Somehow, I missed this upon release last October, but it’s available to rent on Amazon Prime.
Based on the novel written by Glen Matlock, I WAS A TEENAGE SEX PISTOL follows Glen Matlock’s journey as a founding member of the influential punk band the Sex Pistols. Having co-written ten of twelve songs on their only studio album, NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, Matlock’s contribution was essential to the band’s success. Experience the Pistols’ rise to global infamy with an honest, insightful account of a group of malcontents, determined to change the music business and to attack hypocrisy and stale conventions in society at large.
I know what I’m doing tonight!
Thanks, top of my list.
Watched it last night. I enjoyed it. Their story is so entertaining that you can’t hear it too many times, especially where footage is involved. It was heavy on the Matlock agenda, but I guess that was the point.
Billy Idol looked like a real twerp still sporting spiky hair and a leather jacket along with his obvious facelifts. So punk.
I liked it, too! It’s kind of crazy that something that started out essentially as an art movement by a handful of bored London kids changed popular music so significantly, globally.
I have very fond memories of listening to Never Mind the Bollocks for the first time at a friends house the summer between ninth and tenth grades. I was late to the Sex Pistols party by a few years (this was 1985 or so), but it blew my fucking mind. I instantly fell in love and still remember thinking, How are they allowed to do this?
My first punk exposure was the Ramones’ first, which predated all the others. It knocked me sideways much as NMTB did you. It was a real “everything has just changed” moment.
I knew about the Sex Pistols well before I heard them. Creem and Crawdaddy covered them. I also used to read NME and Melody Maker (you could get copies at Pop Tunes), and of course the Sex Pistols were all over them, as England’s media were in a frenzy. I thought that with so much hype they couldn’t actually be any good. The coverage gave me the impression that the SP’s were always doing something outrageous to get attention (thanks, Malcolm). I assumed that the stunts were cover for a lack of talent. Surely they wouldn’t need to do all this if they were any good. Then my brother, who worked at Poplar Tunes and could get imports pretty quickly, got a hold of the single of “Anarchy in the UK” not long after it came out. I remember hearing the opening chords and thinking “damn that’s good.” Then by mid song I was thinking “not just good, but fucking great!” These guys had it all. They hit hard, they had catchy riffs, they were tight, had interesting lyrics, a singer with personality, a look, a bad rep….what more could you ask for?
Halfway through. So good! Vintage footage and editing are superb. I like hearing Matlock’s version.
I came late to the Pistols party and blame my provincial upbringing. The cool local guys in my early teen consciousness were the soccer players 4-6 years older than me, who played for the same club team and had all been to England in the late 70’s. They were into The Damned, Buzzcocks, Pistols, etc. But they didn’t share their albums with me.
The first song I might have heard was Sid’s cover of Something Else, which I loved. But I probably didn’t listen to Never Mind the Bollocks properly until after Sid & Nancy came out.
The watershed musical moment for me, after which everything seemed different: my high school teammate Tom put the Violent Femmes self-titled on a boom box and blasted it in our locker room. Mind blown.
Those “music doesn’t have to be the same old radio shit” moments are one of life’s highlights for sure.
Bruce Springsteen has a great quote about the Pistols: “they were brave, and they made you brave.”