Sex Pistols tell Hall of Fame to Bugger Off

"Punk band the Sex Pistols have refused to attend their own induction into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In a handwritten note posted on their website, they called the institution "urine in wine".

"We're not your monkeys, we're not coming. You're not paying attention," continued the statement."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4750262.stm

I'd much prefer that they show up at the ceremony and create a scene.

Oh man the Pistols meeting Sabbath meeting Skynyrd meeting Blondie … that would be too hilarious.

can anyone say "publicity stunt for tired old band that needs to make some headlines to stay somewhat relevant"?

But wasn't everything about the Sex Pistols really a publicity stunt? They couldn't play their instruments (excepting maybe Glenn Matlock, who also wrote their best songs), they manufactured a "look", and they were basically losers who Malcolm found to play the part of junkie/tragic/anarchistic rock stars.

Even though John Lydon does that well (being a participant on that British version of Big Brother), I don't think they're trying to stay relevant. They really couldn't have had any other reaction to their induction.

Extremely well put Arlette. They were a fabrication of Malcolm McLaren. Sure, I like their music, but ultimately every single thing they did was a publicity stunt. I still think they were the band that made punk rock a joke and ruined it for a lot of other bands. Seymour Stein distanced himself from support of punk bands and instead wanted it to be labeled "new wave"…he wanted a clear separation from punk. That's why the Ramones ended up recording songs like "Needles and Pins" and "Howling at the Moon".

Originally posted by bearman:
Extremely well put Arlette. They were a fabrication of Malcolm McLaren. Sure, I like their music, but ultimately every single thing they did was a publicity stunt. I still think they were the band that made punk rock a joke and ruined it for a lot of other bands.

Well, I don't entirely want to make this a mutual wankfest, but thank you, and I 110% agree with the last sentence in your post. They ruined punk rock and made it a joke. Exactly.

PIL were a much better band than the Pistols anyway IMHO and the
chance of them even being nominated is probably slim to
none. I give the Pitols props in helping to getting a movement up and running, not their minisacule musical contributions,although they had a few.

this is a delightfully condescending quote:

Executive director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Susan Evans, said: "They are being the outrageous punksters they are, and that's rock 'n' roll."

I always liked Henry Rollins quote about the Sex Pistols:

"I thought they were more 'cute' than anything else. If John Lydon were here right now, I'd pet him like a little lapdog."

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
can anyone say "publicity stunt for tired old band that needs to make some headlines to stay somewhat relevant"?

I just think they're being lazy. If they really wanted to make headlines they'd show up and cause trouble.

I don't really blame them though. No matter what they do, people are going to give them crap about it. People will call the letter a lazy publicity stunt. If they showed up and caused trouble, people would call it contrived, staged and a last gasp for attention. If they show up and say "thank you" people would call them sellouts.

They can't win. The easiest thing to do is cop the official Sex Pistols attitude and stay home.

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
I always liked Henry Rollins quote about the Sex Pistols:

"I thought they were more 'cute' than anything else. If John Lydon were here right now, I'd pet him like a little lapdog."

this coming from the man who sang "tv party" and probably advanced using "Black Flag Kills Ants on Contact" as the bands statement against Adam and the Ants.

I think the Sex Pistols have the full right to say the Hall of Fame awards suck and choose not to particate. It's become nothing more than a another marketing tool and ego stroking event for all those involved.

Say what you might about the Sex Pistols…

When I saw them live (Patriot Center and 9:30) they rocked out.

It seems to me the Sex Pistols had an enormously positive influence on music. It seems like every great British band emerging in the late 70's was either linked to or inspired by them. Like in 24 Hour Party People, you see that Factory Records was created after the label head saw a Sex Pistols show that Joy Divsion was also at. They didn't kill punk rock, and they didn't kill the Ramones. The Ramones didn't sell before the Pistols and they didn't sell after and they always had a soft spot and always played songs like Needles and Pins - like I Want to Be Your Boyfriend on their first. I think the Ramones schtick had a limited shelf-life, as did the Pistols, and the better course may have been to stop (like the Pistols did) than to run it into the ground.

Just about every song on Never Mind the Bollocks is a a classic, and that and their charisma inspired all the bands that inspired all the bands that inspired all the bands - either directly or indirectly. Mclaren put them together, but so what? Should we say Jerry Kraus deserves the credit for the 90's Bulls and not Jordan and Pippen?? Jones and Lydon were an all-time classic guitarist/frontman, albeit for a limited time, but at a pivotal time.

It seems silly for them to take a "punk" stand against the Hall of Fame as old well-past-soldout geezers, but as silly as it is, its nice to see some kind of stand against the disneyfication of the history of music.

In 1977, when I was 15 years old, and the pop music world was a wasteland of disco, Billy Joel, Peter Frampton and Yes, the Sex Pistols import singles saved rock music for me and game something of my own, something brand fucking new and scabrously raw, hilarious, subversive and headbangingly great. "Holidays", "Pretty Vacant", "Anarchy", "God Save the Queen" .. and album tracks like "EMI" and "Bodies" .. these songs are still thrilling to this day. I remember craving a chance to see them when they did that first US tour. But they toured the south, which basically destroyed them. And then of course Sid (who was just a prop anyway) destroyed himself. Thankfully John kept going and was relevant in the 80s with PiL (that show back at the Warner in 1986, the one with the Beasties opening, was classic), so his place in rock history was enhanced. The later Pistols reunion tours (at the Pat Center and the 930) were nostalgia-fests to be sure, but they were certainly hard-rocking and rude. And I picked up a swell "God Save the Queen" coffee mug that I use to this day. So I'm glad for what they were, and what they've meant for me. When I was a kid, they were the first in a fairly short list of rock 'n' roll saviors.

I like the Sex Pistols' music as well. But the problem is that they also turned punk rock into a different kind of monster, and a lot of people who started punk (see the 'zine "Punk") were pretty stunned at what it turned into. In NYC, the CBGB's scene was more about the music than anything. You had bands as diverse as the Ramones, Television, Blondie, the Talking Heads, Richard Hell, etc. Malcolm Mclaren turned punk into a fashion thing, and the Sex Pistols were his vehicle. Then it became a media circus. What ended up happening is that punk as a musical force didn't seem viable, record labels didn't want to invest in punk bands after the Pistols, because if punk was all about imploding, then why invest time, money and energy in it? That's the issue I have with the Pistols. Again, I love their music, and yes, a lot of great bands went to see them and were influenced by how easy it was to do…but it was the Clash and the Pistols who saw the Ramones in July 1976, and in the end English punk turned the whole thing into a stereotype of spitting on bands, wearing mohawks, piercing cheeks with safety pins, etc. I think many bands were forced to go New Wave to keep an audience (see Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Damned, Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, etc.)

I hear what everyone is saying about how different they were and how they brought to new life to a dormant music scene, and I love reading the stories about what the Sex Pistols meant to people as they were discovering music, especially having been able to see them live, that must have been awesome.

How about this concillatory statement:

"The Pistols were contrived and calculated (and manufactured) but that didn't make their music any less real or passionate." (I cribbed that from another board where the same discussion is taking place.)

I don't like that they became the standard bearer for "punk"; their "schtick" took away from the music, but yea, I have to agree that they had some great music.

Originally posted by chancegardener:
"God Save the Queen" coffee mug

That really sums it up.

i also think that there were a number of socioeconomic issues that factored into how the UK punk scene developed. still don't understand how the sex pistols turned punk into a joke. the intial media circus was more a feeding frenzy over the naughty words the band was goaded into saying by the tv show interviewer. then there was the publicity stunt following the release of "God Save The Queen", something thier record company at the time could have easily refused to release.

new wave became a catch all phrase for a wide variety of bands that began coming out in the late 70's early 80's. it included ska, synthpop, pub rock, rockabilly, etc. in fact i recall reading that the term was actually coined for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. i don't really see bands turning new wave because of the way UK punks began behaving. and it's not like the major labels were signing punk bands left and right anyways, sex pistols or not.

The Sex Pistols turned punk into a joke thanks to:

a) being fashion victims, something that was picked up on very fast and taken to extremes by English punks
b) imploding at a time when they were their biggest
c) firing their one true musician (Glenn Matlock) and hiring a total dolt (Sid Vicious)
d) taking the focus away from their music and putting it on controversy and scandal (one could thank Malcolm Mclaren for almost all of the above)

England's Dreaming, Please Kill Me and Johnny Rotten's book pretty well cover all of this.

Kosmo, it had nothing to do with how bands were behaving. It's a business, and when labels saw what happened to the Pistols, it became clear that a watered down version of punk would be a safer bet. But I don't think that's a secret. It's pretty obvious that the Ramones would never be huge, but the Clash (who were dabbling in a lot of other musical influences) could. It was a catch 22 for punk bands too…the minute that they wanted to evolve and grow musically, that's when they lost their punk cred. One can only do so much with 3 chords.