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No future!
That’s what the Sex Pistols sang at the time – but 45 years on, we’re still talking about them…
Back at the tail end of 1976, Britain was outraged when a little-known punk rock band appeared on early evening TV and behaved very badly. Within hours, the Sex Pistols’ reputation was sealed – they were mad, bad and dangerous to know.
Now their story is told by writer Craig Pearce and Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, based on Steve Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol.
It’s timely that this drama is on during the Platinum Jubilee week, considering the band’s 1977 single God Save The Queen (originally titled No Future) caused such a storm at the time of that year’s Silver Jubilee. Danny’s under no illusions that as controversial as they were, the Pistols changed everything.
‘I wouldn’t be here without the Sex Pistols,’ he admits. ‘I come from an ordinary working class background, and whether you were aware of it or not, you were going to follow your dad. There’s no doubt that this revolution set that generation free to express themselves.
‘The Sex Pistols did not care about who they contradicted and how much they challenged the order of things. And it was particularly expressed in Britain in terms of the monarchy and the way that British society was stratified. They rattled the gates of power. It changed my life.’
The band are played by Louis Partridge, Toby Wallace, Anson Boon, Jacob Slater and Christian Lees, as Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, Johnny Rotten, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock respectively, with Thomas Brodie-Sangster as their Svengali, Malcolm McLaren.
‘I knew some of their songs and I knew they were talented,’ says Anson. ‘But I didn’t realise how talented. It might not be the conventional form of talent, but what they did was so unique. I was just blown away by them.’