3/11/2023 0 Comments Unherd bandThe release of Pistol in time for the Jubilee, alongside a somewhat tawdry reissue of “God Save the Queen”, reaffirms the peculiar connection between the Sex Pistols and the Queen: two radically different visions of England, both now united by nostalgia. What more is there to say? What mysteries to reveal? It all happened too fast. Their final implosion in San Francisco: “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” The hideous coda of Sid and Nancy. The record labels who decided they were too hot to handle before a young Richard Branson took a punt on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. The calculated scandal of “God Save the Queen” and the Silver Jubilee boat trip. The accidental scandal of the Bill Grundy show. The convergence of a mediocre rock band called the Strand, manager Malcolm McLaren and the snot-haired outcast who became Johnny Rotten. It hurts because the crucial events are so well-known. It helps in terms of dramatic unity: no long slog to the top, no slow decline. And then punk happened and everything changed! Was it true? Not entirely, but what a narrative!įor Craig Pearce and Danny Boyle, writer and director of the new Disney+ series Pistol, the compressed timeline cuts both ways. Everyone was listening to prog-rock keyboard solos. Their story was one of the first I learned when I was getting interested in the history of pop music because the simplified, mythologised version was so easy to grasp. The phenomenon occurred in a particular place at a particular time - and then it stopped. No major rock band has had a shorter career. The Sex Pistols played their first gig on 6 November 1975 and their last on 14 January 1978, not long after the release of their first and only album.
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