Rick and the Sex Pistols

[groovecake]

This is from the All Music entry on Wakeman:

"Wakeman's biggest media splash during this period, however, came through his alleged role in getting the Sex Pistols dropped by A&M Records soon after being signed. "

Anyone know more about THIS story??

[Dances w/PURPLE]

not here. but you are going back a bit in time. Interesting story.

[ycantibu]

As far as I know, A&M realised couldn't control the Sex Pistols or Malcolm McLaren. If that's true about Rick, I'd be very disappointed in him.

[neilius]

He DID have some involvement with the sex pistols getting dropped, but because of the sucess of the SP A&M dropped wakeman in 79!! Ironic!

[Timmo]

Whilst searching for info on this story, I came upon a fantastic article and 2004 tour review in Music Magnet Magazine.

Read it all, it's HILARIOUS. Apparently the Rick getting the Sex Pistols dropped was apocraphal.

Especially interesting to me were the comments of Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd.

Link (http://www.magnetmagazine.com/live/liveyes.html)

[neilius]

Very interesting read Timmo.

[Yes2Yes]

Thanks for the link Timmo....

[Homeworld]

I can't really comment on the part where he mentions that it was sooo uncool to play or listen to Yes and Prog Rock...

Was this true?

[Timmo]

I can't really comment on the part where he mentions that it was sooo uncool to play or listen to Yes and Prog Rock...

Was this true?Oh, absolutely.

During the punk/new wave period, prog was considered WAY uncool.

Same during the grunge period in the early 90s.

Yes was OK in the 80s, they had major successes with music that was written for the 80s, a la Trevor Rabin.

[neilius]

When I started listening and buying Yes albums in 1990's it was a VERY uncool band to listen to. bear in mind that I was in my late teens early twenties when brit pop happened (which was good) and these bands also disregarded Yes, especially oasis.
Noel Gallagher:' Oh it's $hit aint it?' on prog rock. then he goes on to say ' Pink Floyd? Now there's a band! Are they Prog?.'
Just one of the many reasons i hate Oasis.

Sorry off topic!

[Timmo]

I'm not a big Oasis fan either.

[Homeworld]

I went past Oasis once when I was going down the Promenade in Blackpool. They were doing a live radio show for Key 103(North wests best Radio station) or something. All I heard was :argue2: :cussing: :rant:

And when we passed them again they were singing and omg HOW S**T.

On the topic of Yes and Prog...

I know that when Punk came in, in the 70's Prog Rock got shunned to the side but I find it hard to believe that Yes etc. were seen as uncool yet they were seen as 'cool' or whatever just a few years, months before!

Now I listen to Yes and most/all of my friends listen to Dance,Chart crap, R&B, and Heavy-Punk rock/metal which I cant really stand.

But I don't see my self as 'uncool' as I listen to what I like and as I see it what they listen to is crap and 'uncool' as you could play 100 tracks out of all that and 98% sound the same or are about non-sense. eg. The crazy Frog! How did that get into the UK charts at no. 1? But the sad thing is that people would have had to have bought that to make it go to no. 1! so who are they? and why? Is that what passes for music today? Don't get me wrong some stuff is ok and I will listen to but as I said 98% is utter rubbish!

[neilius]

The crazy frog was downloaded 33million times in europe this year. at £4.50 a download, somebody doesnt have to worry about getting up at 5.30am anymore.

[YesJen357]

If Rick contributed to the Sex Pistols being dropped, - then that's a very positive and complimentary thing to credit him with.
Now if only someone could have had their music(if you can call it that) wiped from our memories!

[Yescelt]

He didn't. There was a story at the time which pointed to him as the person who told A&M to scrap the Pistols. He has since denied this.
The whole story was on a recent BBC documentary, on which Rick appeared.. I'll try and dig it out, and quote what Rick actually said.

Regards, Brian

If Rick contributed to the Sex Pistols being dropped, - then that's a very positive and complimentary thing to credit him with.
Now if only someone could have had their music(if you can call it that) wiped from our memories!

[JL]

Oh, absolutely.

During the punk/new wave period, prog was considered WAY uncool.

Same during the grunge period in the early 90s.

This was certainly my experience. I even wrote a paper for my English comp class on the subject of prog not being "pretentious" based on my experiences with punk friends of mine in the early 90s.

As I inch toward 40, with 2.5 years to go, it's amazing how unimportant this has all become.