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greensparty · 1 year

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Talking with Glen Matlock

It’s not too often that I get to interview a rock legend. I don’t use that term loosely but it certainly applies to Mr. Glen Matlock. The English rocker began as the bassist in the original Sex Pistols. He co-wrote 10 of the 12 songs on Never Mind the Bullocks Here’s the Sex Pistols but parted ways during the recording process. He did play on some of the songs though. But he re-joined for all of their reunion tours. He has also played with countless others, including Iggy Pop, The Damned, Primal Scream, the reunited Faces and Blondie. He is back with a new album with his band Glen Matlock and the Philistines, the recently released Consequences Coming. I recently caught up with him via Zoom.

Consequences Coming album cover

Me: For those that are unaware, you were in the Sex Pistols and recorded with them before parting ways and then you re-joined for all of the reunions. What is your relationship like with them today?

GM: At arm's length. A little bit frosty with some of them, not to mention names. But I’m probably going to go have dinner with Steve [Jones] on Monday, and with Paul [Cook], who lives in London.

Me: I read a few years ago around 2019 that you said in the press that there could be a reunion coming up soon. Not sure if you’re at liberty to say, but could that still be happening soon?

GM: No, I think that’s kinda been and gone a bit now. You know, maybe that might’ve happened then. But all of us, we’re all pretty busy guys with different bits and pieces. There’s not really time, to be honest, or the inclination. Sometimes you think “yeah, the time is right”, but if the time was right it might’ve been a couple years ago now. You know, there’s a time and a place, and we had ours. That’s it really. There’s some good stuff there!

Matlock on left in 1976 with Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten (John Lydon), Steve Jones and Paul Cook

Me: In 2013, I attended the Europunk exhibit at Cite de la Musique in Paris. I do not speak French, but I was able to understand everything about the exhibit: the TV clips, the album covers, the music, the memorabilia, etc. As someone who has performed all over the world, do you feel that the energy of punk is something that transcends languages and can create a common bond in a way?

GM: Yeah, definitely. I think punk is a very broad term. There’s a long way from The Ramones to the Buzzcocks, from Richard Hell and the Voivoids to The Slits to the bands that come along now under the punk umbrella. But I think it’s a by-word for people and things that read between the lines a bit more and will not be talked down to by their supposed superiors. So to be associated with that is kinda cool. I don’t really subscribe to the idea that to be a punk you have to have a mohawk. I mean it’s become kind of a carbon copy look for some of these also-ran bands. It’s kind of all they got really. To me, the punks were all really more forward-looking. I mean you can say that about lots of artistic kind of music. I mean there was a big broad church of different people doing different things back then. I don’t think punk is any different in that respect, it’s just what I got saddled with.

But yeah, you being able to get that in another country and in another language, it was always pretty clear what it was about. It had all aspects covered: the music, the look, the typography, the art work - it all came together in one big thing and the total was bigger than the sum of their parts, which is all good.

Me: Looking at your history, you have performed with artists like Iggy Pop, The Damned, Blondie, and you’ve performed with members of The Clash, New York Dolls, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Generation X. You are seriously the 6-degrees-of for punk rock history!

GM: Maybe, but I don’t think I’m the only one like that. I think doing what I did do with the Pistols and coming through on that. People said it was a seachange - I don’t believe that. I think music is like a baton race. There’s people who came before you, they do their thing, then they pass the baton onto you, then you pass the baton onto the people after you. I’ve managed to straddle bands that came before what we did, like you mentioned Iggy and I also did some stuff with my all-time favorite band The Faces. And then I’ve done some bits and pieces with bands like Primal Scream [Matlock played on their 1997 album Vanishing Point and he played bass for them in 2011] and Zak Starkey [Matlock played in Starkey’s supergroup The Silver Machine], who came along after that. I get asked to do these things because I play bass pretty well. I enjoy that, but what I really do and have continued to do is I continue to write songs. I write and before long you have all these songs going around in your head and you can’t think straight so you need some kind of outlet for it, which normally means making an album. That’s what I’ve done now again. I think I’ve made some pretty good albums. I’m quite pleased with this one. [pause] Yeah, beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.

Matlock in 2023

Me: Let’s talk about the new album Consequences Coming. How did this particular album come about?

GM: Well, I started writing around the time - you probably heard we had this ridiculous thing in Britain called Brexit, and how Brexit has enabled the powers who put it forward as kind of a smokescreen. It only serves the dreams of the right-wing elite. It kind of encapsulates this whole crazy move to the right in the Western world. I think ultimately it was terrible and people are starting to see through it. It is slow, but in England there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The gestation period for that is also when I began writing songs. You can’t not be aware of what’s going on around you and reflect upon it somehow. So the songs on the album came out of the that. The first single that came out at the start of the year “Head on a Stick” is quite something I’d like to see people held to account. The album is called Consequences Coming. People wanted to get this out last year and it didn’t quite work out. I’m an older guy and record companies are looking for the new...who’s the singer? Not Shania Twain, but a young girl?

Me: Taylor Swift?

GM: Yeah, I’m not Taylor Swift, so you know, they’re not falling all over themselves to help me get a record out. But I find I was a bit worried I missed the boat. But I was in New York last weekend and I had to go up to Rockefeller Plaza to do some press for the new album on Sirius XM radio and I struggled to get a taxi cab uptown from the Bowery because what was coming downtown from Trump Tower to the big courthouse was Donald Trump to be arraigned. And I’m going to talk about my Consequences Coming record and I said “A ha! Maybe I haven’t missed the boat afterall”!

I’ve always been a big fan of people like Pete Seeger, who wrote “If I had a Hammer / I’d hammer out a warning”. Some of us saw what was coming and we tried to sound the fire alarm several years ago.

Me: It’s interesting you talking about being critical of Brexit and Trump because going back to the beginning of your career, there was a political element to the Sex Pistols. Do you feel that punk music can still be a force for positive change?

GM: [Pauses] Well, we can all holler and shout and scream, but all we can really do is - there’s a guy you might’ve seen him on the TV, a guy named Steve Bray, who is in Parliament Square every day, yelling every day at politicians especially the right wing ones going into Parliament. He’s a bit of a joke, but he’s also like a mosquito, smacking away at them all the time. The more people who do that, a pressure builds up and hopefully it gets to the stage of saturation. That’s all I can kind of do. I enjoy going on a march. In fact a few years ago there was one of the better marches, the Brexit Is Dopey March. I run into Kevin Rowland of Dexy’s Midnight Runners, who is a friend of mine, and just behind us there’s a guy with a little tricycle and a little trailer on the back of it with a massive ghetto blaster on it and he was playing “Let’s Stick Together” by Bryan Ferry as we’re marching to Parliament. I’m thinking what a great place to have this song played. That was the seeds of “Consequences Coming” and “Head on a Stick” as we were marching to Parliament. So all of these little things kind of add up. But there’s the political side to it too. I’m not a Communist, I’m just some guy trying to speak truth to power. But there’s also the musical side to it and I think there’s some really good tunes.

Me: I got to listen to an advance of the new album. Really great album, I’m not just saying that. I kind of noticed a little Texas blues influence on the album a little bit. Was that something you had been listening to prior to the recording?

GM: Not particularly, but music it kind of seeps in to all the places you least expect it. You know? I mean the music might be a bit bluesy, but it could also be something off of Exile on Main Street or Goats Head Soup. I don’t mind showing that, I like that, it’s good.

Christian Lees as Glen Matlock in 2022′s Pistol

Me: Last year Danny Boyle gave the Sex Pistols the TV mini-series treatment with Pistol. You were portrayed by Christian Lees. What did you think of the series?

GM: I was disappointed, I thought it could’ve been really good. I liked Christian Lees and thought he was the right guy, but I thought the script let it down a little bit. I gave them the chance to run with it, but I didn’t think it was good. But on the other hand I thought it was important, because it is Steve Jones’s story and Steve is the guy who started the band. If he wasn’t allowed to tell his story, that would be morally wrong. But it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been. I felt a little bit ignored by Danny because I had quite a few conversations with him ahead of it. But be assured, Danny Boyle knows, under no uncertain terms, what I think about it.

Me: You had a show in April in L.A. with Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N’ Roses), Clem Burke of Blondie, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and Fred Armisen. Talk about a meeting of the minds!

GM: Yeah, I’m kinda glad those guys want to be associated with me and play a show with me. I’ve been friends with Clem for a long time. He’s the one who asked me to help out on the last Blondie tour when they were stuck because their previous bass player couldn’t do it. Leigh Foxx [Blondie’s studio bassist]was a very good bass player and a good guy. So I’m honored to be asked to do that, but I’ve worked with Clem on many a projects. Some good, some kinda bad, right? But we play well with each other. Steve Fishman is a friend of theirs on bass. And we were short a guitar player, so Clem suggested Gilby. I had met him briefly a couple of times, but he’s great.

Me: Any chance there might be a U.S. tour after this L.A. show and U.K. dates?

GM: If it goes well, yeah, I’d love to play in America. I just like playing. The whole world is my oyster as I see it. I hate to be constrained, I’ve made some great relationships with friends all over and I’d like to be able to continue that. Fingers crossed - I’d love to do that.

For info on Glen Matlock’s Consequences Coming: https://glenmatlock.lnk.to/newalbum