<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> God Save The Sex Pistols - Live At Loch Lomond Festival, Scotland, 3rd August 2008: Review 2
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LIVE AT LOCH LOMOND FESTIVAL, BALLOCH, SCOTLAND REVIEW
3rd August 2008
God Save The Sex Pistols Review by Ian OPG

Never Trust A Hippie.....

Arrived at Loch Lomond after a 6 hour drive, walked for ages from the car park along the banks of Loch Lomond. A small but steady number of people were trickling in and out of the festival area. Entered the festival area, greeted by Police and a persistent smell of shit if you were anywhere within 2 square miles of the temporary loos (which explained why an unofficial loo was set up behind a bunch of bushes!) and filthy wet sticky mud - which was everywhere. I hate festivals, gimme the 100 club any day.

We met up with some board regulars, took some cool pics and exchanged some witty banter, and before we knew it, the combine harvester back drop was unfurled and I headed off to stage left in front of Glen's bass amp, and waited for the fun to start.

Looking around at my fellow moshers, I don't see the normal hard core of nutters you usually get at a Pistols gig. In fact, at 2 sides are teenage girls - could be worse, and to my right was a big Scotsman who I started chatting to. Lights down, here we go...........

Expecting a great rush, I was ready to stand my ground. Funny enough, the big surge didn't happen, just a small shuffle forward. A lot of the crowd had come to see the Sex Pistols, not to experience a full on Punk gig. Some Scottish ditty replaced There'll Always be an England, then straight into Pretty Vacant. This is actually well great. No fighting to stand, no shoving, no accidental elbow to the guts.

Some of my fellow moshers were jumping around like myself, singing along word by word to the set list which seems to be standard these days. The Pistols are looking a bit tired since the last time I saw them at the start of the tour in Birmingham, but they are on great form. Glen gave me a thumbs up, whether from recognition or not I don't know. But I was having a great time. My old bones are kinda used to being battered and bruised in mosh pits over the years, so this was a pleasant surprise. I could take my time, checking the band out, seeing the interchanges between Steve and Glen, Johnny and the audience. Yeah, this is loads of fun.

Highlights for me were Belsen - Johnny sang the first verse of Belsen then Baghdad, EMI, Problems, Bodies and of course, GSTQ and Anarchy. The band have a habit now of singing a verse, no words verse then second verse. I thought this was to give John time to remember the words, but I actually think it is to make the set longer. The entire set including encores was 1 1/2 hours. They finished with Silver Machine, best thing about that is it kept the band on stage longer. I would have preferred I Wanna be Me to be honest.

Seen the band 5 times recently, this was easily better then Birmingham, not because the band played better - they really rocked at Birmingham. More because I was able to take in the whole experience, really chill and enjoy the show man. Maybe I am a boring old hippy after all.

See ya at Hammersmith.

Review by Ian OPG

Combine Harvester Commemorative Section

Text© Ian OPG 2008. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.
God Save The Sex Pistols ©2008 Phil Singleton / www.sex-pistols.net.

God Save the Sex Pistols

 

God Save The Sex Pistols ©Phil Singleton / www.sex-pistols.net