Sex Pistols

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In 1976, a British prime-time television presenter once defied Johnny Rotten to "Say Something Outrageous" in front of half the nation. This man clearly didn't have a clue. It was too late. Steve Jones and Paul Cook had already spent five years cooking up their master stroke against the government, capitalists, hippies, prog-rock and the system in general, under the management of Malcom McLaren and Vivienne Westwood from their anti fashion boutique sex. In fact, that shop gave the band its image of collage, sado-masochism, recycling, incredible hair dye and provocative messages. But it was the arrival of a new and extreme frontman, John Lydon, -nicknamed Rotten because of the state of his teeth- and the incorporation of Sid Vicious –more for his looks and his attitude than for his musical abilities-, which really allowed them to tune their ideas and light the fuse of their Molotov cocktail of nihilism, arrogance, protest and psychosis. Amazing, then, that despite all the provocation and excess, spats with the music industry (EMI, A&M Records and Virgin all got stung by them), endless censorship and cancelled shows, and even a performance of 'God Save The Queen' in front of Buckingham Palace, the Pistols did manage to create 'Never Mind The Bollocks - Here's The Sex Pistols' (1977), one of the biggest rock albums in history, which proudly celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. After having recently witnessed John Lydon hugging a koala bear on a reality TV show and him likening anyone on the Wall Of Fame to 'piss stains', there's just no telling what they'll do next. In 1997, a palaeontologist christened a species of trilobite fossils with the sweet names Arcticalymene Rotteni, A. Viciousi, A. Jonesi, A. Cooki and A. Matlocki. They could well be the perfect pieces of stone to build a Wall Of Fame worthy of such creatures.