LONDON (AFP) — The Sex Pistols remain "sharp and vital" 30 years after they pioneered Britain's punk revolution, reviewers said Friday, after the start of a comeback mini-tour in London.
While some of their less-known material was lacklustre, their "splenetic, spitting" frontman John Lydon -- aka Johnny Rotten -- brought their classic songs to life again in an impressive show Thursday night, they said.
"Of their two previous London comebacks, 1996 was sharp and vital and 2002 was drunk and sloppy, so it's a relief that (Thursday's show) falls firmly into the former camp," said the Guardian's reviewer.
"He carries off his trademark trick of celebrating and mocking the Pistols' material, while his semi-sneer, semi-yodel of a vocal remains thrillingly intact."
The band, who spearheaded the 1970s punk movement with singles like "Anarchy in the UK" and "Pretty Vacant", are playing the gigs 30 years after the release of their album "Never Mind the Bollocks", seen as a landmark in the British music industry.
At Thursday's show Lydon, "dressed as some sort of deranged gamekeeper" according to the Times, started the show with a rip-roaring version of "Pretty Vacant".
After the cracking start, the show lost pace for a while, but was rescued with tracks like "God Save the Queen" when "a surge of energy from the stage was more than matched by a surge of balding, beery humanity from the back.
"Lydon performed it the only way he knew how. In a splenetic, spitting drizzle of gurning invective. It made you wonder how they had had the temerity to replace him," said the Times.
Rotten, like his audience, could not completely defy the ageing process, especially during the less singalong numbers.
"Certainly, Rotten sang...with none of the desperate, shark-eyed psychosis of the old days," said the Independent.
"Once, he seemed dangerous like a cornered, rancid yet righteous rat. Now, he sang paunchy guitarist Steve Jones' inane 'Seventeen' with the same conviction as his own nation-baiting work."
But their show-stopping encore had the band back at their best.
"As 'Anarchy in the UK' played out, Rotten crept along the stage with a clawed hand, just like a pantomime villain," said the Independent.
"He looked like a man finally feeling accepted and at peace. But his songs' unquiet, accusatory lyrics still made themselves heard; and their old fury still burned."
The London Evening Standard noted that Lydon had promised to take London by storm, but fell a little short of that.
"John Lydon promised to 'kick some bottom' before the Sex Pistols' latest comeback gig, but the first of five sell-out nights at Brixton was more of a light spanking," it said.
"Not an utterly essential comeback, then, but another last chance to hear those brilliant songs and Lydon's unmistakeable snarl," it added.
Lydon, who flew in from his home in California for the gigs, is joined in the reunion by the other three surviving members of the band -- guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock.
The Sex Pistols were formed in 1975 but split in 1978. They reformed in 1996, and their last concert together was in 2003. Sid Vicious, who replaced Matlock as bassist in 1977, died after a drug overdose in 1979.
The band will play five shows at the Brixton Academy, followed by two arena shows in Manchester and Glasgow on November 17 and 18.
Source: AFP
