Shane’s Music Challenge: THE SEX PISTOLS – 1996 – Filthy Lucre Live

Shane | 19 March 2014 | Reply

Shane’s Music Challenge: THE SEX PISTOLS – 1996 – Filthy Lucre Live
5/10

The Pistols made no secret of the fact that their 1996 world tour was purely for the cash – the title of the tour and this ensuing live album says as much in no uncertain terms.

The first thing to note is how tame the music sounds now – in a world of hardcore punk and extreme metal it doesn’t sound like anything that could have inspired headlines like ‘The Filth & The Fury’!

Secondly, they’ve had time to learn their instruments in the 20 years since they stumbled drunkenly onto the scene and onto record players the world over, so they were a tight rock n’ roll band at t his stage rather than the shambolic tearaways of yore. Having Glen Matlock resuming his original place in the band rather than the late damage case Sid Vicious certainly helps the cause on that front.

John Lydon (nee Rotten)’s vocals though are more cartoonish yelps and faux sneers, leaving no trace of the bile and vitriol of the disaffected kids they were in ’76 and ’77.

Any fear and loathing by this point was reserved for what he had become: the grand dame of “punk” who sold it all out for a long-overdue payday.

Most of the album fails to capture the atmosphere and energy of what was probably a great, energetic show, but the encore of Anarchy In The UK and Problems must surely have made for a frenzied moshpit.