Sunday, 29 June 2008
"Come on Johnny, I thought you were smarter than that."
There'll Always Be An England is the first 'official' Sex Pistols concert DVD. After a legion of unofficial live CD's, the official live CD, and a Japanese only VHS tape of their 1996 reunion tour, this finally captures what exactly the Sex Pistols were all about : the music.
Julien Temple, formerly a director for hire on the risible The Great Rock N Roll Swindle, finally steps out and gives the Pistols the live document they deserve. Despite having not written a note of music 30 years, the Pistols are trying their best to avoid the obvious pratfalls of becoming a punk-equivalent of The Eagles, but it's an uphill struggle : the band have become parodies of themselves, old men playing young music, and - Rotten aside - resorting to cliche, to an extent. Jones still dons a knotted Union Jack hanky. Cook looks happy to be playing drums for anybody.
Close your eyes, though, and it's 1977 all over again. Brilliant, biting music, and vicious, prescient lyrics that still sting now with an air of teh self-fulfilling prophecy. Visually, Temple employs the entire visual palette to create a genuine recreation of the show itself with unusual camera angles, and a nice lack of big cranes and swooping crowd shots : the footage feels real, and not some cinematic recreation of the spectacle of the alternative.
There was always more to the Pistols than the cartoon anarchy nonsense : they were the sound of a firecely moral arbiter outraged at the bankruptcy of the wage slave society, and yet, recognising Orwell's dilemma that you can't ever get outside of this world and start again.
Make no mistake, visually and sonically, this film is a brilliant, faithful, and utterly honest document of the warts-and-all 30th anniversary shows, complete with flubs, forgotten lyrics, and is an authentic recreation of the shows themselves, which were, by any standards, utterly successful. The concert is short - 77 minutes including bonus track "Roadrunner" - but then again, the Pistols only had 24 songs and almost all of them are here.
Of the bonus feature - The Knowledge - features the four Pistols individually interviewed as they tour round London, visiting sites of historical interest : their rehearsal rooms are now offices, the site of their first gig an art workshop, each bookended with their own, individual commentary. It's a fascinating, and curious addition to 2000's "Filth And The Fury", with a where are they now feel that is a worthy addition. Even within 30 years, many landmarks of the bands past have been demolished and renovated and altered beyond recognition and there simply will come a time soon when all of it will be gone. This extra is largely let down by Rotten, surprisingly, who transforms "Rotten Takes The Bus" into a guided harangue against anybody, anything, and everybody and everything. Architects, workers, policemen, the Polish, city boys, every single human being - especially new Labour, are demolished, derided as cunts, and Rotten becomes a cantkerous lonely old man railing against the entire damn world. It's a moment of Alf Garnett self-parody which devalues the rest of the set because Rotten debases himself with near xenophobic and abusive comments. You can almost see the spittle on the screen. Come on Johnny, I thought you were smarter than that.
Aside from the ill-placed Rotten rant, There'll Always Be An England is a fitting and excellent document that is worthy of joining the Pistols canon and a perfect sequel - if one were needed to 2000's "Filth And The Fury". if you love the Pistols, pick this up.Only registered users can write comments.
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