Flashback 14.01.1978 – the Sex Pistols grace the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco and Mr. Rottern snears his famous “… ever got the feeling you’ve been cheated” to end not only the US of A tour of the Pistols but also the Pistols as such. Now zoom over to Hamburg where quite a lot of young kids that got hooked on Punk all stored a precious treasure at home: A ticket for the Sex Pistols show at the Markthalle in Hamburg – finally the prime punk band (at least according to the local german pop magazins) make it to Hamburg! Little did they know in the pre-internet days that it’ll be a “no show”…
Hop into your time machine now and move 13163 days fast forward – the oldpunks in Hamburg finaly get their chance to see a Pistols set (ok, those who make the yearly pilgrimage to Blackpool had a chance already plus those who travelled to London to see Rotten/Cook/Jones/Matlock on stage in 2007). But it ain’t the old farts, it is a travelling circus type of tribute/cover band. In any other case this would make me avoid the show like the plague but this lot has it. Has it realy. A young Sid mockup. A young Rotten lookalike with the same voice and the same starry eyes. A Steve Jones who looks like my old boss in London (and my boss was called by the name of … David C Jones!). And a handsome Cook on drums. And boy do they make a show! The packed Indra was completly taken away and i am sure a lot of wet dreams came true!
But see yourself and listen up:
Satelite!
Liar!
EMI!
God save the Queen!
Stunning! For some more pictures see below…
Some people found it rather odd that you get a 1:1 / chord-by-chord / snear-by-snear / look-by-look copy but take it as “our” ABBA musickal…
Side remark:
Allthough the Pistols came to an end back there on the stage of the Winterland Ballroom greedy promoters sure tried to cash in on them and put them on the poster for the first “big” punk festival in Hamburg. More pictures from that event over at punkfoto.de!
