Sex Pistols(Incomplete)
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Who are they then?
The Sex Pistols were a band formed in 1972 by a group of angry, poverty-stricken working class young men. This London based band went on to become the pivotal point of the British punk explosion that occurred in the late seventies. Their music was an aggressive reaction to the incredible suffering of the working class along with their hatred of the ‘Supergroups’ that cluttered up the charts of the time.
How did they form?
The line-up altered considerably in the formative days. To begin with the band consisted of Steve Jones performing vocals, Wally Nightingale strumming the guitar and Paul Cook beating on the drums. They later met a bass guitar player named Glen Matlock, who was working in their favourite hangout – Malcolm Mclaren and Vivienne Westwood’s clothes shop on the Kings Road, London1. They now had a complete band but little knowledge of the music industry. This forced them to look for a good manager to look after their interests. Immediately they peered in the direction of Malcolm McLaren, whose communication abilities had not gone unnoticed by the band members. They would later rue this decision. McLaren agreed but immediately wanted to make changes to the line up. He suggested that Steve Jones should play guitar, Wally should be ejected and a new vocalist should be found, with McLaren suggesting Richard Hell. They naively agreed to these suggestions, believing that Malcolm knew best. The search for a new vocalist began promptly, their attentions immediately turning in the direction of a group of youths who also frequented McLaren’s shop. This group were named ‘The Johns’, simply because every member had the Christian name John. Among these youths were the unmistakable figures of John Lydon and John Beverly. The Sex Pistols picked out John Lydon, for reasons that have never truly been discussed in any detail, and he was given the opportunity to audition.
He sang it like the Hunchback of Notre Dame
Malcolm Mclaren
Lydon gave a tortured performance that really caught the eye and was immediately asked to join the band. Steve Jones named Lydon Johnny Rotten because his teeth were in a terrible condition. And the rest is history… but I’m still going to write about it.
The growth of punk
The beginnings of Punk
The Sex Pistols are often given the title of ‘Godfathers of Punk’. To discover whether this was actually the case we should look at what punk actually is. Punk rock was the name given to the art-rock scene, which began in early seventies New York with bands such as the Ramones2 and the New York Dolls. However this could never be credited as anything more than a musical style and certainly not a movement. The Sex Pistols were born into an incredibly deprived and oppressed section of society and this gave them an attitude of pure hatred against the establishment, which became known as a punk attitude. So the Sex Pistols could never be credited with starting punk rock but they certainly began the punk movement.
The Punk movement
The Sex Pistols first proper gig was played in an art school in London named St. Martins. The audience consisted mainly of hippies with neatly styled hair and flared trousers. Contrasting this the Sex Pistols were scruffy, wearing clothing that others would not consider fit for a bin, and had messy, spiky hair. Differing musical tastes led to the plug being pulled on the Sex Pistols half way through their performance, and they were thrown out on to the streets.
1This shop, later named Sex (because of its new leather bondage direction), became the pivotal point for the punk movement2Joey Ramone R.I.P
