Sex Pistol Attacks Journalist - Guitar Hero III Launch

By Adam Hartley

That Dirty Rotten Scoundrel and punk rock icon, Johnny Rotten slammed a gathering of British games journalists in London last night, at one point throwing his microphone in anger at one of the crowd. A secret gig? No, the the launch of Activision's Guitar Hero III.

You can see all of our pics of the Guitar Hero III launch at The Hoxton Square Bar right and below. I tried to wangle an interview with Lydon/Rotten prior to his spectacular rant, but the reformed Sex Pistols were unfortunately hiding away behind a curtain and a solid wall of PRs and managers.

Two of the other members of the band, guitarist Steve Jones and bassist Glen Matlock, had left the building prior to Lydon's appearance. I feel for them, they've had to put up with this for over 30 years!

I did, however, manage to grab (stalk) Lydon outside for a few minutes before the launch while he was having a crafty fag. Unbelievably, the man is actually even more frighteningly insane than his reputation suggests; though it's hard to tell how much of it is the Johnny Rotten show and how much is John Lydon. I suppose that as he's been putting on the Johnny Rotten show for so long now, it's hard for him too.

I'll transcribe the strange rant he came out with later today and, if any of it makes any kind of rational sense, it will be posted right here. All I can remember is that it involved a rather surreal stream-of-consciousness seemingly centred on the pleasures of fornicating with goats. Perhaps it's best left untranscribed... (Is it bollocks! Get transcribing! Ed)

SPOnG will also post the MP3 recording of John's hilarious and unhinged 'press conference' here as soon as we get it off the sound man who recorded "through the desk", man.

Lydon did not disappoint. He ranted and ranted and then threw a microphone at one hack, to whom he took exception; 'beardy wanker' was his name, apparently. It was a hugely entertaining spectacle event though little of it made much sense.

When I asked him about his life in Malibu, John told me, “It’s fucking great. A fire every week, an earthquake and then an earthslide. Yeah, cosy".

The bouncers were then alerted as John puffed on a ciggie on stage, slamming life in the UK: “I’ve been away a few years and it gets more and more mediocre here. It’s now fucking coffee shops and wine bars and you can’t smoke anywhere".

Good point, John!

Listening to my own - poor quality - recording of this shambolic performance, I can just about make out the Beardy Wanker exchange, which went something like this.

Beardy Wanker: “It’s easy to moan about this country when you don’t live here".

Lydon: (throws mic' in anger) “I’m not moaning. I’m telling you (that) you wankers have settled for fuck all. I’m out of here. You, you fool, you think cos I come from here I’ve got no right to comment cos I’ve gone elsewhere. You are still here and you ain’t changed shit".

Frankly, SPOnG thinks the man has a point.

The Pistols kick off their five-date UK tour in Brixton tonight to mark the 30th anniversary of the seminal UK punk rock album album Never Mind The Bollocks.

Guitar Hero III is out next week. We'll be reviewing the Wii version as soon as we get our mitts on it.