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Pistols at The Palace 27th July 2002 Last weekend at The Bowl we enjoyed the new sounds of rock group Kannski playing at the Crystal Palace Bowl Festival of New Music. This weekend the park was back in action - The Sex Pistols came to Crystal Palace to perform a very special gig. |
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It has been twenty five years since The Sex Pistols released their anti-royalist single of 'God Save The Queen'. Despite a daytime radio ban the single rose to number 2 in the 'official' charts (number 1 in the New Musical Express chart) and their performance on the Thames courted publicity when the police made an appearance as the supporting act and subsequently arrested them. It is certainly no coincidence that The Pistols decided to reunite during The Queen's Golden Jubilee. Doubly delightful that just three weeks after Her Majesty paid the park a royal visit that the band could lay claim to be playing 'At The Palace' (Crystal Palace not Buckingham Place mind you). |
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The weather was exceptionally good. It was the hottest weekend in London for over a decade and temperatures soared into the thirties. Some twenty thousand or so punk music fans descended on the area. They were in good spirits and generally very friendly with just a few 'anarchists' among them. The top of the park was a popular venue for sunbathing punks but most could be found standing outside local pubs. |
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The Blue Bottle was a predictable favourite - it is always busy when there is a big event in the park. |
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But every pub was over capacity and fans strolled the streets taking their pints of beer with them. It didn't seem to matter because you couldn't tell where one pub started and another one finished. It was as if Crystal Palace became one big outdoor pub for the day. Other venues included The Cambridge, The Occasional Half, The Queens Arms and The Royal Albert. It was very busy along the road outside The Paxton Arms Hotel on Anerley Hill. |
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The gig was surreal. Despite the hard edge of punk in the seventies this event was more of a spectacle (ticket prices circa £50 added the extra touch). It drew music fans from all age groups. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) obliged the audience with bad language and disparaging comments about The Queen, Tony Blair and David Beckham. The Pistols turned in a good performance though and still showed they hadn't lost the gift of thrashing out their music. But you couldn't help but wonder if half the audience were trying to get in touch with their youth one last time and the other half were hoping to see what it must have been like for their parents in the punk era. |
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Further Information
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