A Sex Pistols Film

The closest I ever came to being a Sex Pistols fan was playing a dodgy cover version of "Anarchy In The UK" in my first band. There was just something about being 14 years old and screaming "I am the Anti-Christ, and I am an anarchist" that spoke to the emerging rebel within me. But to really get what The Sex Pistols were all about, I guess you had to be there.

Julien Temple's documentary The Filth And The Fury is probably the closest people of my generation will ever get to understanding the Sex Pistols experience, and goes some way to righting the wrongs of Temple's earlier effort The Great Rock And Roll Swindle. That film was manipulated by The Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren to make them look some sort of farcical joke which he inflicted on an unsuspecting public, but Filth... paints a far different picture. Instead, it tells the tale of the twenty month period in which The Sex Pistols turned the world of popular music on it's ear.

Though utilising much of the same concert footage and animation presented in Swindle, Temple also brings us unseen footage of the band in their formative stages, rare interviews with the tragic drug-addled figure of Sid Vicious, and recent footage of the surviving members shot entirely in silhouette - perhaps so we concentrate on their days as rebellious youth instead of the middle-aged men they are today.

The influence of The Sex Pistols on their generation can't be underestimated - such luminaries as Siouxsie Sioux (of Siouxsie and The Banshees fame), Shane Magowan of The Pogues, Billy Idol and even Viscious himself can be seen in the frontlines at the earlier gigs. A slew of imitators popped up in their wake, virtually killing off the so-called progressive rock "dinosaurs" of the time.

There are also some incredibly poignant moments amidst the chaos, such as the time The Pistols' played a Christmas benefit gig in Huddersfield for striking firemen and their families. But the most touching moment occurs when frontman Johnny Rotten talks about the demise of Viscious. Rotten fights to hold back the tears as he recounts how McLaren and Viscious' girlfriend Nancy Spungen (a Courtney Love prototype if ever there was one) encouraged Sid to more outlandish acts of stupidity and ultimately pushed him over the edge.

The Filth and The Fury is an excellent document of The Sex Pistols rapid rise to notoriety and equally rapid decline. Somehow their music seems to make so much more sense when you hear it in the context in which it was created, when a garbage strike saw the streets of London strewn with huge piles of rubbish bags and the whole country was gearing up for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. And if like me you've only ever experienced the likes of "Anarchy..." and "Pretty Vacant" on a 6th generation tape copy through a crappy stereo, hearing their raw power pumping through a big system is nothing short of a revelation.

"And IIIIIIII, wanna beeeeeee, an anarchist, again I'm pissed, de-stroyyyyy!!!!" I doubt we'll see musical rebellion of its ilk again.

- Kris Swales

THE FILTH AND THE FURY is screening at DENDY cinemas around Australia.