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How did you get into being a Sex Pistols tribute band?
None of us werebig fan's of the concept of tribute bands at first, but i'd noticed over the years when trib' bands were getting popular through the late 80's into the 90's that no-one was doing the Sex Pistols, or rather there was - but just very badly - pub type cover acts with no effort to getting the details right, just wearing jeans & t-shirts & struggling with poor musicianship, no one could do it, at least to my mind - not do it right anyway.
It's one of the hardest band's to do, because of the unique look and sound. Its not as easy as you'd think to play, or to look like. There are four strong, image laden, iconic, colourful charecters in the Sex Pistols, & we we're/are all big fans, so we all had high hopes & expectations, & so we certainly had our work cut out for us.
We were very nieve in the beginning, but we ran on adrenalin & a real passion for what we were doing. Looking & listening back, we really wern't all that good, although the crowds thought we were, we made all the mistakes any new Pistols tribute make, but we knew there was room for things to improve. Its very important to be self crittical & listen to the fans comments, good or bad, & learn from it & improve.
Our first live gig in early 2001 was for a friends 40th birthday party who was a big Sex Pistols fan, we put alot of effort into getting things as close as possible right from the start, with the clothing, sound, backing vocals etc, just for a laugh at first really. Then at that first gig everyone was so blown away with it all, & it went down so well that the venue re-booked us to play again the next month. So even though it was only meant to be a one off event, we had enjoyed ourselves so much we just wanted to do it again.
A little while later we entered a local 'Battle of the tribute bands' competition arranged by a local entertainment agency looking for new cheap acts to flog around thier network of blue-rinse bingo halls & working men's clubs. We knew full-well we wouldn't ever be allowed to win - afterall - what would an entertainment agency operating in bingo halls do with a Sex Pistols band?? So we did it just for a laugh really, to be the stick in the mud & stir things up a bit. But we also thought it'd make a good launch-pad & prove that good entertainment doesn't have to be bland, dull, polite & boring Tina Turner/Bon Jovi/Elton John songs, and that a bit of energy & excitement will go a long way.
We won the first heats, & came 2nd over all in the final, (2nd to a Shania Twian tribute who'd won - mind you, she did have a nice arse which definately helped with the all male judges) We were then all over the local press the next day - the "underdogs triumph" etc. Then next time we were due to play the word had got out on us and it was a sold-out show.So then we were off & running. We felt at first it was just going to be a short lived bit of fun, but we knew from the first rehearsal that we we're on to something a little special, Every gig we kept on tweeking bits here & there, learning on experience & trying to make things better all the time.
It was four or five years later, four or five years of hard giging in the North of England primerily, before we really felt we'd got it about right, then we handed in our notice to the day- jobs, & started to broaden our horizons, venture overseas, to Europe & the U.S.A etc.
Do you ever write your own songs, or is the tribute act your main priority?
Writing our own songs is not what we were ever going to be about, there's thousands of other bands out there to do that. We are here for good times, good gigs, & hopefully the crowds 'get it'.
We have all been in original bands over the years, to varying degrees of sucess, recorded our own stuff, been signed, been dropped, played gigs to 'one man & his dog', struggling to get 'seen' at crappy no-hope gigs in hell-hole venues,been there, done that, & bought the t-shirts as they say. 
This band is not about doing original songs, at the moment we're quite happy to leave that to others to persure, & good luck to them.! We're a tribute band to the Sex Pistols - like it or not, we don't care, thats what we do, & thats all we do, get used to it.! With a name like 'The Sex Pistols Experience' it leaves no room for being all arty-farty & writing original material. ... although all that said, recently we figured we are in a pretty good position to perhaps establish ourselves with some original music if we wanted to.
We have a good network of 'myspace friends', email addresses, industry contacts, etc, a solid launch-pad that would be the envy of any band trying to 'make-it'. We could use all that as a launch pad for our own stuff under a different name. Problem is all four of the band live in four different corners of the u.k now, three of the band had their first born babies in 2009, so the chances ever getting us all together to & finding the time to write & rehearse original songs is very unlikely now anyway.
The main thing to keep in mind is not all bands have to exist to write & record original songs & try to change the face of polotics or change the World - some bands exist purely for entertainment purposes, & we are such a band. A lot of people can't get their heads around that for some reason, & think we should be doing our own songs - well, we don't want to right now, we're having a perfectly good time doing what we do thankyou very much, we'll leave all the 'struggling to be noticed' to someone else.
Yes it is somewhat frustrating to be successful (whatever that is?) off the back of someone else's songs. But after (personally speaking, & the others have similar stories) having tried for years to get somewhere with original stuff, which in hind-sight was a complete waste of time, largely due to the location i was living in at the time up in East Yorkshire, where no A&R men ever visited to my town looking for 'the next big thing'.
So an alternative way to survive playing music as a working musician is do go down the covers route, or take it a step further & go down the tribute band route which kept me working & off the dole in the late 80s & 90s. We may be performing someone elses songs, but we travel the World, we play exciting gigs every weekend, or every night on tours. We spend time out on the beer with our good friends & have an absolute wicked time & get paid.
Part of the reason for our longevitiy is that we are 'fans' of the Sex Pistols & have been for years, so we don't really tire of performing the songs. We've seen many tribute bands who are not fans of their chosen band, & literally have to run therough the motions every gig - that must be soul destroying, they do it for the wrong reasons in my book. As for us, if the fans are loving it - we're loving it.
It's easy for people to say -"oh your only a fucking tribute band - whats the point in that?" etc Easy answer to that - we don't have to get up for work at 8am every moring. We dont have to work some crappy 9 to 5 to pay the bills. We play great songs, to great fans, & have a truly brilliant time doing it. We got to sit on Copacabana beach all expenses paid etc. What more could you want.!??
I think people who pose the above sort of questions are only really jealous that they can't do it themselves.
How did it feel getting the seal of approval from some of the original members of the Pistols?
I think it has to be the ultimate achievement of any worthwhile tribute band, if the artist they pay tribute to is still alive, then that approval is the ultimate goal. When we started out we flippantly joked, whilst rehersing in a freezing barn mid winter in the north of England, "wouldn't it be cool to go to L.A & meet Steve Jones & go on Jonesy's Jukebox" - Steve Jones's highly acclaimed radio show in L.A. We were only really bothered about what Steve Jones thought to be honest.
Who'd of thought that 5yrs later our flippant comment would become a reality.!? We met up with Steve Jones in L.A when we were two weeks into a 6 week U.S tour. He'd invited us onto his radio show 'Jonesys Jukebox' to be interviewed & play a few songs acousticly together on air to the millions of listeners. We were obviously incredibly overawed & nervous, but Steve was very down to earth & made us feel very relaxed, although i think the whole 'experience' of us appearing through the studio doors in our full stage gear was a bit freaky for him, but once we got playing, & he knew we knew our stuff, then everything settled down & we got along like long-lost friends, & spent the best part of the day with him, which was fantastic for us.
We had great gig that night too up in the Hollywood hills, we did try to get him to come along & get him up on stage with us, but he's sober these days, so that was a dream a bit too far perhaps.
We met Glen Matlock in Liverpool at a Sex Pistols convention day. We were playing the finale of the event & he'd been on stage with the Philistines, but he was always going to be a bit distant because we have a 'Sid' on bass, so fair enough. These days our guitarist is quite friendly with him, they speak on the phone now & again, but Glen must haunted by the fact that Sid stole his position in the band & went on to become the 'icon' for a generation.
Cooky is always a bit quiet, so we never really expected much of a reaction from him, although we understand he has watched us approvingly on youtube. As for Lydon, well, how do you go about making any sense out of a character like him? Its hard enough to meet him let alone get any sort of approval for anything.! Plus, he has a track record of changing his mind like the u.k weather, so one day he might think we're great, then next - especially if his minder Rambo is about - he'd hate us.
So although 'Mr Rotten' & 'Mr Rotter' have met, & we're very friendly & mutually respectful, our Mr Rotter didn't go into too much detail about the band, but Lydon did wish us "The best of F**kin' luck with it!" - which is good enough for us. But we're not going to persue that avenue any further, he's fully aware of us, & knows we do a good job, so that'll do. I do think he'd have something to say if we were doing it badly, or being disrespectful to their legacy, & thats certainly not the case as far as we're concerned, which is evident by the number of fans who come along to our shows & follow us around the country.
If Sid Vicious was around to see you, what do you think he’d make of it?
I think Sid would be the one of all the band who'd see it for what it really is, fun, entertainment, & a jolly good night out! I'd totally expect to see him leaping about down the front in the 100 club, or jumping up on stage to sing 'Something Else' with us.! Sid wasn't daft, he had a great sense of humour & he would of totally 'got it'.
I base that on the comments the many people who met & knew Sid, that we have met & chatted with over the years. We've had a good insight into Sid's life & charecter though the connections we've made with people like Viv Albertine of the Slits, or Steve Dior - who played guitar for him in New York's Max's Kansas gigs.
We've had many a late night drunken, stoned, all night long banter with Steve, at his hotel in Kensington where we stay whenever we visit London, we rarely get to bed before daylight. We've also been involved in a few T.v programmes & documentaries about Sid which has given us alot of background info, & given us the opportunity to talk to those who were there, & chew over the events of his short life. We chatted often about his last night in New York & the whole 'Nancy' saga with people like Ester Dior (Steve's Diors sister & girlfriend of ex-New York Doll Jerry Nolan), Eileen Polk & Peter 'Kodick' Gravelle - the photographers.
Peter was sent out from Sid's apartment in Greenwich Village to find & supply his last fix, so we heard many of the stories that have never made it to print or film. Then we had a few months crossing paths with Sid & Pistols biographer 'Alan Parker', who did alot of research in to Sid's life resulting in a few books, most notably 'Sid Vicious - No one is innocent' (in which we get a good mention) The film 'Who Killed Nancy' in which we played the parts of Sid & Nancy for the re-enactments of the murder scene etc.
We've had a rare insight into Sid's personality. Its a real shame he ever met Nancy & went down that route. From what we can gather he had a real sense of 'fun' - which is exactly what we're about, so he would of loved what we do, & probably found it all a great giggle.!
You put a lot of effort into the aesthetics as well as the music, do you feel this is necessary to the whole experience?
Absolutley. What would be the point of playing the Sex Pistols music & looking Status Quo in jeans & t-shirt (for example)? A tribute band has to be just that, we don;t use the word 'Experience' lightly, its meant to be an 'experience'.
We get annoyed when people say 'covers' band - its far more that that, & we put too much work & dedication to the cause to be labelled a mere 'cover band'. A cover band can be created by any old muppetts, anyone can do that & play in pubs for a few quid, but thats really the bottom of the barrel in this trade.
The whole thing with the Sex Pistols, or any other popular band of the 70s & 80s was the fashion that followed, often created by that band. Malcolm McLaren was largely responsible for furnishing the Sex pistols with his & Vivienne Westwoods clothing designs, & they all wore them. And look at Vivienne today - one of the Worlds top & most famous clothing designers - how can anyone say it wasn't about the clothes they wore? - of course it was.!
It was a unique, new & fresh look at that time in the late 70s, that band we're the perfect clothes horse for Malcolm, a master stroke to get his unique designs on all the front pages of the press & on the telly. All the kids wanted a 'Destroy' muslin cheese-cloth shirt like Rottens. The clothes & look of a band is essential to its success, which is why Punk took off the way it did. It wouldn't of had the impact it did had the bands just been waring the wing-neck shirts & flares, as were the street fashion of the day.
Punk needed a look to work & get the attention of the kids, & the Sex pistols were the at the top of that pile of clothes. What would you think to an Abba tribute band if they paid no attention to the clothing?? Can you imagine 'Bjorn Again' playing live just in plain old street clothes with no satin or sequins?? Or an Elvis tribute without a jump-suit, big belt & shades?? No. You'd feel cheated. Well its the same for us.
The Sex pistols, arguably, had a look that was as responsible for their sucess as the music was. Would anyone of paid attention to Sid Vicious had he not worn a Nazi cross t-shirt & leather jacket? It was done & worn for effect & to get a reaction - that was the whole point. Same goes for the posters & flyers, its no coincidence that Malcom employed Jamie Reid - back then a new, inventive & professional designer to come up with the posters, iconic images of the Queens head with safety pins through her nose or eyes etc, his ideas for the record sleeves made them stand out from the rest - its all about aesthetics. So to miss that sort of thing out as a tribute band, then your missing out on 50% of the doing the job right.
You are currently one of the biggest tribute acts in the UK, where do you think you can go from here?
To our grave probably, i often thought we should stop & quit whilst we're ahead, burn out at the top just as the Sex pistols did. But then we're not really at the top of anything, so who are we trying to kid? We're just a tribute band, its not like we ever went on 'Top of the pops' or made the front page of the NME & faded away or anything, we're under no illusions as to who, or what, we are, so how far can you go doing this?
I guess we're probably getting close to the end of the road by now though, it'd be nice to see out ten years - just because its a nice round figure. But we just don't know what the future holds, or what we'd go on to do after this.? Getting a 'job' doesn't appeal. Starting over with another new band doesn't appeal either. And the phone keeps on ringing with gig enquiries, so we keep doing them, & we have too much of a good time to stop just now.
But we are all fully aware that we could call a stop to it anytime, & we will when the time is right to do so. Might be next week, next year, or in another ten years - we just don't know, perhaps as long as the fans want to keep being fans.?
They are getting older, so when things start to dry-up or the phone stops ringing we'll bow out. We've achieved pretty much all we wanted to anyway. Ticked all the boxes we set out to tick. Done all, & far more, than we set out to do, or that any Sex pistols tribute band could ever wish to do, or hope to. We've done it all, & have nothing to prove to anyone. We call our own shots, & we'll stop when we decide to, if & when it stops being fun, then thats probably when we'll stop. Or, if there was to ever be another Pistols band that did it better than us, then we'd probably stand down, we wouldn't want to play 2nd fiddle to anyone, although there doesn't appear to have been a better Sex Pistols tribute in the last 30yrs, so i think thats a fairly unlikely outcome.!
Earlier this year you contributed to the ‘No Future’ Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned tribute album. How did you get involved with this?
We actually never wanted to go in the studio to re-record what are already classic songs - whats the point in trying to re-record any of those songs over again?? It'd be like trying to rerecord the classic Beatles songs, your just asking for crittisism because people will always find fault. If anyone ever asked us "Why don't we do more recording?" we always just said "Go listen to the original Never mind the bollocks" if thats what you want to listen to.
We heard too many other Pistols cover/tribute bands going off spending hundreds of pounds (probably) on studio time to re-do the Bollocks songs for their websites or myspace profiles, & we never heard any that even came close to the original, vocals usually all wrong, drummmers playing it too fast, whatever - no one ever seemed to really 'listen' first to the songs before recording them. So we didn't see any point in us bothering, & always just preferred to put out live recordings of us doing live shows.
A far more accurate representation of what we are capable of as a tribute band. Anyhow, one day we get a phone call, some bloke wants to do a 'Tribute album to the Sex Pistols & wanted us on the album, & offered to pay the studio time. So we thought about it for a while, & decided if it wasn't going to cost us anything - then why not? - i think also we were all curious as to how we'd sound properly recorded too, & this was our opportunity to do it. Plus we do like doing studio stuff having done plenty in our various other bands prior to the Sex Pistols Experience getting together, so figured we'd have a fun couple of days.
We spent a great deal of time in the 2 or 3 weeks prior to going in the studios deciding what songs we should do. We did think it'd be better to do something a little more obscure like 'Belsen was a gas' or 'Whatcha gonna do about it' - or other Pistols songs or cover versions they played in their early live shows but were never properly recorded back in the 70's. But the guy paying for the studio time was really urging us to do the show piece of the album - which meant he wanted us to do two of the four Sex pistols singles.
So we took the bull by the horns went for the two big & most iconic, Anarchy & Pretty Vacant. We had already done 'God Save the Queen' years ago for the BBC, so didn't really want to do that again. The thing is, we played these songs literally hundreds, if not thousands of times over the years, at every gig & god knows how many times rehearsing over the years, so we know them inside out & back to front with our eyes shut. We played the songs far more times over 9yrs than the real Sex pistols ever have, or anyone else the World over.
Both tracks we did were captured in two or three takes at the most. Which left us plenty of time to put the guitar overdubs on, & do the backing vocals correctly. But we kind of played them as we would do live - so our versions - although exactly the same running time as the original tracks - are driven with more power, energy & passion than the 1977 versions. We felt that with the right producer, who we found in 'Matt' at Axis studio in Doncaster - who we knew was/is a massive Pistols fan with years of experience behind a mixing desk, made for the perfect recipe for Pistols perfection.
So we did see it as a challenge, & knew we had some big boots to fill, but more importantly to getting good results in a studio is to have fun at the sessions, but we also found it suprisingly very easy & quick to do, leaving lots of time to drink beer & play pool, while Matt slaved over the production.! We really do feel we improved on the original for sure, i'd much rather listen to our versions than the original Sex Pistols version of 77.
It definately inspired us to want to record more of their songs because we really feel we can do a better job than anyone else in the World, & after listening to the recent recordings the Sex Pistols did in L.A last year for Guitar hero, we also feel we're capable of doing it better than them too, which is a big statement to make, but we're still hungry & driven, where-as they're all millionaires with no real drive to do it other than adding more money to the retirement pot. We're an honest band & speak our mind, you go listen to them - you'll see.
What kind of fans do you get coming to your shows?
Its taken us a long time to find a fan base, & i mean years of up hill struggling & battling. There's so much cynicism out there, not only in tribute bands - because lets face it, alot of them are crap, but think that they're great. But also in the fact that we're a 'Punk band tribute', a tribute to a band that to the general public, who don't really know their stuff, were crap in the first place - y'know what i mean?
All the press were talking about back in the birth of Punk in 76/77 was "anyone can do it", "you don't have to be good/talented to be in a band" , "they can't play their instuments" etc, etc, all that stuff sticks even now 30+yrs on. You just have to listen to 'Never mind the Bollocks' to disprove those theories, or many other great early albums by any other so called 'Punk bands' for that matter.
So i think as our reputation grew we gradually saw & met some of these cynical old punks who may of been around in the late 70s but wouldn't come & see us out of some kind of stubborness or misguided loyalty to the original spirit of Punk, i.e being 'original' - which of course we're not.
Then there's the others who missed the boat the first time & come to see what it might of been like & absorb the atmosphere. Or there's those who wanted to see us out of curiosity - "how can a band pull this off convincingly?" We see many a grown man cry, moved to tears to see his, or her, favorite, iconic 20yr old Sid & Johnny, 'The Sex pistols' live in front of them, having never seen it before other than on grainy old VHS recordings.
We get 40/50yrs olds bringing their teenage sons, we get all sorts of mixed ages really - which is great, everyone has a good time once they get over the barrier of seeing a tribute band, after 3 or 4 songs they begin to relax & get in to it, & get it. And we hope to bring the spirit & attitude of the Pistols to a whole new younger generation, & we are doing.
What has been your best experience with this band so far?
We look forward to getting together every weekend, & really every night is a highlight for us. But i suppose in recent times would be getting the opportunity to play Longhorns Ballroom in Dallas Texas.
Ever since we were kids we'd watch videos of the Sex pistols performing there on their last tour of january 1978. The iconic looking Sid wasted on heroin, Johnny at his Rotten best performing in a very hostile Texan enviroment with Jonesy fighting off the cowboys whilst playing guitar, it all made for a great show.
We'd driven through Dallas a couple of time whilst on tour through the states & called into Longhorns like a bunch tourists visiting a holy monument or something, & never expecting to play there due ot the sheer size of the place being 3500 capacity. But then i spotted on the internet an up-coming biker festival that was happening in Dallas in March of 2009, the big party night was to be at the Longhorns Ballroom, so i just mailed the organizers & said to them we'd be the perfect band for headlining the festival.
Next thing i know we're on a plane to Dallas, & performing on that stage to hundreds of crazy cowboys just as they had 301yrs privious. Great stuff, & an incredible achievement for a Sex Pistols tribute from the north of England. It was definately a box ticked. Trouble is - we're running out of boxes now!!?
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