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Les Sex Pistols
Premier livre à paraître sur les Sex Pistols en janvier 1978, il est aussi le seul à parler de Sid Vicious au présent. L'ouvrage revient sur les étapes qui ont permis l'émergence du groupe, de l'adolescence des membres à leur explosion sur la scène punk, à partir de nombreuses interviews réalisées par les auteurs et incluant notamment les musiciens, leurs familles, leur manager ou le personnel de leur maison de disques.Journal de bord d'une déflagration musicale et sociale, ce livre montre l'influence du Situationnisme sur le groupe et son management, les amenant à devenir plus qu'une simple aventure rock'n'roll et créant de nombreuses polémiques extra-musicales. Celles-ci, sciemment montées en épingle par McLaren, dissimulent trop souvent leur musique...Les Sex Pistols n'ont fait paraître qu'un seul album avant leur dissolution, Never Mind The Bollocks, les drogues, le chaos interne et les pressions extérieures ayant eu raison du groupe.L'ouvrage comprend de nombreuses photos inédites. La traduction originale de Francis Dordor de 1978 pour les éditions Speed 17 est revue par ses soins.
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First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 15, 2019
I am fascinated by movements, especially ones that I have heard about, but never really focused on. So this year, almost forty years after the fact, I am reading up on Punk Rock and the movers and shakers who propelled that movement to international attention.
This book is comprised of a diary of Sophie, the Sex Pistol's promoter, Malcolm Maclaren's secretary, and the interviews that Fred Vermorel and his wife Judy conducted with each member of the band as well as people associated with the band.
Some of it was insightful in that it showed how a group of ill-educated, low class punks could become world famous. You get the right promoter behind you and you can go places and it's not wholly due to personal ability in the realm of musical talent, or financial or business knowledge.
Which is probably why when the Pistols disbanded a couple of years later, they did not have much money to their name.
John Lyden, aka Johnny Rotten was able to move on and create his own band and brand of experimental type of music. The rest seemed to sink into anonymity, except for Sid Vicious whose sensational death along with the death of his girl friend, Nancy, has become legendary, in no small part because of the movie made about them.
It fascinates me why so many people flocked to this genre of music. Did it really speak to them? Or was it promoted in such a way that made it appealing and attractive to young people? I'm still trying to discover how it works.
The interviews themselves are not very interesting in my opinion because the young men did not have a whole lot to say for themselves. We learn what they hate and what they're against, but what they stand for or like is unknown. Being reactionary only survives if there's something already established to react against. As their own type of music became popular, they lost their raison d'etre.
I have a few more books about The Sex Pistols and the Punk Rock movement in general. We'll see what they have to say about it all.
This book is comprised of a diary of Sophie, the Sex Pistol's promoter, Malcolm Maclaren's secretary, and the interviews that Fred Vermorel and his wife Judy conducted with each member of the band as well as people associated with the band.
Some of it was insightful in that it showed how a group of ill-educated, low class punks could become world famous. You get the right promoter behind you and you can go places and it's not wholly due to personal ability in the realm of musical talent, or financial or business knowledge.
Which is probably why when the Pistols disbanded a couple of years later, they did not have much money to their name.
John Lyden, aka Johnny Rotten was able to move on and create his own band and brand of experimental type of music. The rest seemed to sink into anonymity, except for Sid Vicious whose sensational death along with the death of his girl friend, Nancy, has become legendary, in no small part because of the movie made about them.
It fascinates me why so many people flocked to this genre of music. Did it really speak to them? Or was it promoted in such a way that made it appealing and attractive to young people? I'm still trying to discover how it works.
The interviews themselves are not very interesting in my opinion because the young men did not have a whole lot to say for themselves. We learn what they hate and what they're against, but what they stand for or like is unknown. Being reactionary only survives if there's something already established to react against. As their own type of music became popular, they lost their raison d'etre.
I have a few more books about The Sex Pistols and the Punk Rock movement in general. We'll see what they have to say about it all.
December 1, 2021
Immediacy. A tangible sense of what it felt like, and why it felt the way it did, in the middle of everything, when the Sex Pistols were still happening. That's the draw of this book.
Firstly the majority of it is based of the diary of Sophie Richmond. She worked for Malcolm McLaren ostensibly as the Sex Pistols secretary - although that hugely undersells her role. Crucially, she's relatable and clear sighted, realistic. We get insights into not only what was happening, but how it made her feel, and through Sophie we get to be there, in as much as we can - until her diary ends, at which point Julien Temple takes up the story of the latter days of the band.
In addition there are longform interviews with all five Sex Pistols, and amongst interviews conducted while the band still existed I think these are unique in their depth, and in the quality of questioning (except perhaps for Caroline Coon's work at the time).
Fascinatingly, there are also in depth interviews with the mothers of Paul, Steve and John, which give a unique insight into where the band members had come from (although Steve's mum’s interview is probably best read alongside Steve's own memoir Lonely Boy.) Along with the
background information the book includes on Malcolm McClaren, these give an amazing insight into how and why the band became what they were.
An essential book for anyone interested in the band, then, and one which I really think should have a higher profile. But I almost wish I'd never found it, at least not when I found it. Reading this as a teenager in the late 80s made everything contemporary feel lacklustre in comparison, not worth bothering with. The UK media at the time was full of retrospectives about the 10th anniversary of punk - there were articles in The Face and others, John Peel re-broadcast loads of amazing sessions from 76 - 79, and ITV showed the fantastic "The Way They Were" a compilation of live punk performances originally filmed for local TV. Perhaps if it wasn't for that and for for how tangible this book made the early punk/Pistols days feel, I'd have just been where I was and made the most of what was happening at the time. But I didn’t. I sat in my room reading this, wishing I'd been born years earlier. So, as long as you can avoid doing that (and there’s a wealth of new music around now so it shouldn’t be hard), an unreserved recommendation.
If you're interested in a book about other punk bands (The Slits, The Clash, The Damned etc.) with a similar sense of immediacy, I recommend Caroline Coon's 1988 The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion).
Firstly the majority of it is based of the diary of Sophie Richmond. She worked for Malcolm McLaren ostensibly as the Sex Pistols secretary - although that hugely undersells her role. Crucially, she's relatable and clear sighted, realistic. We get insights into not only what was happening, but how it made her feel, and through Sophie we get to be there, in as much as we can - until her diary ends, at which point Julien Temple takes up the story of the latter days of the band.
In addition there are longform interviews with all five Sex Pistols, and amongst interviews conducted while the band still existed I think these are unique in their depth, and in the quality of questioning (except perhaps for Caroline Coon's work at the time).
Fascinatingly, there are also in depth interviews with the mothers of Paul, Steve and John, which give a unique insight into where the band members had come from (although Steve's mum’s interview is probably best read alongside Steve's own memoir Lonely Boy.) Along with the
background information the book includes on Malcolm McClaren, these give an amazing insight into how and why the band became what they were.
An essential book for anyone interested in the band, then, and one which I really think should have a higher profile. But I almost wish I'd never found it, at least not when I found it. Reading this as a teenager in the late 80s made everything contemporary feel lacklustre in comparison, not worth bothering with. The UK media at the time was full of retrospectives about the 10th anniversary of punk - there were articles in The Face and others, John Peel re-broadcast loads of amazing sessions from 76 - 79, and ITV showed the fantastic "The Way They Were" a compilation of live punk performances originally filmed for local TV. Perhaps if it wasn't for that and for for how tangible this book made the early punk/Pistols days feel, I'd have just been where I was and made the most of what was happening at the time. But I didn’t. I sat in my room reading this, wishing I'd been born years earlier. So, as long as you can avoid doing that (and there’s a wealth of new music around now so it shouldn’t be hard), an unreserved recommendation.
If you're interested in a book about other punk bands (The Slits, The Clash, The Damned etc.) with a similar sense of immediacy, I recommend Caroline Coon's 1988 The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion).
September 18, 2021
Could've done without all the diary excerpts. Sure, they conveyed the overall sense of chaos, but then so did everything else. And the excerpt from Fred (where he coughs up some truly painful psychobabble, all in an attempt to parse McLaren) made me thankful that he was generally the interviewer, not the subject.
May 22, 2011
Fred & Judy (sound like a breakfast TV duo, don't they?) were old friends of Malcolm McLaren & enjoyed access to the Pistols in their '70s heyday. Their book includes tons of interviews with the main players, also-rans and even some of the band's family members. Essential.
October 21, 2025
Tremendo recuento histórico, muestra y explica el por qué de su influencia, especialmente si consideramos que la banda estuvo activa algo de 6 años. Se pueden leer las palabras de los mismos músicos y en ello ver lo que pensaban. Un última parte teórica para contextualizar. En fin, un tremendo libro.
Lo malo: Está traducido al español de España, cosa que no me flipa ni me mola, es un coñazo.
Lo malo: Está traducido al español de España, cosa que no me flipa ni me mola, es un coñazo.
January 6, 2014
The first half of this book is a great insight to the band as they were breaking into notoriety. I Really enjoyed the original first half of the book that was written back in 1978 which contained the diary of the Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren's secretary Sophie Richmond.
It was Richmond's very personal and frank insights to the inner workings of the Pistols day to day runnings that made the first half of the book so easy to read and so much fun. Interspersed with Sophies diaries entries are accounts from people "on the ground" at the time who lived the battle. There was truth in the story that comes through the story that sadly gets lost when the second half of the revised second half of the book takes over. It seems forced and revisionist. It seems that business takes over and too much retrospection takes place which is a shame.
I really wish that I could have just had the original 1978 version, but then I wouldn't have had the Richmond diary entries, so it's kind of a damned if I do and damned if don't. Which is why I gave the book a 3 star review half way there.
It was Richmond's very personal and frank insights to the inner workings of the Pistols day to day runnings that made the first half of the book so easy to read and so much fun. Interspersed with Sophies diaries entries are accounts from people "on the ground" at the time who lived the battle. There was truth in the story that comes through the story that sadly gets lost when the second half of the revised second half of the book takes over. It seems forced and revisionist. It seems that business takes over and too much retrospection takes place which is a shame.
I really wish that I could have just had the original 1978 version, but then I wouldn't have had the Richmond diary entries, so it's kind of a damned if I do and damned if don't. Which is why I gave the book a 3 star review half way there.
November 16, 2013
единственный минус в книжках про музыку от "Амфоры" это низкое качество перевода. эта книга переводом серьезно подпорчена. и еще забавно что в выходных данных указан 2006 год. странно, у меня ощущение, что я читал ее то ли в самом конце 90х то ли в самом начале 00-х. причем перевод был так же ужасен.
November 23, 2021
Interessant. Història oral a l'estil de Please, kill me però sobre els Sex Pistols. Per a mi, una lectura complementària d'England's burning de Jon Savage, no tan completa però sí més íntima. Bona presentació i gust en els detalls.
November 27, 2022
un interesante sneak peek en el making off de los sex pistols como banda, si te interesa saber cómo funcionaron como un grupo musical, es tu libro; si lo que quieres es chismecillo, aquí no hay mucho, dado que el libro intenta ser lo más objetivo posible con trozos de entrevistas.
July 2, 2016
Another essential read on the first and best punk rock band , easy to read ,
April 20, 2019
Interviews and diary entries. Interesting but I wanted a narrative.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews