Sex Pistols, Goldfinger and Gravity Kills
Tough times during my studies at the UCLA. In could never believe that student life in Summer Time is like in the movies. Just the party people and the foreigners are staying there. Party all night long. Spare rooms without couples having sex was rare and the swimming pool were the place of orgies. The sportive guys went for the Summer Games in Atlanta, had there satisfaction there and became a great welcome back party.
Each night the Sunset Blvd and the La Cienega Blvd was the place to be. The guy working in the bathroom of “The Gate” gave you paper napkins after throwing up, “the Billboard Live” was the place for big plastic boobs hunters (nothing for me), Johnny Depp never opened his doors of the Viper Room for us, so Whisky A Go Go became my second home.
Each night walking on Sunset Blvd returning to my student home (Henric Hall) I saw weard folks in this street. Sometimes I even thought it’s better to walk on the other side of the street. But all this changed in the night of the 25th of August 1996. In this night I went to see the old farts Sex Pistols at the Hollywood Palladium.
4 hours of Pogo Dancing and heavy drinking. The opening band Goldfinger were already a highlight of the concert. Fantastic ska and punk mix music and this guys were really rebellious. The Palladium was full with banners saying “NO STAGE DIVING”, “NO CROWED SURFING” and so on. On the upper tier Bon Jovi was enjoying the show and the singer of Golfinger showed him his butt yelling not really nice words to the rich “upper class”.
The second band was Gravity Kills. Good rock. It was the right time to see them, because their song “Guilty” was still in my ears remembering the movie “Seven”.
Finally the Sex Pistols entered the stage. John (Rotten) Lydon was still looking weard and his “voice” really haven’t change a lot. How could it. Paul Cook and especially Steve Jones still though they are sexy although maybe not able to held back their own pee anymore. And although Glen Matlock was the original bass player there was no spirit in the air. Easy to explain: Sid was missing!
The well known songs and crowd made me dancing and sweating for hours and endorphine made me very happy. Everybody was dancing and singing but there were only four man which didn’t even moved more than a few fingers and their mouth: the old farts on stage. I know, in the past this was the job of Sid Vicious who invented the Pogo, but come on… Well, I’m kind of proud that I had the chance to see them, but on the other hand: sometimes it’s better to remember the fantasies influenced by the media and not seeing their pitty in real life. Did Sid, Jim, Janis, Jimmy and all the others know?
I walked down again the Sunset Blvd exhausted, wasted and bleeding (well, we danced Pogo) but this time it was different. I experienced what it’s like to be the reason why people are changing side walks. I never could have though off, that all this weared folks I was a little bit scared about, were party people which just had a good night out.
Don’t worry - enjoy SUNSET BLVD