| The Sex Pistols, Aged & Mellowed Out. N.Z. Womans Weekly, 10 June 2002 Please note there are obvious mistakes in this article; I've added it to the site...well I ain't too sure why but its here now...it's written in a very bored housewife type of way, just read it, you'll see what I mean. In the 1970', they were the wild men of punk - but everyone has to grow up some time, even the Sex Pistols. The guitar smashing, hotel room trashing band have morphed into mild mannered men who lead largely blameless lives in the suburbs. That made it all the more amazing when former singer Johnny Rotten, who now goes by his real name of John Lydon, announced recently that the surviving members of the band were re-forming for the Queens Golden Jubilee. They are planning a one off gig and have re-released their controversial hit God Save The Queen exactly 25 years after its initial release. The anti-monarchist record was deemed so subversive the first time round that the UKs number one slot was left blank in the week it sold most copies. But John Lydon, once the sourge of the establishment, no longer carries quite the same amount of terror and revulsion he instilled in his 1977 heyday. The gaunt, contorted features of his youth have filled out over the years and he even boasts a paunch these days. The son of a lorry driver from North London, he know lives in Los Angeles. Asked if he enjoying middle age, the 46 year old says, "Yes, I am as it happens. I'm doing it well, you see. I'm not Pete Townsend - I never said I would die before I get old. I intend to go on and on because I am not aware of anything after life'' At home in Los Angeles, the man who once bragged of being the Anti-Christ has settled into a very ordinary routine. He is happily married to his German wife (60), whom he met in the punk days. When asked recently what car they drive, his reply could not have been more conventional. 'A Volvo. Solid, sensible. It snows alot where we go skiing, so it makes sense.' Though his hair colour is not natural, he tends not to bother spiking it up when he nips into the local supermarket in his shorts and Timberland loafers. 'To dress absurd or to have weird hair is just to fitting in with everyone else right now,' he told a U.S. interviewer recently. 'Why conform?' He has his own recording studio but is far from the noisy neighbour - they say the only noise is from the guest house where is younger brother Martin plays with his children. John has made his fortune speculating on the property market, and now has homes in L.A., Berlin and London. He also rents out a $7.5 million dollar beachfront home in Malibu and recently purchased a plot of land in a Malibu canyon. John does all the cooking - 'Nora doesn't Know what the kitchen is for,' he says - and music no longer takes centre stage in his life. Instead he fills his time reading novels and academic works, writing, researching obscure subjects. He also studies the behaviour of sharks. And as if to confirm the end of his punk days, he says, 'I've found exercise makes me better. There could be a Johnny Rotten health video for christmas! ' One band member, Sid Vicious, was found dead in a New York hotel in 1979 while on bail accused of murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, but somehow the others have survived the aftermath of punk and are now settling sedately into middle age. Drummer Paul Cook (44) lives a peaceful life with his wife Jenny, a jeweller, and their teenage daughter Holly in a $1.5 million dollar house in Shepherds Bush, West London - never having left the area where he grew up. He said Recently, 'I've had enough of the rock ' n roll world. I prefer the quiet life.' These days Paul spends his time studying history and is somewhat of an expert on Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years Wars. Glen Matlock (44), looks more like a bank manager and fronts his own band, The Philistines. He was also musical director of a pantomime and penned his autobiography, I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol. He divides his time between his girlfriend Carol Garner and their two young sons who live in Southampton, and his own $600,000 flat in Little Venice, West London. He gave up alcohol when it threatened to destroy his liver a couple of years ago. Glen fell out with John and was replaced by Sid Vicious in 1977. Maneger Malcolm McLaren later claimed that Glen had been ousted for liking the Beatles and having too much respect for established figures such as Paul McCartney. Guitarist Steve Jones (46) attends Alcoholic Anonymous meetings almost everyday and runs an amateur football team called Hollywood United, whose star players include Vinnie Jones and Rod Stewart. Steve has recorded several solo albums and worked alongside Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop and more recently Sporty Spice. Tony Bonnici & Nadia Cohen. |