Addawanna Hallidayah Inna Sunnah!

Steerforth has recently written a piece on his excellent site Age of Uncertainty about the imminent celebrations for the fortieth anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In it he predicts [with uncharacteristic certainty too, I bet] that comparisons will be made to the Sex Pistols thirty year old milestone, Never Mind The Bollocks.

I go back and listen to this astonishing album again and again. It's about hate; it's about dystopia; despite it's "No Future" slogan, it predicted the course of British society with an acerbic accuracy. The writing, musicianship, and production are astounding.

But still it has a reputation for foul-mouthed, scattershot invective against a jubilee Queen who was usually described as "unable to answer".

So I offer you two numbers and two quotes in an attempt to heave Messrs. Rotten and Co back onto the podium;

The entire musical oeuvre of the Sex Pistols lasts, in reality, little more than one hour. Thats how long it took to change everything...

This iconoclastic masterpiece was released just seven years after Woodstock.

The opening line is "Cheap holidays are other people's misery".

The closing lyric is "Blind acceptance is a sign of stupid fools who stand in line".

Excuse me while I take an hour to marvel at 1977 London's greatest cultural legacy once again...

Andrew Mishmash