The pioneers of punk rock do not quite burn Atlanta
As the four musicians straggled toward the plane at London's Heathrow Airport last week, it was clear from their appearance that they were not just another Top 40 act. They spat in the air, hurled four-letter words (the mildest was "scum") at the photographers and with malevolent glares set off shivers in their fellow travelers. Said one woman passenger in disbelief: "What are we flying with —a load of animals?" No, just the Sex Pistols living up to their bad-boy reputation as the prophets of British punk rock.
Two nights later in Atlanta, Lead Singer Johnny Rotten opened the first concert on their first tour of the U.S. by announcing: "You can all stop staring at us and just relax and have some fun." Sure enough, the Pistols' American debut was a tame, almost respectable happening. Johnny did not throw empty beer bottles at the audience. All he did was blow his nose a lot. Guitarist Steve Jones did not vomit, though in the past he has proved he has the stomach for it. Nor did Bassist Sid Vicious sputter forth more than a few four-letter words. Sid did manage to draw cheers when he removed his shirt and revealed the torso of a 90-lb. weakling. Both
Vicious and Rotten sported hairdos that looked as if they had been blow-dried in a wind tunnel or plugged into a preamp.
The Pistols' unwonted decorum may have been imposed by the presence out front of the Atlanta vice squad. After all, the Pistols had caused a scandal on British TV a year ago with their vile language. They had been fired by two record companies, locked out by most of Britain's major rock clubs and concert halls, reviled for a song calling the Queen a moron during the Silver Jubilee celebration and castigated nearly everywhere for their world-class grossness. Just two weeks ago, in fact, their entry into the U.S. had been temporarily denied—and four concerts canceled—because members of the group had minor criminal records. But no repro-vals were necessary at the Great South East Music Hall (capacity 500), which is located in an Atlanta shopping center. Vicious' worst offense offstage came from his penchant for flagrant free enterprise. He cheekily charged reporters for interviews, asking what he thought the traffic would bear but settling for as little as $2.
Their calculated insults and obscenities are part of the image of the Pistols as a pioneering force in the movement known variously as punk rock or new wave. In Britain, punk is the voice (some would say vice) of working-class kids who cannot find jobs and care not a whit for the traditions of their homeland. In the U.S. the movement is more purely musical: groups like the Ramones, Talking Heads, Television and Richard Hell and the Voidoids have rejected the rococo sophistication of much 1970s rock and turned back to basic buzz and blast.