A Punk Rock History of The Sex Pistols with images and reviews

The Sex Pistols

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"Right ! Here we go now. A sociology lecture. With a bit of psychology. A bit of neurology. A bit of f**kology.....no fun !" Sex Pistols - No Fun.

The most recognisable band name and members in punk rock. The first and the best. This band alone stood in the centre of the maelstrom with their manager Malcolm McClaren conducting before they all lost the plot in a welter of acrimony and chaos. McClaren is the link between British and American punk having (mis)managed the New York Dolls and absorbed the influences around that time -Richard Hell etc. Anyway he basically got the band together. The music, lyrics & attitude were their own. Sneering vocals, incendiary guitars and a desire to shock and provoke was something not seen before.

Jamie Reid's Anarchy design

The main tunesmith was Glen Matlock on Bass and the lyrics from Johnny Rotten on Vocals. Guitar was Steve Jones and on drums Paul Cook. Add to this Jamie Reid's striking artwork for flyers and sleeves and you had a potent force. McClaren was no fool he organised gigs in clubs and venues where there was guaranteed to be a reaction and free publicity with the result that momentum built up quickly behind them resulting in them signing for EMI without having to slog for years on the gig circuit. The infamous Bill Grundy incident with them swearing live on TV took them and punk rock into the media glare making them household names. But the publicity was a double edged sword.

Bans resulted on on their singles and gigs, court cases over their album artwork, physical attacks and two major labels dumped them. The Pistols found themselves on Virgin Records prisoners of their own controversy unable to write or play or their music given airplay. Worse in '78 Glen Matlock was fired and with him went the songwriting. Go into a record shop and you would think that the Pistols had released about ten albums. In fact their recording career was one album Never mind The Bollocks and four singles all of which appeared on said album and apart from Holidays in The Sun and Bodies all the songs on the album were two years old. Through bans etc they had written no new ones except Belsen Was A Gas (an old Sid song from his days in Flowers of Romance with Viv Albertine of the Slits). Even the playing on the album is Steve Jones and not Sid Vicious. The Pistols limped on till Rotten left on the American Tour. The band then developed into farce. Sid sang My Way, allegedly popped Nancy and then did for himself before becoming an icon for the dispossessed and into rock'n'roll mythology.

Sad

'God Save The Queen' video still

Sid & Johnny picture by Dennis Morris

Watch the video of Pretty Vacant. Johnny - Destroy T shirt, spiky hair, can of beer and shades. Sid - Motorcycle jacket and spiky hair and Steve Jones - hanky on head and leather pants with his white Gibson (ex New York Dolls). The opening chords ring out then the bass rumbles in with the thundering drums before Rotten adds his sneering vocals 'we're Va-cunt ...and we don't care !'

Jones and Cook recorded with Ronnie Biggs while McClaren, to make his film, bled the Pistols coffers dry before the whole band sued him in court. There was only so much chaos to make cash from. The last thing I remember of all this is Silly Thing being played on TOTP while Legs & Co (all female dance troupe who danced to records) pogoing in green lycra pants. Dignity - who needs it ?

If it sounds tawdry its only half of the story. The Pistols were awesome . From their look to their lyrics to their music they were fresh, original and exciting and young and they didn't give a f**k which made them dangerous. They spawned a whole culture on their own from the Clash to Siouxsie and the Banshees and the fans to the present day in terms of image style and attitude.