Why The Sex Pistols Should Now Retire

I’m a big fan of the Sex Pistols, a fact you need to keep in mind while reading the following rant. The thing is, I’m a fan of them in their original guise, in the late 1970s, when the UK needed someone to come along and mix things up a little.

That is exactly what the Sex Pistols did back in the late seventies when they were at the forefront of the British punk movement, a movement which changed the music scene in the country, and possibly even the attitudes of a whole generation of people.

Back then, punk offered an alternative for the youth of the day to the corrupt and inept government and powers that be. In a time when the UK was probably at its lowest ebb since the Second World War, bands such as the Sex Pistols informed everyone that you didn’t have to sit by and be a bystander. You could actually do something about it all, and more than anything, have your say.

Fast forward thirty years and I have just had the misfortune of watching the Sex Pistols performance at last weekend’s Isle Of Wight Festival on television. And it has made me sadly come to the conclusion that it is time for Johnny Rotten and all to hang up their instruments and retire.

For starters, they are now old men, all four being over 50 years of age. There’s nothing wrong with getting old, it happens to us all, and I am slowly but surely (and rather depressingly) getting there. But old punks? That’s another matter altogether.

Punk music is surely the domain of the young. It is for kids just leaving school who have no hope, no optimism, and no responsibilities. Which makes it hard to see the 52-year-Lydon prancing around on stage in a stupid outfit, and feel anything but disdain.

The Sex Pistols were also never really very good musicians, and though they have improved, they are still quite hard to listen to live. And without the knowledge that you are part of a new musical movement, the lack of musicianship shows through horribly.

John Lydon in particular thinks he is still God’s gift and that we should all listen to everything he has to say. But in essence he is just an opinionated idiot living off his former glories who delights in making women cry.

I think the time has come for the Sex Pistols to finally call it a day and retire. The time has come for a new generation of bands with something important to say to come through, and the Sex Pistols are now as relevant as one of Winston Churchill’s wartime speeches. They belong to a bygone era, and that is where they should remain.

[Photo Source: From Newscom with permission]