Triggers - A Life In Music - Glen Matlock

 TRIGGERS - A LIFE IN MUSIC - GLEN MATLOCK

If you know your punk rock history then you'll know the sleevenotes to Honey Bane's 'You Can Be You' EP on Crass Records where Honey wrote (to paraphrase it a little) 'Do you know the difference between reality and fantasy? No you don't because you're still buying the Sex Pistols'. The year was 1979. Today getting on to almost 50 years later, I obviously still don't know the difference because here I am still buying.

Is there anything really left to learn from the Pistols? Well no, of course not. Or is there really anything left to learn about them? Well, there's always more than one way to skin a cat as shown by Steve Jones' autobiography 'Lonely Boy' a few years ago and even by John Lydon's stand-up speaking tours he's been doing. And now we have Triggers - A Life In Music by Glen Matlock.

An interesting thing about the Sex Pistols' legacy nowadays is that it's Steve Jones who has ended up being the most likeable member due in no small part to his radio show in America and his Tik-Tok videos. Steve has ended up as a very chilled-out guy possessed of a really good sense of humour. John Lydon on the other hand has ended up as being untrustworthy and conservative to boot, not helped in the slightest by his endorsement of Trump, MAGA, Brexit and even to a point, Nigel fucking Farage.

This is where Glen Matlock now comes in. In his book when talking about God Save The Queen, he says about how a couplet such as 'God save the Queen / The fascist regime' was impactful and powerful stuff and how still to this day it rings true. 'Anything that embarrasses the royal family,' he writes 'or exposes their hypocrisy and brings them to account, can only be a good thing.' He points then at the irony in Lydon now subscribing to the Trumpian MAGA bollocks as it's 'just fascism under a red cap'. 

Matlock also tells us about his television interview with BBC Breakfast that went semi-viral after he slammed Brexit and the loss of freedom of movement that it entailed. Online he received a lot of positive feedback and people thanking him for saying what they were thinking but alongside this came the negative feedback also, particularly on Twitter where people would post comments such as 'Glen, you don't understand. The Right is the new Left'. On clicking on their profile, Matlock says you would find the Brexit supporters to be Public Image Ltd fans.

There's no love lost between Lydon and Matlock and even more so now following the Danny Boyle film palava and the replacing of Lydon with Frank Carter, but where does it all stem from? Lydon has always been notoriously difficult to get on with, which can be seen by even Jah Wobble's disintegrated relationship with him nowadays but Lydon's and Matlock's relationship has historically always been fraught. What was it about Matlock that Lydon didn't like because going by Triggers, Matlock is a really good, very amiable bloke.

Lydon has always proclaimed himself as being working class and indeed, the issue of class has always been an important factor in regard to the whole Sex Pistols project. Matlock, for some reason, was cast as the middle class member of the band but this seems to have been based on him going to art school which is something Matlock suspects Lydon was resentful about, what with Lydon being a talented painter himself.

'Not that it should matter, but I wasn't middle class.' Matlock tells us 'I'm a working class guy who just managed to make it work somehow.'

In fact, when talking about the time when he, Jones and Cook first met Lydon and his gang he says 'They weren't anything like us. We were more working class, like the hoi polloi, and they were kind of druggy types. They struck me as a bit weird, but in a contrived way.' Lydon's gang, of course, included John Gray, John Wardle (Jah Wobble) and John Beverley (Sid Vicious).

There's also the whole thing about Matlock liking the Beatles and this being the reason why he was 'kicked out' of the Pistols. Matlock is almost at pains to point out that this is all 'total bollocks'. He was never sacked, he walked out.

'Can't you just pretend you like John?' he quotes Paul Cook as saying, to which he replies 'Like you two? Never saying boo to him?'

Lydon had always wanted his friend Sid in the band, something he obviously regrets to this day, given what happened to Sid. In fact, Matlock confirms it was Sid whom Malcolm McLaren first had in mind when it came to auditioning for the lead singer role, but it was Lydon who auditioned instead.

Matlock tells it straight and he acknowledges that everyone involved with the Pistols had a part to play in their success. That it wasn't just McLaren being the puppet master and it certainly wasn't all just down to Johnny Rotten. He even acknowledges the role that Freddie Mercury played in him having to attend an emergency dentist's appointment and subsequently enabling the Pistols to appear on the Bill Grundy show instead of Queen.

A whole series of events, in fact - or 'triggers' as Matlock calls them - led from one thing to another. The letting go of Wally Nightingale in their very early days, for example. Or Matlock taking McLaren along to the Hammersmith Odeon (pre-managing the Pistols) to see The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and McLaren when there and looking around and asking how much the tickets cost? About 75p, Matlock tells him, to which McLaren then asks how many people does the Odeon hold? About 3,000 Matlock tells him. To which McLaren does some quick maths - so that's 3,000 x 75p for a night's work - and the cogs in his brain begin turning. Kerching! 'Tell you what,' McLaren says to Matlock 'Let's have a little chat tomorrow about this band of yours.'

Life for Matlock didn't just stop on him leaving the Pistols, of course, which means a large chunk of his book is also devoted to the rest of his career and the countless anecdotes in regard to the Rich Kids, Iggy Pop, Blondie and all the other bands he's played with. 

Apparently he was approached by Paul Weller at one point to potentially join The Jam as a second guitarist but balked at the idea after realising he'd have to wear one of those horrible, cheap-looking suits they used to wear in their early days. From working at McLaren's shop, Matlock knew a bit about good fashion and those suits were most definitely not it.

Matlock also let's us know that on being nominated for entry into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, Steve Jones was left a message on his answering machine by Cliff Richard singing 'Congratulations'.  Can you imagine?

Unusually for a book such as this, there are no photos included in it though it must be said, the picture of Matlock on the cover is a good one and that's a beautiful guitar he's holding. Triggers is a good read and is probably an important addition to the Sex Pistols story and their oeuvre because it's coming from the horses mouth. Matlock was there whilst hundreds of other writers on punk weren't. So who to believe? Who to sort out the myths from the truth? Well, Matlock comes across as a really decent, forthright and sincere person so more than most he's probably your man for the job.

John Serpico 

Brendan Behan's New York - Brendan Behan

 BRENDAN BEHAN'S NEW YORK - BRENDAN BEHAN

What better person to have as a tour guide of New York than Brendan Behan? Playwright, author, poet, raconteur, rebel and alcoholic. 'To America, my new-found land' as he once famously said 'The man that hates you, hates the human race.' It was New York specifically that Behan loved, so much so that he wrote a love letter to it in the form of a book entitled Brendan Behan's New York that was first published in January of 1964. By March of that same year, however, Behan was dead.

'The person who says that he's not impressed by the New York skyline' Behan writes 'he's either half blind or he's just simply a liar'. And how can anyone possibly disagree with that? In fact, from every angle New York is mightily impressive. From the window of an aeroplane at night it's like the final scene from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind where the mothership ascends and all that can be seen is a dazzling lightshow.

From the streets of New York when looking up it's like being at the bottom of a canyon with the tops of the buildings obscured by clouds.

There's also the sound of New York, best heard from the top of the Empire State Building, that's like a gargantuan machine pounding and rumbling away at the centre of the earth.

And then there's the phenomenon of the setting sun aligning perfectly with Manhattan's east-west street grid, forming a corridor of shimmering gold.

Above all, however, there's the people. From all corners of the world they come. From the lowliest, poorest and most desperate to the richest, most successful and decadent. New York is the melting pot. The world's plug hole where all humankind is washed down. One of whom, of course, being Brendan Behan.

There's an awful lot of name-dropping in Brendan Behan's New York but then Behan seemed to know an awful lot of people, and those he didn't know all seemed to know him. Of those he knew personally, he would always have an anecdote about them or an opinion, almost always funny or complimentary. In regard to Samuel Beckett, for example, Behan writes: 'Samuel Beckett is an old and very dear friend of mine and a marvelous playwright. I don't know what his plays are about, but I know I enjoy them. I do not know what a swim in the ocean is about, but I enjoy it. I enjoy the water flowing over me'.

In regard to Allen Ginsberg, Behan tells us he's a very interesting and important man, whilst Jack Kerouac is easily the most controversial person he met (in Greenwich Village, at least). 'I think the beatniks are highly dangerous men. They are all after a job and they're dangerous. I don't mind people going after a job, but the job that the beatnik is after is my job.' Written with tongue firmly in cheek.

'I never felt so much at home anywhere as I do in New York' he tells us 'I am not afraid to admit that New York is the greatest city on the face of God's earth'. There are other great cities in the world as well, of course, but in regard to New York, Behan was probably right. His ode to it in the form of Brendan Behan's New York serves as a last will and testament and though it doesn't make for a brilliant book as such, it's a very generous one. A returned compliment to a city he so obviously loved and that so obviously loved him back.

John Serpico

Suedehead - Richard Allen

SUEDEHEAD - RICHARD ALLEN

Joe Hawkins is out of jail and the world's now his lobster. He's got himself a job as a junior clerk and even his hair is growing: 'In another month or two it would be suede... in between being a skinhead and being what the Establishment liked to call normal styling. Suede - smooth, elite, expensive'.

No longer is Joe the king of the skinheads though it's a constant battle to temper his instincts and natural inclination toward violence and confrontation. Deep down he's still the same character except now he's more refined. More determined to get what he wants but by using other more varied means besides rampant bloodlust. Joe is now more in control, which means he's probably more dangerous than ever.

Written in 1971, Suedehead by Richard Allen is the sequel to his 1970 classic, Skinhead, where Allen had simultaneously struck gold and a nerve. Allen was a hack who wrote only for the money so after hitting paydirt with Skinhead it was a given that he'd immediately knock-out a follow-up. But hang on a minute. What exactly is a 'suedehead'? Well, Allen cuts to the chase and tells us:

'Suedeheads are difficult to define. They belong to no known bands nor do they amalgamate into gangs as their skinhead predecessors did. They are an enigma. An ant-social anti-everything conglomerate affecting status as their protective cover whilst engaging in nefarious pursuits more savage, more brutal than other cultists we have seen rise and fall in this past decade. Suedeheads have been known to use their umbrellas as weapons. Many adherents of this strange, loosely-joined cult have resorted to sharpening their umbrella tips...'

So does Joe Hawkins - psycho-skinhead extraordinaire - now walk around with an umbrella? You bet he does. And he's even started wearing a bowler hat rather like Alex and his droogs in A Clockwork Orange.

For all its violent elements, a noticeable thing about Suedehead is that there is actually a lot less brutality in it than in Skinhead. Joe still gets into scraps and still vents his rage upon those he hates - and Joe hates everything and everybody - but his violence is now more nuanced. Now he stabs rather than stomps. Moreover, there's a lot more sexual frustration on show in Suedehead than there was in Skinhead. It all still adds up to an enjoyable read but the prose does seems to be more diluted, meaning it has less of an impact upon the reader than its predecessor. If anything, it stands nowadays primarily as a signifier to a youth cult that never really hit the same heights as a lot of others.

Interestingly, at one point in the book one of Joe's friends designs an ad board listing a code of ethics for the suedehead gang they have just formed. Essentially it's a list of all the things they hate but the thing about it is that it's very similar to Vivienne Westwood's famous t-shirt 'You're Gonna Wake Up One Morning And Know What Side Of The Bed You've Been Lying On' that she would come to design years later.

At another point in the book, one of Joe's gang members says 'I hate skinhead punks and ex-skinheads trying to look like suedeheads'. The interesting thing about this being the use of the term 'skinhead punks' because Richard Allen wrote this in 1971, which was obviously some years before the word 'punk' even came into use in England come the rise of the Sex Pistols.

So rather than the sex, violence and misanthropy on display, it's more the cultural stuff going on within its pages that makes Suedehead noteworthy nowadays. And for all this, Suedehead hasn't really dated at all and still makes for a relevant read.

John Serpico

The Word For World Is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin

THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST -

URSULA K LE GUIN

The premise of Ursula K Le Guin's The Word For World Is Forest is that resistance to oppression can profoundly change those resisting, and for the worse. Written on the back of the Vietnam War that Le Guin organised and participated in non-violent demonstrations against, it's an example of how science fiction can be a medium and vehicle for ideas that when taken at face value seem to hold no relevancy to the real world but are in actual fact of profound relevance to the Big Picture. At the same time, throwing into question what exactly is 'the real world'.

Le Guin was an interesting writer, to say the least. It's been said, in fact, that she was one of the finest writers of our time. She had a certain style that was very fluid and very natural, that didn't pander to the reader or condescend. For example, in The Word For World Is Forest she quite casually drops in a line like 'it was clear to anybody who hadn't gone spla from geoshock' and expects the reader to know what it means. And the thing is that yes, you do know what it means because it's all part of the rhythm of her writing and you're tuned-in as if you're clicking your fingers and tapping your feet to music.

And then she'll write 'Davidson lit his first reefer of the day' and then give no more credence to it. Davidson is one of the main characters in the book, and out of the blue Le Guin suggests he might be smoking weed all day as casually as you might chew gum - but then doesn't mention it again until right at the end of the book when his stash is getting low. As if it's all a very natural thing for a person in a science fiction book to be doing and doesn't warrant any more attention.

There's a lot going on in The Word For World Is Forest. The Vietnam War, for a start. The hideous obliteration of all life by fire in a given area via Napalm-type bombs. The equivalent of a My-Lai massacre. 'Swarming' in the way the Viet Cong might do, emerging en masse from nest holes. The idea of destroying to 'save'. Massive power, wealth and technology against so-called primitiveness. Colonization and subjugation under the guise of freedom. It's all there and intentionally so. Le Guin, however, sets her Vietnam on another planet.

On Earth, wood has become almost non-existent and is subsequently more valuable than gold, so when a planet is discovered where its surface is almost entirely covered by forest, it's immediately colonized and plundered. The native inhabitants of the planet are monkey-like, green-furred people who hunt with bows and arrows and live in huts. Like Native Americans and Aborigines, these native inhabitants are adept at transcending world-time and entering dream-time, going back and forth between the two but holding no distinction between each. Though they are two distinct and separate worlds, to them, both world-time and dream-time are as real as each other.

They are a meek, humble and peaceful people who possess no real concept of violence until that is, the humans arrive and start enslaving them, brutalizing them and cutting down their world. They ultimately come to understand that their world is being killed and they either accept it or retaliate. From there on, the battle is joined.

The tragedy of the story that Le Guin communicates so well is that from being a gentle, pacifist people where any fights are settled through singing, it's only a small leap to the adoption of ruthless and unforgiving violence as a tactic and that once that leap has been made there is no turning back. The Pandora's Box has been opened.

It's the eternal paradox. Fools step in where angels fear to tread but once that step has been taken there is no longer anything to reason. The bridge between dream and reality has been crossed. The wall is down and what has been freed can no longer be put back. As the main protagonist of the native inhabitants explains: 'You cannot take things that exist in the world and try to drive them back into the dream, to hold them inside the dream with walls and pretenses. That is insanity. What is, is. There is no use pretending, now, that we do not know how to kill one another'.

Ursula K Le Guin's The Word For World Is Forest is an example of science fiction at its best.

John Serpico