SEX PISTOLS EXPOSÉ + THE LIMEYS – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 22.7.22
Tonight, Brighton beach was buzzing with thousands of revellers out to have a good time courtesy of Fatboy Slim. I chuckled at the cheekily moored 36 boats on the sea watching the open air gig for free, as well as a number of others standing on pill boxes on Marine Parade. Further reading on that matter can be read HERE.
This evening for me, however, was the joys of music of a totally different kind…punk rock! Across from the beach at 10 Marine Parade is Patterns and that’s where I’m headed……………
Tonight, punk fans were getting the chance to experience the raw energy and excitement of the Sex Pistols Exposé. They are a rather decent tribute act that morphed out of the Sex Pistols Experience. In some circles the ‘Exposé’ are considered as the world’s No.1 tribute to the infamous punk rock legends that included Rotten, Viscous, Cook and Jones. Apparently they have even been approved by all surviving members of the Sex Pistols.
This certainly brings a high expectancy with such an accolade, but wherever they perform, it conjures up those heady days of punk rock which saw Vicious officially join ‘The Pistols’ back on 28th February 1977. Thus, there is no room for a representation of Glen Matlock amongst the ranks, despite him penning a great number of the anthems.
The Sex Pistols Exposé endeavour to faithfully recreate the sound of the timeless tracks found ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’ (and beyond) which was originally recorded from October 1976 until August 1977 and was unleashed to the world on 28th October 1977.
For the duration of their 80 minute, 22 song set, Patterns was relatively busy, but not sold out. I’m presuming that some of the other local punks and hard rock’n’rollers had instead headed up to the Green Door Store below Brighton railway station to absorb the delights of the scantily clad French born sisters from Cape Town known as the Soap Girls. The Brighton & Hove News covered their 2018 Brighton concert – Read it HERE.
The ‘Exposé’ arrived with minutes to spare and before we knew it their nostalgic spoken intro tape was blasting over the PA and the lighting was beaming down from the ceiling to where the quartet were going to be.
They took to the stage and kicked off with ‘Seventeen’ AKA ‘Lazy Sod’ from the Sex Pistols ‘Never Mind…’ album. It was great and blew away all of the efforts of the support act – see below.
The Johnny Rotten character seriously looks how Lydon used to and is equally quick witted, with his mockingly scathing tongue. Part of the fun of attending an ‘Exposé’ performance is to lap up and laugh out loud at the 1977 banter. The first of many during the 80 minutes being the risqué “Look at that c*nt at the front in a mullet, don’t worry I’m a c*nt too, you are what you eat!”. Other hilarity featured: “It’s nice to see fat people having fun!” and when a punter blurted out “Why have you got Billy Idol on drums?”, Rotten’s immediate reply within a second being “Belly Idol you mean”.
You seriously have to go with the flow with these ‘mock rock’ performances, unless you’re Boring Bob Harris that is! Poor dear, he couldn’t handle it.
The band didn’t stick to their setlists during the night, but ‘Liar’ was up next and another decent rendition and ‘E.M.I.’ and ‘Pretty Vacant’ were great too. In my mind, I was beginning to weigh up the relevance of this act now with that of Public Image Ltd right now. I have to say it’s very very close!
The punk rock classics came and went until Rotten left the stage to change his garb and to let the Sid character have a go. I noted that the ‘Exposé’ Sid was a younger than the one I had previously witnessed at an Sex Pistols Experience gig back in December 2018. Both looked the part with sneers a plenty, but tonight’s was a bit too Neanderthal for my liking and work is needed on the ‘My Way’ rendition.
The ‘Kuitie’ Steve Jones character had a go on vocals too. This was for the latter ‘Silly Thing’ which at the time back in the day had more of a Professionals vibe than ‘The Pistols’. Arguably ‘Kutie’ was initially the brains (and the balls) of the originals and I would urge punk and Pistols fans to watch Danny Boyle’s 6-part “dramatization” of Jones ‘Lonely Boy’ book, ‘Pistol’. Unfortunately my partner Jordan Mooney never got to see it as she passed away 58 days prior to its launch. Jordan was the only person allowed on set during the filming to advise Danny, others and her character actor played exceptionally well by ‘Game Of Thrones’ star Maisie Williams.
Back to tonight and the Rotten character returned to the stage for the final four numbers ‘Holidays In The Sun’, ‘Bodies’, ‘Satellite’ and ‘Anarchy In The U.K.’. ‘Bodies’ was delivered with all the aggression one would expect and is still shocking today. But the morbidity didn’t last as ‘Anarchy’ was preceded with the comical “I can’t believe it’s not butter” statement in reference to the infamous ‘Countrylife British Butter’ TV advert.
At ten to ten, that was it….. “you get what you’re given and f*cking like it!”……and we did!
Tonight’s approximately corrected setlist with details of where the original versions can be found:
“Intro tape”
‘Seventeen’ AKA ‘Lazy Sod’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Liar’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Don’t Give Me No Lip, Child’ AKA ‘No Lip’ (‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘E.M.I.’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Pretty Vacant’ (a-side of ‘Pretty Vacant’ single & ‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘New York’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Problems’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘No Feelings’ (b-side of A&M ‘God Save The Queen’ single & ‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘I Wanna Be Me’ (‘b-side of ‘Anarchy In The U.K.’ single & ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘Did You No Wrong’ (b-side of Virgin ‘God Save The Queen’ single)
‘God Save The Queen’ (a-side of ‘God Save The Queen’ single & ‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Belsen Was A G**’ (‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘Submission’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Substitute’ (‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘C’Mon Everybody’ (a-side of ‘C’Mon Everybody’ single & ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘Something Else’ (a-side of ‘Something Else’ single & ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘Silly Thing’ (‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘My Way’ (b-side of ‘No One Is Innocent’ single & ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ album)
‘Holidays In The Sun’ (a-side of ‘Holidays In The Sun’ single & ‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Bodies’ (‘Never Mind…’ album)
‘Satellite’ (b-side of ‘Holidays In The Sun’ single)
‘Anarchy In The U.K.’ (a-side of ‘Anarchy In The U.K.’ single & ‘Never Mind…’ album)
Find out more: www.facebook.com/sexpistolsexpose
Support came from The Limeys who tonight, for their half hour set (from 7:33pm to 8:03pm), are just Paul on vocals and guitar and Rob on drums. God knows where bassist and backing vocalist Mike got to?
They specialise in playing 1970’s punk and proto punk songs, in a raw stripped back style, which is loud, loose and rockin’. They belt out covers of Sex Pistols, The Damned, Ramones, The Stooges and Hawkwind and the like.
The venue was a little sparse during their set and the lighting was only on the band from above the stage, which was alright, but sadly there was no in venue forward lighting on them and thus partial darkness was the order of the day. I must congratulate our photographer Cris Watkins who has made it look brighter than it actually was with his decent shots.
To be honest, The Limeys 11 track set’s sound only really equates to the noise emanating from start-up bands rehearsing in garages in and around council estates throughout the land. But they did update the wording of Anti Pasti’s ‘No Government’ with “No Boris Johnson and No Tory C*nts”, which was topical.
Their proposed last number ‘Surfin’ Bird’ was omitted due to time constraints as the Sex Pistols Exposé has to put together their own drumset. The joys of having mainly a left handed and a right handed drummer on the same bill.
The Limeys setlist:
‘Durango 95’ (made famous by the Ramones)
‘Janie Jones’ (made famous by The Clash)
‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ (made famous by The Stooges)
‘New Rose’ (made famous by The Damned)
‘Chinese Rocks’ (made famous by the Heartbreakers)
‘Silver Machine’ (made famous by Hawkwind)
‘No Government’ (made famous by Anti Pasti)
‘Born To Lose’ (made famous by the Heartbreakers)
‘Action Time Vision’ (made famous by Alternative TV)
‘What’s My Name’ (made famous by The Clash)
‘Sonic Reducer’ (made famous by The Dead Boys)
More info on the band can be found HERE.
