The Filth And The Fury |
 |
|
|
The Filth And The Fury |
|
|
|
...Remember the days when you were really really angry and used to jump up and down and spit at people and shout obscenities at perfect strangers? No, I'm not talking about the time you went to a live studio recording of "Noel's House Party", I'm talking about PUNK ROCK MUSIC! Yeah baby! Safety pins through the nose! Dirty leather jackets! Ripped jeans! Well, you get all that and more in the new Sex Pistols documentary, "The Filth And The Fury"... ...It's predictably excellent. Have you seen the other doc "The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle" that was made in 1980? Well, if you haven't that was a doc about the SPs from the point of view of their then-manager Malcolm Maclaren, who painted himself as this svengali-type guru figure who manipulated the band and then claimed he invented the whole punk movement. This film was made by the band themselves and tells their side of the story (although the director, Julien Temple, is the same guy who made TGRARS)... ...It features 90% unseen footage, dug up from some dusty vault. The four remaining band members (Johnny Rotten/Lydon, Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and sometime bassist Glen Matlock) narrate the whole story although when there's a one-on-one interview with each of them, you only see them in silouhette because they didn't want to detract from the whole spectacle of the film - pretty cool I think. There's also a reviously unseen interview with the band's second bassist, Sid Vicious, who died of a heroin overdose in 1979... ...With all the SP footage they've intercut clips from old British TV series, weather reports, adverts and newsreels from the 70s to give you a real feel of what it was like to be living in Britain in the 70s, reminding us it wasn't all flares, disco and kipper ties - it was full of striking miners, fullscale riots and immense social unrest. It brought a lot of memories flooding back for me... ...All the footage also highlighted the pomposity of the 70s with all these old duffers getting up and saying "The Sex Pistols are public enemy number one - they are corrupting our youth". It's amazing to think that only 20 years ago people really thought like that (the title of the film, BTW, comes from a Mirror newspaper headline that appeared the day after the band swore during an interview on live national television - the Nationwide interviewer, Ted Grundy, was drunk at the time and subsequently lost his job). More than anything, it shows that being in the Sex Pistols was a LAUGH. It wasn't all about being a catalyst for social change, it was just four blokes having a right old giggle at the establishment's expense... ...Finally, do you want to find out your Wu Tang name? (For all you crotchety old duffers out there, the Wu Tang Clan are a bunch of oddly-monickered American rappers with names like Ol' Dirty Bastard, Ghostface Killa, Masta Killa and Method Man.) If you go to this website (http://www.recordstore.com/cgi-bin/wuname/wuname.pl) and type in your own name, they'll hit you back with your own bizarre "handle". The results can be pretty funny... Namaste, Sweaty Butcher PS Hey, if you think that my Wu-name is funny, you should check out that of my mate Don Staniford: "Well-Liked Assman"! Ha ha ha ha. PPS There's this website where the FBI have a picture of everyone in the UK and USA. It's frightening what these guys know. I haven't a clue where they took my snap. You can see what pic(s) they have of you - just check out the link: http://bpent.com/fbi/ He was born with a gift of laughter Rafael Sabatini |
|
|
|
