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"For their first ever gig, the Sex Pistols were support group to the band I was in, Bazooka Joe. I'll never forget it. They came in as a gang: they looked like they couldn't give a f*** about anybody. John had baggy pinstripe trousers with braces and a ripped-up T-shirt saying "Pink Floyd" with "I Hate" over it. Jonesy was tiny, he looked like a young Pete Townshend. Matlock had paint-spattered trousers and a woman's pink leather top. Paul Cook looked like Rod Stewart, like a little Mod really.
I watched them play: Malcolm was at the front, orchestrating them, telling them where to stand. Viv was there. There weren't many there, maybe a dozen or so people - Jordan, Michael Collins, Andy Czezowski. They did "Substitute," and "What'cha Gonna Do About It" with the lyrics changed: "I want you to know that I hate you baby." Then John lost interest. He'd eat sweets, pull them out and suck them and just spit them out. He just looked at the audience, glazed.
There were no guitar solos, it was just simple songs. They did five and that was it: goodnight. The rest of my band hated them because they thought they couldn't play: in fact somebody said as much to Glen and he said, "So what?" But I thought they were very tight. It was only John who hadn't learned how to make the voice last, but over a fifteen-minute burst, he was very clear. At the end, Rotten slagged off Bazooka Joe as being a bunch of f***ing c***s, and our guitarist Danny Kleinman leapt from the front row and pinned John against the back wall: he made him apologize.
The impression they left on me was total. They had a certain attitude I'd never seen: they had bollocks and they had very expensive equipment and it didn't look like it belonged to them. They had that look in their eyes that said, "We're going to be massive." I stood there transfixed. When Danny jumped John, I didn't jump in to help him. I left Bazooka Joe the next day. I came out of that gig thinking, "I'm tired of Teddy Boys," and it seemed to me that the Sex Pistols were playing simple songs that I could play. I just wanted to go away and form my own band."
Adam Ant
"Whether they were good or not was irrelevant. I wanted to be excited and they filled a spot."
Andy Czezowski
Quotes from the pistols:
"There was not one single hand clap. The college audience had never seen anything like it. They couldn't connect with where we were coming from because our stance was so anti-pop, so anti-everything that had gone on before. Adam may look back on it all rather sweetly by saying he split up his band after seeing us play, but the reality was that he was very bitter and annoyed with us - as indeed most bands were that played with us. Adam Ant's band was furiously jealous because they spent so much time sewing up those silly silver jackets. I didn't care. We didn't do it to be loved."
John Lydon
"Actually, we're not into music... we're into chaos."
Steve Jones
"It was f***ing wild. I was so nervous I took a mandrax. When we started playing the mandrax was hitting me and I cranked the amp up. It was a 100-watt amp in a little room with no stage and it was great. Everyone was looking at us. It seemed like millions of people at the time. You could tell there was a buzz."
Steve Jones
"I don't need a Rolls Royce, I don't need a house in the country, I don't want to have to live in France. I don't have any rock and roll heroes; they're all useless. The Stones and The Who don't mean anything anymore; they're established. The Stones are more of a business than a band" (Johnny Rotten - December, 1976)
"Turn the cheek to often and you get a razor through it"-John lydon
"If people get me wrong, thats their problem. When they start going out in the streets looking for me, thats a differant kettle of fish...it's pathetic"-John Lydon
"Don't except old order...get rid of it!"-John Lydon
"Words are my weapons, violence I'm not very good at"-John Lydon
On religion- " They brainwash you, they don't educate you. They don't teach you nothing. Everything you learn, you learn yourself.They try and take away your brain. They try to make you like everyone else. Just one great mass thats easily controlled.
"They don't like individuals, they don't like people who stick up for themselves. If you have an opinion at an early age in secondary school, they fucking get you for it bad. And they tend to be the ones who are the most violent."-Johhny
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