“I’m not going to tell you,” he laughs. “It’s a bit like telling the punch line of a joke too soon. Not that it’s a joke, but you’ve got to have some surprises. But there are certain songs [to be expected]; if I went to see the sadly deceased David Bowie and he hadn’t done Heroes, I’d be going home disappointed. So we all know there are certain songs people expect to hear, and I’m sure you can work out which ones they might be. We do songs from all of our careers. That’s fair enough, innit?”
Matlock’s refreshingly humble for a co-writer of what is widely considered one of the most influential rock albums of all time, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. However, he’s more interested in talking about the future than his illustrious punk past.
“We’ve actually got an album in the can of mainly my material,” he says. “We did it about a year ago and have been talking to people about getting it out. We went to a studio in Upstate New York with this guy Mario McNulty who engineered the Bowie album before the one that’s just come out. It’s cracking stuff and I’m proud of it. We do a cover version of Montage Terrace (In Blue) by Scott Walker, believe it or not, and Jim plays kettle drums on it. You’ll have to hear it to understand where we’re coming from. It’s hard to describe your own music.”
Having individually played parts in many historic moments in rock history, Matlock, Slick and Phantom have direct connections to the recently-departed Bowie and Lemmy Kilmister.
“I knew both of them,” Matlock says. “I was fortunate to meet Bowie quite a few times and I got on really well with him. He sought other peoples’ opinions and listened to what you had to say and took it on board. But he was a laugh as well, you know? Lemmy I’ve known for years. He used to knock around with all the punks not long after he’d left Hawkwind and was trying to get Motörhead together. The last time I played in the States with the Pistols at the Whisky a Go Go he came backstage to say hi and everybody had a lot of time for him.”
All four founding members of the Sex Pistols are still very much alive and kicking, and hope remains for another reunion tour. “[There’s nothing] I know of as yet, but never say never,” Matlock says. “It’s the beginning of 40 years of punk this year, but also 40 years of the Sex Pistols, if you want to hang it on something. It’s down to John [Lydon]’s whims quite a bit, but I know my bank manager would be happy.”
Matlock was famously dumped from the Sex Pistols in 1977 in favour of the punk rock poster boy and chronically untalented musician Sid Vicious. At the time, manager Malcolm McLaren claimed it was due to his “liking the Beatles.”
“That was bollocks for a start,” Matlock says. “It was just something McLaren said. I left because John could be really hard work. When you’re 19 going on 20 you don’t always see the wood for the trees. When we reformed in ’96 I felt vindicated because of all the people in the world they could have asked, they asked me again. So they possibly came ‘round to my way of thinking a little bit more.”
When it is suggested he mightn’t have been given fair dues for his songwriting contributions to Never Mind the Bollocks, Matlock shrugs it off with characteristic humility and humour. “I think I’ve managed to claw a bit of that back now. I think people have [recognised] my contribution to the band. But I don’t wake up in the morning thinking about how I used to be in the Sex Pistols; there are lots of things to do in life. The phone always rings with interesting projects and invitations to go and do this, that and the other. The only time I think about the past is when [journalists] ask me about it, you know what I mean?”
Dubbed ‘The Men With No Shame’ tour, Matlock, Phantom & Slick’supcoming run of shows will involve a pre-show Q&A session giving the audience a chance to verbally prod their hosts.
“I would rather have called it the Tough Cookies tour because that’s what we are. [The Q&A] is something the promoter dreamed up, but I’m used to it. I’ve done similar things at the Edinburgh Festival; playing acoustic shows, telling stories and inviting questions. That was during the show, but before the show will be a bit different, because you’re usually worried about where you left your eye-liner, you know? I’m a big boy and I can deal with it.”
BY PAUL MCBRIDE
