The Baker's Dozen Rock Stars With Bad Teeth

 Shane McGowan (The Pogues)

 
 John Lydon/Rotten (Sex Pistols/P.I.L.)


Freddy Mercury (Queen)


Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays)

 
Chrissy Amphlett (Divinyls)

 
Layne Staley

 
Iggy Pop

 
Keith Richards

 
Big Mama Thorton

 
Sonny Boy Williamson

 
Amy Winehouse

 
Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult)

 
Pete Doherty (Libertines)

The Sex Pistols Further The Swindle With Pop! Rock Dolls

Sure, what the hell.


The same folks that brought you those cute little Ramones dolls turn their pop culture cuteness across the pond to bring you Sex Pistols Pop! Rocks Vinyl Figures. You can have your choice between good old Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, or that loveable meathead Steve Jones. Sorry, Paul Cook and Glenn Matlock did not make the mold, as it were.


The details:

An unlimited supply! Here's some more shit you can buy!

Sex Pistols were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians. 


Although their initial career lasted just two-and-a-half years and produced only 4 singles and 1 studio album they are regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.

For the first time ever in their history, The Sex Pistols have been rendered as vinyl figures.

All of these stylized 3.75-inch tall vinyl figures come decked in the trend-setting Sex Pistols attire we've come to know and love. They're detailed right down to Sid's pad lock chain, Johnny's enigmatic glare, and Steve's leather jacket.

And The Cassette Played Poptones

John Lydon has announced a few Public Image Limited live dates in the U.K. It’s the first time that PiL has reformed since 1992.
Immediately when I heard the news, I thought that this would be the classic PiL line-up of Lydon, Keith Levene, and Jah Wobble. I mean, it makes sense doesn’t it? With all of the recent reunions taking place and with live appearances becoming the largest source of revenue for artists thanks to declining cd revenues, you would think that Lydon would have been smart enough to concoct an event that would get some attention.
But no. Lydon seems to think that by reprising the PiL moniker, we will return. What he fails to remember is that Metal Box (Second Edition) is the band’s masterpiece and, essentially, the only evidence of Public Image Limited working as a ban (minus a consistent drummer).
Album may be the band’s last decent album, and that was nearly twenty-five years ago. That record was followed by a run of continual line-up changes and half-inspired material. It was clear that Lydon had either run out of ideas or no longer wanted to invest the time to work on a third album of groundbreaking proportion.
Think about how awesome it would be if Lydon, Levene, and Wobble got together and performed the Metal Box album in its entirety.
Never mind the Sex Pistols, that concert would be something worth seeing!
No bollocks.
Guitar geek alert: Check out the Travis Bean Wedge that Levene is playing.

Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle

When you do a quick search of ‘The Sex Pistols’ on Amazon, you’ll find over a hundred results. Pretty impressive for a band that only managed one full-length during their two-and-a-half years together.
Of course, the primary reason why there’s such an influx of posthumous Pistols releases is because Never Mind The Bullocks is an undeniable classic album; not one track sucks and not one record collection should be without it.
So it’s no surprise that people who absolutely love Bullocks will go out of their way to find some sort of additional revelation, rehearsal, or lost track that the band might have laid to tape during their brief existence.
The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle was the Sex Pistols’ first official posthumous release, if you allow the notion that a Malcolm McLaren project could be considered “official.” You’ve got to hand it to the guy: he never lied to fans that his ultimate intention was to swindle them, and that’s exactly what this soundtrack album does.
Oh, did I neglect to mention that The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle was a movie too?
Indeed. And it’s an even bigger piece of shit than the soundtrack itself.
Spanned over a two record set is, essentially, a half-dozen “true” Sex Pistols songs, most of which are outtakes and cover versions. Hardly revelatory, the songs instead point to the overlooked admission that the band was a pretty good rock band that had a fairly respectable list of influences (Chuck Berry, The Modern Lovers, and The Who).
“But they don’t even finish them!” You say.
Professionalism aside, it’s a hell of a lot more fun than the symphonic versions of “God Save The Queen” or “EMI” that are included, or Ten Pole Tudor’s retarded version of “Who Killed Bambi.”
Or a Pistols disco-medley titled “Black Arabs.”
Or Malcolm McLaren self-indulgent “You Need Hands.”
Or some French street performers’ rendition of “Anarchy.”
Or the Paul Cook and Steve Jones’ notion that they could continue on the Sex Pistols name by simply replacing Rotten with the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs on lead vocals.
Yeah, he makes a couple of appearances too; It’s as stupid as you could imagine.
Various Pistols contribute some solo material, all of which is fairly pedestrian with the exception of the infamous version of “My Way” by Sid Vicious. The single version included here is a hoot, and his rendition of “C’Mon Everybody” and “Something Else” only reaffirms Sid’s musical deficiency (he can’t carry a tune and he doesn’t play a note on any of these tracks).
“Belsen Was A Gas,” a (ironically) Vicious-penned Pistols outtake, also makes an appearance and it may qualify as being one of the most frightening tracks that the band has ever done.
With just a handful of arguably worthy tracks, Swindle manages to sink lower that even its title would suggest. Devoid of power, lacking the humor it desperately tries to achieve, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle is not only first official Sex Pistol release after the band’s crash; it’s also punk rock’s first novelty record.

Sid Vicious - Sid Sings

It’s strange to consider how history would have treated Sid Vicious if he had lived to see his 50th birthday on May 10, 2007. Would he have been able to maintain the iconic stature that death provided him? Or would he have been ousted as a fairly talent-less sod who owed his notoriety more to luck than true originality?
Judging from his only release, the posthumous Sid Sings, I’m fairly certain that the latter is more likely.
The first thing you notice is how much of a hodgepodge the album is; an obvious cash-in that took advantage of the untimely-yet-expected death of one of rock music’s most famous anti-musicians.
The opening track, a cover of The Heartbreakers’ “Born To Lose,” is actually taken from the Sex Pistols’ Christmas party for underprivileged kids from 1977. The event was a rare example of the band’s generosity, which is a polite way of diverting your attention away from the fact that the Pistols’ version of this track is by no means anywhere close to the original. Nonetheless, it may be the sole reason why a Pistols/Vicious fan would actually need to purchase Sid Sings.
A couple of other songs (a cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Something Else” and Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”) can also be found on the Sex Pistols’ soundtrack album The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle. However, the version of “My Way” on Swindle differs from the one found on Sid Sings. The Sid Sings version features a different vocal track from Sid and while the Swindle version features the (clever) string arrangement that most people are familiar with.
Curiously, Sid Sings does not include another solo Sid track that was included on Swindle: “C’mon Everybody,” another Eddie Cochran cover is missing here, which is strange considering Sid Sings extremely short running time.
The majority of Sid Sings is taken from a solo concert at Max’s Kansas City in New York City, about two weeks before Nancy Spungen was found murdered. The sound quality is pathetic (crowd noise is painfully apparent throughout these recordings), the performances are sloppy and amateurish, and (literally) a third of the tracks are cover versions of Johnny Thunders songs. Arthur Kane and Jerry Nolan do perform as backing musicians, so I guess its a case of not having to many rehearsal sessions. This must have been a great plus for Vicious who always had a kind word for the New York Dolls.
So why own it? There’s really no reason to. My only excuse is because it addresses the “completist” area of the brain in me; there's a part of me that wanted to have as much official Pistol-related material from ’77-’79 as I could get my hands on. Hell, I remember bidding retarded amounts on Ebay for the EMI pressing of "Anarchy In The U.K.," but there was someone who was more retarded than me.
I use the word “official” with a healthy dose of salt and a clear understanding of how silly this must all sound to the un-initiated and people who’re far removed from how stunningly frightening and influential the Pistols were during their brief existence.
Sid Sings can be viewed a couple of different ways: as an example of Virgin Records’ “ambulance chasing” marketing strategies or as an appropriate crabs-and-all memorial that befittingly documents Sid’s brief contribution to the world of music.
In either case, the album certainly does nothing to enhance his credibility or build upon his legacy.