You're listening to "Jonesy's Jukebox Podcast."
We're doing it live from Chrome Hearts'
big mothership in New York.
And I've got some of the Pistol band here with me right now.
We got Jacob Slater.
JACOB SLATER: [LAUGHING]
Is that what you said, Paul?
That's his punk name.
What's his name?
Anson Spoon.
STEVE JONES: Anson Spoon.
ANSON BOON: Not very punk, is it?
No, not really.
- That's not very fair. - He's well-- well-rounded.
OK.
Well, what about--
what about "Anson the Loon?"
Yes, that's better.
- I like that. - Anson the Loon?
I like that.
We got Louis Partridge.
What's his--
Louis "The Part's Wrong."
[LAUGHING]
Louis Parching?
He's thirsty.
Oh, man, didn't-- we thought of that,
didn't we, back in the day?
I should have come up with a name for meself.
Yeah.
Did you never fancy a Rotten star name?
We didn't, did we?
No.
Because the ones with John and Sid,
they just happened naturally.
We didn't sit there-- STEVE JONES: Right
--like a big conference about it.
They just came--
You can't force.
--like, John, you're rotten.
You are.
You know, you're just rotten.
Yeah, I'm Johnny.
And Sid, you know how you're vicious.
And John named him after-- he said,
you look like Sid the Hamster, and you're vicious.
And they just evolved, whereas we didn't.
[LAUGHTER]
Was that how it was, John and the hamster
came up with the name?
I heard you-- you had something to do with it.
Yeah.
I think we called him Vicious.
John called Sid after his hamster
because he said he looked like a hamster.
STEVE JONES: OK.
And I think I got the Vicious from somewhere, yeah.
Yes, that's what I thought.
That's what we set for in the show anyway--
- Yeah - --with the hamster.
ANSON BOON (AS JOHNNY ROTTEN): We'll
call you Sid after the hamster.
What's his second name?
ANSON BOON (AS JOHNNY ROTTEN): Hamsters don't have surnames.
Well, I'm going to need a second name for legal purposes.
Sid Ritchie sounds OK.
[BANG]
Ow!
Sid's really vicious.
Did you watch a lot of stuff on-- so you must have, Louis.
I watched a fair amount, yeah.
I tried to shy away from some of the more--
you know, there's so much out there.
I'm sure you guys have it all the time, just
rumors and things flying around, stories
that have been passed down.
So it's nice to hear stuff from you guys unfiltered.
But there's one interview that's about 25 minutes long
that he seems pretty straight.
And that was the one I mainly looked at.
I think its "Duty of a Moral."
It's 25 minutes.
And I use that for my accent and just-- because I think he's
the most candid in it, and he's not trying
to be anything big and scary.
PAUL COOK: Is that on film or-- STEVE JONES: Yeah.
- --it's just audio? - No, it's audio.
It's audio, yeah.
Yeah, because I don't remember any film.
Yeah, it's a good one, yeah.
There's some rumors set up by the people themselves
because me and Louis used to love
listening to this interview with John and Sid.
And we've-- is it John Tobler who said you worked at the BBC?
And in it, they asked how Sid got the name Sid Vicious.
And John said, the name does come from Syd
Barrett of Pink Floyd fame.
Oh, right.
And then they're telling that story for about 10 minutes.
Then they decided to give it up and say, no,
it was just my hamster. - Yeah
Yeah.
They're giggling like schoolgirls--
STEVE JONES: Yeah. - --trying to pitch this.
ANSON BOON: Yeah, he's going off.
No one cares what you sound like.
It's what you look like that matters.
Is it effective then, lacquer?
Of course it's effective!
Remember my mom's beehive?
It was like St Paul's Cathedral.
She kept actual bees in it.
Ask him-- ask him a question.
He's-- he's quiet.
He's like me.
He's the drummer-- he's the drummer playing me, by the way.
You're young, right?
You're 20--
- 24. - 24.
Yeah.
STEVE JONES: And so you're old then?
- I'm all-- - Is that young?
- Yeah, yeah. - What do you qualify as young?
Compared to Louis.
Yeah, these guys are-- yeah.
What do you qualify as young?
18, 19.
Oh. No, I'm older.
Even though--
LOUIS PARTRIDGE: You're getting on into--
Yeah.
--even though that was our age really when we started,
wasn't it, 18, 19, 20--
That's so wild.
--21?
I can't-- yeah.
I find it amazing to think you weren't
20 when you wrote songs like "Anarchy" and "God
Save the Queen."
It's quite impressive really, isn't it?
Yeah.
I can't imagine Louis Part Wrong doing it.
Yeah. What have we got to answer for?
ANSON BOON: Yeah.
Did you have fun playing Mr. Lydon?
ANSON BOON: Yeah
--because that's quite a stretch to play--
to played that.
Yeah.
Like when you got-- when you got the green light
that you're going to be playing him,
was you like, oh, now I got to
Nervous
--really--
I remember driving home from my ex-girlfriend's house
and thinking I'm going to put one of the Sex
Pistols songs on in the car.
And I put on "Anarchy in the UK."
And I started trying to sing to it, and I was just shouting.
By the end of the car journey, I can hardly talk.
And I thought I don't know how I'm ever going to do this.
And then on our first day at band camp--
it was a bit like school band camp.
We'd start-- we'd have different lessons throughout the day.
So we'd start on our own, then we come together.
And I was with my singing teacher.
And I was singing these songs about two octaves lower
than what John did.
And I said, you're just going to have to tell Danny that this is
how I'm going to have to do it, and they're
going to have to edit it.
And I was so nervous.
And then three months later, she had stretched my voice
by two vocals-- two octaves. LOUIS PARTRIDGE: Honestly.
It was-- - Wow.
- Yeah. - You said it was like school.
It was more like being in an insane asylum.
Jacob-- ANSON BOON: Yeah.
--can vouch for me.
Hearing him go off doing his vocals was--
- It was great, yeah. - Yeah, it was great.
It was so loud.
But that was little like [CONTROLLED SCREAM]
- I thought like-- - --and all of these noises--
- Yeah. - --you had to make.
Vocal wars.
Honestly, like, I don't know.
Like, having, obviously, when I was like 14, 15,
listened to that record a lot and then hearing you do it,
I thought he did a really good job--
Oh, cheers.
- --on the vocals, man. - Yeah.
Well, this guy-- you know, this--
we know that Jacob's a proper musician in the band.
ANSON BOON: A proper musician proper.
PAUL COOK: Well, you
JACOB SLATER: --as proper as a musician can be.
PAUL COOK: He was the one.
You was a drummer.
You could play the drums. JACOB SLATER: Yeah.
Yeah. ANSON BOON: Roughly, yeah.
PAUL COOK: That's how you got the job, wasn't it?
Yeah, well--
--because you can't act, obviously.
Well, yeah.
I mean, that's-- that goes without saying.
But, yeah, I had to get it in somehow.
But, yeah, man.
Yeah, I had a basic understanding of the drums.
I'm more of a guitarist.
But I learnt from listening to all Who records
and stuff when I was younger.
I wanted to be Keith Moon when I was about this big,
much to my mother's disappointment.
You and Zach going to need your room back?
WOMAN: It's getting late.
Malcolm McLaren is coming to see us rehearse tomorrow.
How lovely.
15 more minutes?
I'll tell Dad.
JACOB SLATER (AS PAUL COOK): All right.
Thanks, mom.
We were saying on the way over here
that no job is going to be like this one--
ANSON BOON: No.
LOUIS PARTRIDGE: --that freedom that we've had
and just the stuff that we've been able to do
has just been out of this world really.
ANSON BOON: You said about how fun was
it playing these characters. - Yeah.
ANSON BOON: I said on the way here,
earlier I was sitting in my hotel room on my own,
and we'd been together all day.
And I suddenly felt really sad.
And I thought-- LOUIS PARTRIDGE: Yeah.
--in a couple of weeks, it's all going to be over.
Yeah.
And I'm never going to have an excuse to do--
STEVE JONES: Yeah.
ANSON BOON: --anything wrong again.
And I'm never going to--
I'm not going to have any particular--
LOUIS PARTRIDGE: More fun time.
ANSON BOON: --excuse to have to see these lot again--
STEVE JONES: Yeah.
ANSON BOON: --which is going to be sad.
STEVE JONES: We all did a-- you did a brilliant job
ANSON BOON: Thank you.
STEVE JONES: Honestly, it was great.
You never know, they might do another documentary
on the '96 reunion tour.
Maybe.
- You'll be just so hyped. - No, that's--
Yeah, exactly.
--that was boring.
That was--
ANSON BOON: Yeah.
--that was a nightmare.
That was horrible.
Finsbury Park is one of my favorite gigs, though,
of all time. The first gig--
STEVE JONES: That was brilliant. - --our first.
ANSON BOON: Wasn't Gareth Southgate there?
Him and Psycho introduced us.
LOUIS PARTRIDGE: No way. - Yeah.
LOUIS PARTRIDGE: Blimey.
Yeah.
PAUL COOK: And it was a day after England had
just beat Spain on penalties in the quarter
finals of the Euros.
Oh, yeah.
So everything, it was great.
And it was our first gig back in England since '77 or something.
And, yeah, it's special.
It was special.
That was one of them gigs because the first
time we played in England after 20-whatever years,
and it was one.
And it was like-- it was kind of an emotional one, wasn't it?
Yeah it was, yeah.
It was great.
What was your favorite Sex Pistols song, apart from--
so you had "Bodies."
I remember you saying the "Holidays in the Sun."
Every day they would--
ANSON BOON: Oh, that was a good one.
- Really? - Yeah
I love "Holidays in the Sun."
Just the intro to "Bodies," it's so mean.
It's just terrifying, you know, like--
[VOCALIZING GUITAR STRINGS] ANSON BOON: Yeah.
STEVE JONES: Yeah.
ANSON BOON: Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Sound like a Stooges tune or something.
LOUIS PARTRIDGE: Yeah.
I really like it.
I quite like "No Feelings" just because it's so fast,
and-- ANSON BOON: Yeah.
--it's kind of cool.
It's sort of tuneful.
But I agree, "Bodies" is something else to play.
It's so powerful. - So "Holidays,"
--on the bass as well.
"--Holidays", "No Feelings," and "Bodies?"
No. I come and go.
I'll say "Submission" to be honest, just because it's--
Oh, make your mind up.
JACOB SLATER: "Submissions" is a great song.
ANSON BOON: Maybe "Submissions" is--
STEVE JONES: That's where you first meet Nancy.
Yeah. It's in part-- oh, did you--
JACOB SLATER: Yeah.
But hearing what Underworld did with that as well, they
just sort of-- they made it--
That kind of drone?
Yeah, trinculate it. STEVE JONES: Yeah.
No, it's great. - Aw, it was so cool.
The best lyric is "no future."
I love that.
Yeah?
Just a really loud "no future."
And when-- I remember me and Tobey
used to listen to it loads.
And you can hear--
I don't know whether it's both of you
or one of you doing the backing underneath, probably
both of you.
Of the end of "God Save the Queen?"
Yeah.
Yeah we'd always-- it always a couple of us singing that,
right, back in vocals?
Me and you on all the songs, I think.
Most-- yeah, most of the songs. STEVE JONES: Yeah.
ANSON BOON: Oh, nice. - Yeah.
STEVE JONES: Glenn was gone at this point.
It was just me and you.
Yeah, just me and you doing it.
Me and you, kid.
And I want to thank my guests, Anson Boon.
Thank you.
Yeah.
[LAUGHING]
ANSON BOON: Thank you.
Jacob "Slaughter--"
Thank you very much
--Slater, and Louis Partridge, thank you.
Thank you.
And Sir Paul Thomas Cook.
[LAUGHTER]
See you later.
And you can stream all episodes of "Pistol Now."
[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]