Sex Pistols

JOHNNY ROTTEN’S NO-FRILLS BOOK TOUR

John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten wants you to know he’s BROKE. The Sex Pistols lead singer is currently touring the UK (he has dozens and dozens of personal appearance dates) and he’s promoting his new book I Could Be Wrong, I could Be Right.” (currently selling on eBay for $150) To save money he’s traveling from date to date and sleeping in a rented camper van. (above) Lydon lost an expensive court case where he refused to allow Sex Pistol songs in Danny Boyle’s new Pistols biographical series Pistol. The other band members cooperated, but John wanted nothing to do with the Disney FX series- the judge defended “majority rules” – and it was an expensive loss for Lydon. Hence the low budget tour…

Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA

NEVER MIND THE ROYALS – HERE’S THE SEX PISTOLS!

For those who have had it up to HERE with Royals and upper class Brits on TV, we have an exhilarating alternative: The Sex Pistols! Acclaimed Trainspotting director /producer Danny Boyle has started filming a six part series for FX and Hulu called Pistol. It’s based on Steve Jones‘ memoir Lonely Boy and we hear it’s an alluring peek at British street culture in the 1970’s and a refreshing point of view during the formative days of the Sex Pistols. Manager Malcolm McLaren is of course included as well as his and Vivienne Westwood’s original SEX shop on Kings Road. Young British actors that we’ve never heard of have been cast, and they just started filming in London – aiming for release in 2022.

Above, the genuine Pistols posing in front of their final tour bus

THE SEX PISTOLS CHALLENGED THE MONARCHY

Here’s some good news- Oscar winning director Danny Boyle is working on a limited series for FX about the Sex Pistols. It’s based on recollections in the book by guitarist Steve Jones called Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol. Boyle raves that the Sex Pistols were responsible for “the moment that British society and culture changed forever.” It was a very exciting time in the UK for shopping and fashion and anarchy. Notorious characters Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood and their Kings Road SEX shop are also included in the series. Steve Jones, who describes himself in his book as a charming, illiterate, kleptomaniac, now 65 and living in LA, has a radio show called Jonesy’s Jukebox.

Above, Steve Jones is third from the left

JOHNNY ROTTEN ISN’T SO ROTTEN ANY MORE

John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten is still so British that he takes a taxi to the supermarket. Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones gave Johnny Rotten his name because of how his teeth looked. Lydon has lived in LA since 1981 (with his heiress wife Nora) so presumably his teeth have been repaired. Nowadays he introduces himself by saying “Hello – I’m big and ugly!” so he hasn’t lost his edge. But it does appear that he lost his hair gel on this shopping trip Sunday, giving him the look of a suburban dad. Lydon’s post-punk band Public Image Limited is performing in the UK this summer.

Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA

EVEN THE SEX PISTOLS LOVE BEVERLY HILLS

#sexpistols #janetcharlton

Sex Pistols fans will be happy to hear that in celebration of the fact that it’s been 35 years since their amazing album “Never Mind The B*******” was released, Universal has created a new limited edition box set of remastered versions of the music, plus many extras. According to bandmember Steve Jones, it’s the first time the songs have actually been remastered from the masters because the masters were missing for years. Modern technology has vastly improved the clarity. Steve has lived in California for half his life now and he told The Sun “I live in Beverly Hills and I’m proud of it!” Besides being a DJ, Steve is dabbling in acting – he appeared on four episodes of Californication. Coincidentally or not, Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) married and heiress and lives in Los Angeles also. (Above, an early photo of Johnny, Steve, and Sid Vicious kibitzing on the street)

SID VICIOUS WAS ONCE INSPIRED BY SALVADOR DALI




Who knew Sid Vicious was a artist during his teen years? Art work created by the Sex Pistols icon when he was an art school student of 15 or 16 is being auctioned off at the Fame Bureau auction house in London. The collection of watercolors and sketches is in a book that he left with his late mother Anne Beverley. Anne never stopped trying to prove that her son was not guilty of murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen (photo above) in the Chelsea Hotel, but after Sid died at 21 of a heroin overdose, nobody bothered to reexamine the facts. Anne died in 1996 and these paintings went to the Sid Vicious estate.

IF SID VICIOUS DIDN’T DO IT, WHO KILLED NANCY?

To be honest, it never occurred to us that Sex Pistol Sid Vicious DIDN’T kill his groupie girlfriend Nancy Spungen at the Chelsea Hotel. The horrific ending to the Sid and Nancy story happened in 1978 when Sid woke up in a drug haze and found Nancy dead on the bathroom floor with a stab wound in her stomach. He was arrested for murder but overdosed before he could go on trial. So the murder was not investigated. Sid’s mother Anne Beverley begged British rock journalist Alan G Parker to prove that Sid didn’t kill Nancy. She has since died, but Alan went on to document dozens of interviews with people who knew Sid and Nancy to uncover more facts. The documentary “Who Killed Nancy?” is being released on Friday.

FINAL DRAMATIC FAREWELL TO MALCOLM MCLAREN, THE ARCHITECT OF PUNK

Subversive punk icon Malcolm McLaren was laid to rest in the flamboyant style he’d grown accustomed to. “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die,” the slogan from his “Sex” shop, was written on his casket. The funeral procession was led by a horse drawn carriage, and paraded through the home of the punk movement, Camden, in north-west London. Thousands of people lined the streets. Mourners included the remaining Sex Pistols, tarted up Adam Ant, and McLaren’s muse Vivienne Westwood. Westwood wants McLaren to be remembered as an inspiration to the new generation – she advised them to “Get a life – and do something with it!”

MALCOLM MCLAREN WAS THE ARCHITECT OF PUNK


We can’t let the passing of Malcolm McLaren go by without recognizing his immense cultural influence on both fashion and music. This “architect of punk” gave us The Sex Pistols and revolutionized the disco driven 70’s. In 1971 he opened his “Sex” shop on Kings Road with his then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood and it became a magnet for style obsessed young people everywhere. On our first trip to London, that store was the first stop and it was amazing. (It was rumored that a girl had recently given herself an abortion in the dressing room with a coat hangar.) Bondage gear, red plaid suits, safety pin jewelry, and ripped insult t shirts. Malcolm and Vivienne changed fashion forever and inspired generations of designers to come. We wish we had saved a bondage jacket or seditionary t shirt – they’re worth thousands now.