Nancy delivers a diatribe against John Rotten. Her critical appraisal compares him to "a piece of sh*t". She also, speaking by proxy for Sid as she constantly reminds me, complains about Rotten's "******-wop skank dancing", b*tches that he no longer put anything into his stage performances (a justified criticism going on the evidence of a recent U.K. gig I witnessed), that his clothes were horrible and that he'd become so paranoid he believed gangsters were following him around.
"But," she concludes, "it'd be better if you told him, Sid, because you were in the group."
"I think," Sid manfully attempts speech, "Malcolm's completely finished with the lot of them. As far as I can ascertain...(
he almost nods out)...As far as I can ascertain he's...he's really helping me a lot."
You've talked to Malcolm since you came back?
Nancy: "Yeah."
Sid: (
Indecipherable)
Nancy: "TALK LOUDER."
Sid (
almost tearfully
"I'm
so glad I'm out of that group."
Okay, Sid. Stay awake now. Tell me: was it just John Rotten that, in your opinion, was wrong with the group? Or was there More in your opinion wrong with the group? Than Meets The Eye?
"It wasn't only John...we were so untogether. We hadn't played for so long that they lost all enthusiasm. And I lost mine for them.
"Do you remember that gig when Matlock was in the group at the Screen On The Green? I was with the Flowers Of Romance then. After the gig we went home – Vivienne Albertine from The Slits and The Clash as well – we said; 'There's just no point being in a band. We might as well give up because that show tonight was just so f*cking incredible'. And now I'm very pleased that it's all finished.
"And after 'Bodies' we hadn't written no new songs. And...can I have some spray?"
Sid takes mammoth hits off an inhaler which presumably he has for his lung condition.
Fortified, he continues: "I'll tell you exactly what happened, right?
"I was staying with some friends in San Francisco. Malcolm phoned me and told me he was coming round in a cab..." Though his lips are still moving the actual vocals have disappeared into an inaudible whisper.
"WAKE UP!!!"
"And then we discussed JR...(
inaudible)...Malcolm said John was becoming like
Robert Plant. Just behaving like an idiot."
Nancy: "He was just becoming like Rod Stewart."
Sid (
self-parodyingly? "Hey, I could be Rod Stewart."
I REMIND Sid that a couple of months back he'd told Nick Kent he thought the Pistols were "the greatest band in the universe". Had he changed his mind about that or was he just unable to work with them?
Sid nods off.
Nancy awakens him with a kiss.
Sid sighs: "I'm sorry I'm like this but I'm a bit out of my brain. I haven't slept for about four days."
Well, let's forget that one and try again: Did you dislike what the Pistols finally came to stand for?
"Yeah. But that's basically down to John, because he was what the Pistols were all about.''
I must say, Sid, this state you're in does seem to exemplify what's been said about your being the next candidate for the rock'n'roll mortuary. Obviously you know people say that about you?
Sid is unable to reply because he's in the process of nodding out again.
Retrieving Sid's cigarette from where he's put it down on the sheets, Nancy takes over for a while.
She tells me that Sid is totally exhausted because he's been working so hard. He was, she claims, the only Pistol who used to turn up for rehearsals three or four months back when the band was supposed to have been practicing. "Sid, you're even
snoring now!!! Wake up!
JESUS CHRIST!!!"
She also tells me that Sid wrote "four or five tunes" and that the other Pistols wouldn't listen to them.
Sid wakes up. Managing to spill only a little of his coffee over Nancy he sits up on the bed and resumes his rap: "It's my belief that they tried to sack me because..." He slips back down again.
Nancy (
rapidly "Because Steve and Paul wanted an easy way out."
Sid (
making a true effort "They couldn't confront John. So they put it all on me so that if I left the group they could go, too."
Nancy fills in. According to her, Steve and Paul had both wanted to leave the Pistols for some time but had wanted someone else to make the first move for them: "And all the time they would keep lumping it on Sid. So finally he said 'That's it'."
Paul and Steve had wanted to leave, says Sid, raising a new spectre about which he is unable to be more specific, since "we got that tax thing and started losing all our money."
He continues: "Paul and Steve had wanted to go to Rio De Janeiro..." He halts.
"CONTINUE!!" says Nancy.
Sid (
unintelligible
Nancy: "Try and talk intelligibly!"
Sid: "They built those grey gargoyles because..."
Nancy: "
What the f*ck has grey gargoyles got to do with it????"
Sid: "Oh well. It'll be a funny interview. I'm not capable of talking intelligibly. Can't you do it?"
AS YOU MAY see, it is not really feasible to discuss with Sid such vital points as the ramifications on the punk movement of the Pistols' having split on their U.S. venture. No, Sid isn't exactly up to theorising today. Pointless to query why the Pistols went to the States when they did, or why a strength-in-numbers punk package – a U.S. version of the "Anarchy" tour which Clash manager Bernie Rhodes told me had been discussed with McLaren – never happened.
We do learn though, from Nancy, that Sid's non-musician status, when he joined the band had caused a certain dissatisfaction within the ranks of the two playing members: "Steve was always jealous. He said that Sid was really sh*t, y'know."
Owwww, Sid.
Do you think you can play bass properly now, Sid?
But Sid's nodded out again.
Nancy: "He plays in a Dee Dee-Ramones' style that some people think isn't playing. But that's damn fast, man. We were over at Phil Lynott's. He couldn't play as fast as Sid. Sid plays melodic. He missed less notes than anybody else in that band. And I'm not just speaking from bias. Ask Sid. I'm always honest about everything. If he played sh*t I'd tell him. Sid, use the ashtray
not my foot! You've already burnt me
three times!!!"
Ah. Sid's eyes are open. Let's leap in quick: Sid, do you think the Pistols got swept up in the consequences of the aggressive way they approached things in the first place?
Sid nods (
in agreement, as opposed to out "They have. Yeah. One of the things that saved me was..."
Nancy. "Me."
Sid (
ignoring her "I'm more...I'm more animal mentally than any of them. I don't think about what I do very much. We just kind of
do things."
Nancy: "We're spur-of-the-moment people."
Sid: "And I just found they were playing very safe. In Atlanta this guy started going on at me about cutting my throat and spitting at me..."
Nancy: "I CAN'T
HEAR YOU!!!'
Sid: "This guy in San Francisco...ummmm...gave me some spaghetti bolognese..."
Nancy: "What are you talking about?
Spaghetti Bolognese?? What was the question, Chris?"
Chris: "I'm afraid I can't remember any more."
Sid: "When we played in Dallas – that's a cowboy town...Ummmm...It was on this kind of slippery floor...and this guy spat right in my face so I booted him in the face and hit him over the head with my guitar. It got me really mad. And the others said I'd ruined the show because it'd got no continuity."
Nancy: "Can you believe that? The Pistols used to jump into fights."
FOR TRUE PARANOIDS like myself perhaps the most sinister aspect of the Pistols' split is the manner in which, if it really was directly linked to J. Rotten's ego problems, those problems first manifested themselves during the aftermath of the Grundy/"Anarchy" incident/tour fiasco. In other words, in a predictably insidious manner, the Pistols have possibly been broken by the Establishment they set out to ridicule.
Although much of the nervous atmosphere surrounding the Pistols camp is related to unprovable or intangible suspicions Sid, too, had also heard more concrete rumours, such as machinations to prevent 'God Save The Queen' being No. 1 in some charts during Jubilee Week.
Specifically, though, Sid claims the internal balance in the Pistols altered drastically after John had been knifed in May of last year.
"Ever since John got beat up," he tells me, "he's never gone out unless he's had about 30 people with him. That just finished him off."
It seems everyone in the pistols camp was badly affected by that incident, including Sid and Nancy. Nancy: "All of John and his big strong friends and me and Sid were together and we heard this knock on the door. And we thought 'Oh f*ck!'"
Sid: "And I had a pan of boiling water and I pulled out a switchblade."
Nancy: "We had knives and chains. And when we went to the door there were about five tiny kids wanting our autographs. We had to laugh."
Where were you living then?
Nancy: "In Chelsea Cloisters."
Sid says he joined The Sex Pistols because he wanted "fun"; because he wanted to be a rock'n'roll star. At the same time, though, he obviously felt commitment to what it was the Pistols stood for.
"Yeah," he nods, "but that was at the beginning. I was over-the-moon about joining them, then. They were so good at those first gigs at the Screen on the Green.
"But cos we weren't playing any gigs there was no incentive to write any new songs. It all seemed futile."
But whose decision was it that the Pistols weren't playing any gigs?
"Like I said, Malcolm picked me up in San Francisco..."
No, no, Sid. Why weren't the Pistols playing any gigs in the U.K. earlier last year?
"Because our agency Cowbell..."
Sid appears to drop off for 40 winks.
As I'm packing away my tape recorder Nancy tells me she's going to get Sid to go away somewhere on holiday to get his health back in shape. Morocco, I suggest, might be a good place for them to visit. Plenty of smoke and at the same time plenty of clean air.
At the mention of this Sid shakes his head worriedly. "I think fresh air might kill me."
© Chris Salewicz, 1978
Thanks so much for posting it!
