Brighton and Hove News » Sex Pistols Exposed – Brighton gig report
SEX PISTOLS EXPOSED + THE LIMEYS – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 22.7.22
Tonight, Brighton beach was buzzing with thousands of revelers who came to have a good time thanks to fat thin boy. I laughed at the 36 boats brazenly moored on the sea watching the outdoor concert for free, as well as a number of others standing on pillboxes on Marine Parade. Further reading on this subject can be read HERE.
Tonight for me, however, was the joy of music of a whole different genre… punk rock! Across the street from the beach at 10 Marine Parade is Patterns and that’s where I’m heading……………
Tonight, punk fans had the chance to experience the raw energy and excitement of Exposed by the Sex Pistols. It’s a pretty decent tribute act that morphed from the Sex Pistols experience. In some circles, Exposé is considered the world’s number one tribute to the infamous punk rock legends that included Rotten, Viscous, Cook and Jones. Apparently, they were even endorsed by all surviving members of the Sex Pistols.
It certainly brings great anticipation with such distinction, but wherever they occur, it evokes those heady days of punk rock that saw Vicious officially join “The Pistols” on February 28, 1977. So there’s no room for a performance of Glen Matlock among the ranks, although he has written a large number of hymns.
The Sex Pistols Exposé strive to faithfully recreate the sound of timeless tracks found “Never mind the bullshit, here come the Sex Pistols” (and beyond) which was originally recorded from October 1976 to August 1977 and was released to the world on October 28, 1977.
For the duration of their 80-minute, 22-song set, Patterns was relatively busy, but not exhausted. I suspect some of the other local punks and hard rock ‘n’ rollers instead headed to the Green Door Store under Brighton Station to absorb the delights of the scantily clad French sisters from the Cape known as soap girls. The Brighton & Hove News covered their Brighton gig in 2018 – Read it HERE.
“The Expose” arrived with a few minutes to spare and before we knew it, their nostalgic spoken intro tape was exploding over the PA system and lighting was racing from the ceiling to where the quartet was going to be.
They got on stage and started with ‘Seventeen’ A.K.A ‘Sod lazy’ Sex Pistols ‘Never mind…’ album. It was awesome and swept away all of the supporting act’s efforts – see below.
Johnny Rotten’s character seriously resembles what Lydon used to do and is just as quick-witted, with his mocking, scathing tongue. Part of the fun of attending an “Exposé” performance is lapping up and laughing out loud at the banter of 1977. First of many during the 80 minutes being the risque “Look at that c*nt up front in a mullet, don’t worry I’m in it too, you are what you eat!”. Other featured hilarity: “It’s good to see fat people having fun!” and when a bettor blurted out “Why do you have Billy Idol on drums?”, Rotten’s immediate response in the second being “Belly Idol you mean”.
You seriously have to go with the flow with these “fake rock” performances, unless you’re Boring Bob Harris of course! Poor darling, he couldn’t stand it.
The band didn’t stick to their setlists overnight, but ‘Liar’ was next and another decent rendition and ‘EMI’ and “Pretty empty” were great too. In my mind, I was beginning to weigh the relevance of this act now with that of Public Image Ltd at this time. I must say that it is very very close!
Punk rock classics came and went until Rotten walked off stage to change his outfit and let the character of Sid try his hand. I noted that the ‘Exposé’ Sid was younger than the one I had previously seen at a Sex Pistols Experience gig in December 2018. The two looked on the role a lot with sneers, but tonight it was was a little too Neanderthal for my taste and my work. is needed on the ‘My path’ interpretation.
“Kuitie” character Steve Jones has also dabbled in vocals. It was for the latter ‘Stupid thing’ which at the time had more of a professional vibe than “The Pistols”. Arguably ‘Kutie’ was initially the brains (and balls) of the originals and I’d urge punk and Pistols fans to watch Danny Boyle’s 6-part ‘dramatization’ of Jones ‘Lonely Boy’ book, ‘Gun’. Sadly my partner Jordan Mooney never got to see it as she passed away 58 days before it was launched. Jordan was the only person allowed on set during filming to advise Danny, Others and his character actor performed exceptionally well by ‘Game of Thrones’ star Maisie Williams.
Back to Tonight and Rotten’s character returned to the stage for the final four issues ‘Sun vacation’, ‘Body’, ‘Satellite’ and ‘Anarchy in the UK’. ‘Body’ was delivered with all the aggressiveness one would expect and which still shocks today. But the morbidity didn’t last that long ‘Anarchy’ was preceded by the comic “I can’t believe it’s not butter” statement in reference to the infamous ‘Countrylife British Butter’ TV advertising.
At ten to ten, that was it….. “You get what we give you and you like it!”……and we did it!
Tonight’s roughly corrected setlist with details on where the original versions can be found:
“Introductory Tape”
‘Seventeen’ A.K.A ‘Sod lazy’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
‘Liar’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
“Don’t give me a lip, child” A.K.A ‘No lip’ (“The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
‘EMI’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
“Pretty empty” (next to “Pretty empty” Single & ‘Never mind…’ album)
‘New York’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
‘Problems’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
‘No feelings’ (B-side of A&M ‘God Save the Queen’ Single & ‘Never mind…’ album)
“I want to be me” (‘side b of ‘Anarchy in the UK’ Single & “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
“You weren’t wrong” (B-side of Virgin ‘God Save the Queen’ Single)
‘God Save the Queen’ (next to ‘God Save the Queen’ Single & ‘Never mind…’ album)
‘Belsen Was SA**’ (“The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
‘Submission’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
‘Substitute’ (“The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
‘Come on everyone’ (next to ‘Come on everyone’ Single & ‘The Great Rock’n’Roll Scam album)
‘Something else’ (next to ‘Something else’ Single & “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
‘Stupid thing’ (“The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
‘My path’ (side b of “No one is innocent” Single & “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” album)
‘Vacation in the sun’ (next to ‘Vacation in the sun’ Single & ‘Never mind…’ album)
‘Body’ (‘Never mind…’ album)
‘Satellite’ (side b of ‘Vacation in the sun’ Single)
‘Anarchy in the UK’ (next to ‘Anarchy in the UK’ Single & ‘Never mind…’ album)
Learn more: www.facebook.com/sexpistolsexpose
Support came from The Limeys who tonight, for their half-hour set (7:33-8:03 p.m.), are just Paul on vocals and guitar and Rob on drums. God knows where bassist and backing vocalist Mike has gone?
They specialize in performing punk and proto punk songs from the 1970s, in a clean, loud, loose and rock style. They come off the covers of Sex Pistols, The Damned, Ramones, The Stooges and Hawkwind and others.
The room was a bit sparse during their set and the lighting was only on the band above the stage which was fine but unfortunately there was no front lighting on them so the Partial darkness was the order of the day. I have to give credit to our photographer Cris Watkins who made it look brighter than it actually was with his decent shots.
To be fair, the sound of 11-track set The Limeys really only equals the noise emanating from start-up bands rehearsing in garages in and around city housing estates across the country. But they updated the wording of Anti Pasti’s ‘No government’ with “No Boris Johnson and no Tory C*nts”which was topical.
Their last proposed number ‘Surfer bird’ was omitted due to time constraints as the Sex Pistols Exposé must assemble their own battery. The happiness of having mainly a left-handed drummer and a right-handed drummer on the same poster.
The Limeys setlist:
‘Durango 95’ (made famous by the Ramones)
“Janie Jones” (made famous by The Clash)
‘I want to be your dog’ (made famous by The Stooges)
‘New rose’ (made famous by The Damned)
“Chinese Rocks” (made famous by the Heartbreakers)
“Money Machine” (made famous by Hawkwind)
‘No government’ (made famous by Anti Pasti)
‘Born to Lose’ (made famous by the Heartbreakers)
“Action Time Vision” (made famous by Alternative TV)
‘What is my name’ (made famous by The Clash)
‘Sonic Reducer’ (made famous by The Dead Boys)
More info about the band can be found HERE.