Sex Pistols - Live Review

The Sex Pistols Live at Hammersmith Apollo, 2nd September 2008

In January 1978, Johnny Rotten famously snarled "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" to a San Fransisco audience, who were watching the Sex Pistols explode before their very eyes...

When I went to see their very first re-form show (Finsbury Park, 1996), I was absolutely bricking it. The Pistols are just about my favourite band of all time, but the decision to go wasn't as straight forward as you might think. On the one hand, how could I miss the chance of actually seeing them live after all these years? but on the other, there was a real fear that it would be disappointing and soil my love for the band. It sounds stupid, but i was genuinely nervous about that gig. But in the end it was completely unfounded, and they put on a blistering show that night, everything I ever wanted and more. 20 years on, they still had the swagger, the anger and the attitude. So with memories of Finsbury Park and numerous reports of how good they were last year, I'd been lulled into a false sense of security about tonight's gig and hadn't even been worrying about it... mistake!

For an hour before the band arrive, a DJ is on stage playing toons to get the audience 'in the mood'. To be honest, someone may as well have just stuck a 'best-ist Punk album in the world.. EVER (honest)' type CD on, and saved the cost of the DJ, as just about every track was 'that' obvious. The band walk on to a rousing rendition of 'There'll always be an England' and launch straight into... erm.. a hoe-down style version of Pretty Vacant. It's obviously tongue in cheek, designed to fit in with the title of the tour (Combine Harvester), and maybe a couple of lines might have been vaguely funny... but after two verses and two choruses it wears very thin, and the little dance routines and 'yea-hars' are a bit embarrassing. I start to panic, Pretty Vacant is my favourite Pistols song... hell, it's my favourite song FULL STOP!! is this the only rendition I'm gonna get tonight?? Fortunately though, once the barn dance is (finally) over, they do at least play it again for real.

The setlist is a no-brainer, and includes pretty much everything you expect, but 4 or 5 songs in I notice I'm just starting to lose interest, and from what I'm seeing on stage, I don't think I'm the only one. This is a cash cow 'going thru the motions' gig if ever I saw one. Lydon is obviously bored of the whole thing, and unforgivably, is ruining a number of the songs. I always think of him having two singing voices... his angry snarl for the Pistols, and that high-pitched caterwauling that he introduced us to in Public Image Ltd. Unfortunately, he's decided to go for the caterwauling option for much of tonight, singing about 8 octaves too high, and much of it all on the same note! (think the chorus to PiL's 'The Flowers of Romance' and then substitute large chunks of 'Never Mind the Bollocks' into that!). The rest of the band try hard to recreate the power and sound of the originals, but Lydon's vocals undo much of their work.

The only members who's heart still seems to be in this are Cook and Matlock (no doubt the only two who really need the money too... coincidence?), Cook is as solid as ever behind the skins, and at least ensures that the unmistakable Pistols sound remains tight. Matlock too is ever the talented professional... to think they actually sacked him back in the day! Steve Jones looks about 20 stone and has lost much of his on-stage style and charisma (his cocky swagger now more a waddle). Surviving the gig seems to be his main priority tonight as he puffs and blows his way through the set, but his unmistakable chugging guitar sound still sets the hairs on your neck going...

As the show goes on, there is one other thing that really starts to niggle, and that's Lydon continually banging on about how 'great' Great Britain is. He's waving the George Cross flag and dropping his trousers to display his union jack pants... and in between songs he's continually telling us how wonderful us Brits are and what a great country England is... yeah John, that's why you n Jonesy have spent the last 20 years in LA mate...

When they come out for the encore, Lydon finally finds his Pistols voice, and gives us a fairly convincing 'Anarchy in the UK'. Yet incredibly this one is spoilt in other ways, as it's overly extended to lend itself to a bit of audience participation (kinda punk Butlins style). The gig finally splutters to a conclusion with two truly 'orrible cover versions... Hawkwinds 'Silver Machine' (WTF??!) and Road Runner. Road Runner is nowhere near the spit and bile of their original 70's version, it's an overlong cabaret routine and I make my exit during it (so I'm assuming it was the last number)... Always leave 'em wanting less!

Had I not seen how good the reformed Sex Pistols can be (I've just listened to the Finsbury Park Live CD twice whilst typing this review, and it still sounds incredible), maybe I wouldn't have been quite so disappointed. Lydon informed us that the band had "drunk Ireland Dry" the night before, and tonights show certainly had the feel of a hangover about it.

So in answer to the question he posed 30 years ago, yeah, finally I do feel a bit cheated John...

Piley


Good to meet up with Planet Mondo and Tronik Youth after the gig, and t'was Mr Tronik who took the crackin' photos of the show you see above. Cheers for letting me use em fella!

You can see plenty more of Tronik's Pistols Pics and read what Planet Mondo thought of the show here.

And why not pop over to Tronik Youth's site to see just who he's remixin' this week, see where he's next DJ'ing or maybe even pick up one of his super funky T-Shirts!

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

It was to be the sweetest revenge. 30 years on from when the Sex Pistols were conned out of a number one single, finally they were going to get their just deserts. Back then, the Pistols were robbed by an oversensitive nation who in 1977 felt that 'God Save The Queen' going to the topper-most of the popper-most would overshadow her Maj's Silver Jubilee celebrations (indeed, it was actually thought the song would somehow topple the establishment…..??!) . So the chart was apparently 'nobbled' and Rod Stewart's 'I Don't Want to Talk About It' was given the crown in dubious circumstances.

But 30 years on we can just about handle the outrage of the Pistols finest moment, and a campaign to finally get the single to the top of the charts commenced. And what a campaign it was too… magazines backed it (NME in particular championed it with great enthusiasm), music celebs endorsed it, websites promoted it, radio stations covered it and even one or two broadsheets commented on it (even the Queen and Prince Philip were up for downloading it… probably). Everything was looking good for the fairytale ending.

Not since the 80's have I been so keen to hear the latest chart run-down ('Kid' Jenson no longer does it apparently…). In my day it used to be unveiled of a Tuesday lunchtime. Years later it moved to Sunday afternoons (presumably to spice up the flagging 'top 40' radio show, which up until that time was always promoting a chart just about to be superseded). These days however, Monday is the big day (is it a big day for anyone anymore?). So on Monday this week I was there, Union Jack party popper in hand, ready to celebrate a real achievement of 'people power'. On tracking down the new chart, I even looked at it in reverse order, just to try and re-create the excitement of the 80's! The further up the chart I got, the more excited I became… into the top 10 and still no mention… top 5… top 3… it's not number 2! They've done it! And this weeks number 1 is…. The Sugababes. The fuckin Sugababes??! A wider search for the full top 75 showed the Sex Pistols as a new entry at number 42.

So what happened? In a world where you only need to sell a couple of dozen singles to get in the top 10, how did all the hype and promises of buying multiple copies fail so miserably? To me the answer is fairly clear, it was virtually impossible to actually buy the fucking thing!

I really bought into this campaign, and despite already owning the track a dozen times or more on various singles, LP's and CD's, was happy to do my bit for Queen and country… BUT (and this is a big, age-showing BUT) for me to do my bit, I need something tangible to show for my money. I'm sorry, but 79p for the privilege of downloading a track I already own is not going to tempt me. If I'm prepared to show willing, and buy something I already own, then I need the record company to meet me half way and offer me something in return, to make it worth my while. ‘God Save The Queen’ on CD single would have been nice, but it was not to be. Still, they did decide to pump out a 7” single with the original sleeve artwork, so that was the way I’d make my vote count.

A visit to my local Virgin on release day (8th October) was fruitless. They no longer stock 7” singles (which they only started stocking again 18 months ago!), only CD singles. No matter, HMV is close by… However I discovered they no longer stock chart singles, but I was informed that there was a 7” single section at the back of the store, so off I hurried. Describing it as a ‘singles section’ was somewhat over-egging it, as what I found was more reminiscent of a car boot sale than a national music chain-store. The ‘section’ referred to was infact a grubby box of dog-eared singles, precariously perched on the edge of a display counter. Still, it was good to see they at least carried them, and ever more heartening to see so many new releases in this format. And what a bargain too, all at 99p each! I used to pay more than that in the 80’s! Spurred on I flicked through the box, and finally, right at the back, there it was.. ‘God Save The Queen’ on 7” single in original artwork sleeve… FOUR QUID!!!

It sums up the music industry perfectly for me. A buzz had been created by the general public to right an longstanding wrong. But rather than saying “some good publicity here lads, pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap”, the greedy bastards push it out at full mark-up. Every time HMV or Virgin has a sale (most months!) The Pistols classic album ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ is always there at £2.99, so £4 to purchase one song from it can hardly be seen as good value – especially as the vast majority of the people who were up for buying it, already owned it! I didn’t buy it, and judging by the lowly chart position, not many others did either.

I’d like to think that Virgin Record Company will learn from this, but know full well they won’t. It’ll just be used as an excuse not to press further vinyl releases in the future. No doubt they’ll be continuing with their main hobby of pleading poverty and moaning about illegal downloading, without once seeing the irony.

As a consolation prize, I downloaded a (free!) God Save The Queen 30th anniversary wallpaper for both my PC and my phone… anarchy eh?!

Piley