Morrissey/John Lydon (Sex Pistols)/NME connection?

[The Seeker of Good Songs]

At a recent Sex Pistols/John Lydon press conference regarding Guitar Hero 3, Lydon has a verbal punch up with an NME "journalist" regarding immigration. (Does the NME ask all interviewees about immigration?)

from
http://www.johnlydon.com/press/fence.html

and

http://www.johnlydon.com/press/fence1.html

excerpts:

JL.Com: The day prior to the first Brixton show, Mr Rotten took on the media (and the smoke police) at a press conference for the UK launch of ‘Guitar Hero III’. Sex-Pistols.Net (aka God Save The Sex Pistols) & JohnLydon.Com websites were present (in one shape or another).

(JL.Com: The chap from the NME was the epitome of the kind of chip-on-the-shoulder journalist John talks about at the press conference. He’d already made his mind up long before he got there. His pre-planned agenda stood out like a sore thumb; and so did he. Don’t get it now, and wouldn’t have got it then. He’d have been more suited to Genesis than the Sex Pistols…)

You can’t smoke in America.

John: I can smoke where I like there mate. I’ll tell you now.

Do you vote?

[starts taking cigarette out of box]

John: I voted [crowd laughs] I voted for John Major because I hated Chelsea so much! He’s a Chelsea supporter. It did them no good did it.

[lights cigarette]

Can I have a light?

John: No you may not, you’re one of those wankers that allowed these f***ers to run the laws over you, I’m not. So I’ll smoke all I like.

You had the money to get out.

John: The money? Do you not know how f***ing broke the Pistols are. Until we did that 96 tour we never got a pay-off, at all…

[journalist interrupts]

John: No shut your f***ing face you bearded arsehole, and I’ll tell you a lesson. Listen, reality. Malcolm took all the glory and credit, and you in the media you all suck his…

[journalist interrupts again]

John: You read the book? Did you read my book? Then you know the difference. Are you gonna let me finish or are you gonna be smug…

[journalist keeps talking]

[John lobs the microphone towards the journalist, as if he was throwing a ball to a small child]

John: [shouts] Finish. Finish. There’s the microphone. Finish! There’s the microphone.

[journalist picks up the mic]

[Note: It’s worth pointing out this is the same journalist – minus the beard – who later gave the Monday night Brixton show a dubious review in the NME. Someone like that could only ever be a journalist. Funnily enough, the other 5000 people seemed to enjoy themselves. Funny that…]

I said, it’s easy to moan about this country when you don’t live here.

John: [shouts] Is that right? I’m not moaning, I’m telling you, you wankers have settled for f*** all…

[journalist mumbles something]

John: [shouts] I’m also Irish. Is there something wrong with that? Who’s the f***ing immigrant here? We all are, that’s the way England’s always been. It’s the most excellent point of the culture that we are constantly in change, continuous, but putting bastards in control. Just like in World War I the general that sold us all down the f***ing river, and killed our people – and World War II; and now World War III if we’re not f***ing careful – are still running the show. And you, you fool, you think ‘cos I come from here I have no right to comment ‘cos I’ve gone elsewhere. I AM ENGLAND. You are a bearded f***ing arsehole. You are still here, and you ain’t changed shit. [John gets mic back] You ain’t changed shit. You ain’t changed shit. You are shit. Shit, shit, shit.

I’ve got no right to f***ing talk about this country? I’ve done more for England than you ever f***ing could. Ever. Ever. And I love my Queen by the way, and I miss having sex with the Queen Mother.

[laughs]

"I’ve done more for England than you ever f***ing could. Ever. Ever.…"
© Phil Singleton / www.sex-pistols.net ​

 

[Uncleskinny]

Brilliant. Reading that made my day. What a bunch of Arse the NME is/are, and how eloquent at the put-down is Mr. Lydon.

Peter

 

[Bluebirds]

ha ha ha. excellent stuff

 

[Jose]

John, two thumbs up!

 

[Uncleskinny]

Found this on Youtube, from the same press conference. Viewer discretion advised!




Peter

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

Ok... I wasn't going to bring this up, because dead horses should be peacefully cremated or whatever and not beaten until... well, you get the picture.

But anyway. I would like someone who owns the infamous Nov.28th edition of the NME to open up to page 30 and read the "ageism" comments and letters, at the top of the page, and especially the editor's note. And, hopefully, post the relevant editor's note here.

I read this and took note of the page number, but I didn't copy it all down or, god forbid, line their stinking pockets by buying a copy... at about $7.50.

I think NME has a policy not unlike that espoused by the equally infamous KristeenYoung in Kill the Father... but without anything intelligent to back it up. They just want to overthrow anyone over a certain age who's still making music, just because they can.

Also, if you have that issue, could you please find the article about the band composed of five or six young dark-haired women from Brooklyn, and tell me what their name is? I can't remember at all, all I can remember is "Feist" and I know that's completely wrong.

Thank you.

 

[snapyou]

Johnny,"Who’s the f***ing immigrant here? We all are, that’s the way England’s always been. It’s the most excellent point of the culture that we are constantly in change, continuous,"

SO much better than Morrissey's rather clumsy,fumbling answers to the NME

 

[AndrewGMooney]

“FAT, FIFTY AND BACK!” Fantastic outburst from Mr Lydon!
“I AM ENGLAND. ““I’m also Irish.” Do the Sex Pistols now do a cover of ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’?
“And I miss having sex with the Queen Mother……” !!!!!! Surely, he’s risking some kind of charges under Treason? Or ‘The Most Obscure 16th Century Piece Of Shit British Law Still On The Statute Books To Protect The Royal Family’?

I’m just pleased and relieved he’s calmed down and is wearing sensible cardigans from Marks & Spencers, just like me. It’s so nice to see Johnny has mellowed with age! I always wondered what he’d be doing in his 50’s. He’s obviously enjoying his new career as a Diplomat!

“Just like in World War I the general that sold us all down the f***ing river, and killed our people – and World War II; and now World War III if we’re not f***ing careful – are still running the show.”

Fantastic perception. The same ‘Officer Class’ who used to colonise the Empire now colonise their own population on the basis of Class, Income, Accent, Education, Postcode, Gentlemen’s Clubs, etc ad nauseum. With their M.B.A’s and their turbo-charged Audi’s and their TudorBethan Executive Homes.
Er,…..people like me, I suppose….Anyway…..

What was that Morrissey lyric? “The year 2000 won’t change anything around here”?
The ‘working class’ had it bad, now the ‘ex-working class’ have been thrown on the scrap heap and have it even worse. Yet it’s ‘impolite’ to notice. As if our great cultural hero Mr John Lydon, nee Rotten, gives a flying f*** what the NME thinks, says or does. This man wrote a book called : “Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”? Yeah, he’s going to be told what to say and think by a ‘journalist’ from the NME. LOL!
http://www.johnlydon.com/jlbooks.html

I think the ‘Rotten’ refers to The State of The Nation then and now, rather than to his stage name whilst in The Sexy Pissers! I saw them at Finsbury Park in 1996, when I was living a couple of stops up the Victoria Line in W’Stow, innit! He was hilarious. ‘Fat, forty and back’ he boomed at the confused crowd, expecting him to give a shit about the past.

As for Malcolm McClaren. What a total piece of Crap he is/was/always will be. Did you all see the latest UK Version of ‘"I'm A Nano-Celebrity Fame- Addict Face-Time Attention Rehab Whore: Get Me Out Of Here! And Back On To My Rightful Home On ‘The Front Page’. You know? With Ant’nDec in the junglist backwaters of Oz? Or The Eden Project? To save money?

Arsehole Malcolm McClaren f***ing flies out there (24 hours), bottles it at the last moment, absolutely bottles it, then comes up with some lame-arsed excuse that ‘he’s too busy’ on other projects. Like what, Dorkasaurus? Re-forming Bow-Wow-Wow? And there was me hoping Rodney Marsh would give him a good knee in the bollocks for his ‘crimes against culture‘.

“You are a bearded f***ing arsehole. You are still here, and you ain’t changed shit. [John gets mic back] You ain’t changed shit. You ain’t changed shit. You are shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

Nurse! The screens! For me, I mean. I can’t cope with this, especially not that You Tube link from Uncle Skinny. I need to change my nappy/diaper/incontinence pad!

‘Pregnant For The Last Time’: Happy to oblige. Managed to retrieve it from the torn-up pile of loo paper I’d ripped it into to re-assemble the relevant page: P30: NME -Your Letters:

“But we’re not sticking the boot in to anyone over 30, we’re very selective about those we slag off. We just don’t like past-it bands embarrassingly trying (and failing) to relive old glories. Same with fans - 40-year-olds at Foals gigs = great, anyone at a Pistols gig these days = bad. Simple. TP”

In the top left of the page is the picture of some insipid young man in ‘ooh! I’m Iggy Pop/Lemmy’ leather jacket with a face that looks like some nightmare version of Carl Barat after a makeover by Tranny and Whoresanna, or whatever they’re called. Is it Connor, or is it T.P? Who gives a haemorrhoid?

Yeah, so for the last 2 months NME have been rimming and fellating Led Zeppelin every fcuking single day, plastering their front page with fawning, clueless commentary desperately trying to ‘direct traffic’ to their stinking, sinking shit-heap of a wank-rag mag. Once again, notice the delusional ‘We’: The Communal Borg-Hive Mind of The NME telling ‘us’ (or ‘the yoof of today’) how to be ‘cool and with-it, daddy-o’. What? By buying Led Zeppelin 11? Buying a ticket stub for £125. I kid you fc-uking not, folks:
http://www.nme.com/news/nme/33238

Well, suck the sweat off my balls, you absolute tossers. Who the FC-UK is this TP character anyone?. It was bad enough encountering ‘I’m Not A Journalist Cuz I Just Ask Stupid Questions Then My Masters Write ‘The Words’ Jonze', and the execrable Cnutnor McLickYourArse. Now I have to process another moron. How does they ‘square the circle’ of his ‘Ageism’ with this coverage of 60 year old ‘Rock Gods’ causing mass chaos and commotion just by doing one gig?

Was the Morrissey hatchet job actually motivated by subliminal ageism? Yeah, if it’s Muddy Waters, Nina Simone or ‘jazz baby!’: Then it’s fine to be old and ‘kewl’? Whilst you ‘groovy’ NME hipsters are smoking your Gitanes in some pseudo-Parisian bar/brasserie in Hoxton.

I see lots of young hotties (male and female) on the streets of Britain wearing Led Zep t-shirts, a few wearing Morrissey / Smiths t-shirts and far too many 14 year old girls wearing ‘I’m A Porn star’ as they leave ‘skool‘ and discard their tiresome uniforms.

The most depressing thing is I have a 13 year old boy who thinks Music is just a Complete Waste Of Time, because of X-Factor, Fame Idol (?), and MTV 24/7:Mariah Scary and J-So-Lo - that I can’t even get him off his X-Box 360 to even bother investigating the treasures of the past. Which would include The Smiths, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

Hang on, I’m supposed to be Mr Nice ’n’ Edukated n’ting on this site. Pretending to be Stephen Fry. I’m getting my ‘identities’ all confused again. More tablets! More vodka! More sex! Grrrrrrrrr! Cheers to ‘The Seeker of Good Songs’. This thread is The Tops: Never Mind The Dog’s Bollocks! Vent that spleen! I feel better already.

But seriously: Isn’t it about time you all signed a petition to DavidT and got me banned from this place? I’m just lowering the tone of the neighbourhood! And my blood pressure rises every time I look at this site. Back to Gardener’s Weekly, methinks! Time to grow old (dis)gracefully: Just like Mr John Lydon! Copyright? Mais, oui! Bien sur! Naturellement!..... It’s Britney bitch! And, just like her, and Johnny boy: I don't give a shit!
[Text copyrighted: AndrewGMooney 11.09.1960- Authorised usage: Morrissey-Solo.com. All rights reserved]

 

[sore_lips]

Also, if you have that issue, could you please find the article about the band composed of five or six young dark-haired women from Brooklyn, and tell me what their name is? I can't remember at all, all I can remember is "Feist" and I know that's completely wrong.

Thank you.

Effi Briest?

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

Effi Briest?

Thank you...

 

[nogodsnomasters85]

John Lydon and Morrissey (the two greatest frontmen in the history of Rock 'N Roll, perhaps music, itself) have so much in common: Both have very strong and unique fashion sense, distinctive haircuts, they're both of anglo-irish descent, they have both made music history, they both have hostile relationships with the press, they both hate the british government, they both hated thatcher, they both hate bush, they both oppose the iraq war, they're pretty close in age (Although the slightly younger Morrissey looks 30 years younger than Lydon.), both reject the fake machismo retarded rock 'n roll sexuality so common among male performers, and they both dig Oscar Wilde.

 

[imogen11]

Take that!
I love John Lydon. I think he was effing hot in the pistols. What an amazing frontman! Razor sharp wit, too.

 

[Bluebirds]

“FAT, FIFTY AND BACK!” Fantastic outburst from Mr Lydon!
“I AM ENGLAND. ““I’m also Irish.” Do the Sex Pistols now do a cover of ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’?
“And I miss having sex with the Queen Mother……” !!!!!! Surely, he’s risking some kind of charges under Treason? Or ‘The Most Obscure 16th Century Piece Of Shit British Law Still On The Statute Books To Protect The Royal Family’?

I’m just pleased and relieved he’s calmed down and is wearing sensible cardigans from Marks & Spencers, just like me. It’s so nice to see Johnny has mellowed with age! I always wondered what he’d be doing in his 50’s. He’s obviously enjoying his new career as a Diplomat!

“Just like in World War I the general that sold us all down the f***ing river, and killed our people – and World War II; and now World War III if we’re not f***ing careful – are still running the show.”

Fantastic perception. The same ‘Officer Class’ who used to colonise the Empire now colonise their own population on the basis of Class, Income, Accent, Education, Postcode, Gentlemen’s Clubs, etc ad nauseum. With their M.B.A’s and their turbo-charged Audi’s and their TudorBethan Executive Homes.
Er,…..people like me, I suppose….Anyway…..

What was that Morrissey lyric? “The year 2000 won’t change anything around here”?
The ‘working class’ had it bad, now the ‘ex-working class’ have been thrown on the scrap heap and have it even worse. Yet it’s ‘impolite’ to notice. As if our great cultural hero Mr John Lydon, nee Rotten, gives a flying f*** what the NME thinks, says or does. This man wrote a book called : “Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”? Yeah, he’s going to be told what to say and think by a ‘journalist’ from the NME. LOL!
http://www.johnlydon.com/jlbooks.html

I think the ‘Rotten’ refers to The State of The Nation then and now, rather than to his stage name whilst in The Sexy Pissers! I saw them at Finsbury Park in 1996, when I was living a couple of stops up the Victoria Line in W’Stow, innit! He was hilarious. ‘Fat, forty and back’ he boomed at the confused crowd, expecting him to give a shit about the past.

As for Malcolm McClaren. What a total piece of Crap he is/was/always will be. Did you all see the latest UK Version of ‘"I'm A Nano-Celebrity Fame- Addict Face-Time Attention Rehab Whore: Get Me Out Of Here! And Back On To My Rightful Home On ‘The Front Page’. You know? With Ant’nDec in the junglist backwaters of Oz? Or The Eden Project? To save money?

Arsehole Malcolm McClaren f***ing flies out there (24 hours), bottles it at the last moment, absolutely bottles it, then comes up with some lame-arsed excuse that ‘he’s too busy’ on other projects. Like what, Dorkasaurus? Re-forming Bow-Wow-Wow? And there was me hoping Rodney Marsh would give him a good knee in the bollocks for his ‘crimes against culture‘.

“You are a bearded f***ing arsehole. You are still here, and you ain’t changed shit. [John gets mic back] You ain’t changed shit. You ain’t changed shit. You are shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

Nurse! The screens! For me, I mean. I can’t cope with this, especially not that You Tube link from Uncle Skinny. I need to change my nappy/diaper/incontinence pad!

‘Pregnant For The Last Time’: Happy to oblige. Managed to retrieve it from the torn-up pile of loo paper I’d ripped it into to re-assemble the relevant page: P30: NME -Your Letters:

“But we’re not sticking the boot in to anyone over 30, we’re very selective about those we slag off. We just don’t like past-it bands embarrassingly trying (and failing) to relive old glories. Same with fans - 40-year-olds at Foals gigs = great, anyone at a Pistols gig these days = bad. Simple. TP”

In the top left of the page is the picture of some insipid young man in ‘ooh! I’m Iggy Pop/Lemmy’ leather jacket with a face that looks like some nightmare version of Carl Barat after a makeover by Tranny and Whoresanna, or whatever they’re called. Is it Connor, or is it T.P? Who gives a haemorrhoid?

Yeah, so for the last 2 months NME have been rimming and fellating Led Zeppelin every fcuking single day, plastering their front page with fawning, clueless commentary desperately trying to ‘direct traffic’ to their stinking, sinking shit-heap of a wank-rag mag. Once again, notice the delusional ‘We’: The Communal Borg-Hive Mind of The NME telling ‘us’ (or ‘the yoof of today’) how to be ‘cool and with-it, daddy-o’. What? By buying Led Zeppelin 11? Buying a ticket stub for £125. I kid you fc-uking not, folks:
http://www.nme.com/news/nme/33238

Well, suck the sweat off my balls, you absolute tossers. Who the FC-UK is this TP character anyone?. It was bad enough encountering ‘I’m Not A Journalist Cuz I Just Ask Stupid Questions Then My Masters Write ‘The Words’ Jonze', and the execrable Cnutnor McLickYourArse. Now I have to process another moron. How does they ‘square the circle’ of his ‘Ageism’ with this coverage of 60 year old ‘Rock Gods’ causing mass chaos and commotion just by doing one gig?

Was the Morrissey hatchet job actually motivated by subliminal ageism? Yeah, if it’s Muddy Waters, Nina Simone or ‘jazz baby!’: Then it’s fine to be old and ‘kewl’? Whilst you ‘groovy’ NME hipsters are smoking your Gitanes in some pseudo-Parisian bar/brasserie in Hoxton.

I see lots of young hotties (male and female) on the streets of Britain wearing Led Zep t-shirts, a few wearing Morrissey / Smiths t-shirts and far too many 14 year old girls wearing ‘I’m A Porn star’ as they leave ‘skool‘ and discard their tiresome uniforms.

The most depressing thing is I have a 13 year old boy who thinks Music is just a Complete Waste Of Time, because of X-Factor, Fame Idol (?), and MTV 24/7:Mariah Scary and J-So-Lo - that I can’t even get him off his X-Box 360 to even bother investigating the treasures of the past. Which would include The Smiths, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

Hang on, I’m supposed to be Mr Nice ’n’ Edukated n’ting on this site. Pretending to be Stephen Fry. I’m getting my ‘identities’ all confused again. More tablets! More vodka! More sex! Grrrrrrrrr! Cheers to ‘The Seeker of Good Songs’. This thread is The Tops: Never Mind The Dog’s Bollocks! Vent that spleen! I feel better already.

But seriously: Isn’t it about time you all signed a petition to DavidT and got me banned from this place? I’m just lowering the tone of the neighbourhood! And my blood pressure rises every time I look at this site. Back to Gardener’s Weekly, methinks! Time to grow old (dis)gracefully: Just like Mr John Lydon! Copyright? Mais, oui! Bien sur! Naturellement!..... It’s Britney bitch! And, just like her, and Johnny boy: I don't give a shit!
[Text copyrighted: AndrewGMooney 11.09.1960- Authorised usage: Morrissey-Solo.com. All rights reserved]

I think you need some form of quality control.

 

[Bluebirds]

And maybe a restraining order?

"I see lots of young hotties (male and female) on the streets of Britain wearing Led Zep t-shirts, a few wearing Morrissey / Smiths t-shirts and far too many 14 year old girls wearing ‘I’m A Porn star’ as they leave ‘skool‘ and discard their tiresome uniforms."


And as for your lad thinking music isn't on his radar.... give the lad time he's only 13. Even the Sex pistols are advertising video games now!

"The most depressing thing is I have a 13 year old boy who thinks Music is just a Complete Waste Of Time, because of X-Factor, Fame Idol (?), and MTV 24/7:Mariah Scary and J-So-Lo - that I can’t even get him off his X-Box 360 to even bother investigating the treasures of the past. Which would include The Smiths, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin."

 

[Anaesthesine]

"I AM ENGLAND"

Now that's how you handle the press.

 

[PapaJack]

"I AM ENGLAND"

Now that's how you handle the press.

HAHAHA! Agreed. Reading this interview totally put a smile on my face this morning!

I love this little bit. The audacity of the 'journalist' amazes me. Have we really gone from them trying to report the news to trying to become stars themselves?
"Are you gonna let me finish or are you gonna be smug…"
[journalist keeps talking]
[John lobs the microphone towards the journalist, as if he was throwing a ball to a small child]
John: [shouts] Finish. Finish. There’s the microphone. Finish! There’s the microphone.
[journalist picks up the mic]"
WTF?!?!

 

[Worm]

Johnny,"Who’s the f***ing immigrant here? We all are, that’s the way England’s always been. It’s the most excellent point of the culture that we are constantly in change, continuous,"

SO much better than Morrissey's rather clumsy,fumbling answers to the NME

You're right about that, but to me his comment also illustrates the more fundamental fact that Lydon is more politically aware than Morrissey. He knows the right answers ahead of time (and, unlike so many, he probably even believes in them). I think Morrissey agrees with Lydon but doesn't have the words for it. He has the eloquence to talk about Timi Yuro and Carry On but not immigration.

In any case, Lydon's answer, while strong and (I'm guessing) sincere, is also the standard language used by progressives. It's been said many times before and will be said many times again. Morrissey doesn't read from political correctness handbooks. Anyone expecting Morrissey to give an answer like Lydon's may as well sit around waiting for his cat to bark.