I’m not really a massive fan of punk music - to be honest , but saying that I do respect other peoples musical tastes and I will play it if requested when I D.J. , but my interest was piqued when I saw a program on satellite television about The Sex Pistols album –Never Mind the ******* ……or Bollocks…for you all in 2009 and not 1977 :).
You got a track by track analysis of the album and a potted history of the band and of course - the times , and as the program wore on , It dawned on me I didn’t really know very many Sex Pistols tracks , other than of course , the released singles….. ……………..WHOOPS …:)
I was unfortunately - put off ever so slightly when I heard original bassist –
Glen Matlock speak , as he sounded like one of the Kray Twins ( notorious English gangsters from the 1960’s ) , but not as much as their manager - Malcolm Mc Claren who sounds like the oh so - suave and debonair English actor from the 1950’s / 60’s …………… Leslie Philips ……….shocking :)
Good old - Johnny Rotten livened up the proceedings no end - with his string of F words - like it was ‘76 again , or was it , as the as the word was - fake - as opposed to f**k :) ……. which oddly applied to everyone except him ……. ………………..
…….but then again fakes don’t advertise margarine ……do they …Mr Lyndon :)
There is of course a retrospective cynicism about punk being wholly manufactured and subsequently killed off by such luminaries as Malcolm McClaren , and whether or not this is true , I suppose you’ll never really know.
Saying that - there is no doubt that the genre itself has had a far flung effect on modern music , but I somehow think it was the attitudes – manufactured or not - as opposed to the music itself , which was an awful racket , to put a finer point on it.
With that in mind - the musical part of punk rock was never part of my own youth and I’ve never really embraced it in adulthood – either , but it seemed to sum up the times of Thatcher’s Britain , mass unemployment , fat cats and of course the general unrest of that era..
Younger people will no doubt be rolling their eyes back in the merest mention of
“ Thatcher’s Britain “ - and I will say that under her rule , this was the closest this country has ever come to going up in f**king flames.
If you want a more modern anecdote - it was - Magaret Thatcher Prime Minister of the U.K. who actually put in to place the system that allowed our “wonderful “
M.P ’s to embezzle money from the taxpayers in the shape of “expenses” ,
and - yes - it has been going on that long , so I conservatively ( sic) , estimate the sums as being millions of £££..
Ok enough politics and back to the music ??? :)
The sight of Johnny Rotten sneering his way in to the living rooms of suburbia seems very tame by today’s standards , as does the use of the real F word - and not fake – I hasten to add :) , on television too.
Saying that , if you take this , and all the other various things people got up to in those days in the context of the time , it was all purely - dynamite , and yes I do have an open admiration for those scrawny , spotty , funny looking kids , as anyone who sticks two fingers up to authority , again regardless of whether it was planned or spontaneous - the act still remains - pertinent - now as it ever was .
Music’s still fucking rubbish though , and of course ……………………………
…………THATCHER’S STILL A FUCKING GRADE A - CUNT :)………………..
……..oh dear forgot to asterisk it……………..ter*ib*y s*rry :)
