“I don’t need a Rolls Royce, I don’t need a house in the country, and I don’t want to have to live in France. I don’t have any rock and roll heroes, they’re dll useless. The Stones and The Who don’t mean anything anymore, they’re established. The Stones are more like a business than a band.”

—Johnny Rotten British TV interview

* * *

John Rotten is the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, the band that’s got all of England in an uproar. The Sex Pistols are the leaders of what has been called England’s “punk rock” scene (although I can’t believe they like that pressinvented term any more than our bands do), and they recently made front page headlines in Britain when an over-zealous TV interviewer provoked them into saying “fuck” on live TV.

I arrived in London in the midst of the ensuing furor. Their record company (EMI) was pondering whether or not to drop the band. The Sex Pistols’ single—“Anarchy in the UK”—was banned from radio airplay, yet it entered the charts at ^43. Women in the record pressing plants refused to apply labels to the single, so the stores couldn’t stock enough of the record to meet the demand.

Ai~id, some Sex Pistols concerts were being cancelled by nervous town coun cils who demanded "auditions" to insure that there would be “no swearing . (The Sex Pistols, obviously, refused to comply with such requests.) Some of the gigs that remained intact featured surreal tableaux; in Caerphilly the half was ringed with mothers who sang Christmas carols and begged the kids not to go inside where they would see the “anti-Christ”.

I raced to see the Sex Pistols at Manchester’s Electric Circus, where I they were on tour with The Clash and I the Heartbreakers. Conditions on the * If road were difficult. But they perservered, even though record company financial support for the tour was suddenly withdrawn and the bad publicity resulted in their eviction from several hotels.

There is an element of danger and excitement around this scene, for no rock group has so polarized people since the very early days of the Rolling Stones. Parents are outraged, refuse to allow the record in the house, the whole bit. People either hate, or love what they stand for.

(I asked Mick Jagger what he thought of it all, and he said, “Punk rock? I’ve been in it for years, dear.” Then added, seriously, “I saw the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club in London, and I thought they were good. Well, not good, but you know, they could be.”)

I thought the Sex Pistols were great. Their musical influences can be traced to the New York Dolls, but comparisons end there. The current English f scene is like the New York CBGB > scene only in that the bands are young | (from 14 to early 20’s), and they proM vide an alternative to the Bigtime Music Biz.

“We’re transforming what is basically a boring life,” said Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. “These kids thought they could control. This is music coming from the streets, not from the industry.”

Malcolm has been, for several years, the owner of the Kings’ Road shop Sex (formerly Let It Rock) and knows whereof he speaks; for a street scene more unique'and original than any other grew up in London around his shop. Malcolm can also be credited with coming to New York a few years back, getting involved with The Dolls, and returning to London to incorporate some of the best of that influence into what is now The Sex Pistols. The next Brian Epstein? Why not?

Johnny Rotten has a sly charisma and clever sense of humor. He plays his “punk” role well to strangers, but seems in close touch' with his audience. In Manchester he hung out with the fans at the bar before the show; I’ve seen vthat with CBGB musicians, but nowhere else. Can you imagine Roger Daltrey wandering through the aisles of Madison Square Garden, chatting with the audience before the show? '

“The people who come to see us are bored out of their brains,” said Rotten, who has very short orange hair, and wears a jacket covered with safety pins, zippers and chains; “They’re bored with hippies, hippies are complacent.”

John Robert Burnsfrom Manchester, who wears a safety pin stuck through the skin of his hand, told me: “My girlfriend hates the Sex Pistols. She likes the Ramones, but she can’t see this. I don’t care though. I’m just mad that I can’t get ‘Anarchy in the UK’ in my shops. I’ve put a deposit on it, but the record stores won’t carry it here.”

On tour with the Sex Pistols was The Clash, who took my breath away. They play very intense, nonstop songs with political overtones and, as with the Sex Pistols, the projected anger is real, not some bullshit stage theatric.

Clash songs include “I’m So Bored with the USA”, “Hate & War”, “Career Opportunities”, “1977” and “Big Brother”. (Can you imagine what Bowie would think, I asked Leee Black Childers. “He’d better get back from Berlin and get some new ideas,” Leee replied.)

(Another thing about this tour was that it gave the Heartbreakers, (and these are the real Heartbreakers, with Johnny Thunders, as opposed to the Heartbreakers from Miami] an identity in Britain. The band was well received everywhere, moved up to second On the bill, and received much record company interest. Johnny Thunders, in particular, was able to get recognition in a way he Couldn’t when he toured England with David Johansen, and the Heartbreakers’ attitude and performance was commendable.)

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51

Bands like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Buzzcocks, Eater, and Chelsea seem determined not to lose sight of their working class roots. They take no drugs, and drink mostly beer. They’re committed to their brand of rock ‘n’ roll energy as a political statement, and have absolutely no interest in what today’s big rock bands have to offer. Their music is very fast, very loud (reporters from the English dailies sent to “cover this story” cover their ears), and unpretentious. Also, the bands don’t change clothes to go onstage.

If they make money, will they quickly jump into limousines and order Dom Perignon? I doubt it. If they lose touch with their audience, their audience will turn off. This scene is original now because it*^ real, and totally unique. Frankly, the music, the style, and the attitude of these bands has given me new energy and inspiration. After all, I didn’t quit teaching school to write about Peter Frampton.

And when you see kids pushing and shoving and enduring the most terrible of conditions (like when I saw the band Eater, made up of average-age fifteen year olds, in the tiny Hope and Anchor pub in Islington) to see rock V roll, well, it’s encouraging, even if it doesn’t get “bigger”.

The fashions createcbby this scene are astounding. Safety pins stuck into ears, cheeks, hands. Short scraggly hair sticking out in points, clothing ripped up then pinned, or stapled together. Girls with shaved heads, bondage-influenced chains, multiple zippers, and rubber. Tapered trousers (not a bell bottom in sight) stopping well above the shoe. Topless corsets. Paintspattered clothes, stenciled letters, intricate suspenders. My favorite is the cut up green plastic garbage bag worn as a vest.

(You know how these things happen. Five or ten “trendsetters” in London start, then it spreads to safety pins in other cities. And before you know it, we’ll all be wearing them_)

It’s time for kids to.re-claim rock ‘n’ roll. If this makes record companies nervous (and in England they’re tripping over themselves to sign a “punk rock band”), shakes people out of their complacency, or gives pleasure to those involved, it’s enough.. After that, who knows? That’s the best part. (Portions of this column appeared in Lisa Robinson’s syndicated “Rock Talk” column.)