lyrics project

No Point
Artist: The Sex Pistols
Song: Pretty Vacant
Album: Never Mind The Bollocks
Model: April Blue
Location: Bedminster, Bristol

Notes:-
The godfathers of Punk (well…to me they were) released this song in 1977. I was 12 years old! I had no idea quite what the band were about or what they represented but I loved the reaction they got from pretty much all ‘grown-ups’. Even at that young age I was tired of being told what to do and how to act, especially at school. The music of the time was, to me, lacking in excitement and I really didn’t identify with it at all. Then, the Sex Pistols came along. Even their name was naughty! The music was hard, had energy and I’d never heard anything like it. I remember writing their name on one of my schoolbooks and a teacher saw it. I don’t remember the exact words he said but I know he wasn’t complimentary. All this did was attract me to the band even more…If teachers and parents hated it, it had to be good! It was my way of having an identity I suppose. Years of adapting my own clothes to drainpipes and adding zips ensued and I never looked back!

The song is a two-fingered salute to the establishment. It basically says, “I don’t care”. They didn’t care what the mainstream public and media said or thought about them. They didn’t care about money, fame, notoriety or anything really. They didn’t care about established rules and etiquette. They didn’t care about Queens and Governments or politics. They just sang a few songs and wore and looked like they wanted. They just carried on (all too briefly) being themselves and heading down a path to eventual destruction. It was enough though and it inspired thousands of kids to pick up a guitar and make music. Popular music was arguably never the same again…I was lucky to grow up in that era, it was free, dangerous, challenging and exciting. Little did I (or they) know the puppets the band really were.

I wanted a reference to the “no reply” element but I also wanted the style to have a 70’s punk feel. April got the look right and although I had shots of her ‘flipping the bird’, I liked this stance and eye contact. She looks strong, aggressive and defiant all at once. The punk movement for me didn’t differentiate between the sexes. Girls were even more inventive with their look than the guys, prepared to push the boundaries even further. This image, I hope, captures just a small part of what those times meant to me.

No Point
Artist: The Sex Pistols
Song: Pretty Vacant
Album: Never Mind The Bollocks
Model: April Blue
Location: Bedminster, Bristol

Notes:-
The godfathers of Punk (well…to me they were) released this song in 1977. I was 12 years old! I had no idea quite what the band were about or what they represented but I loved the reaction they got from pretty much all ‘grown-ups’. Even at that young age I was tired of being told what to do and how to act, especially at school. The music of the time was, to me, lacking in excitement and I really didn’t identify with it at all. Then, the Sex Pistols came along. Even their name was naughty! The music was hard, had energy and I’d never heard anything like it. I remember writing their name on one of my schoolbooks and a teacher saw it. I don’t remember the exact words he said but I know he wasn’t complimentary. All this did was attract me to the band even more…If teachers and parents hated it, it had to be good! It was my way of having an identity I suppose. Years of adapting my own clothes to drainpipes and adding zips ensued and I never looked back!

The song is a two-fingered salute to the establishment. It basically says, “I don’t care”. They didn’t care what the mainstream public and media said or thought about them. They didn’t care about money, fame, notoriety or anything really. They didn’t care about established rules and etiquette. They didn’t care about Queens and Governments or politics. They just sang a few songs and wore and looked like they wanted. They just carried on (all too briefly) being themselves and heading down a path to eventual destruction. It was enough though and it inspired thousands of kids to pick up a guitar and make music. Popular music was arguably never the same again…I was lucky to grow up in that era, it was free, dangerous, challenging and exciting. Little did I (or they) know the puppets the band really were.

I wanted a reference to the “no reply” element but I also wanted the style to have a 70’s punk feel. April got the look right and although I had shots of her ‘flipping the bird’, I liked this stance and eye contact. She looks strong, aggressive and defiant all at once. The punk movement for me didn’t differentiate between the sexes. Girls were even more inventive with their look than the guys, prepared to push the boundaries even further. This image, I hope, captures just a small part of what those times meant to me.