by John Lydon
To show the chaos, truth, self-interests, deceptions, intentions, and perceptions of the Sex Pistols story, here are actual excerpts of sworn affidavits taken from May of 1978 to January 1979. What you get is a behind-the-scenes account of what happened in San Francisco.
JOE STEVENS
I was commissioned by the New Musical Express to cover the Sex Pistols’ American tour. I missed the first concert but joined the band in Memphis and remained with them until after the final concert of the tour in San Francisco.
When I met up with the band in Memphis I had not seen them for fifteen months. It was obvious immediately that John and Malcolm were not getting along. For example when I met John in Memphis he introduced me to someone and said, “This is Joe, he’s my friend, but he’s also Malcolm’s friend.” It was less a situation of open hostility between them than of silence and lack of communication. Another thing I noticed straight away when I met Malcolm that same evening was that Malcolm seemed to have very little control over what was going on, and this was very much contrary to the situation in London when I had last seen them. I found that Noel Monk was not particularly pleasant toward me as a member of the press, and I complained to Malcolm, and he seemed to have no power to do anything about it. Malcolm missed the first gig in Atlanta and seemed a bit disoriented. The three Warner Brothers men seemed to be more in charge. Malcolm certainly said that he had nothing to do with the tour at one time and referred all complaints to Warners.
When the flying party, including Steve Jones and Paul Cook, arrived at the hotel in Dallas, people were doubling up, and I arranged to room with Malcolm. We began talking about the fifteen months that had gone by since I had last seen him and John. Malcolm also talked about what it was like being a manager of a labeled act and said it was quite boring, that every day you had to do the same things. He was talking about tedious everyday managerial problems. I remember being present when Malcolm made a statement to the press when they asked who really ran the Pistols. He said, “When I first met these wankers they couldn’t get themselves organized to order four cups of tea.”
One thing I would like to stress about the plans for Rio was that the band would be playing the gig in San Francisco and only a few days later had a further gig lined up for a Friday night in Stockholm. As far as I was aware, and I was present at most of the discussions, nobody ever worked out the details of time differences between the various countries or whether it would be physically possible to manage the trip to Brazil.
In San Francisco there was some discussion, during which Steve and Paul were brought over to the Rio idea, as they looked upon it as an opportunity for some sunbathing and liked the idea of meeting Ronald Biggs.
The first time I saw John in San Francisco was [at the gig] in the dressing room. I didn’t say anything to him about Rio, as I thought he probably knew. After the San Francisco show Sid asked Malcolm for some money to buy the drug Mandrax, but Malcolm would not give him any. Sid called him a thief, and there was a definite row.
The next I heard from John was he wanted to speak to Malcolm, who was out, and asked what was happening. I did not give a clear reply to begin with, as I was aware of the fact that Malcolm had not told John about the Rio trip, and John did not appear to know about it. I told him about it in apologetic terms. He sounded surprised and asked if Stockholm was still on and wondered how we would be able to get there in time. I explained how we intended to do it, and he replied, “I am spitting blood, and they expect me to sit on a plane for a couple of days?”
Malcolm later told me that he fetched Sid and then en route to John’s motel [in San Jose] he decided to turn right around and forget the whole trip. Malcolm was agitated and said that Sid had quit the band, and he said that he was not interested in managing the band or any band that didn’t want to do productive ideas and couldn’t get themselves together. I think that Malcolm told me that Sid had [later] taken an overdose and was in the hospital. Malcolm had said that Sid was having a fit in the car.
At about lunchtime that day, I met John in the bar. We were with two ladies. Steve and Paul came in and sat at another table but said nothing about the band breaking up. Malcolm was upstairs sleeping, ill with a cold. He rarely went out of the hotel. John was trying to check into the Miyako at the time because I understood that the motel had told him to leave that morning as there was no further booking. John said that he had tried to speak to Malcolm but had not been able to do so.
Malcolm said to me, “It’s finished, I won’t manage a band that plays games like this.” He accused John of turning into a “Rod Stewart figure” and not making himself available for projects which Malcolm thought would be to the good of the band. He said, “Sid is bleeding crazy and is probably dead.” I offered to go downstairs and produce John, and Malcolm said he didn’t want to talk to the cunt.
The next morning I went down to the restaurant, and there was John eating. As far as I knew, he still had not been told what had happened, and he had no idea at that time that the band had walked out on him. Steve and Paul came down and asked to speak to John. I went to my room and told Malcolm. When I saw John emerge from the meeting with Steve and Paul, he asked me where Malcolm was. John said, “The band’s walked out on me.” I unlocked the door to my room and let John in. I left and didn’t hear anything that was said [between Malcolm]. John was not there long; he left the room and went to his own room. Malcolm got up and packed and was out of the hotel with Steve and Paul in about an hour and a half. I said to Malcolm while he was packing that he was crazy. He replied, “I am not your usual run-of-the-mill manager who just makes money. If I can’t do Rio, I can’t do anything.” I asked him why he had not been to see Rotten that morning to try and persuade him to go to Rio. “It wasn’t worth the trouble going to see Rotten.” In fact, in my opinion, he had proved himself lazy. He simply couldn’t face seeing Rotten.
I would not blame John in any way for the breakup of the band and think that the main causes are Malcolm’s lack of interest and, possibly, something that happened between Sid and Malcolm on the morning when they were to go to Rio.
JOHN “BOOGIE” TIBERI
I accompanied the group as their road manager on the American tour, which started in Atlanta, Georgia. Upon our arrival, organizational matters were taken out of my hands by the Warner Bros. road crew, who virtually took over the managment of the group. Warner Bros. had specially arranged the permits for the group to tour America and they were very concerned about security. The Warner Bros. crew were paranoid, in my opinion. They repeatedly threatened the members of the group with physical violence if they “misbehaved,” as they put it. This menacing behavior bewildered the group to such an extent that it made them very nervous and only added to the tension and friction within the group.
Mr. McLaren and I had the idea of the South American trip. We felt it would be a publicity coup. All members of the group were consulted about the proposed trip and meeting with Mr. Biggs as a possible substitute for the U.S. tour. John Lydon had full knowledge and was consulted as well. Lydon was not told that the Brazilian trip was rescheduled until he showed up in San Francisco with the Warner Bros. road crew at the rehearsal [sound check] of Saturday afternoon, January 14, 1978. After I told Lydon of the [newly] scheduled flight on Monday, John did not say anything at the rehearsal about not going. He did, however, complain about the trip when I spoke to him on the telephone after the concert. He had failed to appear at the Miyako Hotel as arranged.
I was unable to reach Lydon by phone during the day on Sunday, so that night I drove out to the motel in San Jose, where we believed John was staying along with the Warner Bros. road crew. I was prevented from speaking to Lydon by Noel Monk, who tried to talk us out of going to Brazil. We decided to leave and come back to pick up Lydon early the next morning and then go straight to the airport. On Monday morning we did start to drive to San Jose but turned back after McLaren decided that Sid was so frustrated and annoyed at Lydon’s behavior that it would be better to
postpone the trip until John and Sid met to iron out their problems.
We therefore returned to San Francisco. During our time spent in San Francisco, it was becoming clear to me that the Warner Bros. people in America wanted to keep the Sex Pistols in the United States. Representatives of Warner Bros. promised the group money and a “good time.” At the same time they warned them of the dangers for them in going to South America. In the final analysis, only John Lydon was affected by this talk. In my view his allegation that he was not told about the trip to South America is merely a cover-up for the fact that he was swayed by people in America. Moreover, he felt alienated from the rest of the group. Possibly a further reason for his not wanting to join them in South America was that he did not want to spend that much time with them.
Maybe John Lydon was not completely serious about leaving the Sex Pistols. It may be he was using it as a threat to the rest of the group in order to try to force his will on them. It may be that once he had announced his departure to the press, pride prevented him from going back.
I flew to Jamaica at Mr. McLaren’s request to try to continue John Lydon’s role in the film project. I told Branson on behalf of McLaren that the best way to reunite the group was for Lydon to go to Brazil. Branson said he thought John did not want to and that working with Ronald Biggs was a bad idea for the Sex Pistols.
NOEL MONK
After the first show in Atlanta I found McLaren in his hotel. He did not go to the show. My feeling was that he was afraid of violence.
Malcolm put his employee Boogie in charge of looking after the boys, particularly Sid. Boogie was, however, totally useless at this task. There was a fight the first night between Boogie and Sid in the car park in Atlanta. But Boogie could not control Sid, and eventually Sid went off on his own and later that night deliberately cut open his arm. Just before the second gig in Memphis, Boogie got totally drunk. I asked him where Sid was, and he said he didn’t know but that he hoped he was in the lobby of the hotel. I found that he was not, but the other members of the band were. The other three members were excited and looking forward to the gig. I put them into a bus to wait, and forty minutes later I found Sid in a screaming fight with Boogie. John was very annoyed and said to Sid, “You are ruining everything we are doing here.” Sid said that he was sorry. I then took it upon myself to room with Sid for the rest of the tour in order that he should not get lost again.
McLaren stayed mainly out of the way. I thought he was unhelpful and a useless person on the tour. Many times group managers are helpful on a tour, but not in this case. In Memphis I went to McLaren to get him to help in finding Sid before the gig, but he seemed immobilized and afraid to face Sid.
The tour’s final show was in San Francisco, and the following day I went with John to the Chinatown district of San Francisco. We just had a day off, and we bought presents. John seemed happy except that he said he wondered why nobody got in touch with him. John tried to call McLaren three or four times during the day and left messages, unable to get through.
Joe Stevens eventually told me about the plan devised by McLaren for the whole group to go to Rio. I said to John that the whole idea of going to Rio was suicidal. They would be going with no security, and with Sid in the condition he was, I thought they would all end up in prison.
The following morning I went to the Miyako Hotel in San Francisco, where McLaren and Joe Stevens were. I handed over the passports, including John’s, to McLaren. One of them told me that they were looking for Sid. At the time, as far as I knew, nobody had told John anything about the proposed Brazilian trip from the management side. John was still suffering from bronchitis at this time.
JOHN LYDON
We were performing on tour in the north of England when McLaren met us and informed us that EMI wanted to offer us a recording contract but would only do so if we had a regular manager and office. Malcolm had a draft agreement with him which he [said] would satisfy EMI, and he left a copy of it with me. A few days later, when we got back to London, I went with McLaren to have the draft agreement read over. I did not understand much of the draft agreement, but I thought it gave McLaren too much control over the group and I said so. I believe that some changes were made, but I still felt that I did not understand it properly and that I disliked it. McLaren told me that Cook, Jones, and Matlock had all signed it and that if I did not sign it quickly, EMI would lose interest in us. I remember wishing I could get advice about the situation, but I had no money of my own and there was no one I could ask for help.
My association with Cook, Jones, and McLaren came to an end on January 16, 1978, or thereabouts. I had become seriously discontented with McLaren for two reasons in particular, both of them stemming from the fact that he had no interest in our music and was only interested in the publicity.
In the first place, in the middle of 1977 he conceived the idea of a film about the Sex Pistols and brought over a director called Russ Meyer from Los Angeles. I found Meyer’s script and ideas objectionable and refused to take part in his film for that reason; and the idea of a film by Meyer seemed to be dropped.
The second area of discontent was over live appearances, or gigs. I felt very strongly that for the sake of its music the group need the stimulus of regular appearances before live audiences; but through almost the whole of 1977 McLaren constantly told us that he was unable to arrange any, despite the success of our records. We had acquired some notoriety … and McLaren fostered this notoriety to the extent (I believe) of denying us live performances in the hope that record sales would be enhanced if our public were under the impression that we had been banned from concert halls. That was certainly untrue; some halls were unwilling to have us, but others applied to Glitterbest for engagements during 1977 and were either refused or simply received no replies. In the end, Jones, Cook, Beverly [Sid], and I secretly did three live performances under assumed names.
What happened in San Francisco was this. Beverly and I were staying in a motel in San Jose with the tour manager from Warner Brothers (Noel Monk) and his road crew; McLaren, Cook, and Jones were staying at a hotel in San Francisco itself. Our concert was on Saturday, January 14. Warner Brothers were not responsible for our arrangements after San Francisco. We were due in Stockholm for a live appearance on Friday, January 20. When I rang McLaren’s hotel again, I spoke to Joe Stevens, an American journalist who was staying with the party there, and he told me that McLaren had arranged for the group to fly to Rio de Janeiro early the next morning; I complained to him that I was exhausted and ill with bronchitis and did not see how we could fit in a trip to Brazil before our engagement in Stockholm. I said that I would not go. I then went to bed at the motel.
At five A.M. [the next day] Beverly rang my room and said that McLaren had just been to visit him and complained about me and that he (Beverly) had had enough of the group. He sounded incoherent, and I have since heard that he took an overdose of heroin shortly after McLaren’s visit. At nine A.M. on Monday morning I got through to McLaren on the telphone and asked him what was going on; he was noncommittal, and I said that I was coming to see him at his hotel. On Monday morning I talked first to Cook and Jones and then separately to McLaren. Cook and Jones told me then that on the preceding morning McLaren had sent them to the airport for a nine o’clock flight. It was then that I realized that McLaren had not contacted me regarding Rio de Janiero. Cook and Jones made it clear to me that they did not wish to go on working with me or Beverly; McLaren at first seemed to be trying to persuade me to go to Brazil for a publicity appearance with Ronald Biggs, but I said that I did not like the idea of getting publicity out of a man who had left a train driver like a vegetable. McLaren said that he did not wish to go on with the group and it was all over and finished. Shortly after those meetings McLaren, Cook, and Jones left the hotel together, and since then I have had hardly any contact with them. I had one meeting with McLaren in about March 1978, when he asked me to appear in the Matrixbest film. I said that I would only appear if I could
choose my own material, but he was unwilling to agree to that.
STEVE JONES
Both Paul Cook and I have known Malcolm for a long time, and I believe he has been an excellent manager and a friend. After all, he has got us famous very quickly. John says in his affidavit that Malcolm actually deliberately prevented the group from performing gigs. I do not believe that this occurred. Malcolm has always accounted to us with what I believe is due under the management agreement and taken care of all our tax and other liabilities. Through him we have been able to buy flats.
Malcolm had said that there was an opportunity to go to Rio de Janeiro, where we could do some filming and promote our record and have a bit of a holiday. We thought that this was a great idea, as by that time we really wished to avoid further touring commitments. When we went to the airport early the next morning after the concert, John did not turn up. We told John that we wanted to go to Brazil, but he said he did not. We were fed up with John’s attitude. He was treating us as completely unimportant, and in fact, he said, “The main problem is Malcolm. Let’s get rid of Malcolm.” We wished to avoid a confrontation. It is quite wrong to say that we sacked him from the group.
PAUL COOK
The film was Malcolm’s idea. Initially the group were keen, but as it dragged on we became progressively less keen. John was keen at the beginning, but then after a while he decided he did not want to have anything to do with the film. John was a moaner.