Thought by many to have been kept off the number one spot in 1977 with some dodgy backroom skullduggery, The Pistols finally make it to the top of the charts four and a half decades later.
Sex Pistol fans have sent the band’s notorious anti-monarchy anthem ‘God Save the Queen’ to the top of the charts, 45 years after being denied number one.
Re-released last Friday (3 June) for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the track became the UK’s best-selling single.
The track was first released in 1977 to coincide with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. Despite being banned from radio or television airplay, the track reached number one on the NME chart and number two on the official UK singles charts, where it was listed as a blank — for the only time in history — to avoid offending. Rumours persist that the record had qualified for the top spot and that the chart was tampered with to prevent what some thought would be real-life anarchy in the UK.
Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones once said, “I’ve never had any connection to the monarchy, to be honest. It meant nothing to me, still doesn’t. So to me, it was just a laugh; it was a giggle. I didn’t realise it would offend a lot of English people. They took it personally. It was a stab against the Queen.”
Speaking to TalkTV in a recent interview, lead singer John Lydon said that he was “really, really proud of the queen for surviving and doing so well.”
Describing the song as “anti-royalist, but it’s not anti-human”, Lyon said: “I’ve got to tell the world this. Everyone presumes that I’m against the royal family as human beings, I’m not.”
“I’m actually really, really proud of the Queen for surviving and doing so well. I applaud her for that, and that’s a fantastic achievement. I’m not a curmudgeon about that,” he added.
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Lydon is continuing his rage against the Disney machine, labelling their upcoming Sex Pistols drama series ‘Pistol’ “a fairytale”.
Glenn Matlock the band’s original bass player is currently in the US touring as part of Blondie’s live band, and said he was pleased to be out of the UK while the Jubilee celebrations were on.
“I’m really quite pleased to be out of England at the moment, the terrible, turgid Tories have just been getting on top of me,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“I got asked very last minute to play with Blondie, and it’s been really quite refreshing to do something different and step outside and see how other people see us.”
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