John Lydon: Soundtrack of my Life

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john lydon, john+lydon, johnny rotten, pop, punk, sex pistols, sex+pistols

Published Oct. 31, 2009 at 7:05 p.m.

The Sex Pistol and PiL star on a run-in with Steeleye Span and why Green Day are rip-offs ... Discovering music ... THE KINKS YOU REALLY GOT ME (1964) ... Somebody's elder brother had it, I remember it was on Pye Records, and my God, that insane guitar started it all for me. But I have to be careful about sharing my tastes in music because it comes back to haunt you. I said once that I liked Van der Graaf Generator andbefore I knew it I was accused of ripping them off. Perhaps it's safer to

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The Record Doctor meets… Ben Elton

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johnny rotten, music, pop, punk, punk's, sex pistols, streets, suede

Published Oct. 31, 2009 at 7:05 p.m.

Comedian, friend of the stars and writer of hit musicals. But he can't play a note, and that really upsets him ... In his agent's office in London's Soho Square, Ben Elton looks up from checking his emails and, not for the first time, sounds pleased with himself. "Great," he says, more to himself than Record Doctor, "I have got my Cliff gag past Brian May." The 50-year-old comedian turned novelist snaps shut his laptop and, at breakneck speed, defends the daft-haired man with whom he worked on

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Album: The Slits, Trapped Animal, (Sweet Nothing)

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johnny rotten's, post-punk, punk

Published Oct. 24, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.
578247-album--the-slits--trapped-animal---sweet-nothing

If it's surprising that post-punk legends The Slits have made an album as fresh as this after a 25-year hiatus, remember that they were, famously, very young to begin with. (Ari Up, Johnny Rotten's stepdaughter, was 14 in 1976.) ...

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The record doctor: Paul Mardles talks to Rupert Grint, star of the Harry Potter films

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bloody valentine, blur, britpop, cast, clash, glasvegas, johnny rotten, longpigs, oasis, pop, punk, punk's, sex pistols, shack, sid [vicious, sid vicious, streets, suede

Published July 11, 2009 at 6:05 p.m.

To Harry Potter and the Hogwarts staff, he's known as Ron Weasley. To Paul Mardles, he's a young actor in need of a musical education ... "Hello there," says Rupert Grint, "I'm Rupert Grint and ... I'm ... I'm ... " The Harry Potter star pauses, bites his lip and, deep in concentration, takes a swig of Coke. To his chagrin, he's been asked to recite the rap he recorded for a video aged 10, in which he outlined why he should be cast as Ron Weasley, the boy wizard's pal, in Harry Potter and the

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Book review: The England's Dreaming Tapes by John Savage

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british, joe strummer, johnny rotten, pop, punk, sid vicious, sid vicious's

Published June 13, 2009 at 6:05 p.m.

The last word on the era, from the safety-pinned gobs of the key players ... Eighteen years after the publication of England's Dreaming, Jon Savage's exhaustive history of British punk, comes this selection of the interviews that provided the raw material for the book. Quite why it took so long to publish them is anyone's guess, but they stand up on their own as an impressionistic insider's view of the most tumultuous time in British pop ... Savage recorded the interviews in 1988 and 1989, and

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Critic at large: Paul Morley on the British Music Experience at the O2

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amy winehouse, british, britpop, cure, johnny rotten, lily allen, mia, noel gallagher, oasis, pop, punk

Published March 14, 2009 at 7:11 p.m.

Visiting the new British Music Experience at The O2, Paul Morley confronts some bewildering history and worries about his own future ... I don't know about you, but I know somewhere between 26 and 43% of most that there is to know about some parts of the generalised recent history of popular music. In some areas, I can claim percentages into the seventies, and when it comes to one or two subjects, I can nudge 90. Such knowledge has made me moderately capable when called upon to operate as a rock

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Critic at large: If Bob Dylan can collude with the Co-op, then why can't Paul Morley acquire a corporate chum?

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john lydon, johnny rotten, lily allen, new order's, pop

Published Feb. 14, 2009 at 7:01 p.m.

I don't know about you, but before this column melts away, or shrinks to the size of 140 characters, or goes to work as a dresser for Graham Norton, or agrees under near-cruel emotional pressure that Fleet Foxes are "life-affirming" and that Lady GaGa has an artistic vision as a pop writer, I'm going to sell out, or buy in - or whatever the phrase is considering that this column is now going to be featured in a television campaign with tie-in magazine coverage and a sponsorship deal that means

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Sid Vicious: Little boy lost, by Jon Savage

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cast, james, john lydon, johnny rotten, pop, post-punk, public image, punk, sex pistols, sid vicious, sid+vicious, streets

Published Jan. 17, 2009 at 7:01 p.m.

The voice is quavery and hesitant, the sound of a frightened, exhausted young man. The trebly nature of the recording - on a cassette, over the telephone - makes him sound old, paper-thin, and accentuates the slight hitch in his voice. For he is talking, quietly and surely, about his own self-destruction: "I can't drink, I can't, like the doctor said if I drank anything even remotely like the way I've been drinking for the past however long, I've got six months at the absolute outside to live."

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