When he set out to make Pistol, his rollickingly entertaining dramatic retelling of the life of legendary punk outfit the Sex Pistols, Danny Boyle had a couple of red lines.
Firstly, he had to be able to use the ’70s band’s music. If the Oscar-winning director didn’t have permission to recreate onscreen God Save The Queen, Anarchy In The UK, Pretty Vacant and their argy-bargy like, Danny’s TV series would be toothless and fundamentally pointless. Remember Stardust, that Bowie biopic from last year, in which Johnny Flynn played the artist but couldn’t play his music? Exactly.
But John Lydon, the artist formerly known as frontman Johnny Rotten, said no. Of course he did. He wouldn’t be a proper punk if he rolled over and said yes to the four-piece’s music being used in a big-budget, six-part TV adaptation of their story – especially one being made for Disney+.
Unfortunately for him, the surviving Pistols – guitarist Steve Jones (whose memoir, Lonely Boy, is the basis for the series); drummer Paul Cook; and original bass player Glen Matlock, who was replaced by Sid Vicious, who died of a heroin overdose in 1979 – had a majority-rules agreement.
After John was outvoted by his more agreeable (in every sense) bandmates, and a court case upheld the legal validity of that decision, it was game over.
“Poor old Johnny Rotten is the victim of Mickey Mouse,” the singer lamented last summer. Then, last week, after Pistol’s London premiere, John got stuck back in. “Danny Boyle is a monstrosity,” he was reported as saying of the director of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire (winner of just the eight Oscars). “The legacy of the Sex Pistols has faeces in it.”
The man himself is undaunted, unabashed and, actually, admiring of John’s contrarian stance. As someone who was a 21-year-old student when the Sex Pistols’ landmark 1977 debut album Never Mind The Bollocks… was released, the 65-year-old is a lifelong punk fan who grew up with the music (although he’s more of a Clash man).
“I know he hates us for it but it doesn’t really matter,” the director says sanguinely of John. “They’re all talented and really important in what they achieved [as musicians], but he is unique. In a time where we’re losing true originals because everything’s copied and digitised, he is one of the originals, truly, in our lifetime. I keep saying it’s a bit like having known Oscar Wilde or somebody like that. You’ve got to hold your hand up [and acknowledge that talent].”