All language subtitles for I.Was.a.Teenage.Sex.Pistol.2025.1080p.Web-eng

Blaine, can
I get your guitar?

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,.

I say my art has been
a songwriter, really.

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.

One,
two, three, four.

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.

When
the Sex Pistols,

with lead singer Johnny Rotten,

suddenly made punk
music front page news,

they outraged
pretty well everyone

Complacent,
apathetic old.

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.

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 fucker.

What a clever boy.

What a fuckin' rotter.

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 Pistol songs
are largely three chord songs,

but it's three
chords and the truth.

They made one goddamn 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 fucking
sick of talking about it.

It's the same old shit.

Told the story a million times.

Okay, quiet on the set.

Action. Okay.

Let's, yeah, we gotta kinda
set the scene a little bit.

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.

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.

The Pistol's
were my favorite ever band.

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".

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.

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.

And you can't hear
the fucking thing.

And then what do you do,

you can kind of jam it
against the wardrobe.

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.

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.

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
balls 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."

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.

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 gang 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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Rock was in a terrible
state in the '70s.

It was grandiose and
25 minute guitar solos

and 30 minute drum solos.

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.

This kind of became
a bit indulgent.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

And he went, "Yeah?"

And I went.

And he went, "Yeah?"

"Yeah?"

He went, "Oh, I like that."

He said, "What comes next?"

♪ Now ♪

That's when John said,

"Finally, you've got something
to with these lyrics."

♪ I'm an antichrist ♪

♪ I am an anarchist ♪

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.

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."

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.

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.

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 fucking 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.

All are
aware that Britain

was in its worst economic
crisis for more than 40 years.

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.

♪ 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.

Ooh.
Oh,.

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 cunt 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".

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.

And
what sort of people

came to see you
in the beginning?

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.

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.

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.

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 Coon 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.

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".

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 ♪

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 fucking 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.

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.

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.

Sit down! Yeah!

Fucking 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 Pistol 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.

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.

One,
two, three, four.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Possibly,

I don't have a safety
pin through my nose.

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.

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.

Had
you sung before?

Not on stage, no.

Did you
think that is important?

Um, no.

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.

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."

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 ♪

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"

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.

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 fuck sake, shut up."

I'd go, " No, I've
got something."

I went home, picked up my
guitar and I found the riff.

So I had the
beginnings of the riff

for "God Save the Queen".

When I came up with the riff,

I could always imagine Steve
doing it with a bit more,

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.

Hello Doug
D'Arcy, Chrysalis Records.

They were a
particularly ugly band.

That's dreadful.

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.

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 cunt.

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 fucking
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.

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 shit 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.

Well,
tell me more then.

We've fuckin'
spent it, ain't we?

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 shit

and he pushed him on it.

It's what?

Nothing. A rude word.

Next question.

No, no. What
was the rude word?

-Shit
-Was it really?

Good heavens, you
frighten me to death.

Oh all right, Siegfried

What about
you girls behind?

Always wanted to meet you.

-Did you really?
-Yeah.

We'll meet
afterwards, shall we?

-Yeah.
-You dirty sod.

Go on, you've
got another five seconds.

Say something outrageous.

You dirty bastard.

Go on, again.

You dirty fucker.

What a clever boy.

What a fucking 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?
Rotter.

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."

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 explosion

and then know that
it was gonna happen.

And as a manager,
run into the toilet

and come out after the explosion
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.

Why all
the infamous language.

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.

Unseen, dangers,
awaited, punks in the dark.

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.

You start taking your life
in your hands a little bit,

wearing your punk threads.

It was almost like
war 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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 fucks and
a shit 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.

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 shit.

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.

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 shit,
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,

The
anti-establishment Sex Pistols

called in the
establishment press

to protest what had
happened to them.

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?

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.

I thought it was the
stupidest fucking move

they ever made.

They say they threw him out
because he liked The Beatles.

Well, fuck 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 shit.

We should
turn him down in takes.

Sometimes you should
turn him off actually.

I think we'd
all the dials on the M.

Should we do that for a pound?

Don't worry, Sid.

You don't need to worry
about fucking 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 fucking notes on the neck.

You know pieces of
tape, this is a C.

This is a G, you know.

This is poor schmuck
fucking got thrown

into the fucking 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.

Pardon me.

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?

Uh.

♪ And there is no reason why ♪

♪ EMI ♪

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 Pistol
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 fuck you."

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-bomb ♪

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.

Her Majesty
and Prince Philip

to the thunderous cheers
of hundreds of thousands

of her subjects
lining the route.

They can't play on the land

and you can't hear
them in the air.

So let's put on a bloody boat.

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.

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.

Are
you anti-royalist?

We are.

I've never met the
Queen in my life,

so why should I wanna know
her?

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
fuck 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 ♪

Well, then
they went to the States.

♪ For you ♪

Hey, Johnny!

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, fucking 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".

What I did want to
do with the Rich Kids

was not be a
second division Sex Pistol.

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.

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 ♪

Is there
a particular reason

why you're not playing
some of the larger,

you're not playing Los
Angeles or New York or?

There's a
very definite reason

and all those places that
says you'll be sellouts,

but like who plays down south?

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 fuck.

That was a spectacle. It
really was a spectacle.

The Pistols are
just out of sight.

I think they got a lot of balls.

Poo-poo, it isn't what
they sing. Get outta here!

What do
they sing? They sing.

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.

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."

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.

I've been with Sid

ever since the first
day I got to England

and we're partners in crime.

We have good fun.

We wipe the shit 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.

What
was it that you thought

the Pistols were trying to do?

Was it just like kick the
establishment up the ass?

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.

This one's dedicated
to my honey, Nancy.

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! Fuck.

So I don't know

if I didn't help somehow
in some small way,

help him with his
demise, undeliberately.

Tonight
Vicious is in real trouble.

Charged with the murder
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.

Really sweet enough guy.

I mean I didn't
really get to know him

until after fucking
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."

And what do
you think made it happen?

It was meant to happen.

Nancy always said she
die before she was 21.

Sid Vicious will not
have to stand trial

for the murder 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.

The ex Sex
Pistol was described

as happy about prospects
for a bright future

when he came here to
63 Bank last night.

You just have to accept it.

I could no more save him
than I could've killed him.

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.

Do you
feel if he'd never met you,

he might be alive today?

I don't know.

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."

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.

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.

Look at the stuff
he's done since.

He played with
the fucking 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.

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,.

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.

Oh, my god.

Yeah, you know Glen is great.

Yes, he's a sweetheart.

♪ 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.

Glen leaving
sadly did take away

that marvelous accidental
synergy that they had

and they couldn't really
seriously recover from it.

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 bastard.

♪ 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 ♪

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.

♪ Angie... ♪

All right, that's
Glen Matlock on bass.

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 ♪