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steve jones

  • pistol still

    Pistol 
    Directed by Danny Boyle (DisneyPlus)

    Okay, I’ll be first to admit that the trailer looked like a cold turd in a lunch box.  I did, however, persevere and found that I enjoyed this six-episode series enormously. 

    Not that everyone will.  Fans of a perfectly delivered chronology are going to be nit picking every scene and episode like bickering zealots at a secular conflict.  Anyone who watched the CBGB movie and complained about how such and such wasn’t in the audience the night so and so did this or that is going to be in for a particularly unpleasant viewing experience.  You know who you are. 

  • pistols carolyn fenech2Carolyn Fenech photo.

    Sex Pistols with Frank Carter
    Sunday, April 6, 2025
    Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide

    First and most important: skip whatever preconceptions you may have.

    JUST GO.

    People will be talking about this tour for decades and believe me, you really don't want to be telling folks how this band were loads better at the 100 Club as they change your colostomy bag in your fucking retirement village.

    The squeakers of "sacrilege"  have had their say on the interwebs, and now it's time for Frank Carter's name (and back catalogue) to be on everyone's minds.

  • lonely boyHere are two books from people whose names you may know that are essential purchases.  

    This is from “Lonely Boy”:

    … all bands are basically the fucking same. The reason I still - to this day - love watching documentaries about bands like the Eagles … is that I can totally relate to them. The personalities involved and the reasons for the tensions between them never seem to change.

    The singer - because the job requires the kind of person who wants to be in the front going ‘look at me, look at me’ - will almost always be very insecure, and usually a bit of a cunt. Then there’s the guitarist, who wants to get all the pussy, and there’s always at least one weird introvert…

    Lead Guitarist Syndrome and Lead Singer Syndrome are terms you don’t see in the Macquarie, or the OED. But they exist, in fact if not in print.

  • pistols frank crowd walk
    The Sex Pistols - featuring Frank Carter 
    Teenage Cancer Trust
    Royal Albert Hall, London
    24 March 2025 

    In short, a fantastic, fun show. Frank Carter is an inspired choice as front man. He brings incredible energy and respect to the songs and, to my mind, vanquishes any concerns of the Sex Pistols being a "karaoke act" without John Lydon

    I was almost reluctant to see the reformed Sex Pistols. I had seen Generation Sex last summer, with Billy Idol supported by Paul Cook and Steve Jones. That was close to karaoke or perhaps closer to cabaret, as Billy Idol himself looked like a wax figure from a Hammer Horror Film. That day Glenn Matlock had played on the same bill with Blondie. I thought that was as close as I would ever get to seeing the Sex Pistols perform. 

  • pistols syd frank stagelip

    Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter
    Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
    Tuesday, April 8, 2025

    Quick summation: They rocked. They were a massive ball of fun. The New Guy was his own man; Frank Carter doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not. The band behind him is still three-quarters of the Sex Pistols - and monstrously good.

    Statement of the obvious: The crowd was old. Sure, there was a sprinkling of curious young millennials who’d been browsing their parents’ record collections, but mostly it was codgers bordering on, or of, pensionable age.  I haven’t this many senior citizens in one place since Oatley RSL had a disability scooter rally on the concrete apron outside the entrance, where the old dears listen to piped music as the clock counts down to the poker machine room’s 10am opening.