Let's get one thing straight

A HUSHED crowd watched as Stuart Pearce walked up to the spot to do his thing. "Who says there are no more heroes - Here's the Sex Pistols," he shouted and out jumped our four heroes from a massive backdrop of blown up, shock horror tabloid headlines. Somewhat fitting, given the weekend that was in it, that Pearce, a temporary national hero, should introduce an enduring national institution like the Pistols. Three gobs on a shirt, punk rock's coming home.

Earlier at the gig: surfing up in the crowd (like you do) to get a closer look at the backdrop, it was somewhat amusing to read - again how the mass media first reacted to what used to be known as the "punk rock cult". The marvellous Daily Mirror in an article from 1977 breathlessly wrote that "The Sex Pistols are boorish, ill mannered, foul mouthed, dirty, obnoxious and arrogant - and they wear torn and ragged clothes held together with safety pins". In another article they warned parents about the "cult", writing "Don't over react when children turn to the Punk Rock cult. If you ignore it, it will eventually go away". It didn't, and the Daily Mirror now pays a fortune to the first ever punk rock journalist, Mr Tony Parsons, to write a weekly column.

The punk revolution (and if you remember the sort of music - that preceded punk, you won't baulk at the term revolution) and it - consequences are still readily apparent today. Punk effectively narrowed the gap between performer and audience, it encouraged a simple, easy to follow DIY ethos and it inspired a healthy mistrust of authority figures. Crucially, it redrew the gender and race - musical maps and gave a platform to what was previously only known as "ethnic" music: reggae and dub. Punk meant the rise of, the independent label (Stiff, Rough Trade, etc); the advent of movements like Rock Against Racism and the end of the 20 minute drum solo.

Punk has been mutating and re inventing itself over the last 20 years and although "classic" punk ended in 1980, subsequent, movements, from new wave to two tone ska, carried the torch in the early 1980s (we'll pass over the New Romantics, who should have all been interned under the Punk Convention). You can still see and hear punk's influence in today's musical trends - there is no way Public Enemy could have existed without the sterling work carried out between 1977 and 1980 and there is no way they could have recorded Burn Hollywood Burn without having heard and been influenced by Anarchy In The UK. The whole rap/hip hop movement owes punk rock; acid house owes punk rock and try telling me that the Prodigy are not an out and out punk rock band.

LOOK at the US and how punk bands like The Germs and Black Flag had a massive influence on the grunge movement (and Nirvana in particular) and where would Rancid, Offspring and Green Day be if they hadn't had access to early Clash/Buzzocks/Pistols records - would there have been a Talking Heads, a Blondie, a Husker Du or a Pixies?

This point seems to have been lost on the majority of people charged with covering the Pistols gig last week. If people think punk rock is all about spitting and swearing and listening to the Anti Nowhere League and Crass, they should re-read the original charter. Punk was not a three year wonder, it has long since been absorbed into music's body politic and its manifestations, 20 years on, are there for everyone to see. If people have a problem with the Sex Pistols playing stadiums, or making some money for once in their lives, they should go back to listening to Yes and JethroTull and not pretend that the children of the revolution (i.e. the Britpop bands) have anything better to offer than Pretty Vacant, Holidays In The Sun or Anarchy In The UK, or that any amount of Liams, Damons or Jarvis's can rival John Lydon in the icon stakes.

While the Britpoppers may pretend that they by passed the events of the 1970s and went plundering for inspiration in the 1960s, just one look at Liam Gallagher's post Rotten stage persona or just one listen to The Buzzcocks tribute band that go under the name of Supergrass will convince you otherwise. Sure, have a go at the Pistols for cashing in and laugh and sneer to your misguided heart's content. Just don't forget that The Sex Pistols changed the world.