While the subscription streaming services are getting all the love during lockdown, the free-to-air stations are still bringing the goods. You can rely on SBS Viceland to deliver anything as edgy as the latest buzzy show from Netflix, and this four-part documentary series,‘Godfather of punk’ Iggy Pop is the executive producer of this slick four-part series, and he’s assembled an impressive, motley crew of the scene’s biggest names .
Lydon, who makes his first appearance in the second episode, which focuses on the emergence of punk in Britain, manages to insult the media, former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McClaren , and several fellow musicians in the space of 15 minutes.At an event to launch the series last year in the US, featuring a panel of musicians who appear in, Lydon got into a furious argument with Marky Ramone, which quickly devolved into a slanging match such that the two had to be physically separated.
As well as Lydon, this week’s episode features a slew of British punk legends, among them David Vanian from The Damned, The Slits’ guitarist Viv Albertine, filmmaker/DJ Don Letts and The Clash drummer Terry Chimes.While “all roads lead to Iggy Pop”, as Letts puts it, the British take on punk was all-encompassing; more than just the music, it was echoed in the fashion and the politics.
And then, of course, there were the drugs; this episode takes us up to the break-up of the Pistols and the infamous Sid and Nancy tale of squalor; the nihilism that, according to Letts, really ended the movement, by confirming what punk’s critics thought of the scene. The series continues with later evolutions of punk, including the “hardcore” movement in the 1980s and mainstream players like Green Day and Nirvava in the '90s.
Such good content on the SBS steaming service, however the platform is so terrible and non user friendly.
Who the eff is 'Nirvava'?
I want some of whatever's keeping him alive.