God Save the Queene: Sex Pistols, Shakespeare, and Punk [Anti-]History

Abstract

Even thirty years later, one discerns from footage of Johnny Rotten what made the Sex Pistols so terrifying to the British establishment: in jam-packed clubs overwhelmed by the seeming chaos of human bodies in motion, under a storm of “gobs” and flying beer bottles, over the sounds of breaking glass, piercing screams, and Steve Jones’ (guitarist) intimidating “wall of sound,” the twenty-year-old Rotten channels a genuine rage, a barely restrained violence all the more menacing because of the unmistakable intelligence in his eyes. The infamous characteristics are all there: the dramatic hunchbacked postures, the writhing upper body, the angry sneer, and the unblinking, open-eyed Clockwork Orange stare (see figure 9.1). One knows that all of the violence in the room is being orchestrated and, at the same time, held in check by Rotten himself: if he sneezes, one feels, there just might be a riot.