Sex Pistols star once confessed to stealing from David Bowie: ‘He thought it was funny'
A member of the Sex Pistols has revealed they once stole equipment from David Bowie during his last Ziggy Stardust show in 1973.
Three years before the punk rock band rose to fame with the release of their debut single 'Anarchy in the UK', guitarist Steve Jones snuck into the Hammersmith Odeon to steal supplies from the pop star.
Jones, 69, who rocked up to the venue in a stolen minivan at 2AM, managed to drive off with Bowie's band's cymbals, the bass player's amplifier and a microphone with Bowie's lipstick on it.
Speaking to The Guardian, Jones explained: 'They played two nights, and after the first night they left all the gear up, because they were playing there the next night. I knew the Hammersmith Odeon like the back of my hand, I used to bunk in there all the time. I was like the Phantom of Hammersmith Odeon.'
He continued: 'It was about two in the morning. I stole a little minivan and I got in. There was no one there, other than a guy sitting on the fourth or fifth row, asleep – he was snoring.
'It was dead silent. I tiptoed across the stage, and I nicked some cymbals, the bass player's [amplifier] head – a Sunn amp it was – and some microphones. I got Bowie's microphone with his lipstick on it!'
Jones later confessed the crime to Bowie who 'thought it was funny' – because the microphones weren't actually his. It was drummer Mick Woodmansey and bass player Trevor Bolder who truly suffered a blow.
'I actually did make amends with Woody,' Jones revealed. 'He came on my radio show a few years back, and I thought I'd tell him live.'
The guitarist asked Woodmansey what he could do to make it up to him for stealing his cymbals, to which the drummer asked for 'a couple of hundred bucks'.
'I think I gave him $300 (£231),' Jones said. 'So, he was well happy.'
Elsewhere in the interview, Jones revealed the most chaotic thing that ever happened on stage with the Sex Pistols was during a gig they played at a club in Milwaukee with a 'ridiculously high stage' in 1996.
'It was about 20 foot,' he recalled. 'Some guy walked on the stage, I don't know how he got through John [Lydon]'s security, Rambo, saw him and came running across the stage.
'He grabbed the guy, the guy hit John, and John fell off the stage, head first,' he continued. 'And I thought, that's the end of that. But he got up and carried on!'
It comes after the 2025 iteration of the Sex Pistols — Jones, Paul Cook, Glen Matlock and Frank Carter — announced the band's first North America tour in two decades earlier this month.
This autumn, the legendary punk band will embark on their first tour of North America without Lydon, at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas — the site of a particularly hostile show for the band when it first toured the U.S. in 1978, where the band had 'pigs' hooves and bottles' thrown at them by cowboys.
Jones, Cook, Matlock and Carter revealed they didn't reach out to Lydon to see if he wanted to participate in the reunion tour, which he has been vocally dismissive of in prior interviews.
'The last thing he wants to do is have anything to do with us right now,' Jones said, referencing a lawsuit the singer filed against the band over the use of Sex Pistols music in their TV series, Pistol.
'We wish him the best,' he added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
4 hours ago
- Powys County Times
Powys: Mechanic clipped car during overtake on A458
A self-employed mechanic who is learning to drive almost ran a vehicle off one of Powys' "most dangerous" roads. Jake Lowe, 19, veered off towards Welshpool after clipping the wing mirror and bumper of a Ford Kuga while overtaking on solid white lines on the A458 near Trewern. The young mechanic pleaded guilty to failing to stop after a road accident and driving without a full licence and insurance when he appeared at Welshpool Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, June 3. Prosecutor Helen Tench said a car had to veer out of the way when the Vauxhall Vectra driven by Lowe was overtaking vehicles. She added that Lowe had travelled a "considerable" distance from the scene of the collision before making off on foot to an address to which the vehicle's was registered, and which was passed to police by witnesses. Lowe told police that he was the driver at the time of the collision and didn't have a supervisor with him which he should have done because he was a provisional licence holder. Owain Jones, a solicitor acting on behalf of Lowe, said the teenager was "frustrated" because a car in front was travelling "considerably slower" than the speed limit. "He was looking for an opportunity to overtake. He doesn't know how he clipped the car but he acknowledges that he did," Mr Jones said. "He accepts that his driving was not as a careful and competent driver. "He saw vehicles coming to a stop and then stopped the car but fearing he had no insurance, he left the scene, I'm afraid. "Since the incident, the defendant hasn't been driving. All of this will have an impact on him. He's a self-employed mechanic. This will have a bearing on him if he is disqualified or imposed points." Mr Jones added: "The insurance company has been in touch to say that the only damage to the clipped car was a few scratches to the side, light in fact, and the wing mirror was taken off but there was no significant damage to the car or the driver fortunately." "You proport to be a mechanic. I would have thought having a clean licence and working on cars, picking up cars was one of the fundamentals, the most important part of being a mechanic. "It seems incomprehensible why you would go to drive a car. You should have known that it's probably one of the most dangerous roads there could be. There's double white lines almost all the way." Lowe, of Garth Vaughan, Guilsfield, was ordered to pay the court £267 in fines and surcharges.
Wales Online
a day ago
- Wales Online
The six locations in North Wales rumoured for House of the Dragon filming
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Six film location sites in northwest Wales are said to have been earmarked for season three of HBO's House of The Dragon (HoTD). Some were used in summer 2023, others are new. Three large sets are already taking shape at Dinorwig Quarry near Llanberis, which in season two served as an HoTD backdrop for Harrenhal Castle, the largest fortification in Westeros. Props assembled so far suggest the aftermath of a visit by a fire-breathing dragon to the Harrenhal battle camp in the Riverlands. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has hinted of more filming at Traeth Llanddwyn and Newborough Forest in southwest Anglesey, where some trees are being felled. According to a source close to the production team, film crews will also be returning to Penmon in south west Anglesey. Other locations are in Eryri (Snowdonia), including Cwm Idwal and its iconic lake in the Ogwen Valley, Gwynedd. Two sites near Capel Curig, Conwy, have also been scouted. A seventh site, in Nant Peris at the foot of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), will reportedly be used as the production team's base. Northwest Wales was one of the main stars of season two, when eight locations were used. Half of these were on Anglesey, including Beaumaris and Porth-y-Cŵch. Llanddwyn Beach, near Newborough village, saw a good deal of filming and is said to have provided the backdrop for parts of Dragonstone. In a social media post NRW said an un-named TV production company was back on site this week. They were undertaking 'small scale preparation works' at the Twyni Penrhos area of Newborough Forest. This involved removing a 'small number of unsafe trees', along with rough vegetation and tree stumps. Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone (Image: Paula Hanks-Jones) NRW said: 'All work will be undertaken under close supervision of ecologists. The area will be restored to dune grassland and native scrub which will benefit wildlife and the local environment and provide accommodation space for filming equipment. "There will be no disruption to visitors.' At present it's unclear if HoTD will be returning to Trefor Quarry on the Gwynedd coast, which was transformed into Dragonstone Castle for season two. Other sites featured in the second series included the Ogwen Valley and around Penmachno Roman Bridge, near Betws-y-Coed. (Image: HBO) A source claimed the Nant Peris site above Llanberis will be the gathering point for actors and extras. 'A large marquee is to be erected and the actors will be ferried to the various sites in minibuses and 4x4s,' they added. Production, location and safety crews are to be staying in Caernarfon and Bangor. Locals have reported seeing HoTD teams picking up visitor litter from Dinorwic Quarry and placing bins to ensure it's spotless when vacated. Season three is expected to be released in late 2026. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox See what's on in your area
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Desperate last moments of Rose West's victims confirmed by horror cellar finds
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Sadistic killers Fred and Rose West deliberately transformed their foul-smelling basement into a sordid sex dungeon, where they would carry out depraved acts against their victims Before killing their victims, Fred and Rose West would subject them to unthinkable abuse in the dark, dingy cellar that the depraved couple had transformed into their sex dungeon. Between the years 1967 and 1987, the Wests brutally tortured and slayed at least 12 vulnerable young women and girls at their Gloucestershire 'House of Horrors', 25 Cromwell Street. As detailed in the recent Netflix documentary, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, after unearthing human remains from beneath the Wests' patio, the search expanded to inside the property, and in particular, the couple's foul-smelling basement. Janet Leach, who acted as an appropriate adult to Fred, accompanied the killer to the cellar where he marked out the burial sites to investigating officers. Speaking in the doc, she recalled: "When I went to sleep at night, I could smell it." It was here that, beneath the floor, further bodies were recovered. A disturbing picture of the victims' final moments began to emerge, with the remains showing signs that extreme sexual abuse had taken place prior to death. As was later noted in court, the scarf used to gag Thérèse Siegenthaler, one of the deceased, had been tied into a bow, in what was viewed to be a "feminine" touch. READ MORE: Fred and Rose West's hidden secrets - 'sex cult, paedo brother and more bodies' Investigators also discovered tools Fred and Rose had used to torture their victims, forensic psychologist Dr Julian Boon previously told The Guardian: "The thing that haunted me the most was a mask that had nothing but two nose holes, so the person could breathe but couldn't see or hear. As a consequence, they could have anything done to them, and that is very frightening." Although mere minutes away from a busy shopping centre, the side entrance of 25 Cronwell Street and the lack of street lighting meant victims could be lured in without attracting notice. Criminal profiler, Dr Paul Britton, said: "These aren't people who looked like predatory psychopaths, they looked ordinary. Their activities were out of plain sight. They were able to take their victims, bind them, gag them, break their teeth. "They were able to put tubes into them to keep them alive for days and suspend them from hooks because of the nature of the building. They were shielded, and no one knew what was happening." Fred died by suicide on New Year's Day, 1995, taking with him to his grave many of the dark secrets of what happened in that cellar. The following autumn, Rose stood trial alone at Winchester Crown Court, where prosecutor Brian Leveson asserted: "[The victims'] last moments on earth were as objects of the sexual depravity of this woman and her husband". Rose, now 71, pleaded not guilty to the harrowing charges and attempted to paint herself as a wife who'd been tricked by her husband's duplicity, having had no clue that her home had become a graveyard. Her version of events ultimately did not convince the jury, and she was sentenced to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, in life, diabolical Fred had a warped view of what had unfolded, making the following comment during his police interview: "Yeah, see, you've got the killing all wrong, no, nobody went through hell, enjoyment turned to disaster, well, most of it anyway." Sadly, many of those who fell victim to the Wests' sadism lie dead and buried, unable to tell their stories, but there are those whose shocking accounts shed light on what these vulnerable girls and women were subjected to in their final hours. Giving evidence during the trial of Rose, Caroline Owens wept as she recalled how she had been seized by the Wests, who gagged her with tape, bound her and took her to Cromwell Street. It was here where was raped and sexually assaulted. Caroline had initially been offered a job as nanny to the Wests' children, but quit after just five or six weeks, going back to live with family in Cinderford, Gloucestershire. However, in the winter of 1972, she ended up back in their clutches after they lured her back into their car, beginning a vicious 12-hour ordeal that left her fearing for her life. Speaking from the dock during the trial, Caroline recalled: "I think that is when Fred said 'what are her t*** like?'. She started to grab hold of me grinning and laughing, not a nice laugh. Then she started to grab me between the legs. He pulled up and turned round in his seat and we were struggling with each other and I was trying to get her off and he turned round and started punching me and calling me names like 'b****'." It was then that she was knocked unconscious. She continued: "When I came round, my arms had been tied behind my back with a scarf and they had tape around my head all the way round my mouth and the back of my head. It was a gag. Rose was holding me, and Fred was putting the tape around." Thankfully, the then 16-year-old managed to flee the House of Horrors, and went on to make a police report. The pair were charged with indecent assault. Caroline's testimony ultimately proved crucial in putting Rose West behind bars. She later went on to detail her ordeal in the books The Lost Girl and The One That Got Away.
