More tea, Mr Rotten?

By TONY BONNICI, Daily Mail

Sipping tea under a parasol in the grounds of a country house, they could be four weary sightseers resting their feet.

It is hard to believe that the middle-aged men in question were once the scourge of the establishment, provoking fear wherever they set foot.

For these harmless-looking chaps are the Sex Pistols, taking a break from rehearsals for their reunion concert this weekend.

Johnny Rotten, 46, (who now prefers the name John Lydon), Paul Cook, 46, Steve Jones, 47, and Glen Matlock, 45, have been practising in a studio at 500-year- old Stanbridge Farm, near Gatwick. It is hardly the sort of place that would have welcomed the foul-mouthed anarchists who were the Pistols a quarter of a century ago.

They burst on to the music scene in the vanguard of the punk rock craze, pushing aside the finery of the glam rockers.

No concert seemed to be complete without its share of swearing, spitting, violence and safety-pins.

In one of the most notorious moments in television history, they appeared on the tea-time magazine programme Today on December 1, 1976.

Egged on by interviewer Bill Grundy, they unleashed a torrent of profanities - guaranteeing themselves front-page coverage in every national newspaper and effectively ending Grundy's career.

Such was their notoriety that a planned concert tour was effectively scuppered by councils everywhere banning them. Only three out of 19 dates went ahead,

The outrage grew and even Sir John Read, chairman of their record label EMI, felt moved to apologise to shareholders for their behaviour. In the first week of 1977 EMI parted company with the group. A month later, bassist Matlock was fired and replaced by the infamous Sid Vicious.

Virgin signed the band in the spring of 1977 and their single God Save the Queen reached number two in the BBC charts - despite being banned by TV and radio.

But it was not long before the group began to implode. During a U.S. tour in 1978 which was marred by violence, Rotten walked out.

The following year Vicious died of a heroin overdose while on bail in New York having allegedly stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death. Amid bitter money wrangles with manager Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols broke up.

The band say they decided to re-form for the money but ticket sales at Crystal Palace's National Sports Centre have been slow.

Despite their reputation, it seems that no one holds any fears about the Pistols these days.

Bromley Council licensing officer Stephen Phillips, who gave the event the go-ahead, said: 'As with any concert, all the surrounding postcodes were leafleted, asking if residents had any objections. There wasn't a single one.'

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