If gig reviews could obtain iconic status then this would be in the top 10. Fifty years ago this month Neil Spencer writing for the New Musical Express gave Sex Pistols their first review in the 21st February issue. The review related to a gig that took place on 12th February at The Marquee Club on London's Wardour Street, the headliners on the night were Eddie & The Hot Rods, the support, Sex Pistols. As was often the case, through the band's shambolic stage antics rather than through musicality, Rotten and Co. stole the show. Spencer's review gave us two quotes which are still cited today, half a century on... 'Don't look over your shoulder, but the Sex Pistols are coming' and 'Actually, we're not into music.... We're into chaos'. These words were sufficiently stirring to prompt two soon to be Buzzcocks to venture down to London to see for themselves what fuss was afoot. Within months 'punk rock' began to establish itself as the 'new music' when a scene started to come together in London and Manchester.
I have to say that on Friday night the TV was on and as we often do we were watching BBC Four and repeats of old episodes of Top of the Pops. The year was 1976 and the musical offerings being aired were dismal, horrible and turgid. It is only when you see and hear just how bad most music was by 1976 that it becomes possible to understand the seismic impact that the arrival of the Pistols had on young people.
And finally, much was made at the time of the unsightliness of Rotten, but I tell you some of the bands performing on Friday's Top of the Pops could have given him a given him a good run for his money in the beauty stakes (or lack of it)!
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