Glen Matlock: I am surprised people are still interested the Sex Pistols

SINGAPORE – Strictly speaking, the Sex Pistols have only released one studio album, Never Mind The B*******, Here’s The Sex Pistols, in 1977.

But even now, more than 35 years after they parted ways, the band remains one of the most iconic and influential punk bands in contemporary pop culture. But what Glen Matlock, the original bass guitarist of the band (before being replaced by Sid Vicious), finds most surprising about the legacy of the band, is the fact that lead singer John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) ended up “advertising butter in England”.

“That was quite surprising,” Matlock said, with a cheeky grin.

The 58-year-old had left the Sex Pistols, after famously falling out with Lydon. “I am just constantly surprised that people are still interested, after 35 years. That shows something about how (the band and its music) meant a lot back then. Musically, it’s a bit vacuous these days.”

The singer-songwriter was in Singapore to give an exclusive performance at the launch event for the agnes b. PUNK+ Photo Exhibition tour, which showcases 28 photos curated from legendary photographer Sheila Rock’s book, Punk+.

But Matlock also acknowledged that the band’s success has been a “double-edged sword”.

“Everybody in the Sex Pistols – and I think this is why John did his butter advertisement – knows it’s such a hard act to follow,” he said. “The chemistry was right at the time, and it’s very, very hard to eclipse that. No matter what you do.”

Matlock added: “Now people always judge what we do against the Sex Pistols, and it’s never going to be that, because it’s not the Sex Pistols. It’s something else. I think that’s why John did the butter advert, to try and negate that. I am a bit more lackadaisical about things. I’ll accept it, and the fact that it gets me around the world. I don’t think I’d be in Singapore if it weren’t for this!”

Q: What do you think of the punk scene now?

A: I don’t really know that there is a punk scene that I know it as. There is a bit of a misconception about the Sex Pistols and punk. We never saw ourselves as a punk band. We were just the Sex Pistols – other people called us that. And to us, the punk thing was like the second wave of bands that came afterwards. We always wanted to be individual, and you can’t be individual if you are all the same. I have two sons who are in a band called Dead, and they play stuff that is supposed to be punk. As we speak, they are on tour in Glasgow, their first proper tour.

Q: What do you think of their music?

A: They mean it, it’s honest. I think that’s the best thing you can say about music, that it’s honest. It’s music from the heart and not too calculated.

Q: Do you think you might perform with your sons one day?

A: I doubt they’ll ask me. Even though I was in the Sex Pistols and played with loads of legendary people over the years, I’m still their dad and dads aren’t cool!

Q: You’ve written very famous songs like God Save The Queen and Anarchy In The UK. Do you still believe in what you wrote all those years ago?

A: Yes, I think it’s as true today as it was back then. Not that we’ve won, I don’t think we have. The Queen is still there. It was never a personal attack on the Queen. I think the whole main thing about punk is – don’t let anybody pull the wool over your eyes. Read between the lines of everything. Be cleverer about the way the authorities and people above you are trying to keep you in your place. And it was a working-class band, and it’s a very working-class thing in England that you know your place. But we would never accept that. And that’s what it was all about.

Q: But that’s changed over the years?

A: Yeah! And for good or bad, I think the Sex Pistols opened the door to the end of an age of deference.

Q: What do you think you’d have done, if not music?

A: I was actually at art school at the time. I went to St Martin’s and I did a foundation course and I got accepted to do a degree in fine art painting. But in the summer holidays I got involved in the Sex Pistols. But I was always interested in painting. Actually I could be the new Damien Hirst. Well, not the new Damien Hirst, the first Damien Hirst. He could be the new Glen Matlock!

The agnes b. PUNK+ Photo Exhibition runs from Oct 2 to 26 at The Substation Gallery. Visit http://agnesb-punkplus.com/ for more information. For the interview with Sheila Rock, click here.