Sitting at home with a broken foot, listening to the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester, on orange Vinyl no less, recorded on June 4th 1976. I can’t imagine what it would have been like have been there, without the hindsight I have now, and take in that show. Imagine being familiar with the music scene of that time, pretty slim pickings, Bowie, maybe Lou Reed, there wasn’t a lot. The dominant scene was boring, guitar fret wanking, stadium goliaths. Then Johnny Rottens voice hits you, nothing like it, the band sound great, don’t get me wrong, but it was the combination that made it work, also highlights what a waste of space Sid Vicious was, Glen Matlock is a great bass player, and his backing vocals were likely too good for Johnny’s vision, perhaps. A real shame.
Someone once told me that Nirvana were shit because a five year old could play it, he likely would have said the same about the Pistols. Missing the point entirely, if you like a virtuoso playing a fret wank guitar solo, I can’t see it being much of an influence, and it has nothing to say either. It SHOULD be about ATTITUDE, it should be about being INSPIRING. I think of say Joy Division Vs Van Halen, Joy Division influenced me as a young man to be in a band, read Dostoyevsky, Hesse, Mishima, Ballard and discover so much more as a result, what would Van Halen do? Encourage you to wear spandex. See the difference?