I am an anarchist
Don't know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy passer by
Cos I...
Wanna be...
Anarchy!
Just over a week ago my son, Rogan, and I were up in Bathgate, Central Scotland, backstage with The Sex Pistols Experience - a tribute band to perhaps the most well known of all punk rockers.
Rogan with "Paul Crook", "Steve Clones", "Johnny Rotter" and "Kid Vicious"
As Dave, the drummer and founder of the group was keen to point out, the difference with a “tribute” band over a “cover” band is the effort is made to perform in the style of the characters of the original group as well as the music.
I’d noticed this when we saw them back at the Wickerman Festival in July (see Burning the Wickerman). We’d been impressed not just by the quality of the playing, but by the theatre of their performances – swearing at each other, goading the audience and the attention to detail in their clothes and sneers.
Dave had found my photos on the web and, as the band had recently acquired a new guitarist, and most of their photos featured the previous guy, he wondered if I’d be ok if they could use my images on their website and poster in exchange for being credited and a link to my website.
After a few email exchanges with images attached, I suggested next time they were in Scotland they should let me know and I could take some proper photos of them. And so it was, in the middle of November, Rogan and I found ourselves invited to join them in Bathgate.
The backstage area given over to them turned out to be a barber's shop just round the corner from the gig (owned and run by Skid, the lead singer in the support band, Cash from Chaos), as the only available space at the venue was too small to fit everyone in. It was warm, dry and had mirrors so was ideal.
Relaxing before the gig
Getting the expressions right
No holding back
Faithful renditions
I don’t know if I should say they’re a great bunch of guys, as that might appear to undermine their stage personas, but we had a wonderful time. And for a brief moment, at least, I think I managed a small amount of “cool dad” in the eyes of my son for taking him along.
I took quite a few more photos both backstage and at the gig, the best of which can be found on my Flickr account, here, or my Facebook page, here.
Awesome. The real Sex Pistols would be better but that would have been a fantastic gig to get in on. The pics look great and the boys have obviously spent a lot of time and effort into getting their look spot on. Do they do the drinking and the vomiting of the original Sex Pistols ?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we're about 30 years too late to take photos of the real Sex Pistols - but then that's really what this band is about - giving the experience of the next best thing. There was a member or 2 of the audience throwing beer at them on stage, clearly oblivious to the fact they were playing instruments powered by electricity! And, as can be seen from the larger collection of images, being spat at was another occupational hazard.
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