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

Why just spout crap? You got called out now put up or shut up.

 

I was/am a huge GNR fan from late 1987. I pretty much assumed the band was dead when Duff and Slash left. It wasn't quite official yet, but Slash had released a solo album and all reports were that both were no longer working with Axl. The band was done for me at that point. I still followed all the news ect, but I considered what Axl was doing a solo project even if he considered using the GNR name.

 

Pretty much the same for me. I think the last release I would consider GNR would be the SFTD cover I guess.

 

Bob Marley started as reggae, but I do think of him as being as much pop, so youre right!
Looked up the Britannica entry on punk, by John Savage. He says that the Ramones set the template for punk, defined by its 'breakneck' speed. But of course, he also includes the Pistols as punk. They will always be seen as punk, but they dont fit musically, in my view. Too slow. They do fit with the Stooges, and pre punk rock like that.

 

It was the real swindle. Once the radio banned the Sex Pistols, there was no way of hearing their music, so buying blind was the only option. Virgin cashed in on that, with this kind of thing. It was quite fun, but glad I borrowed it, rather than bought it. I saw a copy in Oxfam, just before covid, was going to buy it, but they wanted £20 for it.

 

There's a great bit, I think it's on that doc too, where they mention the rumours and ask Jones if it is actually him playing, and he just deadpans and says "Naah, didn't even know where the f***in' studio was."

 

That was defintely the NME view. I pushed that view myself, as an NME reader.
But in the real world, a lot of kids thought Friggin in the Riggin was the best Sex Pistols song, as it fitted most closely with the version of punk pushed by the tabloids - lots of swearing, guitars, offensive.

 

No. Four singles, one album, that’s it. The rest was cartoon nonsense.

 

Only God Save The Queen was banned on the radio (and only the BBC for that matter). Everything else was played. Pretty Vacant was even featured on Top of the Pops via a promo clip.

 

The Great Rock 'n' Swindle album was my introduction to the Sex Pistols (taped copy in 1985) and to me, it's integral. Much prefer it to Never Mind The Bollocks.

 

There was one part of that overview that I found very fascinating -- It stated that engineer Bill Price had Steve Jones double all the guitars with the second guitar playing an octave lower. That really revealed an essential part of the very meaty guitar sound that permeates that LP -- such a key ingredient!

 

Oh yes, youre right, the Sex Pistols were always being played. I forgot that Kenny Everett would play Bodies every week, but now youve jogged my memory...

 

He must have done his own radio edit on that song, surely. That song F-Bombs a lot!

 

Kenny Everett probably would have played the Sex Pistols if he'd been on the BBC at the time, but he was on Capitol. John Peel would have played them, Kid Jensen would have played them, the DLTs and Diddy David Hamiltons wouldn't but you could definitely have heard them on the radio.

 

I don't think anyone said he was at the BBC during this period. We were talking general radio, including commercial stations too.

 

Nobody heard Capitol Radio outside London so why mention a regional DJ?

 

Maybe he was living in London. Did you consider that option?

 

I was in the real world (the Manchester scene at the time) and everyone thought that Friggin in the Riggin and all the rest was cash-in garbage. Perhaps some 13 year olds somewhere in another real world thought it was good, yeah.

 

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Sorry but they were, i went to the record shops once or twice a week in 1977 and there were very few people over 16 and lots of really young kids, they also bought Dr Feelgood, Skrewdriver and Eater records but most of them were buying the Sex Pistols . The young kids didnt see the Pistols but hardly anyone did, they were the biggest band in the country and they were playing in tiny venues anywhere they werent banned. A lot of the older kids were still clinging on to to the first Peter Gabriel album and Led Zeppelin, i remember like it was yesterday.

 

Kind of defeats his point though.

 

So what John Savage says is gospel for you? Is that it? He wasn't the only one who was around back then you know. "defined by its 'breakneck speed" my ass. Punk was all about attitude, not how fast one was playing it.

 

I'm sure Jon Savage's take was more nuanced than that. Also, context.

 

John Peel played Anarchy when it was released but I don’t ever recall hearing it played on daytime radio, it was only briefly in the charts before it was deleted so wouldn’t have been featured on station playlists.

Pretty Vacant and Holidays In The Sun were played often though.

 

Here is a probably stupid question that I could easily answer myself by googling: Who actually wrote that fine music on Bollocks?
Because if you take out the poster-punks Johnny and Sid you would loose a lot of image and a great crazy voice but why shouldn`t further compositions by those who did them not be equally great? Ok, I admit it, I don`t know nearly enough about them - that`s why I am here.
Any certainly I got the later two cash-in albums and enjoyed some of them but even I knew back then that there is something wrong here.

 

The more pressing question is...who killed Bambi? I blame the hippies.