James Innes-Smith

Punk may be dead, but the Sex Pistols aren’t

It was anarchy at the Forum as the Pistols reunited for – of all things – a charity gig

  • From Spectator Life
The Sex Pistols perform live on stage at Leeds Polytechnic during their 'Anarchy Tour' in 1976. (Photo by Graham Wood/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Pull those ripped tartan trews on lads, the Sex Pistols are back! Well, kind of. Lead singer John Joseph Lydon, aka ‘Rotten’, is livid that the other three surviving members have decided to perform a couple of charity gigs without his consent. Really? Punks doing charity gigs? Sid Vicious must be turning in his Pennsylvanian grave.

A throng of balding 67-year-olds were pogoing to ‘God Save the King’ while hurling £8 pints of lager at each other

The feud goes back to the mid-1970s when Lydon, in typical muso style, vowed to stay true to the music while the other layabouts were more inclined to milk the legacy for all it was worth. More recently, he tried to prevent the band’s music from being used in a TV series directed by Danny Boyle. According to one source: ‘Rotten thinks he IS the Pistols and has the rights to all their music, but these gigs will show they don’t need him any more.

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