SEX PISTOLS – Chris Spedding Demos
So why was Chris Spedding called in anyway to clean up the music for the compilation CD Disorder by the Ugly? Well, as it turns out, Spedding was the producer on the first demos made by Sex Pistols, back in May 1976 – the Ramones album that had also fired up the Ugly was released in the previous month.
The Sex Pistols demos have recently been reissued on CD; according to Spedding though: “They are not the same mixes that I did. Dave Goodman, the other producer besides Chris Thomas, went in and re-did them and added a lot of echo to them and added stuff to them. . . . The mixes I did sound better. I’m quite proud of the Sex Pistols demos, especially when compared to their other later recordings. . . . Part of why they ([manager Malcolm] McLaren and Sex Pistols) didn’t like my demo was because I like R&B. . . . The whole point of my demo – to prove they could play – that’s what I pushed. . . . And that’s what McLaren wanted people to think: that they couldn’t play, that was just an idea, a way of making all this anarchy stuff happen.”
Actually Sid Vicious – a late addition to Sex Pistols – was the only member who couldn’t play his instrument. And there is also no doubt that the Ugly are accomplished musicians, nihilistic though they might be.
(November 2011)
