WAS going to call the new album SOS after Same Old S--- but then thought better not." With such an opening line you have to take a shine to Glen Matlock. Of course the SOS reference might have been a reference to factors other than On Something, Matlock's new album with his band the Philistines (which is, in fact, very good in a traditional pop-rocky kind of way). This is after all the melodic Sex Pistol, the relatively nice boy who got the bullet from the band because he liked the Beatles and Abba - if you believe the bible according to Rotten - or even more bizarrely because "he was always washing his feet" if you defer to guitarist Steve Jones. Whatever, whenever Matlock does any interviews with hacks to promote any new material the Sex word will invariably rear its ugly head. The publicist had already fired a warning shot to avoid questions of the "what's Johnny Rotten really like?" variety.. But not to mention the most notorious British band of them all would have to be an impossibility. So when the enquiry finally slips out the amiable Cockney is almost resigned to answering it. "I suppose it's written in stone now and being in the Pistols is a bloody hard thing to live down." In fact when pushed Matlock will admit to being proud of the work he did with the band, his musical input spawning most of the great tracks on Never Mind the B------, Here's the Sex Pistols which still sounds as razor sharp and raucous as it did when first released an astonishing 27 years ago. There can be little doubt that when Matlock left to be replaced by the damaged creature that was Sid Vicious the Pistols' brief standing as a musical force was snuffed out. Matlock, who wrote possibly the ultimate punk anthem Pretty Vacant, agrees - but his voice is shorn of bitterness. "More people seem to know now than they did then about how much I did put into it. I suppose a lot of is come from having to blow your own trumpet. It's a case of don't let the bastards grind you down. Whichever way you look at it, though, it does pay the bills" These royalties and the lucrative Filthy Lucre tour in which the Pistols forgot their apparent differences to reform in the mid 90s, may have gone some way to ensuring that Glen would have been able to quit the rock 'n' roll malarky.. So why isn't Matlock, who celebrates his 48th birthday this week, putting up his slippered feet up to relax in front of the television to grow old gracefully. "Because there's nothing on the bloody telly, that's why," jokes Matlock, who currently has not one but two projects on the go. There is of course the new Phillistines album which is due for release on October 4 and which will be promoted with a short nationwide tour. He says many of the album's songs are about personal experiences something he says his big mate former Wah! man Pete Wylie knows all about. "Wylie had an album called Songs of Strength and Heartbreak which were all about personal experience. That's what most albums tend to be written about - the trials and tribulations that are laid upon you." Then there's laconically titled Dead Men Walking, the "supergroup" of other fortysomethings featuring Glen, Mike Peters from The Alarm, Spear of Destiny's Kirk Brandon, Bruce Watson of Big Country and new addition, the drummer Slim Jim Phantom, late of those rockabilly rebels The Stray Cats. They'll be appearing at Liverpool's Academy II on Friday October 1 and a fun time should be had by all with Matlock hoping to be bump into his chum Wylie, late of the Dead Men. Matlock insists that this has not become a mature rocker's hobby, an accusation that when he was part of the Pistols - who tried their best to overhaul the old guard of the rock heirarchy - he may have levelled at himself. He cites the example of guitar legend Mick Ronson who after the break-up with Bowie and the Spiders of Mars kept plugging away. Ronson was producing Matlock's first band after his Pistols split, the Rich Kids, when Glen asked him why he kept going on the rock bandwagon. "He said he'd go to a club and see some band and after two numbers think 'I can do that'. To me music is about communication and there's no better buzz than when you're communicating with an audience." Warming to his task and to prove that there's life in the old dog yet Matlock launches into tirade that's laced with a hint of self mockery. "I'm on a mission to cure the media of their ageism. I hate this idea that only the young bands can be played on Radio One and because we're older we're only supposed to fit into the Radio 2 slot. If not then you're nowhere. Well it ain't good enough and I ain't having it! I'm gonna keep on playing until they get sick and tired of me and if they don't like it well then that's tough!" Like I said, you can't help taking a shine to Glen Matlock. | 
