I Was a Teenage Sex p*stol (2025)

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic upbeat music]

[metallic clanging]

[rock music]

[no audio]

-[dramatic triumphant music]

-[wings flapping]

[traffic noise droning]

[upbeat rock music]

[Glen] Blaine, can

I get your guitar?

[upbeat rock music]

[Crew] Check

yeah, one, two, AD.

One, two. One, two.

Well, blue jean, baby

In life, one thing

leads to another thing

and that's all part of an

exploration of gathering ideas.

Hello? Oh, [beep].

I say my art has been

a songwriter, really.

[crowd cheering]

Rock and roll!

There's Glen Matlock,

formerly with the Sex Pistols.

Glen, you've already got a

very good catalog of songs,

having written which of

The Sex Pistols' hits?

We got an old English

folksong we gonna play for you.

I think you might know it.

[Drummer] One,

two, three, four.

["God Save the Queen"]

[Glen] People like to paint me

as the guy from the Six Pistols

that nobody knows, but

that ain't quite true.

God save the Queen

The fascist regime

They made you

Pistols, they put on a

brash crude display of music.

[Reporter] When

the Sex Pistols,

with lead singer Johnny Rotten,

suddenly made punk

music front page news,

they outraged

pretty well everyone

Complacent,

apathetic old [beep].

People couldn't believe

what they were seeing

'cause it was no one had

seen anything like this.

One of the most reviewed

and most reviled rock

phenomenon of recent weeks.

[Reporter] Their

records are among

the most popular in England.

The Pistols were something

completely different.

The classic rejection

of the status quo

into a new, more

aggressive, more heartfelt,

more passionate expression.

It was fresh. It was naughty.

Dirty f*ck.

[Bill] What a clever boy.

[Steve] What a f*ck' rotter.

[Bill] Well, that's

it for tonight.

We didn't realize how much

we were gonna shake things up.

People say they can't play.

You know, the p*stol songs

are largely three chord songs,

but it's three

chords and the truth.

They made one g*dd*mn album.

It's one of the most

classic records of all time.

Oh, Lord God, have mercy

Glen, I could tell

if he understood

the power of the

instrument he was playing.

I think he is the

unsung hero of the band.

A lot of people

didn't quite realize

what he brought to the group.

We were kind of fed

a Sid Vicious story.

That Sid Vicious was punk rock

and Sid Vicious is

the Sex Pistols.

And we found out Sid

Vicious could not play bass,

did not play bass and

there's some other guy

named Glen Matlock and

we're like, who's he?

There was so many

kind of people involved

that they've all got

their own take on things.

So this is my side of the story.

You are jogging my

memory, I must say.

It's amazing how much

you do remember and what.

Everyone knows the story.

I mean we're f*cking

sick of talking about it.

It's the same old sh*t.

Told the story a million times.

Okay, quiet on the set.

Action. Okay.

[rock music swells]

[static crackling]

Let's, yeah, we gotta kinda

set the scene a little bit.

[upbeat music]

[humming] Here we are walking up

Ravensworth Road in

Northwest London.

It was where I was brought

up till I was about 16.

I used to live up there

with my mom and dad.

I wouldn't mind

having a look round

if the set of new

inhabitants let us in.

Wow.

Lead the way around.

[Glen] So this was

my mom and dad's room.

This was my bedroom

from about here to there

and we didn't have

a bathroom then.

Really?

And that was it.

Oh, hang on, hang on.

[all laughing]

[Resident] The p*stol's

were my favorite ever band.

[camera shutter clicking]

It was a bit short

of the plumbing.

We had like a tin bath we

had to get out once a week.

And used to run a hose

out from the scullery,

which is a tiny little kitchen,

into the tin bath in

front of the telly.

My dad was a sort of

semiskilled worker,

had a few different jobs.

He worked for Rolls Royce

as a coach builder.

My mum worked part-time

at the powder puff factory

with my Nan making powder

puffs for compacts and things.

Then the next street, all my

mates I went to school with.

You know we was always

out playing football

and it is got very high tech,

there's a goal-mount painted,

but we just used to

put our jackets down.

And then there was

one of the guys,

who was a Latin member

of the Skatellites.

He was older than us

and he used to come

and play football in the street.

Skinheads a

mashup London Town

Skinhead to me

There was a lot of

second generation,

West Indian kids around there

and it was my introduction

to Bluebeat and SKA.

And their moms and

dads were all hip

to King Tubby and the Skatellites

and things like that.

In the summer, now

all the windows open

and you'd hear "Madness"

blasting out by Laurel Aitken.

But that was cool.

And all the kids had a

little transistor radio

underneath your pillow at night.

And we didn't have a

proper radio station

that played pop music,

but there was all these pirate

radio stations sprung up.

It was just really

a exciting time.

And then this TV show come

out, "Ready, Steady, Go".

["Wipeout"]

Bands like The Kinks and

The Yardbirds and Stones

and the Beatles,

Smokey Robinson,

Martha Reeves & the

Vandellas, the Supremes

and the Small Faces.

The Small Faces were these

kind of little Herberts

from the East End of London,

but they were the

height of cool.

I just sit here everyday

Some kids like me

picked up on that,

all in this kind of mixture

of stuff that was going on.

And that's sowed the seeds

of my musical awakening.

You know I didn't have

any brothers or sisters

and getting a guitar for

Christmas when I was 10 or 11.

You know when

everybody goes home

after playing

football in the street

at eight, nine o'clock at

night, you've got your guitar

and you got your

transistor radio

and you start hearing songs

that you can relate to.

[upbeat music]

But when I was getting 15, 16,

we all got jobs in

this department store

called Whiteleys.

A crowd of us worked there

and one Friday night we

went out to The Scene.

There was a band called Ace.

How long has this

been going on

Has this been going on

And we watched them

and stayed up all night.

That's when I started thinking,

oh, there must be a

little bit more in life

than working in the

department store.

Around about the

same time my uncle,

who was a bit of a ducker

and diver with things,

appeared round my Nan's once

with this big, long flat case.

I said, "What's that?"

And he opened it up.

It was this Fender Precision

Bass and it was beautiful.

Sunburst with all the

chrome bits on it.

I said, "Where'd you get it?"

And he said, "Don't ask."

When you get a bass

and you get it home,

right, it sounds like that.

[guitar strings vibrating]

And you can't hear

the f*cking thing.

And then what do you do,

you can kind of jam it

against the wardrobe.

[strings vibrating]

You can hear it a bit

more, so you do that.

The thing is, is

playing bass by yourself

is a bit like having a wank.

Boom, boom, boom, boom and

it's a bit boring really.

You need someone to play with.

Yes, it's all right

All or nothing

So I started to

be on the lookout.

I'd left school by then.

I was waiting to start art

college and I wanted a job.

And I'd heard about the

shop down at King's Road,

Let It Rock.

And it had big sign outside,

it said too fast to

live, too young to die.

And I walked in

and it was like my Gran's

front room from the '50s.

They had a radiogram, all

these drape jackets hanging up

and some Brothel Creeper shoes.

Brothel Creeper is

generally a suede shoe

with a thick crepe sole,

which supposedly makes no noise

when you're creeping

around a brothel.

And that's what all

the Teddy Boys wore.

[upbeat music]

Well a Teddy Boy is

from the name Edward.

In the '20s and '30s,

all the upper-class

people of England

sort of dressed in

this Edwardian look

because we had the King

Edward at the time,

you know with longer

coats and velvet collars.

And then all the

rock and rollers,

when Bill Haley came over,

they kind of adopted

this kind of look

and they were Teddy Boys.

Well, we're Teddy Boys.

We like rock and roll

because we think there's

never been a better music.

And we like our style of dress,

because we think it's the best.

Let It Rock, it was basically

a sort of a Teddy Boy shop

and there was a guy in there

and he said, "Can I help you?"

I said, "You don't need

anybody to work here, do you?"

And he said, "Well, as it

happens, I'm leaving this week."

And he wrote a number down.

He said, "Why don't you

call this guy up?" Malcolm.

I then started working

for Malcolm McLaren

and Vivienne Westwood.

It was like a clubhouse.

You know, we just rolled in.

Vivienne and Malcolm

would look around

and Glen was the Saturday boy.

So we all got on

like a house on fire.

We'd look after the customers.

They all came in

just to talk to us.

Every now and again

we'd sell something.

I still don't remember

putting money in the till.

I used to say to Vivienne, I

think more stuff got stolen

than actually got paid for.

But because it was

so expensive anyway,

she always made money.

Friday there'd be a delivery.

Word would get out,

on Saturday morning there

was a queue of Teddy Boys

down the street waiting to

get their Brothel Creepers

when they'd come in.

And some of them would

order a drape jacket suit

and I'd measure them up for it.

Early '75, they were

getting a bit fed up

with all these Teddy

Boys coming in.

Malcolm and Vivienne

decided to change the shop

and he come up with

this idea, SEX.

As similar kind of effrontery

that Teddy Boy clothes had,

except it would be new.

[Glen] So he wanted to

get rid of the Teddy Boys,

move on, do this kind of more

bondage kind of looking gear.

And I helped make

the big sign outside

and they started to get a

younger crowd coming in.

I never went there

when it was Let It Rock,

but I went when it was SEX.

In fact, Malcolm

even measured me up

for a pair of peg pants.

The whole idea of SEX was to

put off the ordinary person.

It was like to frighten

you into not going into it.

And they even had a

bit of an attitude,

the people who worked there,

We did get a lot of

sort of people who,

obviously, mistook

the establishment

for another kind of place.

In fairness for them, it

did say sex outside, right?

So you would get a few odd

ba*ls and weirdos come in

and there was one guy came

in head to toe in rubber

and he'd just come and

ask the prices of things,

never bought anything.

He's obviously playing

with himself right?

Then he'd say,

"How much is that?"

And I'd say, "Oh,

how much is that?

Well, that's, oh."

Then he'd go, "Ten

pounds, ten pounds, whoa."

And then he'd rush out

and then you'd have

to get the mop out.

We'd always sort

of like roll our eyes

and say, "Oh well, clean

up in dressing room three."

[Glen] But it pissed

off the Teddy Boys,

which was kind of the idea.

When the Teddy Boys

suddenly realized that Malcolm

had changed the shop of

being new-age sex clothes,

they got really upset

and they'd throw things

through the window.

The windows were

smashed every Saturday.

We wore Brothel Creepers.

They didn't like that we

were taking their look

and destroying it.

I don't like them. They

probably don't like me.

The Teddy Boys

would come along, oh,

we'd have to lock the door,

but they'd smash the window.

We were always

terrified of Saturday

'cause of getting beaten up.

[Glen] But that's when things

really started

beginning to change.

It became the hippest

place in London

on a Saturday afternoon.

And that's where Steve and Paul

started coming in with

a couple of their mates.

Yeah, well Steve and

myself were really close.

We grew up together.

Like brothers, if you like.

I met him when I

was about 10 years old

and we were just

unseparable for many years.

We went to the same schools.

Hung out at the same places,

getting into trouble.

And he stayed around

my house a lot

because his home life wasn't

a happy place for him.

At school, there

was a g*ng of us.

There was me, Steve and

a couple of other guys

and Wally Nightingale.

And we used to skive off school

and go round to Wally's house.

[Steve] Sit in his bedroom

and listen to songs

and play Faces.

Baby used to stay out

I was crazy about the

Faces and Rod Stewart.

I was kind of a bit obsessed.

We were definitely keen on

getting a band together.

It became everything,

for me anyway.

Oh no love,

you're not alone

Glam Rock was really

massive in the UK.

Bowie, Roxy Music, Queen,

T. Rex, Mott the Hoople

and we would go down

Kings Road all doled up

like we were in a

band; platform, boots,

flares, all stuff

that I had to nick

'cause no one could afford it.

We used to go into the shop

a lot and hang out in there.

We just felt comfortable.

Vivienne was great.

Her and Malcolm

were a great team.

They were interested

in us as well.

Malcolm was always asking,

where do you come from?

What'd you get up to? And

Hey, I've been nicked.

I've gotta go outside.

He's nicked me.

I always had to watch

him when they came in

'cause I thought they

were gonna nick something

and Malcolm would humor

them a little bit.

How's the band going?

You know, like that,

looking at me like that.

And Paul said,

"Well I don't know.

We're trying to

take it seriously.

But our bass player said

he never turned up."

I went, "Well I got a bass."

And the next thing we were

sort of chatting away.

Like, "What music do you like?

Who's your favorite band?"

I said, "The Faces."

He said, "That's our

favorite band at all."

I thought he was a cool guy.

You know I was impressed

that he worked at the shop.

So a few days later I'm

going around Wally's house

and the neighbor's

like, "What you got?"

And I went, "Uh,

I've got this one,

which is a Faces song actually

off their first album."

[mellow guitar music]

So I played it and they're

like, "Whoa, you're in."

Well, I was impressed. He

could actually play, you know.

I basically just knew

power chords at that point

and I always thought

I was better musician,

which I let him think.

But I was only about a week

ahead of Steve, you know.

But don't tell him that.

[Paul] Initially, Steve

was gonna be the singer.

I went onto the drums

and Wally was playing

guitar at the time.

Wally confided

in me and he said,

"Steve, he'd go

and nick fur coats

and ladies handbags

and things like that."

He said, "It was my idea,

if he'd nick guitars,

we could start a band."

Wally's dad had the

keys to a BBC studio.

We used to have the

run of this place

and we had a big load

of equipment there

procured from various

places, mainly by Steve.

We started rehearsing

a bit more seriously

and people would come down

and be a bit of a party

night on a Saturday night

after the shop had shut.

Somebody who was in

there a lot of the time

and who was friends with

Malcolm and Vivienne

was this guy, Bernard Rhodes.

He'd done some screen

printing with Malcolm

and they had sort of an

odd couple relationship.

They was mates one minute

and then they'd have a

ruck about something and.

He was a prick. [chuckles]

That said, I was a sort

of working class lad

from the sticks, whereas

Bernie was much more art based.

He would always talk to you

and he'd make you

kind of qualify

what you're thinking and why.

"Who do you like?"

'Well, I really like Faces,"

"But why do you like them?"

In the mornin'

Don't say you love me

"Well, I like them 'cause

they're all right."

"No, that's not

good enough. Why?

What are they doing?"

That specific and it

really made you narrow down

the way you go about things.

Steve had come in and

he thought a cool thing

to say was, "Where's

the action?"

It kind of annoyed Bernie,

he'd say something like,

"Would I be sitting here if

I knew where the action was?"

And it transpired, the

action was actually

where we were sitting because

that was the beginning.

[upbeat rock music]

Rock was in a terrible

state in the '70s.

It was grandiose and

25 minute guitar solos

and 30 minute drum solos.

[rhythmic drums pounding]

It all became prog rock,

progressive rock.

And I think mainly

they progressed

by growing their

hair a bit longer

and their trousers

got a bit more flared.

People that would

potentially be in bands

were really put off by the fact

that you had to have this 20

years experience of playing

and you had to be really

good as a technical guitarist

before anybody'd

take you serious.

[dramatic guitar music]

This kind of became

a bit indulgent.

[upbeat rock music]

There was this other music

scene called Pub Rock

where bands were

play in local pubs.

Pub Rock at the

time was a reaction,

I think, against the

big stadium rock bands

and kind of slightly

hippie music

that was going on at the time.

Every pub had a stage and

bands were playing all the time.

You know you'd get

bands like Ducks Deluxe

and Brinsley Schwarz

and Dr. Feelgood.

We used to go and never

paid to get in anywhere,

just went around the back

and bunked in, as we say.

They really were the return

to the roots of rock and roll,

you know, the Feelgoods

covering a lot of R&B.

And they all had kind

of strange names.

Like the drummer was

called The Big Figure.

You didn't know if they were

real life criminals or not.

They were kind of dodgy.

We all loved "The Feelgoods ".

They were very

influential to all of us

on the New York music scene.

They had short hair and suits

and they looked mean

and they were menacing.

This jangly kind

of rockabilly sound.

Kind of rough around the

edges, but not too heavy.

The people cry for more

The pub rock was sort of

quite a vital part

of change really.

And collectively,

we'd all kind of go out

to check out some of these

things that were going on.

["Delilah"]

By that time, the Alex Harvey

Band had, had a big hit

with a cover of a Tom Jones

song called "Delilah".

I saw the light on the night

that I passed by her window

Going from playing little

pubs on the pub rock scene,

they were playing

Hammersmith Odeon.

So I went and took Malcolm

and while we're sitting there

he said, "Um, how much

does it cost to get in?"

Back then it was like 75 pence,

which is not even a pound.

He went, "Oh."

He said, "How many people

does this place hold?"

I said, "I don't know,

turn it off, 3,000."

He went, "Let's have a meeting

about the band tomorrow."

'Cause he could smell that

there was a money involved.

[lively upbeat music]

When I started a playing with

Wally and Steve and Paul,

they weren't the Sex Pistols

and they'd thrown around

a couple of names.

One was The Swankers

and also they the toying

with the name The Strand,

which was named after

a Roxy Music song.

Do the strand, love

Malcolm came up

with some ideas.

Creme De la Creme, Kid Gladlove.

Oof, don't know where

he got that one from.

The Damned and QT Jones

and his Sex Pistols.

But me and Wally didn't

wanna be in a band

that was something

and something.

So we sort of

conspired in the pub

and said, "Let's just

drop the QT Jones thing,

just be the Sex Pistols.

Which made sense,

'cause we were the pistols

from a shop called SEX.

It was pretty straight

in the UK around that time

and calling a band the Sex

Pistols was pretty outrageous.

In fact, very

outrageous, actually.

[airplane engine roaring]

By that stage, Malcolm

had been going backwards

and forwards to

America to try and buy

'50s style clothes for his shop

and met the guys from

the New York Dolls.

[upbeat rock music]

They played for me

this tape of theirs.

I thought it was the worst

record I'd ever heard.

But they were so funny,

it didn't matter.

And I realized it didn't

matter that the music was bad.

What mattered more was the fact

that they were so

good at being bad

and that gave me a whole

other attitude towards music

and it locked in my own thoughts

about what was important.

And that was the

presentation of it all

and the attitude behind it.

But because he'd

been on the scene

that little bit in New York,

he was hip to a

few other people;

the fledgling Ramones

and Richard Hell

and Television and

The Heartbreakers

and it's all kind

of interconnected.

But Malcolm would

come back to England

and Malcolm, he said, "If

you want me to be involved,

you gotta get rid of Wally."

He just didn't look

right, I suppose.

He had big glasses

and funky hair.

It was quite ruthless, really.

But that's the way it was

and we had a bit of an

attitude problem with Wally.

You know I liked Wally and

I would fight his corner.

And then one day when we

were sitting in the pub,

Paul turned around

to me, he said,

"I don't know why

you're defending Wally,

he's always trying

to get rid of you."

So I went, all right,

that's that then.

So Wally's gone, Steve's

moving to the guitar

and then he got

Malcolm and Bernard

involved with us a bit more.

That's the when we started

to be on the lookout

for a singer.

And on Bernard

Rhodes' suggestion

lookout for this

guy called John.

And this guy John came in the

shop and it was John Lydon.

They asked me 'cause they

thought I was a nutcase

and they had no idea what

the hell they were doing.

I went to a kind

of a mock rehearsal

to see if I could sing or

not in front of a jukebox

and I was completely

awful and they liked it

and that was that.

Singing didn't

matter at the time.

Could we play? We couldn't

really play at the time.

Could John sing? Who cared?

We wanted to be in a band.

It was just the attitude and

just clicked straight away.

The planets were aligned.

There was the Sex Pistols.

But then a couple

of days later,

Bernard Rhodes came

in and we said,

"Oh, we found a singer, John."

He said, "Oh great. You

got the guy I wanted."

And a couple of days after that,

he saw John and he said,

"Well, that's not John."

And we said, "Well,

that's John."

And he said, "No,

the other John."

And there was another

John and he'd seen.

John Beverley,

aka Sid Vicious.

They were all mates

and there four of them.

There was John Lydon who

became Johnny Rotten.

There was his mate

called John Gray.

There was another guy

called John Wardle

who became Jah Wobble and John

Beverley became Sid Vicious.

But Johnny Rotten was

the leader of the pack,

so he was always John.

But there was something

about him that was like,

hmm, trouble with me,

Steve and Paul and John.

But I think John

never saw it that way.

He thought it was

three against one.

But when he joined, we

started rehearsing regularly

and trying to work out ideas.

And back then we had four music

papers that came out weekly.

Well, I was flicking

through the ads

and it was this lease for

sale of a rehearsal place

in Denmark Street in London.

I showed it to Malcolm.

He said, "Wow!"

He said, "Call the guy up

and offer him 1,000

pounds without seeing it."

I said, "You're mad."

He said, "Call him."

So me and Steve moved in and

we had our own rehearsal place.

Hello. Uh, fancy seeing you

Here we are in Denmark Street.

This where we used to

rehearse downstairs.

But come upstairs.

The HQ, the center of

operations has changed a bit

'cause it's gonna be part

of some swanky complex

for the 21st century.

But what they've done

is they've preserved

all these drawings

on the walls that,

I think, Johnny Rotten did.

There's Malcolm, Malcolm

Muggerage. Fatty Jones.

Supposed to be

Nancy there and Sid.

There was a little bed there.

Steve had a bed there

and I had a bed here.

And we'd hang out and

we got writing songs.

It was a bit of a dump

back then, but it was home.

Well, the recorder

was upstairs

but we played down,

that's where we used

to rehearse downstairs.

That's where every song

was written downstairs.

Before that I was just

staying round Cookie's house

or various couches, Malcolm's

and Vivienne's place.

So when we got Denmark Street,

like this is my place now.

But it was rats there and

the toilet was outside.

I loved it, though.

It was quiet.

And then you'd go

down to Denmark Street

and it was like,

you are right there.

You could go to the clubs

and then end up just staggering

back to Denmark Street,

get up the next

day and rehearse.

I was working at the

time so I had to get up,

go to work and then come back.

How attentative about do I

really wanna be in a band?

You know I was brought

up in this world

where you left school

and you got a job

and it was a very straight

world where I came from.

And so it was a

dilemma for me. It was.

That's when we then really

started applying ourselves.

John always turned up

and he always had like a

little Castore carrier bag

with scraps of paper in

it with ideas for lyrics.

And Malcolm had

always been going on

that we should write a manifesto

and it goes back to his sort

of '60s hedging prop days.

Now one day I'd

been having a go,

Steve saying, "I've been

coming up with a few ideas,

why don't you come

up with something?"

And he sort of played

a couple of things

and they weren't that good.

And he went, "Oh, you're so

clever what you got then?"

So I just played.

[gentle guitar music]

And he went, "Yeah?"

And I went.

[gentle guitar music]

And he went, "Yeah?"

[one string twangs]

"Yeah?"

[guitar string vibrates]

He went, "Oh, I like that."

He said, "What comes next?"

[guitar strings riffing]

Now

[singer laughing]

That's when John said,

"Finally, you've got something

to with these lyrics."

I'm an antichrist

I am an anarchist

[Johnny] When I

got in the studio,

I wrote the word to

that in 20 minutes

straight off the top of my

head.

Passerby 'cause I

wanna be anarchy

No dogs body

This used to be Saint

Martin's School of Art.

My foundation year, studio

was the one on the left

and the gig we did

was right up the top.

And that is where

the Sex Pistols

did their first show.

We'd been rehearsing for a

couple of months by then,

feeling we was getting

something together.

Come on Malcolm, get

us some gigs. Nothing.

No, no, no, you're not ready.

Reading between the lines,

I thought Malcolm has got

no idea how to get us a gig.

I just approached the social

secretary at Saint Martin's

and said can we play? And

they had this other band on

and there was supposed

to be a support band

who wasn't gonna do

it, so we got the gig.

And that band was a

band called Bazooka Joe.

[faint upbeat rock music]

We had been playing

for several years in

pubs around London.

We'd been hiring vans. We

bought our own equipment.

We bought a PA system

on installments.

We knew there was gonna

be a support band.

We didn't know

quite who they were.

Before then, I booked another

gig at Central School of Art

and that's where I met a guy

called Alexander McDowell.

I was social secretary

and I was booking

rockabilly bands or whatever

and this young man

walked in off the street

and said, "Do you want a band

to play for free

tomorrow night?"

And I went, "Sure."

And then he said,

"Well, come to Saint

Martin's and see us play."

[Glen] We had to go

and get all our stuff

in the rush hour in

the pissing rain.

Wheeling it down

Charing Cross Road.

And then the lift was broken,

carry it all the way up

the stairs and set it up.

Bazooka Joe sort of had a

little bit of an attitude

but they let us use their PA.

There was no stage.

We were just set

up on a flat thing.

There wasn't a lot of people.

We plugged in and

made an awful racket.

[upbeat rock music]

I mean I only picked the

guitar up three months before.

I was so nervous, I took a

Mandrax and a couple of pints,

then it all kicked in

and then we started.

I am a antichrist

I am an anarchist

The lead singer was starting

to smash the equipment up

and he started

kicking the speakers.

They weren't even my speakers.

I was still paying for them.

So enraged, I lept

into the fray.

[Paul] And there was a bit

of a fight, scuffle on stage.

It just all

descended into chaos.

And they pulled the plug

on us after about 15 minutes.

That is not true.

We did not pull the

plugs on the Sex Pistols.

No, they did. I was there.

They took them off.

They pulled the f*cking plug.

We only had a few songs

and so they didn't cut

us short by that much.

I remember thinking that

they weren't that good

but you know, they

had the last laugh

'cause they went on to become

legends and quite rightly so.

It was something magical

that happened for me.

Like this is we're finally

doing something. This is it.

This is what I've been

wanting to do for many years,

be in a band.

And John was great. I loved it.

Even though it was

for 15 minutes.

Just seeing them at all

was just such a radical

shift in thinking.

The attitude that was

coming off the stage

was something we'd never seen.

And it was completely

captivating

and almost immediately

we were cutting our hair

and trying to copy John.

And it was an immediate shift

into a visible

expression of discontent.

[Reporter] All are

aware that Britain

was in its worst economic

crisis for more than 40 years.

[Alex] Politically,

it was very suppressive.

Thatcher was

extremely right wing

and you were dealing with

bombs going off with the IRA

and real unrest.

There are problems

which have been pushed

underground for too long.

Which, oh today, you know

they have to be brought up

People ain't got time

to think about the cosmos

and the universe when they

ain't got any money to live off.

-Yeah.

-And got a hung Parliament.

Everybody's on strike.

In London particularly,

there's a real pervading

air of hopelessness.

And now I just got this

sort of vacant kind of idea

and then the "Pretty

Vacant" thing came to me.

["Pretty Vacant"]

We're so pretty,

oh, so pretty

Vacant

But it needed something.

It needed a riff.

And this is the Cambridge Pub

where we used to hang out.

And I'm sitting there

having a pint one lunchtime

and a record came on the jukebox

and it was "SOS" by ABBA.

That riff isn't in the song

but it was something that

the bass player does.

He plays his octave thing.

When you're gone

How can I even try to go on

And it gave me the

idea for the riff.

And I just finished off my

pint, went back and went.

[guitar strings riffing]

Ooh.

Oh, [beep].

[Glen] I gave John

the set of lyrics

which he seemed

to like and sing.

He said, "This is fantastic."

He said, "If we get

this on the radio,

you give me a way to

say c**t on the radio."

And I'd never even

thought of that.

I was just thinking

of vacant with an A.

We're so pretty,

oh, so pretty

Vacant

It summed up the

angst and the chaos

that he felt in his community.

I mean that's part

of our job as artists

is to report on the news of

what's going on all around me.

It reconfirms for us

that we're not alone.

I saw a number of

those early shows

and going from doing covers

to like starting to

do their own songs

and they were these

classic anthems.

I mean the first song I heard,

I really realized was their

own song was "Pretty Vacant".

[Interviewer]

When you stood up

and started singing the

first time, what happened?

I mean.

-Come on, John.

Go on.

-It was wonderful.

-No come on.

-People loved me.

They threw flowers.

[Interviewer] And

what sort of people

came to see you

in the beginning?

[Johnny] Well, no one

knew it the beginning.

We were just a regular band.

Turned up.

'Cause we used to turn

up with our equipment

and just like crashing

and doing the gigs.

Nobody knew we was playing

until we got there.

We didn't even know, actually.

Yeah, there used to be in this

magazine called "Time Out"

and I'm pretty sure Malcolm

would just go through it,

see what's coming

up and see a gig

and say, "Oh, you're

playing there?"

He never spoke to them.

We just used to turn up and

say we're the support band.

People would go,

"Oh. Oh, really?"

"Yeah." We'd go, "Yeah, yeah."

"Well, come on."

But we needed

other places to play.

And Malcolm come up with

his place El Paradise.

It was a proper old-school,

seedy strip club.

Malcolm had hired this strip

club from the Maltese mafia

and, honestly, it

was an absolute dump.

And we actually

went and bought

a bucket and a mop and some

disinfectant. [chuckles]

There was like a few punters

who'd just come

in off the street

thinking actually there

was a strip show going on

and Malcolm was just

taking all the money

and we literally had

to run from the place

'cause the Maltese mafia

suddenly turned up.

But those first early

gigs were amazing.

They were so exciting to be at.

They were learning to

play their instruments.

[laughs] You could tell.

But that's what

was exciting to us,

'cause like, oh man,

these guys don't care.

That's the idea. Get up

there and learn to play.

Rotten had this

great sense of humor.

They'd finish a song and

he'd be, "Uh! Now clap."

Before the audience had,

had a chance to respond

he'd be straight on their

case and very entertaining.

[people chattering]

And started building

up a following.

It was mainly people

who would come in the shop

on Saturday afternoon,

Steve Severin and Siouxsie,

became Siouxsie Sioux

from the Banshees.

Sid, Billy Idol.

The Scene was very small.

We were friends who

used to hang out

and go and see all the music.

Caroline co*n of "Sounds" called

us the Bromley Contingent,

'cause we're all from Bromley.

It's just the same

as when it was before

when they had the Stones and

the Who and they came along

and they thought they were great

because they destroyed

everything that

went before them.

But now they can't take it

because we're destroying

everything that's

gone before us.

[upbeat music]

I loved the Nashville

gigs especially,

'cause you never knew what

was actually gonna happen.

Vivienne would sort of

like scream and shout

and be rude to a person

who was next to her.

Massive fist fights.

Chairs would be flying.

It was a great night.

A fight broke

out in the audience

and this guy took a photograph

of us fighting with this guy.

But we was actually

trying to stop him.

But it became the cover

of the "Melody Maker".

[Alan] Looking back, it

was all part of the plan

to get them sort of noticed.

Doctors of Madness

were one of those bands

that were around the pub

rock scene at the time

and everyone thought they were

gonna be the next big thing.

Nights now

[Paul] And Steve Strange on

guitar with the weird makeup,

very glam rock.

It's early '76,

we're doing great.

We're playing to 800 people

a night wherever we go.

And I got a call from our

agent, I need a favor from you.

I've got this guy driving

me crazy in London.

He's got this band, I

can't think of anyone

who'd have him on the

bill apart from you.

The day of the gig came.

We showed up there, we had

got out for a sound check

and they wouldn't let

us use any monitors.

And they were a bit

like, oh, brushed us off.

The doors open and

the audience comes in.

I said, "This is weird

because the 800 kids

who've come to see

us at the minute,

they normally go

straight to the bar."

And I'm watching them

and like half of them

coming straight in

to see the support band.

And quite a few of the

audience are wearing badges

or they've got ripped

clothes or something.

The lights go down, ladies,

gentlemen, the Sex Pistols.

To attend 'cause

we're not all there

Don't pretend,

yeah, we don't care

And I knew someone had just

moved the f*cking goal posts.

That generational change,

that baton, had just

been handed over.

And then the Doctors

of Madness went on.

But while we was on stage,

Steve went in the dressing room

and spat in their stack up.

Boosted and rifled

their pockets.

By the time you get

into the dressing room,

the Pistols have gone

and so has 12 quid

from my back pocket

and other stuff has been

just been nicked, just gone.

So it was a really bad day.

Me career had gone

and 12 quid. [laughs]

I'm sure they were

most upset with us

'cause they thought they were

gonna be the next big thing

and it just kind of fizzled out.

But I paid him back.

[Reporter] Things

really started to move

for the Sex Pistols

when they were spotted

by promoter Ron Watts,

who gave them a booking at

the 100 Club in Oxford Street.

I saw them at High Wycombe.

It was interesting because

they really managed

to upset the crowd

or most of the crowd.

It was the only thing that

didn't come from the industry,

it came from the

kids themselves.

Something had to

come from the kids.

First gig, there was

hardly anybody there.

John was a bit out of it.

And he was singing all the

words to the songs perfectly,

but not the song we was

playing at the time.

He said to me, "Do

you wanna fight?"

And I said, "Yeah,

I'll fight you,

but maybe not that

while we're on stage."

And he got off the stage

and Malcolm followed him

and he comes skulking

back on the stage

and he looked daggers at me.

I spoke to Malcolm afterwards

and I said, "What happened?"

And he said, "Well,

do you know what?

He was outside at the bus stop

waiting for the number 73 bus

to go back home

to Finsbury Park."

And I said, "What'd

you say to him?"

I said, "If you don't

get back on that stage,

mate, you're out of the band."

Tuesday night usually was

a jazz night at the 100 Club.

So people kind of came in and

their sort of mouths'd be,

they couldn't believe

what they were seeing

'cause it was no one had

seen anything like this.

And they was so anarchic,

'cause they weren't really

talking to the audience.

Johnny would be talking

to Malcolm off stage.

He'd go, "Malcolm, why

don't you get me a beer?"

Then he'd see someone in the,

there'd be like someone

coming off Oxford Street,

all in denim, with

flares, long hair.

He'd go, "Oh, look at

you with your flares

and your long hair.

Why don't you go back to

your Melanie records?"

One, two, three, four.

[heckler yelling]

[Johnny] Sit down! Yeah!

f*cking old hippies

all over again.

Rotten's attitude

was off the charts.

But then Glen's kind of

adding a musicality to it

which it just felt, this is

part of what makes groups great

is the individual

characteristics

of the people in the band.

And then watching them

week by week progress

was really exciting.

People say they can't play

and the p*stol songs are

largely three chord songs,

but boy they can really play

and it absolutely rocks.

The hardest thing to have

is to have a sound

that's your own.

The Sex Pistols

certainly had that.

I can tell in eight bars if

it's Steve or Glen or Paul.

When John sings, of

course you know it's him.

He's got a very unique sound.

We sound like that because

we'd actually learned to play

together at the same time.

I don't know where our

sound came from, to be honest.

It was an amalgamation of

lots of different things.

It's just a natural

primal scream, I guess.

They never really

played too fast.

They weren't trying to emulate

the Ramones in that way.

There was more of a groove.

Da da da and da and da.

There was none of that.

And we loved beats that went

bush, bash, buh-buh, bash.

I liked hard, fast,

simple chords.

[upbeat rock music]

Steve used to break into

Ronnie Wood's house in Richmond

and have a would

go in his guitar

and leave a little note

saying Steve was here.

And Steve, I think,

was kind of going for

that kind of sound.

But one of the best things

I've ever read in this

article somewhere it said,

Steve's guitar sound

is the sound of him

paying his stepfather back.

Which is kind of quite

heavy, but probably true.

This is brainwash

and this is a

What we was was

just us together.

That's the way it turned out.

No one was telling us

we have to play a

certain way or anything.

Malcolm didn't even do that.

Well it's really, the

songwriting is fantastic.

And that's down to the band.

I mean when I first

heard "Anarchy",

I mean it, you just knew

it's Glen's bassline

and you knew it

starts the song off.

It made you wanna write

songs too, that's so good.

Kiss me deadly tonight

Early summer of

'76, the word was out.

People wanted

something different.

And once we came along,

it kind of opened the

doors of possibility.

You don't have to be

a fantastic musician.

You don't have to be old.

You don't have to been in

the music business years.

You can just get a guitar,

play for a few weeks

and go on the stage and do it.

[Band Member] One,

two, three, four.

[upbeat rock music]

Well, there's no question

that the Pistols came first.

They were the trigger

for all of it.

I mean, it was

happening really fast.

There was this

small group of us

that were looking different

and voicing our opinion.

You know nobody that wanted

a successful career in the

music business would turn around

and criticized the music

industry, the government,

the police, the queen.

That wasn't how

you got successful.

And so we had nothing to lose.

You know what are they gonna do?

Except put us back on the dole

and take the clothes

off our back.

It was a great leveler,

'cause it wasn't about

musical virtuosity.

It was about keeping it real

and still being creative

with maybe limited skills.

I remember rehearsing

at Denmark Street once

and the door opened and

Bernard Rhodes come in

with this bunch of guys.

When he met me.

Then he met you.

We met him.

[group speaking faintly]

Hand in hand with the

Sex Pistols was The Clash.

It was Malcolm McLaren

and Bernie Rhodes

in constant competition to see

who could up the other one.

Him and Malcolm had this idea

that if you had one

band, it was an oddity.

If you had two bands

that was kind of curious.

But if you had three

bands, it was a movement.

Oh, yeah

The Clash were more political.

That was kind of their thing.

I loved The Clash, by the way.

We saw the flyer it

was A Midnight Special

that was happening.

Got the Sex Pistols playing,

supported by a band that

hadn't played before

called The Clash.

And a new band from Manchester

called the Buzzcocks.

The Pistols was something

completely different.

There was real anarchy

when they came on.

I mean, Johnny smashed

his mouth on the mic

and had to run into the toilet

'cause he knocked his tooth out.

It changed my life, that show.

We went back to school

and we started to form

what became Spandau Ballet.

[Interviewer] What

about the word punk?

It means worthless, nasty.

Johnny Rotten, are you

happy with this word?

No. The press gave us it.

It's their problem, not ours.

We never called ourselves punk.

Hang on a second,

this word punk it didn't exist

as a word when we formed.

They did big articles on us

and they come up

with this word punk.

And if you look

up what it means,

it's not particularly savory

and who wants to

be called a punk?

[upbeat rock music]

Punk has always been a

term of maximum derision.

And I'd read stories of this

new music movement emerging,

punk rock, and

they'd all say, yeah,

we listened to the MC5 and

I'd rip the magazines up

and flush them down the toilet

'cause I didn't want

anyone to associate me

with this punk music

movement. [laughs]

[lively rock music]

When punk came out, I

didn't really like it.

But I loved the

excitement it generated

and the enthusiasm

that's behind it.

But the music I

felt was not for me.

I don't believe in swearing

and spitting and

gobbing everywhere.

Punk rocks really taken off

both in London and in New York.

And although, anyone thinks

punk is that great a name for

it, it seems to have stuck.

There was a huge,

strong music press

that thrived on exposing

all of this energy,

this change, this fashion.

It was very prevalent

and spread around the

country really quickly.

It's actually music

born out of a frustration

to get something across

that is of their own.

You're also trying

to shock everyone.

Your clothes are bizarre.

They ain't bizarre

to young kids.

[Interviewer] Possibly,

I don't have a safety

pin through my nose.

[Reporter] McLaren borrowed

the label punk from New York

where it described a

very particular trend

in outrageous clothes.

But London Punk

was very different.

Raw working class and

deliberately anti-establishment.

We tapped into a feeling

of unrest in the country,

without a doubt,

with all the kids.

And they were all

cutting their hair,

tearing up their T-shirts.

I wanted to do

something for me.

'Cause look at me

now, I'm nothing.

Vivienne created

something extreme.

Something they could feel

that they were actually

doing something in.

Man can be cynical

about The Pistols

and say they were a boy band

that was sort of dressed

by McLaren and Westwood.

But boy were we jealous

that they had access

to those clothes

'cause those clothes were

magnificently heroic.

I mean I was really

annoyed with The Clash.

'Cause when we had a rehearsal

place in Denmark Street,

I decided to paint

the ceiling white.

But I only had one

pair of trousers

and I got paint on them

and I couldn't get it off.

I thought, I'll just

put more paint on it

and then it sort of became

this Jackson Pollock

kind of thing.

When The Clash

played the 100 Club,

they had a full on Jackson

Pollock kind of look

and they'd sort

of nicked my idea.

I was a bit miffed about that.

[upbeat rock music]

Some of these bands had started

doing a few tiny little gigs

and we assembled them all

for this punk festival.

And there were all these

other bands playing

and The Clash played there.

Siouxsie did her first gig.

[Interviewer] Had

you sung before?

Not on stage, no.

[Interviewer] Did you

think that is important?

Um, no.

[Interviewer] And

who was backing you up?

Sid Vicious on drums.

Steve Severin on bass.

It was two nights.

One night was headlined

by the Sex Pistols

and the second night

was headlined by me.

Motorbikin', motorbikin'

None of those bands had,

had any records out.

If Malcolm wanted to

promote a festival,

he had to have a bankable name.

'Cause I'd had my "Motorbikin"

records the year before,

Malcolm said, "Well you

gotta come and play."

And then one day I got a

call from a friend of mine,

Chrissie Hynde, she used

to work in Malcolm's shop

and she said, "You gotta

come and see this band."

And it was the Sex Pistols.

I was quite impressed

with Steve Jones,

who was attacking his guitar

and kept breaking strings

and yet never went out of

tune and still sounded great.

I said to Malcolm,

"I know what a record company

would want to sign you.

They would want a three

song demo. I can do that."

And we went in the studio

called Majestic in South London.

And so we set up and

ran a few run throughs.

[Chris] And I told

the engineer, take it.

And he said, "Come

in and listen."

And we said, "No,

no, no, no, no,

we haven't recorded it yet."

He said, "No, we have."

And we said, "No,

we can't have done.

You didn't put

the red light on."

[Chris] And of course,

it sounded great.

He said we didn't

put the red on

because it was our

first time in the studio

and he didn't want us to get

red light fever, he called it,

where you get uptight and

you start making mistakes.

By five o'clock in the afternoon

we had three songs down.

Too many problems,

why am I here

Need to be 'cause

you're all too clear

And I can see there's

something wrong with you

[Chris] Shortly after that,

they did more recordings

with Dave Goodman.

Dave suggested that we use

the rehearsal place

in Denmark Street

and he had a four-track Revox,

reel-to-reel tape recorder

and recorded the

band live in there.

It was good with Dave because

there was no time pressure.

So we was experimenting

a lot more.

Doing bubble sounds

on a teapot for "Submission"

[bubbles popping]

and overdubbing a bit more.

And then he

suggested to Malcolm,

a bit more money we

could get a proper studio

and record the vocals

there and mix it

and that became what

is the "Spunk" album.

Submission, I'm

going down, down

It wasn't sonically the best,

but there was some great ideas.

[Johnny] All right,

what should we do?

Should we just sing with, oh!

Every time we were having

a go at recording "Anarchy"

and when there was a break,

I'd be on the piano

going, dun, dun-da-dun.

I had this thing, dun-da.

And they're going, "Glen,

for f*ck sake, shut up."

I'd go, " No, I've

got something."

I went home, picked up my

guitar and I found the riff.

[gentle guitar riffing]

So I had the

beginnings of the riff

for "God Save the Queen".

["God Save the Queen"]

When I came up with the riff,

I could always imagine Steve

doing it with a bit more,

[imitates guitar

strings twanging].

It was like a beneficial

kind of partnership.

And then John had

some lyrics for it

and then we kind of argued

over how to arrange it.

God save the Queen

The fascist regime

They made you a moron

We argued morning,

noon and night.

But you have to

because that's what

being in a band is

all about, diversity.

I never liked

anything he ever did

and he thought

the same about me.

And we'd meet in the middle

and it would make

for good records.

We argue so much

that the frustration

comes up when we

actually play it.

To me, if you listen

to the "Spunk" stuff,

the bass playing, that's where

the little bits of melody

and counterpoint come in.

The bass playing

is by far superior

to the bass playing that

wound up on the album,

which was kind of

much more methodical

and just kind of eighth notes.

I don't think the rest of

the band appreciated him.

You needed somebody with

a bit of musical know how

and a bit of confidence

and Glen had that.

Hang on. Dave Dew speaking.

This is Chris Parry.

[Doug] Hello Doug

D'Arcy, Chrysalis Records.

They were a

particularly ugly band.

That's dreadful.

[upbeat rock music]

I was the one that

picked up the phone

when Malcolm McLaren called.

And so I went down and

saw them at the 100 Club.

This band was doing

something interesting

and they were

making great noises.

They had something to say

and I talked my boss

into signing them.

[upbeat rock music]

The rest was troubled history.

When we got the record

deal with EMI it was,

for me, you gonna go

with this or you're not?

It was a big thing to leave

an apprenticeship at

the time in a good job.

And everyone said, "You're mad.

You'll never do

anything with this band.

They're rubbish, they

can't play," et cetera.

But I knew there was

something good going on there.

Prior to us being presented

with a recording contract,

we got presented with

a management contract

and I kind of read through it

and Malcolm wanted to

take 25% off the top.

And Steve and Paul

were like, "Oh."

John wasn't there and

I mentioned it to John

and he said he was

gonna sign it anyway.

But he actually said to me when

we were signing it, he said,

"Glen, you've read

it and I haven't.

If there's anything wrong

with it's your fault."

Me and Steve, we was

just happy to be in a band.

We didn't worry about

contracts and stuff like that.

They were trying.

Malcolm definitely saw an

opportunity and milked it.

The first time we

played with the Pistols,

I think we paid five pounds

and Malcolm wanted 25

quid to use the PA.

You know he could

be such a c**t.

But I always liked Malcolm,

'cause he was a hustler.

He was the fifth member

of the band, if you like.

The Svengali, the manipulator

and all those other terms

people level at him.

Look, most of them

true, by the way.

After we signed to EMI,

we're straight in the studio

and because we'd done the

demos with Dave Goodman,

we thought we'd give

Dave a shot producing

and Dave wasn't a proper,

fully fledged producer.

I am an antichrist

And we would, literally,

do "Anarchy" in the

studio a thousand times.

You know we wanted

to get it right.

I wanted to make

the heaviest song

that had ever been

in the universe.

And he was f*cking

stoned with weed.

And we're like this is a joke.

So effectively,

we went on strike

and Paul Cook

suggested Chris Thomas,

who produced Roxy Music

and Chris Spedding had

taken Chris Thomas down

to see us at the 100 Club.

So he was up for it.

Maybe a week later,

we're in Wessex Studios,

Queen were there

and we walked in

and Freddie's in full tilt

and we're like, "Woooh,

I'm sorry," you know.

But they were cool, Queen.

They let us have

some of their time

to record the single quickly.

["Anarchy"]

And we did "Anarchy"

in two takes.

That was it. He said he got us.

'Cause Chris knew

when enough was enough

and that it was good enough.

And it's funny, it

finishes how it finishes

because the tape run out.

That's why it goes, blemm.

I think that was

one of the best times,

my whole time in the Sex

Pistols, was recording.

That's the only song

Glen plays bass on,

on "Never Mind the Bollocks".

When we were in

the studio together,

it was just a question

of getting the music down

and getting it done well.

They were professional.

It was definitely not the

image that was publicized.

Only a couple of days

later, as I opened the door,

Freddie Mercury is like

bending over by the door

and he was listening.

Queen, they were quite big

in the Sex Pistols career.

The whole reason we did

the "Bill Grundy Show"

'cause Queen was

supposed to do it,

but Freddie Mercury had

a bad toothache that day

and pulled out,

Oh, the famous Bill

Grundy interview.

Yes, I do remember it.

We was in Kilburn rehearsing.

All of a sudden a phone

call comes through,

we're sending the car for you.

Malcolm says, "If

you don't do it,

you don't get your

wages this week."

Then we're in the studio

behind the cameras,

there's Siouxsie and half

Bromley Contingent are there

and it's like, hmm.

And then this guy comes

on set, Bill Grundy.

Are punk rockers. The

new craze they tell me.

Now Bill Grundy was

a really big deal guy.

He was Walter Cronkite

kind of territory

and he had a real

attitude with us.

Not the nice, clean

Rolling Stones.

You see, they're

as drunk as I am.

They're clean by comparison.

They're a group called

the Sex Pistols.

And the sh*t hit the fan.

I am told that, that

group have received

40,000 pounds from

a record company.

Doesn't that seem to

be slightly opposed

to their anti-materialistic

view of life?

-No, the more the merrier.

-Really?

Oh yeah.

[Bill] Well,

tell me more then.

[Johnny] We've f*ck'

spent it, ain't we?

[Bill] I don't know. Have you?

Yeah, it's all gone.

Steve had found

a bottle of wine

and he's drunk pretty

much all of it to himself

and it's starting kicking in.

And it just went

from bad to worse.

John swore accidentally,

he said sh*t

and he pushed him on it.

[Bill] It's what?

Nothing. A rude word.

Next question.

[Bill] No, no. What

was the rude word?

-sh*t

-Was it really?

Good heavens, you

frighten me to death.

Oh all right, Siegfried

[Bill] What about

you girls behind?

Always wanted to meet you.

-Did you really?

-Yeah.

[Bill] We'll meet

afterwards, shall we?

-Yeah.

-You dirty sod.

[Bill] Go on, you've

got another five seconds.

Say something outrageous.

You dirty b*stard.

[Bill] Go on, again.

You dirty f*ck.

[Bill] What a clever boy.

What a f*cking rotter.

Well, that's it for tonight.

While the show's going on,

I could see Malcolm

just behind the camera.

Malcolm would go, "Oh, no."

As we went off, he was white.

He said, "You've done it now."

Dragged me out.

We got in the car and as

we're just pulling away

a Black Maria turned

up, a police van.

There were these police, they're

rushing into the TV studio

with their truncheons out

and we're sort of

like waving to them.

What?

[beeps] Rotter.

[Bill] Well, that's

it for tonight.

It was going out

live on prime-time TV

just after the news when

millions of people watched it.

And I didn't know my dad

had called around

the family saying,

"Hey, Glen's gonna

be on the TV."

[beeps].

And we didn't speak

for a year.

It all got crazy very quickly

once the publicity

machine started rolling,

The greatest technique

involved in managing

the Sex Pistols

was always to create

the right expl*si*n

and then know that

it was gonna happen.

And as a manager,

run into the toilet

and come out after the expl*si*n

and say, "God, what's happened?"

Really? I didn't notice that.

Although he sat back later on

and said he had sort of

made all that happen.

I think he was terrified

that he'd blown it for them.

[Interviewer] Why all

the infamous language.

[Johnny] Infamous

language. You're joking.

They were famous in England

before they even

had a record out

and I don't think

that's ever happened

before in the music industry.

Punk was all about

revolution. It was an attitude.

Then they became a

figurehead for that attitude.

And willingly or not,

they became the visible

leaders of a movement.

[Reporter] Unseen, dangers,

awaited, punks in the dark.

[Glen] There

was ramifications.

John got attacked by

more right-wing people

who thought we were

decrying the nation.

It was a very dangerous time

for us after the Grundy Show

and we were public enemy

number one, for sure.

They're trying to put

it across the country,

starting in Britain,

but we're not having it.

That is why we've given them

a good hyding every

time we meet them.

I got attacked walking

down on Shepherd's Bush.

I just came out of the station

with my girlfriend at the time

and these four rockabillys,

Teds, whatever you call them,

didn't like the fact that I

was wearing Brothel Creepers.

I said, "What? It's just a shoe.

Why, what's the problem?"

Anyway, bang and I got attacked.

Yeah, ended up in hospital.

We had to watch our backs.

It was a pretty dangerous time.

[siren wailing]

You start taking your life

in your hands a little bit,

wearing your punk threads.

It was almost like

w*r was declared.

On Charing Cross Station

and I was kind of

just looking off at,

I don't know, when

the train's coming.

The next minute, doo, got

punched in the side of the face

and then I saw a pair of

black Brothel Creepers

walking away so I knew I

got ambushed, you know,

[phone ringing]

I mean the national press

had exploited punk for

its sensation value

and the violence really

stems from their coverage

and the fact that they've

only really given coverage

to the more violent aspects.

Not to any of the ideals

and, certainly, not very

much to the music at all.

[upbeat music]

We had a tour planned,

the Anarchy Tour.

Malcolm, he had

that kind of idea

that we'd have some kind

of punk rock review.

So we had The Clash, The Damned

and he brought over from the

States, the Heartbreakers.

We were going around in his

coach from place to place.

As we're turning up to a show

and then it was canceled.

We were supposed to

have like 23 gigs

or something around the country

and we're starting being banned.

One of the most reviewed

and most reviled rock

phenomenon of recent weeks.

[Reporter] Do you really

think that punk rockers

are such a threat to society

that you're justified in

banning their concerts?

We are responsible

for public safety.

There was such a

storm around them.

You couldn't do anything.

Even we couldn't do anything.

I remember one specific

and they just came up

and threw us out immediately

just because we were banned

on tour with the Sex Pistols.

[Reporter] Mr.

Stabler, you can't watch

punk concerts in

Newcastle, either.

The decision was

made when we discovered

it was mere children that would

be watching the performance.

Now, out of all those dates,

how many dates would

you say are there, look?

I think we only did

five or six dates

and we're lucky we got them.

We had to go to show

that we wasn't gonna

accept their censorship.

It was very frustrating.

[Paul] We had fair

amount of rude journalists

following us round and finding

out where we were staying.

And I went and got a cup of

tea in a bar room, came back,

got on the coach first, I

had the window open slightly

and I heard one saying to other,

"Oh, Fred, how'd you go?

Did you get a quote

from anybody?"

He said, "Yeah."

He said, "I got two f*ck and

a sh*t from Johnny Rotten."

Just sells their papers

putting us in it now.

You know what I mean?

-Yeah.

-Put us on the front

just sells their papers

and it's bit stupid really.

Because we weren't

allowed to play

and we was cooped up in

this bus all the time,

it started creating kind of

problems within the band.

Became kind of quite factional.

Steve and Paul were always

a bit of a double act,

which I felt they were

always a bit standoffish,

though, they'd

kind of let you in.

Maybe John felt a bit

threatened by it or Glen did.

I don't know. But

yeah, we were close.

I know what I think and

that's all that counts to me.

I don't try and impress

anybody, but myself.

It'd been a simmering

thing between me and John.

I think personally 'cause,

and I'm not the only

person who's said this,

but you know once he got

his face in the papers,

he became a bit more arrogant

and everything had to

be his way all the time

and I thought we was

in a band, you know.

It is be hard living up

to your image sometimes?

What image? I never

thought I had one.

[Interviewer] Well,

what do you think

I change from day to day.

There was always animosity

between John and Glen anyway,

even back to the very

early days when I was just

standing on the side of

the stage watching them

and John would always

give Glen sh*t.

[Interviewer] Do

you feel the publicity

following the television

interview has been damaging

or do you think it's helped you?

I don't think it's been

damaging far from it.

Whether it's helping

us is another matter.

Later on, there

was a frustration

that I found out that we

could play in certain places.

Went to see the Ramones

when they finally

come over to England

and some promoter

asked me, he said,

"Hey, Glen, you can't play?"

And I said, "No."

He said, "I'll put

you on. Tell Malcolm."

So I tell Malcolm. He's goes,

"No, no, you're banned."

Hang on, I wanna be in a band

because I wanna be a

musician and I wanna play.

And I started to think

there was a bit of

dishonesty involved.

[upbeat music]

[rain spraying]

We ended up in London

just before Christmas,

penniless without a real

sense of achievement.

And then the record company,

while we was away on tour,

and had got a load of sh*t,

backlash from the TV show

and they pulled the record.

The ground floor was very

unhappy about that firing.

It was just the big bosses.

The way I read it was that EMI

was very close to the

British establishment.

You know, they had friends

in Parliament and all that.

And the guy, who was

the head guy of EMI,

when not running

the record company

would have dinner

with the Queen,

[Reporter] The

anti-establishment Sex Pistols

called in the

establishment press

to protest what had

happened to them.

[Press] Okay, you want

to get your music across,

but do you feel maybe the fact

that you can't do

that commercially

is because of the

way you've behaved?

[Johnny] Oh no, I'm not

gonna come down to their level.

The next thing, we're

on a plane to Amsterdam.

We did a TV show there.

And then we played

at the Paradiso

and then we went to Rotterdam

and played and flew home.

But you know, things

were getting bad.

Then John was on my case

and I was just beginning to get

fed up with the whole thing.

And I had a meeting with

Steve and Paul and Malcolm

in this restaurant we used

to go to in Covent Garden.

I'd found out that they'd tried

to have a rehearsal with Sid

and I wasn't supposed

to know, but I did know

and I thought, well

that's out of order.

There's this big hoo-ha

and Malcolm says it's

all a big secret, man.

Come down to this pub at

such and such, you know.

And I thought they

were gonna do me over

'cause I didn't turn up

to one of Rotten's

parties or something.

John sort of manipulated

the situation with Malcolm

to get rid of Glen.

And whether he'd done it

because he wanted his

mate sit in the band

so he could feel

more comfortable

up against me and

Steve, I don't know,

At this meeting Paul says,

"Look, we know you're

not getting on with John.

Can't you just pretend

that you like him?"

And I thought, I'm

coming up with his ideas.

You guys don't really realize

what side of your

bread's buttered.

Why can't you guys back

me up a little bit?

And I said, "Then you want

me to pretend I like John?"

I said, "No, I can't

really do that."

At the end of the day,

John said he wasn't gonna,

couldn't go on with

Glen in the band.

And so it was either the

band broke up or Glen left.

It was one of the

only times that John

and Malcolm were in

sync with each other.

And by that time, the vast

majority of the songs on

"Never Mind The Bollocks"

had been written

and that was kind

of that really.

I liked Glen. We

liked the same music.

I got along with him great.

I think it just got

too weird for him.

I know Glen said he left.

Malcolm says he got fired.

It was weird and there's Sid.

And we just carried on,

like, oh, all right, okay.

We kind of just cowardly

went along with it,

I guess, to just

keep everyone happy.

And in retrospect, we should've

maybe stuck up for Glen

and kept him in the band.

Who knows what

would've happened.

As far as I'm concerned,

I quit and that was that.

I'd shaken hands

with Steve and Paul

and Malcolm before he sent

the telegram to the NME.

[tense music]

I thought it was the

stupidest f*cking move

they ever made.

They say they threw him out

because he liked The Beatles.

Well, f*ck you if you

don't like The Beatles.

I never bought into

Malcolm's sort of PR

that you know, oh,

we've kicked him out

'cause he likes The Beatles.

But I think what Malcolm

was really saying

is we kicked him out

'cause he's too musical.

It proved to me

then at that point

that this was not a band

that Malcolm had any

interest in having longevity,

musical development of any

kind or even staying together.

He wanted to destroy it

and he destroyed it by putting

this crazy guy in on bass

who couldn't even play bass.

It felt to me that

the musical heart

had been torn out the band.

Steve and myself

were very concerned

when Glen left the band.

But we was pushed

into a corner, really,

and we had no option.

I was left to write "Holidays"

and a few others, "No Feelings".

It definitely changed

the dynamics major.

I was the mug who had

to try and teach Sid

where to put his

fingers on the bass.

That's the last thing

I wanted to be doing.

Sid couldn't play bass.

I mean, well who gives a sh*t.

[Friend] We should

turn him down in takes.

Sometimes you should

turn him off actually.

I think we'd [indistinct]

all the dials on the M.

Should we do that for a pound?

Don't worry, Sid.

You don't need to worry

about f*cking pounds.

You just keep

talking to the girls.

John really wanted

him in the band.

Me and Steve were, oh okay,

let's see how this goes.

He looked great, don't get me

wrong. He looked fantastic.

Yeah, he was a face around town

and when he first joined

the band, it was great.

He was really willing to

learn and learn the numbers

and play and learn the bass.

The only thing

missing with Sid

was f*cking notes on the neck.

You know pieces of

tape, this is a C.

This is a G, you know. [laughs]

This is poor schmuck

f*cking got thrown

into the f*cking circus.

He never contributed

to any of the songwriting

or any of the recording.

What more can I say?

Even Sid himself would've

said, I'm not really a musician.

We all knew why he was there.

He was the poster boy

for the punk movement.

Went and picked

up my equipment

from our Denmark Street place

and then a couple of days

later I'm down at the Roxy Club

and then somebody

said, "John's here."

And I thought, oh, all right.

And I went out and I

was going to the loo

and he was there with Sid

and John's going like

that to Sid egging him on

and Sid follows me into the loo

and he said, "I'm the bass

player in the Sex Pistols now."

I said, "Yeah, I know."

I said, "Good for you."

He said, "What do you mean?"

He wanted to fight and John's

sort of egging him on, right.

But he's outside in the hallway

and me and Sid are in there.

I said, "I'll tell

you what, Sid,

I'll give you some bass

lessons if you like."

And he went, "Really?"

I said, "Yeah."

He said, "Aren't you annoyed?"

I said, "No, if they want you

in, that's the way it'll be."

And John's outside waiting

for the sound of fisticuffs.

And me and Sid sort of come out,

practically

arm in arm, laughing.

And John was like.

[Sid burps] Pardon me.

[Interviewer]

So what did you do

now that you've lost

your record contract?

You're still recording

though, aren't you?

-Yeah.

-What's your next single?

[Steve] Uh.

And there is no reason why

EMI

[Interviewer] And you were

signed up then with A&M?

Yeah for the week.

We walked into A&M Records.

Sid collapsed in the

marketing director's chair.

He was completely gone.

He drunk two bottles of

vodka from 10:00 AM to three.

It was like this wasn't a group

that had entered this building.

What had entered was

this fabulous disaster.

A couple of weeks later on,

Malcolm called me

up and he said,

"Look, you know, I

thought about it.

It's really not

working out with Sid.

I want you to come back

and kick down the doors

and be the Sex p*stol

bass player again."

I said, "Well, I could

do that, Malcolm.

But you sent that

telegram to NME

saying I was sacked

for liking the Beatles.

And I think it's pretty

shitty, really. So f*ck you."

[crowd cheering]

[majestic music]

[Reporter] The summer of

'77, the summer of the Jubilee,

a time when the nation united

in spontaneous

gestures of patriotism.

A time when the then top 20

record charts were dominated

by this original version

of the National anthem

by the Sex Pistols.

God save the Queen

The fascist regime

They made you a moron

A potential H-b*mb

We didn't write the song

to coincide with

the Jubilee at all.

We wrote that song I think

a year before, near enough,

it just came out at that time.

[Reporter] Her Majesty

and Prince Philip

to the thunderous cheers

of hundreds of thousands

of her subjects

lining the route.

[crowd cheering]

[crowd whistling]

They can't play on the land

and you can't hear

them in the air.

So let's put on a bloody boat.

[Johnny] It's insane,

the whole thing.

-And let's follow

the Queen's flotilla.

We mean it, man

When the Sex Pistols

went after the Queen,

I mean it just wasn't done.

"God Save the Queen" and played

it at the Queen's Jubilee.

No, no one has ever

done anything that ballsy.

That actually came out

after I'd left the band,

the song was written

and we were playing it,

but originally it was

called "No Future".

And to me, although the

first line of the song

is God save the Queen, the

main thing to me is no future.

There's no future. Not

that's a good thing.

But there's no

future unless you try

and do something

about it for yourself,

which is what we

were trying to do.

We didn't realize how much

we were gonna shake things up,

Questions in the houses

of the Parliament

and stuff like that going on.

You know it was crazy.

But we had a lot of support

throughout the country.

[Broadcaster] The Sex

Pistols current record,

"God Save the Queen",

is at number one

in the Capital headline today.

But the IBA, which administers

the Broadcasting Act,

has advised us this that,

particularly at this time,

this record is likely

to cause offense

to a number of our listeners

and have asked us not to play

it in our normal programming.

Not only would they

not play it on the BBC,

but they wouldn't even

print the name in the chart.

Going into Woolworths they

had the Top 10 on a pegboard

and then the number

one was blank.

When you're that passionate

about what you're doing,

that you're willing

to step over the edge

and confront the

world around you,

you will generate an

equally strong reaction

in the opposite direction.

[Interviewer] Are

you anti-royalist?

We are.

I've never met the

Queen in my life,

so why should I wanna know

her? [speaking faintly]

[Interviewer] I mean do

you think well, let's go

We don't bother about her.

We don't bother about her.

We just don't care

about the Queen.

I mean she don't give a

f*ck about us, does she?

It was great that we knew

we were doing something

culturally significant

and fantastic,

but it was also very scary

that we knew people

were out to harm us.

So we had to get out

the country at one time.

No future for you

No future

[Glen] Well, then

they went to the States.

For you

[music swells]

[Audience] Hey, Johnny!

[crowd cheering]

And in the meantime,

I'd already started

taking some steps to talk to

other musicians like Steve New.

And I met this guy Rusty

Egan, he was a drummer,

and I'd already been writing

a couple of song ideas.

As soon as we heard that

Glen had quit the band,

we were on the phone.

And he said, "As a friend

and a representative of EMI,

we see you as a main

tune-smith in the band.

We'd be more than interested

in anything you come up with."

And I thought,

well, f*cking handy.

And when I was on the

lookout for a singer,

like everybody wanted to

sound like Johnny Rotten,

which was the last

thing I wanted.

Rich Kids.

There's Glen Matlock,

formerly with the Sex Pistols

and Midge Ure, who's

with a Scottish

teeny-bop group called Slik.

Now you can see

Now you can feel

Now you can tell

that it was you

This is a kid had played in

the ultimate teenybopper

group, boy band Slik.

To get him as the front

was another clever

stance from Glen.

Okay, this is

called "Rich Kids".

[upbeat rock music]

What I did want to

do with the Rich Kids

was not be a

second division Sex p*stol.

And that's why it kind of

came out a bit different.

I'm talkin' about rich kids

The guys too much for you

This is the band that were

the missing link between punk

and what we were about to do

in the '80s with

New Romanticism.

They bridged that gap

and that was a

massive inspiration.

[Interviewer] What

do you think it will be

sort of a new wave kind

of words and angry songs?

No, I mean I'm not that

kind of angry person.

That's one of the reasons

I'm no longer in

the Pistols anymore.

Oh, it's too much

To stop the rich

So true

[Interviewer] Is there

a particular reason

why you're not playing

some of the larger,

you're not playing Los

Angeles or New York or?

[Glen] There's a

very definite reason

and all those places that

says you'll be sellouts,

but like who plays down south?

[upbeat rock music]

[crowd cheering]

Playing in the South,

that was a great idea.

Down there they had this

guy cutting himself on stage

with spiky hair and

not giving a f*ck.

That was a spectacle. It

really was a spectacle.

The Pistols are

just out of sight.

I think they got a lot of ba*ls.

Poo-poo, it isn't what

they sing. Get outta here!

[Interviewer] What do

they sing? They sing.

[spits] Get outta here.

It was just getting crazy.

We had lunatics following us

around all over the place.

The police were on

the side of the stage

and the record

company were worried.

We had a security all around us.

It was getting horrible.

I thought someone was

gonna die on that tour.

They nearly did with Sid just

causing chaos everywhere.

And the drug taking

and all that thing.

The band, it went

quickly downhill.

[Johnny] This is no fun.

No fun at all. No fun.

I said to the audience,

"Ever get the feeling

you've been cheated?"

And I meant it and I

still do to this day.

The whole thing went

sour. So we split.

Ever get the feeling you've

been cheated. Good night.

It was getting

dark and horrible

and, to be honest, I was

glad when it was over

at the end of that

American tour.

I was relieved too.

You know, I'd had enough.

That's the way it was.

That was the way

it was meant to be.

Sid was in the hospital.

It was a blizzard and I went

down to CGBGs that night

and there's Joe Stevens

with Johnny Rotten.

He asked me if I

had a cigarette.

I said, "Here, man, take it."

And he goes, "Oh."

He goes, "Is this a

token of your respect?"

And I said, "Well, no.

I actually feel bad for you

'cause you're out of work."

[laughs] It was an icebreaker

right there, you know.

Do you keep in touch

with any of the people

that you've played with before?

Anybody in the band?

No. They never bothered to

ring me, so I won't ring them.

It was really

heavy at the time.

And yeah, I was glad.

I thought we were just gonna

split up for a few months,

maybe then get back together.

But it never worked

out like that.

Then Sid came back to London

with tail between his legs.

Then he had a big drug problem.

But he moved into Maida

Vale a borough in London

and he was friends with

some of the same people

and then Nancy'd be around

and I saw him quite a lot.

[Nancy] I've been with Sid

ever since the first

day I got to England

and we're partners in crime.

[Sid speaking faintly]

We have good fun.

We wipe the sh*t off and

we help each other out.

Do remember once,

there was Nancy holding

her hand over a bowl.

She cut her wrist,

sort of cut her wrist,

eating an ice cream.

And I go, "Oh Nancy,

what you doing?"

She's going, "Well, Sid

don't love me anymore."

I said, "Oh, well never mind.

Do you want a cup of tea?"

And she'd be like,

"No, it's all right.

I was just eat the ice cream."

And it was all like

playacting kind of stuff.

I liked Nancy.

She was like one of

the handful of women

that were on the scene at CBGB.

You know we were all kids.

I got to know Nancy and

she sort of explained to me

that she had, had a rough

life, a rough home life.

I don't know if you

saw any of the gigs,

but Sid was like

really showing him out

and John was being like nothing.

[Interviewer] What

was it that you thought

the Pistols were trying to do?

Was it just like kick the

establishment up the a*s?

[Sid snoring]

Sid?

And we were sitting in

the pub one night together

and he's going, "The

thing is, Glen,"

he said, "people seem

to think we're enemies,

but here we are sitting

having a drink together."

And I said, "Yeah, it's

kind of funny that."

He said, "Can't we do

something about it?

Well, you know, to prove

that we're not enemies."

I said, "Well I'll

tell you what,

maybe we could do a

little gig for a laugh."

He went, "Oh, really?

Who would we get?"

I said, "Well I'll

tell you what,

why don't we get Steve New,

who's my guitarist

in the Rich Kids band

and maybe Rat Scabies."

He said, "Who's

gonna play bass?"

I said, "Well, I'll

play bass. You sing."

"Oh, oh, all right."

This was like on a Monday

and we was playing

the Electric Ballroom

the following

Friday or Saturday.

Sid Vicious, I was

in the Rich Kids

and Rat was in the White Cats.

Vicious White Kids,

boom, and it sold out.

[Sid] This one's dedicated

to my honey, Nancy.

[upbeat rock music]

[Glen] There was loads

of people at the gig.

I remember Thin Lizzy came down

and I think that's where I met

Blondie for the first time.

Joan Jett and I went together

and Marc Bolan was there.

But the mystic just

brought me tears

They had no material

and they did "I Wanna be

Your Dog" three times.

Kept getting encores and we

didn't have any more songs.

So we did the same set of

about 10 songs three times.

I mean, what happened

after that gig,

Sid was gonna go to America

and we didn't do too

bad after the gig

and then in a kind of

drunken moment of largess,

I said, "Let's just give

Sid the money for the gig."

And a couple of days

later he went to America.

The thing was, I didn't realize

that he was always skint.

He didn't have any money

and I didn't realize

how bad he'd become

and Malcolm wasn't

giving him any money.

So him and Nancy's in their own.

I didn't know that.

I've given him several grand

of money to go to America.

He turns up in New York, loaded.

Sid, damn you! f*ck.

So I don't know

if I didn't help somehow

in some small way,

help him with his

demise, undeliberately.

[Reporter] Tonight

Vicious is in real trouble.

Charged with the m*rder

of his girlfriend

at Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel.

Vicious, whose real

name is John Ritchie,

had lived at the Chelsea with

20 year old Nancy Spungen

for about three weeks.

This morning, Vicious

called an ambulance

to the West 23rd Street Hotel.

When it arrived, Ms.

Spungen was already dead

of the stab wound

in the stomach.

[somber music]

Really sweet enough guy.

I mean I didn't

really get to know him

until after f*cking

Nancy was dead.

He just got out of jail.

He was actually sober

and you could talk to him

and he was a very sad character.

I mean he was, you know I

asked him flat out one time,

"Did you do it?"

And he goes, "I don't know."

[Interviewer] And what do

you think made it happen?

It was meant to happen.

Nancy always said she

die before she was 21.

[somber music]

Sid Vicious will not

have to stand trial

for the m*rder of a girlfriend

at the Chelsea Hotel.

Sid is no longer

vicious. He's dead.

His nude body found in a

Greenwich Village apartment.

spoon and syringe nearby.

[Reporter] The ex Sex

p*stol was described

as happy about prospects

for a bright future

when he came here to

63 Bank last night.

[somber music]

You just have to accept it.

I could no more save him

than I could've k*lled him.

[Interviewer] Were you

close to him at that time?

He was my best mate.

All I can say is

that we really tried,

everybody tried to talk

to him, Steve and Paul.

[Interviewer] Do you

feel if he'd never met you,

he might be alive today?

[somber music]

I don't know.

[somber music continues]

First person I see up

here is Joe Strummer,

who was a friend of mine.

I remember Joe wearing this.

Generation X, there's

Tony James there

who used to knock

around with Mick Jones.

Scabies there, up there.

Very good drummer, but

he's a bit impulsive.

About a few years ago I

was having a jam with him

and was playing

away and he did this

fantastic big drum

thing, all that,

that ended like one and a

half beats into the next bar,

which it shouldn't have done.

It just all fell apart.

We was only rehearsing

and it all broke

down and I went wrap.

And he said, "Glen, I hate it

when you can't follow me

when I go wrong like that."

[crew laughing]

So there's kind of quite

a lot of connections

in this room for me.

But the only thing is

they got pictures of

Pistols without me in it.

So I'm gonna have to

address that issue

when I go back to England.

It's funny how the media

gave us that illusion

about the Sex Pistols,

that it was all Sid

when it wasn't all Sid,

it was Glen Matlock.

It's kind of funny, I don't

get up in the morning thinking

I used to be on a Sex Pistols.

But everything I've

done over my life,

I've never been allowed to

forget about the Sex Pistols.

But all I've ever

really wanted to do,

and maybe that was

one of the reasons

I fell out for the other guys,

you know Malcolm, was

be a working musician.

And you know what?

I'm 67 now and

I've managed that.

[upbeat rock music]

After the Pistols, I

got a gig with Iggy Pop.

I'm on tour with Iggy Pop

around Europe and America

and I played in his

"Soldier" album.

With the Rich Kids

it was fantastic.

I got to work with Mick Ronson,

he produced the album and

I became mates with him

and he asked me to

do other projects.

There's people that

have influenced me

I got to work with.

Johnny Thunders, I actually

did a tour of Japan

and Australia with Johnny.

[energetic rock music]

Look at the stuff

he's done since.

He played with

the f*cking Faces.

The band that I used to

stand in front of the mirror

when I was 14 pretending

I was in them,

we headlined the Fuji

Festival in Japan;

you know Ronnie Wood and

Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.

If someone said to me,

I can see into the future

and later on down the

line you're gonna get

one of the Sex Pistols

playing with me,

I would go, "Go away.

Don't be silly."

But sure enough he did.

[crowd cheering]

Then I got a phone call

a year and a half ago

from Clem Burke, Blondie

was short of a bass player,

would I go and help him out?

And I said, "When, late in

the summer or something?"

He said, "No, on Tuesday."

I was like, oh, [stammering].

[crowd cheering]

I knew Glen would

be perfect for it.

And we did this

arena tour with Glen

and it's just carried

on since then.

It's been great.

[crowd cheering]

[Debby] Oh, my god. [laughs]

Yeah, you know Glen is great.

Yes, he's a sweetheart.

["Call Me"]

Call me, call

me, on the line

Call me, call me

any day or night

Call me, I'll arrive

When you're ready

for your sweet design

In my experience,

there's some people

that were born to be

in rock and that's it.

It's just, you know who you are.

And I think that applies to him.

Designer sheets,

I'll never get enough

That's one of the

things I like about Glen,

that it's not past glories.

I think his current work

is his strongest ever.

Really With his

finger on the pulse

of what's going on

politically in the country

and the world and

he's writing about it.

Until there's

someone, oh yeah

People always say the

Pistols was like a sea change.

Maybe it was in a way,

but I dispute that.

I think music's

like a baton race.

You know the people from

before you that you dig,

you take the baton off of

them and you do your bit

and then you pass the baton

on for the next lot of people.

You know here's this man Glen

Matlock who changed my life.

Yeah, I put seeing

the Sex Pistols

in the same bracket

as Paul meeting John.

[upbeat rock music]

Glen leaving

sadly did take away

that marvelous accidental

synergy that they had

and they couldn't really

seriously recover from it.

[Paul] What a damn good band

we were, to be quite frank,

and how right it was that

we ended when we did.

You know I'm

proud of the songs

and every time you hear a Sex

Pistols record on the radio,

especially the

first three singles,

you might be listening to

Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones

and Paul Cook, but you're also

listening to Glen Matlock,

He is a writer

and an idea maker.

I don't think we would

have the Sex Pistols

the same way that

that we knew them

without him being one

of the main ingredients.

It takes a- a lot of people

to make something great

and different opinions

and when they align,

that's when it's

something special.

And in the end of the Pistols,

they were very special.

And there's not a lot

of bands that can say

that they have one record

that impacted everything.

It's amazing with

that one album,

how they're spoken about in

the same breath as the Who

or even the Stones

or the Beatles

or all the great

rock and roll bands,

which they were one of.

They only had to

make one, really.

It's so good.

No one sounds anywhere

near that powerful.

Never Mind the Bollocks raised

the bar for everyone.

It's one of the most

classic records of all time.

Amazing, I mean I played

that to death when it came out.

That's their one

statement to the world.

And imagine getting

it so right once.

I made 10 albums

and in my own mind,

they don't match up to that

and I'm an arrogant b*stard.

I mean it, man

We love our Queen, oh yeah

God saves

We have got

something in common

that only four people

in the wide world have

and it's like when we get in

the room, if we ever did again,

and we start playing

we're the Sex Pistols,

it wouldn't have happened

without all the elements,

which is mainly the band.

But it wouldn't have

happened without Malcolm.

It wouldn't have happened

without Vivienne.

It wouldn't have happened

without Jamie Reid's artwork.

It wouldn't have happened

without Little Helen,

Helen of Troy whose

mates were Malcolm.

There's a power to the

music of the Pistols.

No future for you

No future, no future

[crowd cheering]

[music swells]

Yeah, maybe we could've

made another album or two.

But you know bands tend

to do a ballad or so.

Something like the

Rolling Stones',

Angie, Angie

Can't Imagine Johnny Rotten

singing something like that.

[he chuckles]

Angie...

All right, that's

Glen Matlock on bass.

[crowd cheering]

That's a good

place to end then.

There's no point in

asking, you'll get no reply

Oh just remember

I don't decide

I got no reason and

you'll get no reply

Sigh of friction, yeah

That's just fine

We're so pretty,

oh so pretty

We're vacant

We're so pretty,

oh so pretty

Vacant

Don't ask us to attend,

'cause we're not all there

Oh don't pretend

'cause we don't care

Got no reason,

it's all too much

Always find us

Out to lunch, out to lunch

We're so pretty,

oh so pretty

Vacant

We're so pretty,

oh so pretty

Vacant

We're so pretty,

oh so pretty

Vacant, yeah

And we don't care

We're so pretty,

pretty vacant

We don't care

[song ends]