In 2022, Craig Pearce and Danny Boyle teamed up for “Pistol,” a biographical drama charting the rise and fall go legendary English punk-rock band, the Sex Pistols.
“Pistol” focused on the band’s guitarist Steve Jones book, “Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol,” and the man himself praised the FX series in a new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
“It turned a lot of young people on who didn’t know anything about it really, I think,” Jones said, “and it was great.”
Jones was played by Australian actor Toby Wallace, and Jones was really impressed by his performance. “He had to have elocution lessons – he’s Australian, so he had to talk (cockney) like me,” he said. “It was bizarre seeing my life turned into a TV show, but they did a great job with it.”
“Pistol” received mostly positive reviews from critics.
“The lack of integration of such characters into the main story indicates just how ramshackle that story is. ‘Pistol’ often feels episodic in the worst way, jumping from incident to incident with little connective tissue,” Variety‘s review concluded. “And the sense of disaffection among Sex Pistols fans can feel theoretical at times, as when it’s evoked through shots of the royal family underscored by ironic music.
“Viewers will yearn for the ballast of clearer insights about the era. But ‘Pistol’ gets the viscera right. That’s why the concert scenes come as such a balm: they are the moments when the milieu our characters inhabit feels most plainly drawn.
“Amid the chaos of the dance floor, the Sex Pistols yearn to obliterate themselves, each other and their listeners. Even if what’s around these moments doesn’t consistently work, ‘Pistol’ nails the thrill of learning to disappear into sound.”
The Guardian was less enthusiastic, writing, “Johnny Rotten is the Artful Dodger crossed with an animated rodent in Boyle’s frustrating series that feels so cartoonish it falls totally flat.”
Sex Pistols are returning to Australia for their first tour in nearly 30 years. With Frank Carter replacing John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon as frontman, the new-look lineup will perform the band’s classic album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, in full at their Australian shows.
“We didn’t audition anybody else,” Jones told Rolling Stone AU/NZ about Carter becoming part of the band. “We were doing this benefit in Shepherd’s Bush, rehearsed for a week, and it all fell into place. Frank brings this insane energy, he’s in the crowd, he gets people going. And he’s not trying to be Johnny Rotten, which is important. It just works.”
Ticket information for Sex Pistols’ Australian tour can be found here.