The mundane task of shopping for shoes changed Glen Matlock’s life. Aged 18, the future Sex Pistols bassist walked into Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s shop on London’s King’s Road.
It turned out he couldn’t afford shoes there but he got something better – a Saturday job in Let It Rock, which soon became the punk pair’s iconic shop SEX.
Glen says: “I was still at school at the time and a bit lost in the shop.
“I was gobsmacked by how much the shoes were, especially as I’d just blown this job I’d had at a department store called Whiteley’s by staying up all night the night before and making mistakes.
“I was in Let It Rock a little bit too long and drew attention to myself, and this guy working there came up to me and asked if I needed help, so I outright asked if they had any jobs going.
“As it happened, that guy was leaving so he gave me Malcolm’s number. I called it and he told me to start next week.”
At first Glen’s job was to go through the shop’s phone book, calling contacts such as tailors or shoe suppliers.
He was shocked by some of the numbers he saw in there, saying: “There would be people’s contact details like Yoko Ono in the notebook. I soon realised that shop was the hippest place to be on a Saturday afternoon in London.”
After Glen started his art foundation course at Saint Martin’s School of Art, he became involved in the design of the shop, helping to make its iconic foam pink sign. But he got on the wrong side of “main artistic force” Vivienne.
Glen explains: “Vivienne asked me to do some artwork for the shop, but I didn’t really know how to do it properly.
“It was a silk screen cartoon drawing of two cowboys and a baseball player with their bits hanging out.
“I needed my tutor to help me with it but I was a bit worried about it, so I put it off for a week or two. Vivienne got angry and started accusing me of censoring her work but I wasn’t – and it did get done in the end.”
Today the great and good of fashion gather for Dame Vivienne’s memorial at Southwark Cathedral, central London.
She died in December aged 81.
Glen, 66, says he still finds it incredible that she built a worldwide fashion brand.
He says: “I couldn’t believe it a few years ago when I was in Shanghai and I saw a Vivienne Westwood flagship shop next to my hotel. When I worked at SEX Vivienne and Malcolm were quite hand-to-mouth, they had to sell quite a few things to buy more fabric.”
In the mid-1970s, while at SEX, she found inspiration for her designs from an unlikely place – Glen’s lunch.
He says: “I’d often go out and get myself chicken and chips, despite the fact Vivienne was quite a militant vegetarian. Surprisingly, she would ask me to keep all the boxes.
“She’d get all the little bones out, boil them and sew them on to slogan T-shirts that said things like ‘perve’ or ‘sex’.”
Working at the centre of the nascent punk world meant rubbing shoulders with fellow shop assistant Chrissie Hynde and celebrity customers including Adam Ant and Siouxsie Sioux before being catapulted to fame himself when music mogul McLaren recruited him for his groundbreaking band in 1975.
The Sex Pistols were formed when guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook became shop regulars.
Glen overheard them saying they needed a bass player – and McLaren, who was previously the manager of the US punk outfit the New York Dolls, put the three of them together.
Frontman John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, was added soon afterwards. Two years after being formed, they released their influential album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.
Glen left during the recording process in February 1977 and was replaced by Sid Vicious, who Glen recalls as being a “lovable nitwit”.
At the time, McLaren claimed Glen was thrown out because he “wouldn’t stop talking about Paul McCartney” but Glen says he left of his own accord.
He went on to form a new wave group Rich Kids with future Ultravox frontman Midge Ure and drummer Rusty Egan. Glen then collaborated with Iggy Pop and Primal Scream.
Most recently, he has been a bassist for Blondie and will appear on their US tour this year. Glen also has a new solo record on the way this spring, called Consequences Coming.
The lead single from the album, Head on a Stick is out now. In true punk form, it’s inspired by the UK’s current dire political situation.
“It’s my little tirade about the lurch to the right that has happened in recent years,” says Glen.
“There’s too many wrong ’uns around. I think they should be held accountable and be made examples of. Metaphorically, the song is all about wanting to see their heads on sticks.”
When I ask whose heads in particular, Glen begins to rattle off a list: Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Donald Trump and Michael Gove all appear.
Talking of the Sex Pistols, he says cryptically: “Some of them are actively supporting this kind of thing, which is why we probably will never tour again.”
It’s likely he’s referring to former frontman John, who has publicly discussed voting Tory and was spotted in a pro-Trump T-shirt.
With his group Public Image Ltd, Lydon also made a failed bid to represent Ireland in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest
“I don’t want to get into a slanging match with John at all, he can do what he wants to do,” says Glen.
But he said it was “ironic” that Lydon, a Brexit supporter, could aspire to represent Ireland – because he qualifies for an Irish EU passport.
Glen never expected to still have a music career well into his 60s.
He says: “When I was younger, I didn’t think much further than the end of the week. Being in the Sex Pistols opened so many doors – and I’ve done so many things over the years and worked with some amazing people who have been so important to me.”
- Glen’s single Head on a Stick is available on all streaming platforms. His album Consequences Coming is due to be released on April 23.
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