Glen Matlock on his time in the Sex Pistols before all that Bollocks
The Sex Pistols in 1976: Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), and Paul Cook. Picture: Pete Vernon
It’s almost 45 years since the Sex Pistols released their first single Anarchy In The UK, in November 1976, thus changing the face of popular music. A new box set entitled 76/77 compiles 80 studio recordings with eight unreleased tracks that pre-date the band's official debut, Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, released in October 1977.
Original bassist Glen Matlock was a significant musical force in the group playing an essential role in three of the album’s four singles including Anarchy.
“I had a go at Steve [Jones] for not coming up with anything,” recalls Matlock. “He said: ‘What have you got?’ I had a few ideas up my sleeve and started to play the descending riff that would become Anarchy. He said; ‘That’s pretty good; what happens next?' So I played him the next bit while John [Lydon] got together something from this bag of lyrics. He had a lot of ideas and one of them was Anarchy.”
The original line-up of Glen Matlock, John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), Steve Jones and Paul Cook had formed in 1975 in London. Lydon based part of his DIY image around “poverty” explaining safety pins were used to “stop the arse in your trousers falling out”. With a mother from Cork (Eileen Barry) and a father, also John, from Galway,he was acutely aware of the conflict in the North, referring to the IRA and UDA on Anarchy.
Lydon’s political anger, combined with Matlock’s penchant for catchy rock'n’roll songs, would become the band’s musical axis.
“When I auditioned, the Faces were Steve and Paul’s favourite band; I played Three Button Hand Me Down and that got me the gig! Ronnie Lane was an influence; I learned bass from playing along to those records, also Trevor Bolder in Bowie’s Spiders (From Mars). I liked classic British song-writing; The Kinks, The Who, Small Faces and I liked Motown.”
The Move would also be cited as having a notable impact on the band’s next single God Save The Queen. “I got chatting to Roy Wood in my local once, I said to him that Fire Brigade was not unlike the Pistols, he said: ‘I had noticed’. No Future, which became God Save The Queen, was my riff. When we were recording Anarchy at a previous session I was driving everyone mad with it on the piano. John came up with lyrics but we were all putting ideas in.
“The only one that didn’t write was Paul [Cook] but what people miss about Paul’s drumming is that his parts are quite catchy with little hooks, when you think of what he’s playing on God Save The Queen and Anarchy. He’s not a jam-type drummer, he plays the part the same every time. When I’ve played Pistols songs with different drummers they want to bash through it, I say: ‘Listen to the record’. ” After touring with the band between the end of 1975 to February ’77, Matlock would leave due to tensions with Lydon and manager Malcolm McLaren.
“I’d had enough of it because I didn’t feel I was getting backed by Steve and Paul. I’d just turned 20 and had no backup. The whole reason you’re in a band is that you don’t want people telling you what to do all the time otherwise you’re better off just getting a fucking job; that was in my head and the way we were being perceived; I just didn’t think it was honest.
“We were told we weren’t allowed to play anywhere and then I’d go out and see someone like the Ramones, a promoter would tap me on the shoulder and say: ‘Do you want to come and play?’ I’d tell Malcolm and he’d say: ‘No; you're banned’. I’d say: ‘a promoter has just offered to put us on at the 100 Club and he’d say ‘No’. Maybe it was naive on my part but that’s what was going on.”
Matlock was replaced with Sid Vicious, a friend of Rotten and “the biggest fan they ever had”. While Vicious looked the part, along the way becoming the ultimate punk icon, he was a neglected and damaged figure unable to cope with fame. He would die from a drug overdose within two years of joining the band.
The Sex Pistols would split less than a year after Matlock’s exit but not before they built an unforgettable head of steam. After God Save The Queen came another Matlock-penned song. “I wrote Pretty Vacant and he [Lydon] changed a couple of lines in the second verse, I never got to hear the finished version until it came out.”
Guitarist Steve Jones has since admitted some regrets about the band's brief time in the spotlight, suggesting had it not been for the infamous expletive-laden chat on the Today show with Bill Grundy, and Matlock leaving the band, they would have probably stayed together longer.
“I agree with him” adds Matlock, “but he should have realised that back then.” The 76/77 collection charts the development of the band giving some context to the amount of work that was put into creating one of the most important albums of the 20th century.
“We did a lot of recording at our rehearsal space in Denmark Street,” says Matlock, “and we recorded a lot of backing tracks that sounded good. It was suggested to Malcolm that we take those backing tracks to a recording studio and do overdubs and mixing to get a better sound.” That’s effectively what the bootleg Spunk album is, says Matlock of sessions that are also included on 76/77.
By the time those tracks got to Never Mind The Bollocks, much of Matlock's bass playing had been replaced, not least by new member, Sid Vicious.
“My ideal record would be the sound of Never Mind The Bollocks with the playing from the Spunk tapes,” says Matlock.
- Sex Pistols 76/77 is out now
Matlock found himself out of favour after his departure often being ridiculed at various points by Rotten, Vicious and Jones.
Lydon has recently fallen out with his former band-mates after a court dispute over the use of Sex Pistols songs in an upcoming TV series ruled in favour of Jones and Cook. The pair have been granted use of the band’s music for a new mini-series, Pistol, directed by Danny Boyle.
“I’m slightly involved,” says Matlock, “not as much as Steve and Paul but more than John. He could have been involved but chose not to be. I’ve been down to see them filming and met Danny Boyle. He’s going to do his best to do the whole thing justice.
“I met the guy who is going to play me but I haven’t seen the finished thing; I think it’s going to be a bit surreal in parts. The danger is there might be a slight liberty taken with it all and then younger people might think that’s the truth but I don’t know.
“Steve started the band and he should be allowed to tell his story, it’s not just about the Pistols; it’s Steve’s life story. If it was based on my book I would be most annoyed if I couldn’t use any Pistols songs in it; likewise, if John was telling his story he would be the same.”
