Were the Sex Pistols still viewed as a band in 1978/1979

Never Mind is a darn good album.

 

Outside of London and the original air date you probably wouldn't have seen this until The Swindle. From memory I think it was in there. I saw it some time in 77. The Pistols were playing some incognito gigs and they were rumoured to be playing Eric's in Liverpool. They didn't play but we got to see that and some other film footage.

 

Thanks for the bullocks comment.

 

Apart from this gig:

Anarchy in Huddersfield: the day the Sex Pistols played Santa

 

I started going to rock shows in clubs in America when I was 16. In the early 80s, especially at alternative/punk shows, no one cared, if you paid the cover charge, they would let you in the club, even if it wasn’t an all-ages show and alcohol was being served.

 

I would recommend the book England's Dreaming by Jon Savage. One of the best books about music written. It charts the Pistols story from their early roots to global recognition. Savage is a very good writer and the book is superb (and also features a great list of recommended listening covering the whole punk movement).

It may give you a better perspective as I think you are way off with that assessment. What stays with you the most is how the Pistols would play somewhere and inspire people to form bands, or other artistic projects, literally everywhere they played. There is the famous Manchester gig where the audience was famously literally everyone who would be important in Manchester in the next few years - the future members of Joy Division, Morrissey, Tony Wilson, Mick Hucknall etc.

You can argue about the merits of the Sex Pistols music or records all you like but really even before they had released a record they had gone around the country transforming the future of music in the UK and later the World. Everywhere they played people went out and formed bands or started record labels.

Great read if you are willing to have an open mind.

 

and Lipstick Traces

 

Great book! And the Pistols (original band with Matlock) could play just fine. Just try and play any of their songs. I've told this story before, but I learned a lot of guitar from an English teacher at my old school, and I asked him to suss out the chords for Anarchy. he was impressed how complex it was. Not standard 3 chord 12 bar rock n roll.

 

That particular disc is fine (its legit pre-Bollocls demos), but it was one of a handful of albums that Dave Goodman slipped to a few labels, including Restless in the US. Some of those were junk, like "Live at Chelmsford Prison" (real Pistols show with many fake additions) and "The Swindle Continues" (half by the "Ex-Pistols" who had no connection at all).

 

Yes, it was the 'Today' show, the local 6 o'clock news show in London (theme tune: an instrumental version of the Association's 'Windy' which played right after the interview!!) . They'd actually been on TV in London the Sunday before that, a feature on the LWT show with Janet Street Porter which I'd also seen. I was really interested in the punk revolution but wasn't one myself! Totally against violence at gigs, but loved the music. The interest and gossip in the music press had been building thru the summer/autumn of '76 prior to this point.

 

Queen cancelled their spot at the last minute, requiring a scurrying to fill the vacancy?

 

Punk Rock was a youth movement and while most punk fans were in their late teens there were plenty of younger punk fans.
I was only 11yrs old when I first bought the EMI pressing of "Anarchy In The UK" and by the time "God Save The Queen" was out my Mum was stitching my jeans together because it was impossible to find straight leg jeans in the shops in 1977. There seemed little chance of seeing the Pistols live during 1977 but my cousin and I did plan on running away from home to see the Pistols play in Huddersfield on Christmas day - until I realised there were no ferries off the Isle Of Wight on that day. I desperately wish we had found a way to get there, my parents would have gone mad but it would have been worth the bollocking lol!

 

Yes, I remember hearing that.

 

It is and we have Chris Speeding to thank for it being so. Much like we have Glen Campbell and Sonny Curtis to thank for the first Monkees albums being terrific.

I was alive and well and had been collecting records for eight years when the 'Pistols came along. I don't need to read a book.

 

always plenty of rumours on who played on a studio record

you wouldn't connect the group to The Lettrist and Situationist Internationals without the book

 

What has it got to do with Chris Spedding. Every time there is Pistols thread we get so much misinformation and stupidity.

 

I was sixteen too when I first went into pubs, though seventeen going to rock clubs. I was asked a few times if I was eighteen, I lied and got away with it because looked old enough to be so. I wouldn't happen today older teens are likely to be asked to show id of some sort.

 

I'm sure you'll get round to reading a book one day.

 

During the classic albums NMTB film Steve Jones breaks down the guitar overdubs on Holidays in the Sun amongst many other tracks. It's all played by him. You can hear it's him! He did most of the bass parts too. The guy didn't need help.

 

Boy, people sure get touchy about their Sex Pistols. I've never thought of rock and roll in such a serious fashion. Unless it was Emerson, Lake & Palmer or something.

 

Your avatar suggests otherwise.

 

Who's touchy? I see an easy target I hit it.

 

Sonny Curtis isn't on that album. Glen Campbell is only on the two Nesmith tracks, which would have been terrific anyway.

The guitar playing is nearly all Wayne Erwin, Gerry McGee, and Louie Shelton.

 

Actually, it's in Filth and the Fury. There's an audio-only recreation in Swindle.

 

I'm sure the 1982 VHS copy I had of Swindle had the visual interview, not just audio. Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, so I can't check. I wonder if there was a subsequent rights issue?