir.[64] The following day, the So It Goes performance aired; the audience heard "Anarchy in the U.K." introduced with a shout of "Get off your arse!"[64][65] On 13 September, the Pistols began a tour of Britain.[66] A week later, back in London, they headlined the opening night of the 100 Club Punk Special. Organized by McLaren (for whom the word "festival" had too much of a hippie connotation), the event was "considered the moment that was the catalyst for the years to come."[67] Belying the common perception that punk bands couldn't play their instruments, contemporary music press reviews, later critical assessments of concert recordings, and testimonials by fellow musicians indicate that the Pistols had developed into a tight, ferocious live band.[68] As Rotten tested out wild vocalization styles, the instrumentalists experimented "with overload, feedback and distortion...pushing their equipment to the limit".[69]
[edit] EMI and the Grundy incident
"Anarchy in the U.K."
"Anarchy in the U.K." reached number 38 on the UK singles chart
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On 8 October 1976, the major record label EMI signed the Sex Pistols to a two-year contract.[70] In short order, the band was in the studio recording a full-dress session with Dave Goodman. As later described by Matlock, "The idea was to get the spirit of the live performance. We were pressurized to make it faster and faster."[71] The riotous results were rejected. Chris Thomas, who had produced Roxy Music and, ironically, mixed Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, was brought in to produce.[72] The band's first single, "Anarchy in the U.K.", was released on 26 November 1976.[71] John Robb—soon to be a cofounder of The Membranes and later a music journalist—described the record's impact: "From Steve Jones' opening salvo of descending chords, to Johnny Rotten's fantastic sneering vocals, this song is the perfect statement...a stunningly powerful piece of punk politics...a lifestyle choice, a manifesto that heralds a new era".[73] Colin Newman, who had just cofounded the band Wire, heard it as "the clarion call of a generation."[74]
"Anarchy in the U.K." was not, in fact, the first British punk single, pipped by The Damned's "New Rose". "We Vibrate" had also appeared from The Vibrators, a pub rock band formed early in 1976 that had become associated with punk—though "with their long hair and mildly risqué name, the Vibrators were passers-by as far as punk taste-makers were concerned."[75] Unlike those songs, whose lyrical content was comfortably within rock 'n' roll traditions, "Anarchy in the U.K." linked punk to a newly politicized attitude—the Pistols' stance was aggrieved, euphoric and nihilistic, all at the same time. Rotten's howls of "I am an anti-christ" and "Destroy!" repurposed rock as an ideological weapon.[76] The single's packaging and visual promotion also broke new ground. Reid and McLaren came up with the notion of selling the record in a completely wordless, featureless black sleeve.[77] The primary image associated with the single was Reid's "anarchy flag" poster: a Union Flag ripped up and partly safety-pinned back together, with the song and band names clipped along the edges of a gaping hole in the middle. This and other images created by Reid for the Sex Pistols quickly became punk icons.[78]
The Fucking Rotter
Audio from the 1976 interview conducted by Bill Grundy
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The Sex Pistols' behaviour, as much as their music, brought them national attention. On 1 December 1976, the band and members of the Bromley Contingent created a storm of publicity by swearing during an early evening live broadcast of Thames Television's Today programme. Appearing as last-minute replacements for fellow EMI artists Queen, band and entourage were offered drinks as they waited to go on air. During the interview, Jones said the band had "fucking spent" its label advance, Rotten used the word "shit", and host Bill Grundy, admittedly drunk, flirted openly with Siouxsie Sioux: "We'll meet afterwards, shall we?" This prompted the following exchange between Jones and the host:
Jones: You dirty sod. You dirty old man.
Grundy: Well keep going chief, keep going. Go on. You've got another five seconds. Say something outrageous.
Jones: You dirty bastard.
Grundy: Go on, again.
Jones: You dirty fucker.
Grundy: What a clever boy.
Jones: What a fucking rotter.[79]
Daily Mirror front page, 2 December 1976Although the programme was broadcast only in the London region, the ensuing furore occupied the tabloid newspapers for days. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline "The Filth and the Fury!";[80] other papers such as the Daily Express ("Fury at Filthy TV Chat") and the Daily Telegraph ("4-Letter Words Rock TV") followed suit.[81] Thames Television suspended Grundy, and though he was later reinstated, the interview effectively ended his career.[82]
The episode made the band household names throughout the country and brought punk into mainstream awareness. The Pistols set out on the Anarchy Tour of the UK, supported by The Clash and Johnny Thunders' band The Heartbreakers, over from New York. The Damned were briefly part of the tour, before McLaren kicked them off. Press coverage was intense, and many of the concerts were cancelled by organisers or local authorities; of approximately twenty scheduled gigs, only about seven actually took place.[83] Packers at the EMI plant refused to handle the band's single.[84] London councillor Bernard Brook Partridge declared, "Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups I suppose currently are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating. They are the antithesis of humankind. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it."[85]
Following the end of the tour in late December, three concerts were arranged in Holland for January 1977. The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on 4 January; a few hours later, the Evening News was reporting that the band had "vomited and spat their way" to the flight.[86] Despite categorical denials by the EMI representative who accompanied the group, the label, which was under political pressure, released the band from their contract.[87] As McLaren fielded offers from other labels, the band went into the studio for a round of recordings with Goodman, their last with both him and Matlock.[88]
[edit] Sid Vicious joins the band
In February 1977, word leaked out that Matlock was leaving the Sex Pistols. On 28 February, McLaren sent a telegram to the NME confirming the split. He claimed that Matlock had been "thrown out...because he went on too long about Paul McCartney.... The Beatles was too much."[89] In an interview a few months afterward, Steve Jones echoed the charge that Matlock had been sacked because he "liked The Beatles".[4] Years later, Jones expanded on the matter of the band's issues with Matlock: "He was a good writer but he didn't look like a Sex Pistol and he was always washing his feet. His mum didn't like the songs."[90] Matlock told the NME that he had voluntarily left the band by "mutual agreement".[89] Later, in his autobiography, he would describe the primary impetus as his increasingly acrimonious relationship with Rotten, exacerbated—in Matlock's account—by the rampant inflation of Rotten's ego "once he'd had his name in the papers".[91] Lydon would later claim that "God Save the Queen", the belligerently sardonic song planned as the band's second single, had been the final straw: "[Matlock] couldn't handle those kinds of lyrics. He said it declared us fascists." Though the singer could hardly see how antiroyalism equated with fascism, he claimed, "Just to get rid of him, I didn't deny it."[92] Jon Savage suggests that Rotten pushed Matlock out in an effort to demonstrate his power and autonomy from McLaren.[93] Matlock almost immediately formed his own band, Rich Kids, with Midge Ure, Steve New, and Rusty Egan.
Warner Bros. Records, the Sex Pistols' American label, found this an appropriate image with which to promote Sid Vicious.Matlock was replaced by Rotten's friend and self-appointed "ultimate Sex Pistols fan" Sid Vicious. Born Simon John Ritchie, later known as John Beverley, Vicious was previously drummer of two inner circle punk bands, Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Flowers of Romance. He was also credited with introducing the pogo dance to the scene at the 100 Club. John Robb claims it was at the first Sex Pistols residency gig, 11 May 1976; Matlock is convinced it happened during the second night of the 100 Club Punk Special in September, when the Pistols were off playing in Wales.[94] In Matlock's description, Rotten wanted Vicious in the band because "[i]nstead of him against Steve and Paul, it would become him and Sid against Steve and Paul. He always thought of it in terms of opposing camps".[95] Julien Temple, then a film student whom McLaren had put on the Sex Pistols payroll to create a comprehensive audiovisual record of the band, concurs: "Sid was John's protégé in the group, really. The other two just thought he was crazy."[96] McLaren later stated that, much earlier in the band's career, Vivienne Westwood had told him he should "get the guy called John who came to the store a couple of times" to be the singer. When Johnny Rotten was recruited for the band, Westwood said McLaren had got it wrong: "he had got the wrong John." It was John Beverley, the future Vicious, she had been recommending.[97] McLaren approved the belated inclusion of Vicious, who had virtually no experience on his new instrument, on account of his look and reputation in the punk scene.
Pogoing aside, Vicious had been involved in a notorious incident during that memorable second night of the 100 Club Punk Special. Arrested for hurling a glass at The Damned that shattered and blinded a girl in one eye, he had served time in a remand centre—and contributed to the 100 Club banning all punk bands.[98] At a previous 100 Club gig, he had assaulted Nick Kent with a bicycle chain.[99] Indeed, McLaren's NME telegram said that Vicious's "best credential was he gave Nick Kent what he deserved many months ago at the Hundred Club".[89][100] According to a later description by McLaren, "When Sid joined he couldn't play guitar but his craziness fit into the structure of the band. He was the knight in shining armour with a giant fist."[101] "Everyone agreed he had the look," Lydon later recalled, but musical skill was another matter. "The first rehearsals...in March of 1977 with Sid were hellish.... Sid really tried hard and rehearsed a lot".[102] Marco Pirroni, who had performed with Vicious in Siouxsie & the Banshees, has said, "After that, it was nothing to do with music anymore. It would just be for the sensationalism and scandal of it all. Then it became the Malcolm McLaren story".[101]
Membership in the Sex Pistols had a progressively destructive effect on Vicious. As Lydon later observed, "Up to that time, Sid was absolutely childlike. Everything was fun and giggly. Suddenly he was a big pop star. Pop star status meant press, a good chance to be spotted in all the right places, adoration. That's what it all meant to Sid."[101] Westwood had already been feeding him material, like a tome on Charles Manson, likely to encourage his worst instincts.[103] Early in 1977, he met Nancy Spungen, an emotionally disturbed drug addict and sometime prostitute from New York.[101][104] Spungen is commonly thought to be responsible for introducing Vicious to heroin, and the emotional codependency between the couple alienated Vicious from the other members of the band. Lydon later wrote, "We did everything to get rid of Nancy.... She was killing him. I was absolutely convinced this girl was on a slow suicide mission.... Only she didn't want to go alone. She wanted to take Sid with her.... She was so utterly fucked up and evil."[105]
[edit] “God Save the Queen”
On 10 March 1977, at a press ceremony held outside Buckingham Palace, the Sex Pistols publicly signed to A&M Records (the real signing had taken place the day before). Afterward, stoked on booze, they made their way to the A&M offices. Vicious smashed in a toilet bowl and cut his foot (there is some disagreement about which happened first). As Vicious trailed blood around the offices, Rotten verbally abused the staff and Jones got frisky in the ladies' room.[106] A couple of days later, the Pistols got into a rumble with another band at a club; one of Rotten's pals threatened the life of a good friend of A&M's English director. On 16 March, A&M broke contract with the Pistols. Twenty-five thousand copies of the planned "God Save the Queen" single, produced by Chris Thomas, had already been pressed; virtually all were destroyed.[107]
Jamie Reid's "God Save the Queen" sleeve; in 2001, it was named the greatest record cover of all time by Q magazine.[108]Vicious debuted with the band at London's Notre Dame Hall on 28 March.[109] In May, the band signed with Virgin Records, their third new label in little more than half a year. Virgin was more than ready to release "God Save the Queen", but new obstacles arose. Workers at the pressing plant laid down their tools in protest at the song's content. Jamie Reid's now famous cover, showing Queen Elizabeth II with her features obscured by the song and band names in cutout letters, offended the sleeve's platemakers.[110] After much talk, production resumed and the record was finally released on 27 May.[111]
The scabrous lyrics—"God save the queen/She ain't no human being/And there's no future/In England's dreaming"—prompted widespread outcry.[112] Several major chains refused to stock the single.[111] It was banned not only by the BBC but also by every independent radio station, making it the "most heavily censored record in British history".[113] Rotten boasted, "We're the only honest band that's hit this planet in about two thousand million years."[114] Jones shrugged off everything the song stated and implied—or took nihilism to a logical endpoint: "I don't see how anyone could describe us as a political band. I don't even know the name of the Prime Minister."[114] The song, and its public impact, are now recognized as "punk's crowning glory".[2]
The Virgin release had been timed to coincide with the height of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee celebrations. By Jubilee weekend, a week and a half after the record's release, it had sold more than 150,000 copies—a massive success. On 7 June, McLaren and the record label arranged to charter a private boat and have the Sex Pistols perform while sailing down the River Thames, passing Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. The event, a mockery of the Queen's river procession planned for two days later, ended in chaos. Police launches forced the boat to dock, and constabulary surrounded the gangplanks at the pier. While the band members and their equipment were hustled down a side stairwell, McLaren, Westwood, and many of the band's entourage were arrested.[115]
"God Save the Queen"
"God Save the Queen" was originally titled "No Future", but was changed to coincide with the 1977 Jubilee
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With the official UK record chart for Jubilee week about to be released, the Daily Mirror predicted that "God Save the Queen" would be number one. As it turned out, the record placed second, behind a Rod Stewart single in its fourth week at the top. Many believed that the record had actually qualified for the top spot, but that the chart had been rigged to prevent a spectacle. McLaren later claimed that CBS Records, which was distributing both singles, told him that the Sex Pistols were actually outselling Stewart two to one. There is evidence that an exceptional directive was issued by the British Phonographic Institute, which oversaw the chart-compiling bureau, to exclude sales from record-company operated shops such as Virgin's for that week only.[116]
Violent attacks on punk fans were on the rise. In mid-June Rotten himself was assaulted by a knife-wielding gang outside Islington's Pegasus pub, causing tendon damage to his left arm. Jamie Reid and Paul Cook were beaten up in other incidents; three days after the Pegasus assault, Rotten was attacked again.[117] A tour of Scandinavia, planned to start at the end of the month, was consequently delayed until mid-July. During the tour, a Swedish interviewer observed to Jones that "a lot of people" regarded the band as McLaren's "creation". Jones replied, "He's our manager, that's all. He's got nothing to do with the music or the image...he's just a good manager."[4] In another interview, Rotten professed bafflement at the furore surrounding the group: "I don't understand it. All we're trying to do is destroy everything."[118] At the end of August came SPOTS—Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly, a surreptitious UK tour with the band playing under pseudonyms to avoid cancellation.[119]
McLaren had wanted for some time to make a movie featuring the Sex Pistols. Julien Temple's first major task had been to assemble Sex Pistols Number 1, a twenty-five-minute mosaic of footage from various sources, much of it refilmed by Temple off of television screens.[120] Number 1 was often screened at concert venues before the band took the stage. Using media footage from the Thames incident, Temple created another propagandistic short, Jubilee Riverboat (aka Sex Pistols Number 2).[121] During summer 1977, McLaren had been making arrangements for the feature film of his dreams, Who Killed Bambi?, to be directed by Russ Meyer from a script by Roger Ebert. After a single day of shooting, 11 September, production ceased when it became clear that McLaren had failed to arrange financing.[122]
[edit] Never Mind the Bollocks
"Holidays in the Sun"
"Holidays in the Sun", the Sex Pistols' fourth single, is the lead track on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
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Since the spring of 1977, the three senior Sex Pistols had been returning to the studio periodically with Chris Thomas to lay down the tracks for the band's debut album. Initially to be called God Save Sex Pistols, it became known during the summer as Never Mind the Bollocks.[123] According to Jones, "Sid wanted to come down and play on the album, and we tried as hard as possible not to let him anywhere near the studio. Luckily he had hepatitis at the time."[124] Cook later described how many of the instrumental tracks were built up from drum and guitar parts, rather than the usual drum and bass.[125]
Given Vicious's incompetence, Matlock had been invited to record as a session musician. In his autobiography, Matlock says he agreed to "help out", but then suggests that he cut all ties after McLaren issued the 28 February NME telegram announcing Matlock had been fired for liking the Beatles.[126] In fact, Matlock did play as a hired hand on 3 March, for what Jon Savage describes as an "audition session".[127] In his autobiography, Lydon claims that Matlock's work-for-hire for his ex-band was extensive—much more so than any other source reports—seemingly to amplify a putdown: "I think I'd rather die than do something like that."[128] Music historian David Howard states unambiguously that Matlock did not perform on any of the Never Mind the Bollocks recording sessions.[129] It was Jones who ultimately played most of the bass parts during the Bollocks recordings; Howard calls his rudimentary, rumbling approach the "explosive missing ingredient" of the Sex Pistols' sound.[129] Vicious's bass is reportedly present on one track that appeared on the original album release, "Bodies". Jones recalls, "He played his farty old bass part and we just let him do it. When he left I dubbed another part on, leaving Sid's down low. I think it might be barely audible on the track."[130] Following "God Save the Queen", two more singles were released from these sessions, "Pretty Vacant" (largely written by Matlock) on 1 July[131] and "Holidays in the Sun" on 14 October.[132] Each was a Top Ten hit.[133]
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (which includes "Anarchy in the U.K." and another earlier recording, "No Feelings") was released on 28 October 1977.[134] Rolling Stone praised the album as "just about the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies", applauding the band for playing "with an energy and conviction that is positively transcendent in its madness and fever".[135] Some critics, disappointed that the album contained all four previously released singles, dismissed it as little more than a "greatest hits" record.[136] Containing both "Bodies"—in which Rotten utters "fuck" five times—and the previously censored "God Save the Queen" and featuring the word bollocks (popular slang for testicles) in its title, the album was banned by Boots, W. H. Smith and Woolworth's.[137] The Conservative shadow minister for education condemned it as "a symptom of the way society is declining" and both the Independent Television Companies' Association and the Association of Independent Radio Contractors banned its advertisements.[138] Nonetheless, advance sales were sufficient to make it an undeniable number one on the album chart.[137]
U.S. poster for Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex PistolsThe album title led to a legal case that attracted considerable attention: a Virgin Records store in Nottingham that put the album in its window was threatened with prosecution for displaying "indecent printed matter". The case was thrown out when defending QC John Mortimer produced an expert witness who established that bollocks was an Old English term for a small ball, that it appeared in place names without causing local communities erotic disturbance, and that in the nineteenth century it had been used as a nickname for clergymen: "Clergymen are known to talk a good deal of rubbish and so the word later developed the meaning of nonsense."[139] In the context of the Pistols' album title, the term does in fact primarily signify "nonsense". Steve Jones off-handedly came up with the title as the band debated what to call the album. An exasperated Jones said, "Oh, fuck it, never mind the bollocks of it all."[140]
After playing a few dates in Holland—the beginning of a planned multinational tour—the band set out on a Never Mind the Bans tour of Britain in December 1977. Of eight scheduled dates, four were cancelled due to illness or political pressure. On Christmas Day, the Sex Pistols played two shows at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield. Before a regular evening concert, the band performed a benefit matinee for the children of "striking firemen, laid-off workers and one-parent families."[141] These would turn out to be the band's final UK performances.[142]
[edit] US tour and the end of the band
In January 1978, the Sex Pistols embarked on a US tour, consisting mainly of dates in America's Deep South. Originally scheduled to begin a few days before New Year's, it was delayed due to American authorities' reluctance to issue visas to band members with criminal records. Several dates in the North had to be cancelled as a result.[134][143] Though highly anticipated by fans and media, the tour was plagued by in-fighting, poor planning and physically belligerent audiences. McLaren later admitted that he purposely booked redneck bars to provoke hostile situations.[97] Over the course of the two weeks, Vicious, by now heavily addicted to heroin,[144] began to live up to his stage name. "He finally had an audience of people who would behave with shock and horror", Lydon later wrote. "Sid was easily led by the nose."[145]
Early in the tour, Vicious wandered off from his Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee, looking for drugs. He was found in a hospital, having carved the words "Gimme a fix" in his chest with a razor. During a concert in San Antonio, Texas, Vicious called the crowd "a bunch of faggots", before striking an audience member across the head with his bass guitar.[144] In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he received simulated oral sex on stage, later declaring "that’s the kind of girl I like".[146] Suffering from heroin withdrawal during a show in Dallas, Texas, he spat blood at a woman who had climbed onstage and punched him in the face.[145] He was admitted to hospital later that night to treat various injuries. Offstage he is said to have kicked a female photographer, attacked a security guard, and eventually challenged one of his own bodyguards to a fight—beaten up, he is reported to have exclaimed, "I like you. Now we can be friends."[101]
"No Fun"
Sample of "No Fun", a cover version of The Stooges song—studio recording from 1976 or 1977
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Rotten, meanwhile, suffering from flu[147] and coughing up blood, felt increasingly isolated from Cook and Jones, and disgusted by Vicious.[148] On 14 January 1978, during the tour's final date at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, a disillusioned Rotten introduced the band's encore saying, "You'll get one number and one number only 'cause I'm a lazy bastard." That one number was a Stooges cover, "No Fun". At the end of the song, Rotten, kneeling on the stage, chanted an unambiguous declaration, "This is no fun. No fun. This is no fun—at all. No fun." As the final cymbal crash died away, Rotten addressed the audience directly—"Ah-ha-ha. Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night"—before throwing down his microphone and walking offstage.[149] He later observed, "I felt cheated, and I wasn't going on with it any longer; it was a ridiculous farce. Sid was completely out of his brains—just a waste of space. The whole thing was a joke at that point.... [Malcolm] wouldn't speak to me.... He would not discuss anything with me. But then he would turn around and tell Paul and Steve that the tension was all my fault because I wouldn't agree to anything."[150]
On 17 January, the band split, making their ways separately to Los Angeles. McLaren, Cook and Jones prepared to fly to Rio de Janeiro for a working vacation. Vicious, in increasingly bad shape, was taken to Los Angeles by a friend, who then brought him to New York, where he was immediately hospitalized.[151] Rotten later described his own situation: "The Sex Pistols left me, stranded in Los Angeles with no ticket, no hotel room, and a message to Warner Bros saying that if anyone phones up claiming to be Johnny Rotten, then they were lying. That's how I finished with Malcolm—but not with the rest of the band; I'll always like them."[152] Rotten flew to New York, where he announced the band's breakup in a newspaper interview on 18 January.[153] Virtually broke, he telephoned the head of Virgin Records, Richard Branson, who agreed to pay for his flight back to London, via Jamaica. In Jamaica, Branson met with members of the band Devo, and tried to install Rotten as their lead singer. Devo declined the offer.[154]
Cook, Jones and Vicious never performed together again live after Rotten's departure. Over the next several months, McLaren arranged for recordings in Brazil (with Jones and Cook), Paris (with Vicious) and London; each of the three and others stepped in as lead vocalists on tracks that in some cases were far from what punk was expected to sound like. These recordings were to make up the musical soundtrack for the reconceived Pistols feature film project, directed by Julian Temple, to which McLaren was now devoting himself. On 30 June, a single credited to the Sex Pistols was released: on one side, notorious criminal Ronnie Biggs sang "No One Is Innocent" accompanied by Jones and Cook; on the other, Vicious sang the classic "My Way", over both a Jones-Cook backing track and a string orchestra.[155] The single reached number six on the charts, eventually outselling all the singles with which Rotten was involved.[156] McLaren was seeking to reconstitute the band with a permanent new frontman, but Vicious—McLaren's first choice—had sickened of him. In return for agreeing to record "My Way", Vicious had demanded that McLaren sign a sheet of paper declaring that he was no longer Vicious's manager. In August, Vicious, back in London, delivered his final performances as a nominal Sex Pistol: recording and filming cover versions of two Eddie Cochran songs. The bassist's return to New York in September put paid to McLaren's dreaming.[157]
[edit] Post-breakup
After leaving the Pistols, Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name of Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd. (PiL) with former Clash member Keith Levene and school friend Jah Wobble.[158] The band went on to score a UK Top Ten hit with their debut single, 1978's "Public Image". Lydon initiated legal proceedings against McLaren and the Sex Pistols' management company, Glitterbest, which McLaren controlled. Among the claims were non-payment of royalties, improper usage of the title "Johnny Rotten", unfair contractual obligations,[159] and damages for "all the criminal activities that took place".[160] In 1979, PiL recorded the post-punk classic Metal Box. Lydon performed with the band through 1992, as well as engaging in other projects such as Time Zone with Afrika Bambaataa and Bill Laswell.
Vicious, relocated in New York, began performing as a solo artist, with Nancy Spungen acting as his manager. He recorded a live album, backed by "The Idols" featuring Arthur Kane and Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls—Sid Sings was released in 1979. On 12 October 1978, Spungen was found dead in the Chelsea Hotel room she was sharing with Vicious, with stab wounds to her stomach and dressed only in her underwear.[161] Police recovered drug paraphernalia from the scene and Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. In an interview at the time, McLaren said, "I can't believe he was involved in such a thing. Sid was set to marry Nancy in New York. He was very close to her and had quite a passionate affair with her."[161] (Evidence subsequently revealed points strongly to heroin dealer and sometime actor Rockets Redglare as Spungen's killer.)[162] While free on bail, Vicious smashed a beer mug in the face of Todd Smith, Patti Smith's brother, and was arrested again on an assault charge. On 9 December 1978 he was sent to Rikers Island jail, where he spent 55 days and underwent enforced cold-turkey detox. He was released on 1 February 1979; sometime after midnight, following a small party to celebrate his release, Vicious died of a heroin overdose.[163] He was only twenty-one. Reflecting on the event, Lydon said, "Poor Sid. The only way he could live up to what he wanted everyone to believe about him was to die. That was tragic, but more for Sid than anyone else. He really bought his public image."[164]
On 7 February 1979, just five days after Vicious's death, hearings began in London on Lydon's lawsuit. Cook and Jones were allied with McLaren, but as evidence mounted that their manager had poured virtually all of the band's revenue into his beloved film project, they switched sides. On 14 February, the court put the film and its soundtrack into receivership—no longer under McLaren's control, they were now to be administered as exploitable assets for addressing the band members' financial claims. McLaren, with substantial personal debts and legal fees, took off for Paris to sign a record deal for an LP of standards, including "Non, je ne regrette rien". A month later, back in London, he disassociated himself from the film to which he had devoted so much time and money.[165] McLaren went on to manage Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow. In the mid-1980s he released a number of successful and influential records as a solo artist.[166]
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, the soundtrack album for the still-uncompleted film, was released by Virgin Records on 24 February 1979. It is mostly composed of tracks credited to the Sex Pistols: There are the new recordings with vocals by Jones, Vicious, Cook, and Ronnie Biggs, as well as Edward Tudor-Pole, briefly considered as a permanent replacement for Rotten. McLaren himself takes the mic for a couple of numbers. Several tracks feature Rotten's vocals from early, unissued sessions, in some cases with re-recorded backing by Jones and Cook. There is one live cut, from the band's final concert in San Francisco. The album is completed by a couple of tracks in which other artists cover Sex Pistols classics.[167] Four Top Ten singles were culled from the Swindle recordings, one more than had appeared on Never Mind the Bollocks. The 1978 "No One Is Innocent"/"My Way" was followed in 1979 by Vicious's cover of "Something Else" (number three, and the biggest-selling single ever under the Sex Pistols name); Cook singing an original, "Silly Thing" (number six); and Vicious's second Cochran cover, "C'mon Everybody" (number three). Two more singles from the soundtrack were put out under the Pistols brand—Tudor-Pole singing "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" and a Rotten vocal from 1976, "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"; both fell just shy of the Top Twenty.[168] On 21 November 1980, the final "new" studio recordings attributed to the Sex Pistols were released by Virgin: "Black Leather" and "Here We Go Again", recorded by Jones and Cook during the mid-1978 Swindle sessions, were paired as one of a half-dozen 7-inch records (the other five reconfiguring previously released material) sold together as Sex Pack.[169]
The Sex Pistols film was completed by Temple, who received sole credit for the script after McLaren had his name taken off the production. Finally released in 1980, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle still largely reflects McLaren's vision. It is a fictionalised, farcical, partially animated retelling of the band's history and aftermath with McLaren in the lead role, Jones as second lead, and contributions from Vicious (including his memorable performance of "My Way") and Cook. It incorporates promotional videos shot for "God Save the Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" and extensive documentary footage as well, much of it focusing on Rotten. In Temple's description, he and McLaren conceived it as a "very stylized...polemic". They were reacting to the fact that the Pistols had become the "poster on the bedroom wall of the day where you kneel down last thing at night and pray to your rock god. And that was never the point.... The myth had to be dynamited in some way. We had to make this film in a way to enrage the fans".[170] In the film, McLaren claims to have created the band from scratch and engineered its notorious reputation; much of what structure the loose narrative has is based on McLaren's teaching a series of "lessons" to be learned from "an invention of mine they called the punk rock".[171]
Cook and Jones continued to work through guest appearances and as session musicians. In 1980, they formed The Professionals, which lasted for two years. Jones went on to play with the bands Chequered Past and Neurotic Outsiders. He also recorded two solo albums, Mercy and Fire and Gasoline. Now a resident of Los Angeles, he hosts a daily radio program called Jonesy's Jukebox. Having played with the band Chiefs of Relief in the late 1980s and with Edwyn Collins in the 1990s,[172] Cook is now a member of Man Raze. Following The Rich Kids' breakup in 1979, Matlock played with various bands, toured with Iggy Pop, and recorded several solo albums. He is currently a member of Slinky Vagabond.
The 1979 court ruling had left many issues between Lydon and McLaren unresolved. Five years later, Lydon filed another action. Finally, on 16 January 1986, Lydon, Jones, Cook and the estate of Sid Vicious were awarded control of the band's heritage, including the rights to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and all the footage shot for it—more than 250 hours.[173] That same year, a fictionalised film account of Vicious's relationship with Spungen was released: Sid and Nancy, directed by Alex Cox. In his autobiography, Lydon lambastes the film, saying that it "celebrates heroin addiction", goes out of its way to "humiliate [Vicious's] life", and completely misrepresents the Sex Pistols' part in the London punk scene.[174]
[edit] Reunions and later group activities
The original four Sex Pistols reunited in 1996 for the six-month Filthy Lucre Tour, which included dates in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Japan.[175] The band members' access to the archives associated with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle facilitated the production of the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury. This film—directed, like its predecessor, by Temple—was formulated as an attempt to tell the story from the band's point of view, in contrast to Swindle's focus on McLaren and the media.[176] In 2002—the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee—the Sex Pistols reunited again to play the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London. In 2003, their Piss Off Tour took them around North America for three weeks.
On 9 March 2006, the band sold the rights to their back catalogue to Universal Music Group. The sale was criticized by some commentators as a "sell out".[177] In November 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose citation named Vicious as well as the four living members.[1] The band rejected the honour in coarse language on their website. In a television interview, Lydon accompanied a suggestion that the Hall of Fame "Kiss this!" with an obscene gesture.[178] According to Jones, "Once you want to be put into a museum, Rock & Roll's over; it's not voted by fans, it's voted by people who induct you, or others; people who are already in it."[179]
The Sex Pistols reunited again for five gigs at the Brixton Academy and one each in Manchester and Glasgow in November 2007.[180][181] In 2008, they undertook a series of European festival appearances, titled the Combine Harvester Tour. In August, they performed at Budapest's Sziget Festival and at the Dutch festival Lowlands. Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg declared the Pistols' performance "saddening": "They left their swimming pools at home only to scoop up some money here. Really, they're nothing more than that."[182] They later played at the Hammersmith Apollo. That same year, they released the DVD There'll Always Be An England, combining footage from two of the 2007 Brixton Academy appearances.
[edit] Legacy
[edit] Cultural influence
The Trouser Press Record Guide entry on the Sex Pistols declares that "their importance—both to the direction of contemporary music and more generally to pop culture—can hardly be overstated".[183] Rolling Stone has argued that the band, "in direct opposition to the star trappings and complacency" of mid-1970s rock, "came to spark and personify one of the few truly critical moments in pop culture—the rise of punk."[175] In 2004, the magazine ranked the Sex Pistols #58 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[184] Leading music critic Dave Marsh called them "unquestionably the most radical new rock band of the Seventies."[185]
Although the Sex Pistols were not the first punk band, the few recordings that were released during the band's brief initial existence were singularly catalytic expressions of the punk movement. The releases of "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and Never Mind the Bollocks are counted among the most important events in the history of popular music. Never Mind the Bollocks is regularly cited in accountings of all-time great albums: In 2006, it was voted #28 in Q magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever",[186] while Rolling Stone listed it at #2 in its 1987 "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years".[187] It has come to be recognized as among the most influential records in rock history.[180][188] A 2005 Allmusic critique describes it as "one of the greatest, most inspiring rock records of all time".[189]
The Sex Pistols directly inspired the style, and often the formation itself, of many punk and post-punk bands during their first two-and-a-half-year run. The Clash,[190] Siouxsie & the Banshees,[191] The Adverts,[192] Vic Godard of Subway Sect,[193] and Ari Up of The Slits[194] are among those in London's "inner circle" of early punk bands that credit the Pistols. Pauline Murray of Durham punk band Penetration saw the Pistols perform for the first time in Northallerton in May 1976. She later explained their importance,
Nothing would have happened without the Pistols. It was like, "Wow, I believe in this." What they were saying was: "It's a load of shite. I'm going to do what I do and I don't care what people think." That was the key to it. People forget that, but it was the main ideology for me: we don't care what you think—you're shit anyway. It was the attitude that got people moving, as well as the music.[195]
The Sex Pistols' 4 June 1976 concert at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall was to become one of the most significant and mythologized events in rock history. Among the audience of merely forty people or so were many who became leading figures in the punk and post-punk movements: Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto, who organised the gig and were in the process of auditioning new members for the Buzzcocks; Bernard Sumner, Ian Curtis and Peter Hook, later of Joy Division; Mark E. Smith, later of The Fall; and Morrissey, later of The Smiths. Anthony H. Wilson, founder of Factory Records, saw the band for the first time at the return engagement on 20 July.[57] Among the many musicians of a later time who have acknowledged their debt to the Pistols are members of NOFX,[196] The Stone Roses,[197] Guns N' Roses,[198] Nirvana,[199] Green Day,[184] and Oasis.[200]
As described by the Trouser Press Record Guide, "the Pistols and manager/provocateur Malcolm McLaren challenged every aspect and precept of modern music-making, thereby inspiring countless groups to follow their cue onto stages around the world. A confrontational, nihilistic public image and rabidly nihilistic socio-political lyrics set the tone that continues to guide punk bands."[183] Critic Toby Creswell locates the primary source of inspiration somewhat differently. Noting that "[i]mage to the contrary, the Pistols were very serious about music", he argues, "The real rebel yell came from Jones' guitars: a mass wall of sound based on the most simple, retro guitar riffs. Essentially, the Sex Pistols reinforced what the garage bands of the '60s had demonstrated—you don't need technique to make rock & roll. In a time when music had been increasingly complicated and defanged, the Sex Pistols' generational shift caused a real revolution."[201]
An image of Vicious lacrimosa in Madrid, 2006Along with their abundant musical influence, the Sex Pistols' cultural reverberations are evident elsewhere. Jamie Reid's work for the band is regarded as among the most important graphic design of the 1970s and still impacts the field in the 21st century.[202] By the age of twenty-one, Sid Vicious was already a "t-shirt-selling icon".[203] While the manner of his death signified for many the inevitable failure of punk's social ambitions, it cemented his image as an archetype of doomed youth.[204] British punk fashion, still widely influential, is now customarily credited to Westwood and McLaren; as Johnny Rotten, Lydon had a lasting effect as well, especially through his bricolage approach to personal style: he "would wear a velvet colored drape jacket (ted) festooned with safety pins (Jackie Curtis through the New York punk scene), massive pin-stripe pegs (modernist), a pin-collar Wemblex (mod) customised into an Anarchy shirt (punk) and brothel creepers (ted)."[205] Christopher Nolan, director of the Batman movie The Dark Knight, has said that Rotten inspired the characterization of The Joker, played by Heath Ledger. According to Nolan, "We very much took the view in looking at the character of the Joker that what's strong about him is this idea of anarchy. This commitment to anarchy, this commitment to chaos."[206] Ledger's costar Christian Bale has claimed that Ledger drew inspiration from watching tapes of Vicious.[207]
[edit] Conceptual basis and the question of credit
The Sex Pistols were defined by ambitions that went well beyond the musical—indeed, McLaren was at times openly contemptuous of the band's music and punk rock generally. "Christ, if people bought the records for the music, this thing would have died a death long ago," he said in 1977.[208] The degree to which the Pistols' anti-establishment stance resulted from the members' spontaneous attitudes as opposed to being cultivated by McLaren and his associates is a matter of debate—as is the very nature of that stance itself. Deprecating the music, McLaren elevated the concept, for which he later took full credit. He would claim that the Sex Pistols were his personal, Situationist-style art project: "I decided to use people, just the way a sculptor uses clay."[33] But what had he supposedly made? The Sex Pistols were as substantial as pop culture could get: "Punk became the most important cultural phenomenon of the late 20th century", McLaren would later assert. "Its authenticity stands out against the karaoke ersatz culture of today, where everything and everyone is for sale.... [P]unk is not, and never was, for sale."[209] Or they were a cynical con: something with which "to sell trousers", as McLaren said in 1989;[210] a "carefully planned exercise to embezzle as much money as possible out of the music industry", as Jon Savage characterizes McLaren's core theme in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle;[211] "cash from chaos" as the movie repeatedly puts it.[212]
Lydon, in turn, would dismiss McLaren's influence: "We made our own scandal just by being ourselves. Maybe it was that he knew he was redundant, so he overcompensated. All the talk about the French Situationists being associated with punk is bollocks. It's nonsense!"[213] Cook concurs: "Situationism had nothing to do with us. The Jamie Reids and Malcolms were excited because we were the real thing. I suppose we were what they were dreaming of."[214] According to Lydon, "If we had an aim, it was to force our own, working-class opinions into the mainstream, which was unheard of in pop music at the time."[160]
Toby Creswell argues that the "Sex Pistols' agenda was inchoate, to say the least. It was a general call to rebellion that falls apart at the slightest scrutiny."[201] Critic Ian Birch, writing in 1981, called "stupid" the claim that the Sex Pistols "had any political significance.... If they did anything, they made a lot of people content with being nothing. They certainly didn't inspire the working classes."[215] While the Conservative triumph in 1979 may be taken as evidence for that position, Julian Temple has noted that the scene inspired by the Sex Pistols "wasn't your kind of two-up, two-down working class normal families, most of it. It was over the edge of the precipice in social terms. They were actually giving a voice to an area of the working class that was almost beyond the pale."[216] Within a year of "Anarchy in the U.K." that voice was being echoed widely: scores if not hundreds of punk bands had formed across the country—groups composed largely of working-class members or middle-class members who rejected their own class values and pursued solidarity with the working class.[217]
In 1980, critic Greil Marcus reflected on McLaren's contradictory posture:
It may be that in the mind of their self-celebrated Svengali...the Sex Pistols were never meant to be more than a nine-month wonder, a cheap vehicle for some fast money, a few laughs, a touch of the old épater la bourgeoisie. It may also be that in the mind of their chief terrorist and propagandist, anarchist veteran...and Situational artist McLaren, the Sex Pistols were meant to be a force that would set the world on its ear...and finally unite music and politics. The Sex Pistols were all of these things.[218]
A couple of years before, Marcus had identified different roots underlying the band's merger of music and politics, arguing that they "have absorbed from reggae and the Rastas the idea of a culture that will make demands on those in power which no government could ever satisfy; a culture that will be exclusive, almost separatist, yet also messianic, apocalyptic and stoic, and that will ignore or smash any contradiction inherent in such a complexity of stances."[135] Critic Sean Campbell has discussed how Lydon's Irish Catholic heritage both facilitated his entrée into London's reggae scene and complicated his position vis-à-vis the ethnically English working class—the background his bandmates had in common.[219]
Critic Bill Wyman acknowledges that Lydon's "fierce intelligence and astonishing onstage charisma" were important catalysts, but ultimately finds the band's real meaning lies in McLaren's provocative media manipulations.[176] While some of the Sex Pistols' public affronts were plotted by McLaren, Westwood, and company, others were evidently not—including what McLaren himself cites as the "pivotal moment that changed everything",[209] the clash on the Bill Grundy Today show.[220] "Malcolm milked situations", says Cook, "he didn't instigate them; that was always our own doing."[221] It is also hard to ascribe the effect of the Sex Pistols' early Manchester shows on that city's nascent punk scene to anyone other than the musicians themselves. Matlock later wrote that at the point when he left the band, it was beginning to occur to him that McLaren "was in fact quite deliberately perpetrating that idea of us as his puppets.... However, on the other hand, I've since found out that even Malcolm wasn't as aware of what he was up to as he has since made out."[222] By his absence, Matlock demonstrated how crucial he was to the band's creativity: in the eleven months between his departure and the Pistols' demise, they composed only two songs.[223]
Johnny Rotten wearing a Westwood-designed "Destroy" T-shirt, echoing Rotten's yawp at the end of "Anarchy in the U.K."[224]Music historian Simon Reynolds argues that McLaren came into his own as an auteur only after the group's breakup, with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and the recruitment of Ronnie Biggs as a vocalist.[33] Much subsequent commentary on the Sex Pistols has relied on taking seriously McLaren's onscreen proclamations in the film, whether lending them credence or not. As music journalist Dave Thompson noted in 2000, "[T]oday, Swindle is viewed by many as the truth"[225] (despite the fact that the movie purveys, among other things, a completely illiterate Steve Jones, a talking dog, and Sid Vicious shooting audience members, including his mother, at the conclusion of "My Way"). Temple points out that McLaren's characterization was intended as "a big fucking joke—that he was the puppetmeister who created these pieces of clay from plasticine boxes that he modeled away and made Johnny Rotten, made Sid Vicious. It was a joke that they were completely manufactured."[226] (In his final onscreen scene in the film, McLaren declares that he was planning the Sex Pistols affair, "Ever since I was ten years old! Ever since Elvis Presley joined the army!" [1956 and 1958, respectively].)[227] Temple acknowledges that McLaren ultimately "perhaps took this too much to heart."[228]
According to Pistols tour manager Noel Monk and journalist Jimmy Guterman, Lydon was much more than "the band's mouthpiece. He's its raging brain. McLaren or his friend Jamie Reid might drop a word like 'anarchy' or 'vacant' that Rotten seizes upon and turns into a manifesto, but McLaren is not the Svengali to Rotten he'd like to be perceived as. McLaren thought he was working with a tabula rasa, but he soon found out that Rotten has ideas of his own".[229] On the other hand, there is little disagreement about McLaren's marketing talent and his crucial role in making the band a subcultural phenomenon soon after its debut.[176][230] Temple adds that "he catalyzed so many people's heads. He had so many just extraordinary ideas".[231] Though, as Jon Savage emphasizes, "In fact, it was Steve Jones who first had the idea of putting the group, or any group, together with McLaren. He chose McLaren, not vice versa."[232]
[edit] Members
Johnny Rotten – lead vocals (1975–1978, 1996–present)
Steve Jones – guitar, bass (studio), backing vocals (1975–1978, 1996–present)
Paul Cook – drums (1975–1978, 1996–present)
Glen Matlock – bass, backing vocals (1975–1977, 1996–present)
[edit] Former member
Sid Vicious – bass, backing vocals (1977–1978)
[edit] Post-Rotten "Sex Pistols" singers
Lead vocalists, other than Johnny Rotten, on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle tracks credited to the Sex Pistols:
Ronnie Biggs – lead vocals on "No One Is Innocent", "Belsen Was a Gas"
Paul Cook – lead vocals on "Silly Thing"
Steve Jones – lead vocals on "Friggin' In The Riggin'", "EMI (Orchestral)", "Lonely Boy"
Malcolm McLaren – lead vocals on "God Save The Queen (Symphony)", "You Need Hands"
Edward Tudor-Pole – lead vocals on "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle", "Who Killed Bambi?", "Rock Around the Clock"
Sid Vicious – lead vocals on "My Way","Something Else", "C'mon Everybody"
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio album
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (28 October 1977) #1 UK, #106 US
[edit] Compilations, live albums and other official releases
Spunk (early recordings) (bootleg release—1977; official release—24 June 1996, as part of Spunk/This Is Crap, bonus CD included with Never Mind the Bollocks reissue; official stand-alone release—15 August 2006)
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (various artists soundtrack) (2 March 1979) #7 UK
Some Product: Carri on Sex Pistols (interviews and radio spots) (3 August 1979) #6 UK
Flogging a Dead Horse (compilation) (8 February 1980) #23 UK
Sex Pack (compilation) (21 November 1980)
Anarchy in the UK: Live at the 76 Club (live) (bootleg release—1985; official release—13 November 2001)
Kiss This (compilation) (5 October 1992) #10 UK
Filthy Lucre Live (live) (29 July 1996) #26 UK
Jubilee (compilation) (3 June 2002) #29 UK
Sex Pistols (box set) (compilation) (10 June 2002) #160 UK
Raw and Live (live) (15 September 2005)
Agents of Anarchy (compilation) (30 November 2007)
Live & Filthy (live) (26 August 2008)
[edit] Singles
from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
26 November 1976 - "Anarchy in the U.K." #38 UK
27 May 1977 - "God Save the Queen" #2 UK
1 July 1977 - "Pretty Vacant" #6 UK, #93 US
14 October 1977 - "Holidays in the Sun" #8 UK
from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
30 June 1978 - "No One Is Innocent"/"My Way" #6 UK
23 February 1979 - "Something Else" #3 UK
30 March 1979 - "Silly Thing" #6 UK
22 June 1979 - "C'mon Everybody" #3 UK
5 October 1979 - "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" #21 UK
6 June 1980 - "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" #21 UK
from Kiss This
September 1992 - "Anarchy in the U.K." (reissue) #33 UK
December 1992 - "Pretty Vacant" (reissue) #56 UK
from Filthy Lucre Live
June 1996 - "Pretty Vacant" (live) #18 UK
from Jubilee
27 May 2002 - "God Save the Queen" (reissue) #15 UK
from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols—30th Anniversary Edition
1 October 2007 - "Anarchy in the U.K." (2nd reissue) #70 UK
8 October 2007 - "God Save the Queen" (2nd reissue) #42 UK
15 October 2007 - "Pretty Vacant" (2nd reissue) #65 UK
22 October 2007 - "Holidays in the Sun" (reissue) #74 UK
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