PRETTY VACANT!

This is worth a look and very much an American take on what was going on in Punk Rock and why the Sex Pistols caused such a hullabaloo!
I bough the albums and single of Pretty Vacant when they came out and there is some debate as to what they are worth now but I bought the Virgin version so, not so much. I still maintain that Steve Jones and Paul Cook where amongst the best rhythm driving forces in any band of the time and put the album on again now, turn it up and you will FEEL the power. The anger and vitriol of John Lydon here is palpable and clearly he was the spokesperson of the band although the others clearly understood what they were trying to do. McClaren comes over as articulate for sure but he had a shop selling that stuff to the youngsters and Vivien Westwood may have started off with ripped bin liners but try buying a dress from her now! Also despite the falling out between Glen Matlock and Lydon I have to say how much I admired Glenn too, clearly he could play, something no-one ever accused Sid of being able to do. The Sid Vicious story is a sad one and not unfamiliar to me amongst the addicts and herion users I have worked with and seen leave us to soon . . . . . . 
I should say the punk scene was difficult for me and I was always more swayed towards the preppie visions of David Byrne and the art school rock of Talking Heads. The British punks firghtenened me! There I have said it and was of an age to understand the polemic but not the confrontation. I was of an age where I didn't quite fit with either the Stones, Zeppelin or Phil Collins and that ilk that Lydon et al were fighting against but nor did I enjoy the fashion consciousness of the poseurs that The Clash represented or the Buzzcocks and those who could not sing or play (apparently that was the point mixed up as the working class democracy of anyone can play guitar to virtuoso performance that Jimmy Page and the ilk represented ) . . . . that it was anti establishment was a given and twas ever thus as they say and later the art school posturing of P.I.L. meant more to me. But that the revolutionaries somehow always become the establishment always fascinates me. 

The guys who went to the last book signing at my old employers liked Johnny immensely I gather and found him charming, erudite and articulate and well behaved! 

On this day in music history: January 6, 1977 - EMI Records releases The Sex Pistols from their contract with the label. The company issues a statement to the press stating, “EMI feels it is unable to promote the bands’ records in view of the adverse publicity generated over the past two months.” Following the incident on the “Today Show w/ Bill Grundy” in December of 1976, the last straw is two days earlier on January 4, 1977. While waiting to board a flight to The Netherlands, the members of the band swear at Heathrow Airport staff, spit at each other and vomit in the flight lounge. Less than two months later, original bassist Glen Matlock leaves the band due to his deteriorating relationship with lead singer Johnny Rotten. Matlock is replaced by Rotten’s friend Sid Vicious (birth name John Simon Ritchie).

thanks to the most excellent Jeff Harris' blog 'Behind The Grooves