THE SEX PISTOLS
Members: Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious
After the so-called "filth and the fury" of the Sex Pistols' angry, short-lived heyday in the late 1970s, it became
de rigueur to view them as participants in (or victims of) a great rock'n'roll swindle, as portrayed in director Julien Temple's film of that name.
But that simplistic view belittles the band's vital role in the vanguard of Britain's punk rock revolution. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will honor that role with the band's induction in 2006.
The Pistols "were the necessary antidote to a U.K. pop scene that had become bland and bloated," says David Sinclair, music critic for the Times of London. "They were vulgar, obstreperous, deliberately antisocial and actually very funny, if you were in on the joke. They were also a really good band."
The Pistols would continue to make hits and headlines in the period immediately after the death of bassist Sid Vicious early in 1979. But the musical and cultural essence of the group was distilled in 1976 and 1977.
The act outraged the collective British consciousness when, soon after signing with EMI for an advance of £40,000 (which would equate to $70,000 today) in the fall of 1976, an expletive-fuelled TV appearance propelled their name to tabloid front pages.
In the modern era, such publicity would be manna to any record company. But at a time when sensibilities were offended far more easily, EMI summarily dropped the Pistols just after the release of "Anarchy in the U.K." The single was withdrawn, but not before it had sold a reported 55,000 copies.
The band then signed with A&M for an increased advance of £75,000, but were again dropped, this time without releasing a record. The label that achieved commercial fulfillment with the Pistols was Virgin, initially via the singles "God Save the Queen," "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun."
Mainstream broadcasters avoided the act like the plague. But the singles became the calling card for the sneering vocals of Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon) and the group's snarling three-chord trick, all orchestrated by
svengali Malcolm McLaren.
In 1977, they cemented their place in the rock pantheon that they purported to despise with "Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols," which topped the U.K. album chart and spent more than a year on the countdown. In the United States, the album never rose higher than No. 106 on The Billboard 200. But it sold steadily, achieving gold status in 1987 and platinum in 1992, 15 years after its release.
"All that 'anyone can do it' stuff was a great slogan," Sinclair says, "and it certainly encouraged a lot of people to get started who took them at their word. But they had serious songwriting skills and a really taut, propulsive musical style, which they had worked hard [on] to achieve. Their impact on the U.K. rock scene, though brief, was immeasurable and enduring."
Nonetheless, time has not changed the Pistols, who remained true to their legacy by, weeks before the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, posting a
hand-written statement on their official Web site denouncing the institution that seeks to honor them. "We're not coming. We're not your monkeys," it read.
"Next to the Sex Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a p*** stain... If you voted for us, hope you noted your reasons. You're anonymous as judges, but you're still music industry people. We're not coming. You're not paying attention."
- Paul Sexton
