So does the swindle continue? You know you’re asking. Thirty years after the release of the Sex Pistols’ one and only full-length album, the band – with all four of its original members – boarded the stage at Brixton Academy in front of a capacity crowd. Again? Maybe – what difference does it make? Ten years after the Filthy Lucre tour that featured the same set list (how could it not? The band only has about fifteen original songs plus a couple of well-worn covers to work with) it is a testament to the side show that the Sex Pistols have become that they are able to sell out not one, but five straight, nights at Brixton. Does the swindle continue? Yes, it sure as fuck does, and this group of men now averaging fifty-two years of age is laughing all the way to the bank.
At least this time they’re really singing for their supper. 1996’s Filthy Lucre Live tour document found John “Rotten” Lydon playing it safe and sticking to his more reserved and marginally more melodic Public Image Ltd. singing style which only passably did the songs justice but here he’s actually pushing his voice a little harder and thus performing the songs in a way that implies he’s not just cashing a pay cheque. The performances are still a bit spotty of course. There are a couple of fudged lyrics and clearly the band still hasn’t figured out how to open “New York” without bassist Glen Matlock and guitarist Steve Jones mangling it horribly, but it’s hard not to think that some of these “mistakes” might be very well planned because, in some strange way, the audience expects it; after all they’re not there to see something so clean, neat, tidy and stale as a Who concert, they’re there for some of the filth and the fury and a few errors may need to be calculated in to synthesize that effect.
No matter, such contrivances might be expected but the Pistols make sure to not fuck up the songs that everyone absolutely turned up to see. Precisely thirty years and thirteen days after Nevermind The Bollocks’ release, crowds still go ballistic when the Sex Pistols launch into “Pretty Vacant,” “Holidays In The Sun,” “No Fun,” God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy In The UK” and the band eats it up and spits back an inspired performance. The versions of those chestnuts still stand up and honestly do qualify as world class – even though, as Lydon himself maintains, they’re staunchly working class and perform here with that ethic in mind. If you doubt it, check out the performance of “Anarchy In The UK” where Rotten (no Lydon this time) lives up to his name, sheds thirty years (and the Dunlap syndrome – where his belly done lapped over his belt – he’s sporting ’round his midsection), and goes for broke this one time and performs the song exactly like he used to; it’s fucking brilliant.
So is the performance good? Is the DVD good? The short answer is yes on both counts but, really, anyone debating it is going to get precisely what they expect. If the band screws up here, chances are that they intended to (god knows they’re well-rehearsed) and even if it wasn’t intentional they recover well. The songs are good but, unless you’ve been in a coma for the last thirty years, you knew that already. If you’re a fan, you won’t feel like your money was ill-spent on There’ll Always Be An England because, unlike the Filthy Lucre document, the Sex Pistols are trying to impress the audience here – even if they’d rather die than admit it.
Artist:
Sex Pistols Official web site
