5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Never mind the Horlicks, here's the punk rock pensioners Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistol were once simpatico with Roger Daltrey for heaven's sake, in that he hoped to be in Heaven before he got old. Now, this band of superannuated cap-sleeved rockers are set to rock up once again. Is it wrong?
Sid Vicious is long dead and John Lydon is not coming to Bellahouston bash (Image: free) John Lydon thinks so. Indeed, Lydon is angry (no change there) that the Pistols have reformed. 'They've killed the content, or done their best to,' maintains the singer and songwriter, 'and turned the whole thing into a rubbish, childishness, and that's unacceptable.'
The former Mr Rotten, who fought a high-profile court battle against the rest of the band in a bid to stop their songs being used in a Disney+ series, Pistol, adds: "I don't mean to be digging them out, it's not their fault that they're talentless and can't f****** move on, is it?'
John Lydon is arguing that his former bandmates have sold out. Yet weren't the Sex Pistols a sell-out right from the start? The original band were never short of the sweary words your Auntie Cissie would find shocking, and to coincide with the Queen's Jubilee released God Save the Queen and sang of a fascist regime. But these skinny young guys were never really heavy weight anarchists. Pierre Joseph Proudhon most certainly won't be spinning in his plot right now.
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And to quote Bernie Taupin, it's a little bit funny that the band were described as anti-establishment rebels, given that they were essentially a collection of Vivien Westwood models, a Malcolm McLaren-engineered prefabricated boy band in the same vein as Monkees - albeit without the songwriting skills of a Neil Diamond, or the willingness to use shampoo. The Sex Pistols too wore matching (of sorts) outfits. And when they first played live, they actually covered the Monkees' Steppin' Stone.
Yet, there are real arguments for going along to see this latest version of the band. Although they sold pound-shop nihilism to young people (while being backed by a corporately astute management) and their politics were performative, nevertheless, they sold hope.
There's no doubt the Sex Pistols were rockets (in every sense of the word) playing damp warehouse-dump-created music which they sent into the stratosphere. There is also no doubt they revealed the perfect energy antidote to the tired glam rock and disco of the day. The Sex Pistols' three chord and a sneer simplicity was so clever that the band proved the inspiration for a range of followers, such as the Clash, Buzzcocks, Green Day and Nirvana.
John Lydon (Image: free) Sure, the Pistols made only one album, but in a very short time proved that you don't have to have the musical skills of Elton or Bowie to become a chart success. They may have lacked melody, structure and they were thrashers, producing anything as loud as you would hear on a farm. But that was all a positive, the perfect reaction to the crushing political reality of the mid Seventies.
On a more prosaic level, is it wrong to take the sound of a generation and play it again 50 years on? Where is the relevance? What's wrong with wrinklies taking to the stage? Has anyone really demanded that Mick Jagger and co lie down in the showbiz retirement home in North London and take to watching reruns of the Old Grey Whistle Test on iPlayer? No. It's the same for other legacy bands such as The Who and the likes of Van Morrison and Dylan. And Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, the pop daddy of them all.
Who's to say there's an upper age limit on leather jackets? And who's to say that angry young men who grow to be angry old men are pointless? Isn't there even more to mump about today than in the Seventies, when hospital waiting times were measured in days rather than months, when Coronation Street was still half decent and you could buy a Hillman Avenger for about a grand.
The Pistols, back in the day (Image: free) And wouldn't Dylan Thomas have had the Sex Pistols in mind if were he writing today, suggesting the Glasgow gig to be right and proper, and possibly lots of fun, that they should indeed 'rage, rage against the dying of the light.'
Sure, the Pistols are now half-cocked, and their 60 and 70-something knees won't stand up too much pogo-ing. But they will surely bring a younger audience to the party. And even superannuated pseudo anarchists still need a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
The Sex Pistols, Bellahouston Park, June 21, Glasgow, supported by The Stranglers, the Undertones, The Rezillos, The Undertones and The Skids
