The Sex Pistols
The Roxy
From Indie 103 FM and Guitar Hero III
The Sunset Strip
West Hollywood, California
October 25, 2007
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
“I’ve written 5000 songs and you only know 3 of them.” Johnny is still rotten.
Indie 103.1 fm did another rock show. This time, you could only win the tickets. Scalpers be damned. Every time they played a song by the Sex Pistols the tenth caller won two tickets. The phones melted.
(Note: 3 years ago Indie’s Ramones 30th Anniversary show sold out and tickets ended up being scalped on craigslist while Johnny Ramone was on his deathbed. Doing a giveaway contest eliminated that. Thank you very much.)
The gods smiled and Sugarbuzz was blessed. We wept. The day before the show we picked up the tickets at Indie's studios and we got to give DJ TK a hug and Sugarbuzz an on air plug. Our servers melted.
On top of this Indie gifted winners with the coolest tee shirt in Christendom answering the question, “what are we going to wear?” We asked No Thanks lead singer, Kenny Price to be our mystery date for the show. His heart melted.
Getting to the Roxy early, the line was down the block. And getting through the security- have picture ID out and no cameras! –was like LAX.
“They are going on at 9:30” was the word from Angry Dave, sound man at the Viper Room, who planted himself front and center. TK was in the pit as well with other assorted Indie-in’s. The place was packed and the anticipation was unparalleled. This was really happening.
It was close to 10 when the techno music from another Indie DJ Derren Revell, went away and an old British wartime tune “There’ll Always Be An England” boomed as the house lights went down. Curtain up. “Hello” from Mr. Lydon over the deafening screams and Mssrs. Lydon, Jones, Cook and Matlock slammed into “Holidays in the Sun.”
He forgot the words.
We didn’t.
“I’m a lazy sod,” Johnny Rotten reassured the audience between clearing his nose. Yeah, he did that.
The Pistols went through the rest of their limited 30-year old repertoire. They were on record with a total rehearsal time of three hours.
Lydon mugged and rolled his eyes and sounded great. More PIL than Pistols. Matlock was always the best musician back in the day before the Vicious replacement. He’s only gotten better. As has Paul Cook and Steve Jones, noon time star of Indie fm.
More than one fan commented “they know how to play their instruments now.” Do they ever. The songs exploded. Everyone screamed along. The mosh pit threatened to engulf. It was anarchy. And it was beautiful. “No Future!”
The Guitar Hero III connection to this show is due to wunderkind, Tim Riley who runs the music department at game company, Activision. He wanted to place the Pistols in the new game thinking it would help boost sales. Five million units just ain’t enough. The masters didn’t exist and the band reformed to re-record. We owe this guy big time.
A couple of TV appearances on Leno and Craig Furguson followed and off to Jolly Old England for a few shows at the Brixton Academy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Never Mind the Bollocks.”
God Save the Queen. We mean it, man.