Sex Pistols
Festival Hall, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, April 5th
Sex Pistols’ first Australian tour in 29 years sees them returning to Festival Hall – the same Melbourne venue they graced back in 1996 on their ‘Filthy Lucre Tour’. But this time they’ve subbed in vocalist Frank Carter (Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, the now-defunct Gallows) for Johnny Rotten (John Lydon).
Lydon has since labelled Sex Pistols’ current touring era as “karaoke,” declaring, “As far as I am concerned, I am the Pistols, and they’re not.”
The last Sex Pistols tour with Lydon on board went down in 2008, before he lost a court battle over the use of the band’s music in Danny Boyle’s 2022 biographical miniseries, Pistol, which was based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol.
During a recent interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Jones confirmed they’re no longer on speaking terms with Lydon: “We don’t talk. The last time I spoke to him [Lydon] was 2008. But I wish him all the best. I really do. We had a great time when we were young, and it was life-changing for all of us. But after the court case with Pistol it wasn’t even worth asking John [about the reunion tour].
All photos by Andrew Slaidins
“I don’t think he was interested.”
Carter first joined Jones, bassist Glen Matlock, and drummer Paul Cook to perform the Pistols’ only studio album release, 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, in full for a handful of fundraising shows in 2024. These were held at the Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush, London, to help save the struggling venue located near where Jones and Cook grew up (the drummer still calls Shepherd’s Bush home).
Now they’re taking this live incarnation of the band on the road, and tonight it’s Melbourne’s turn.
The fluoro-yellow-and-pink backdrop and Marshall stacks reflect the colour scheme of Never Mind the Bollocks’ cover art. Their intro tape is an orchestral version of “God Save the Queen”. Then the band hit the stage – guns blazing – as Carter hollers, “LET’S GO!” The Pistols plus Carter launch into “Holidays in the Sun”, which opens Never Mind the Bollocks. Sharing oxygen with these living legends is intoxicating to say the least and their punk spirit is ever-present.
Jones’ trademark jagged, metallic guitar lines hypnotise. Matlock’s bass rumbles up through our skeletons (especially later in the set during “No Fun”, their Stooges cover). Cook hits his drums with hefty thwacks. Carter sings more tunefully (and spits way less) than Lydon.
During “Seventeen”, the crowd delightedly hollers, “I’m a lazy sod!” while Carter stalks the stage, clearly relishing this opportunity. Following our applause, Carter teases, “Is that all you got for ‘em?” He then points out, “It’s been a fuckin’ long time since these boys’ve been here!”
Carter introduces “Pretty Vacant” as “one of the greatest fuckin’ punk-rock songs ever written” before chastising the crowd, “You’ve gotta pick the energy up!” Matlock’s geezer accent is super-pronounced during BVs toward this song’s close – “We’re pre-tty/ We’re pre-tty va-cant…” – which makes us grin.
Carter jumps off the stage and ventures into the stalls to rally a circle pit, before exclaiming in horror, “This cunt’s just grabbed my dick!” He persists, expanding the circle until he’s satisfied. “We don’t get to do this very often, and the fuckin’ old boys deserve it, d’you know wha’ I mean? They fuckin’ invented this shit!”
Our circle pit soundtrack is the abortion-referencing “Bodies”, which was inspired by Pauline – a schizophrenic woman who was fanatical about Sex Pistols. Carter rises up in the middle of the crowd, thrusting his mic stand skyward before he’s swallowed up once more, eventually crowd-surfing his way back to the stage. “I forgot we were in fuckin’ Australia,” he laughs incredulously – a wild look in his eyes – before jesting, “I think I just lost my virginity!”
“Silly Thing”, which was released to promote Julien Temple’s 1980 mockumentary, The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle, follows. Carter wiggles his bum from side to side to the beat.
“If you know the words to this one, then sing along,” Carter coaxes. “If you don’t, then why the fuck are you ‘ere?” All hail, “God Save the Queen”! The audience sing-along is deafening here (“NOOOOO FU-TURE!”) as crowd-surfers tumble into the photography pit, a couple of them limping having just lost a shoe.
While Carter introduces the band, Jones is visibly peeved by Cooky’s deliberately out-of-time beats during Matlock’s bass solo. “There’s a saboteur in the works,” Carter observes with a smile. Jones’ “Satellite” guitar solo is a collective jaws-to-the-floor moment. “Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the greatest fuckin’ punk band in history!” Carter hollers, later rating this evening’s show as “their best so far.” Sex Pistols’ diss track “E.M.I.” is both a satisfying chant-along and genius main-set closer – its final lyric being “Goodbye…”
Returning to the stage for an encore, Jones and Matlock take a seat on the drum riser to accompany Carter’s take on “My Way”, the Pistols’ Sinatra cover on which Sid Vicious originally sang lead. Now it’s time for the song we’ve all been waiting for to completely lose our shit: “Anarchy in the UK”.
“I am an antiCHRIST/ I am an anarCHIST“ – whatever you think of Sex Pistols featuring Carter, hearing this incendiary punk anthem – their debut single, which changed music forever – performed live by three of its four creators is thrilling beyond belief. “‘Cause IIIIIIII/ Wanna beeeeee/ Anarchyyyyy” – we feel like we’ve been anointed by punk-rock royalty.
So did we miss Johnny Rotten? Of course we did! His sneer and nasally delivery simply cannot be replaced or replicated. But Carter doesn’t try to imitate the Pistols’ former frontman, he does it his way.
Ticket information for Sex Pistols’ upcoming tour dates can be found here.
