I went to the National Portrait Gallery the other evening to hear David McAlmont talk about his fascination with paintings about English kings called Edward and their wars against the Scots and Welsh. It was, I think, the hottest evening of the summer so far so the air-con in the NPG was most welcome. But my reason for blogging is the postcard I saw in the NPG shop on the way out, a portrait of the Sex Pistols from 1990 that I've never seen before.
Here we have the original Pistols line-up of John Lydon, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock. Sid replaced Glen in 1978 and that was his downfall. I saw the Pistols in 2007 and John referred to them at the end of the gig as the best band in the world and, that night, they were. And the loudest.
I've seen Glen around London a few times in the past few years, most recently back in January at Viv Albertine's gig at Bar12 and last year at the Marc Bolan celebration at Shepherd's Bush. Keeping it real, Glen.
The Pistols were also the poster boys for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2007 about photo-journalism called 'Daily Encounters'. I didn't see that exhibition but loved the poster on the railings outside the Gallery.
One of these days I'll have to have a browse through the Gallery's catalogue for pictures of other heroes and curate my own exhibition. A portrait of Poly Styrene is in the photo collection and that was shown as part of the Devotional exhibition in 2007 (that was a good year for punks, it seems). I wonder who else is in there...?
Here we have the original Pistols line-up of John Lydon, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock. Sid replaced Glen in 1978 and that was his downfall. I saw the Pistols in 2007 and John referred to them at the end of the gig as the best band in the world and, that night, they were. And the loudest.
I've seen Glen around London a few times in the past few years, most recently back in January at Viv Albertine's gig at Bar12 and last year at the Marc Bolan celebration at Shepherd's Bush. Keeping it real, Glen.
The Pistols were also the poster boys for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2007 about photo-journalism called 'Daily Encounters'. I didn't see that exhibition but loved the poster on the railings outside the Gallery.
One of these days I'll have to have a browse through the Gallery's catalogue for pictures of other heroes and curate my own exhibition. A portrait of Poly Styrene is in the photo collection and that was shown as part of the Devotional exhibition in 2007 (that was a good year for punks, it seems). I wonder who else is in there...?
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