{"id":937176,"date":"2026-05-04T13:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/937176\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:23:21","slug":"glen-matlocks-i-was-a-teenage-sex-pistol-set-for-digital-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/937176\/","title":{"rendered":"Glen Matlock’s ‘I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol’ Set For Digital Release"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFour years after guitarist Steve Jones teamed up with director Danny Boyle to tell the saga of the Sex Pistols<\/a> from his perspective in the FX miniseries Pistol, which took a somewhat loose approach to facts, <\/a>founding bassist Glen Matlock has joined forces with directors Andre Relis and Nick Mead to tell the band\u2019s story as he saw it in the new documentary I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film features new interviews with Matlock, Jones, Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook, Bill Idol, Debbie Harry, and many other key figures from the punk scene. It will be available to buy or rent on digital streaming platforms on May 26. Pre-orders begin May 12 on Apple TV.<\/a> In this exclusive clip, Matlock talks about co-writing \u201cGod Save The Queen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI Was a Teenage Sex Pistol is loosely based on Matlock\u2019s 1996 memoir of the same name. \u201cIt was written as a way of me dealing with the aftermath of the initial Sex Pistols brush with fame and was a way of dealing with the manner I felt I\u2019d been passed over in musical folklore, telling the tale of my contribution to the band \u2014 which I think without which the group wouldn\u2019t have had the success it did,\u201d he says in a statement.\u00a0 \u201cIt speaks of behind-the-scenes tales of internal politics and subterfuge and the battle to have a young man\u2019s voice heard in the maelstrom that was about to ensue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film has a whole host of peers and contemporaries who help me get across my side of the story,\u201d he continues. \u201cNow, the band has reformed in different guises since then, but now back in the fold, I feel more than a little vindicated. As I went through the process of writing about those early days, a state of cathartic self-confidence emerged and helped me deal with what was what and where that might lead. For anybody interested in the birth of British punk and its effect on the then-wider music scene, I\u2019d suggest it\u2019s essential viewing, but then I would say that!\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMatlock co-wrote a large percentage of the material for 1977\u2019s\u00a0Never Mind the Bollocks! Here\u2019s the Sex Pistols, the group\u2019s one proper studio album, but he was fired before they recorded the bulk of it. He only appears on \u201cAnarchy in the UK.\u201d The FX series Pistol portrays him as privileged and disconnected from the genuine punk movement. It also shows Jones firing him in the bathroom of a pub, at the urging of manager Malcolm McLaren.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Matlock, this was all a gross mischaracterization. He\u2019s always claimed he made the decision to leave the band, tired of endless fights with John Lydon and McLaren. \u201cI told Danny Boyle what really happened and he totally ignored me,\u201d Matlock told Rolling Stone in 2025.<\/a> \u201cMaybe it\u2019s not a big deal, but it\u2019s important to me. It comes across as a quasi-documentary, and people won\u2019t know any better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tJones understands Matlock\u2019s position. \u201cGlen and I talked about it, but he\u2019s never going to be happy about that,\u201d the guitarist told Rolling Stone in 2025.<\/a> \u201cYeah, he came across a little bit of a scapegoat, I guess. Danny Boyle wanted it that way, but I was happy with it because it was about my book, and I loved it. Look, it\u2019s not a documentary. It\u2019s a biopic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol is a documentary. Just don\u2019t expect to see a new interview with Lydon. He\u2019s completely estranged from his former bandmates, who now tour with punk singer Frank Carter at the helm. Plans for a US tour were delayed last year when Jones broke his wrist. But he\u2019s healed up, and they\u2019re coming Stateside in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years after guitarist Steve Jones teamed up with director Danny Boyle to tell the saga of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,4576,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-937176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-sex-pistols","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116516527046702368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}