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Quick Facts
- NAME: John Lydon
- OCCUPATION: Singer
- BIRTH DATE: January 31, 1956 (Age: 57)
- EDUCATION: Hackney and Kingsway Princeton College, Sir William of York Catholic School
- PLACE OF BIRTH: London, England, United Kingdom
- Full Name: John Joseph Lydon
- AKA: Johnny Rotten
- ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius
Best Known For
John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, was the lead singer and front man for the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols.
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Play NowJohn Lydon. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:06, Jun 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895.
John Lydon. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895 [Accessed 19 Jun 2013].
"John Lydon." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jun 19 2013, 10:06 http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895.
"John Lydon," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895 [accessed Jun 19, 2013].
"John Lydon," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895 (accessed Jun 19, 2013).
John Lydon [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895.
John Lydon, http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895 (last visited Jun 19, 2013).
John Lydon. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/john-lydon-20882895. Accessed Jun 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Born in 1956, John Lydon was the lead singer for the groundbreaking English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Formed in 1975 with Lydon, renamed Johnny Rotten on account of his bad teeth, as its front man, the Sex Pistols rose to fame with anger-fueled singles like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen.” After the group disbanded in 1978, Lydon formed a new band, Public Image Limited (PiL).
Contents
Early Years
Musician. Known as Johnny Rotten during his days as lead singer of the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols, John Joseph Lydon was born January 31, 1956, in London, England. The eldest of four boys and the son of Irish parents, as a child Lydon suffered through a long bout of meningitis that landed him in a coma and affected his eyesight as well as his memory.
Bright but rebellious, Lydon struggled in school. At Hackney and Kingsway Princeton College, where he'd enrolled after getting kicked out of Sir William of York Catholic School, Lydon met John Simon Ritchie, whom the world would later know as Sid Vicious.
The two fast became friends. After leaving Hackney, they stayed at the homes of various friends as they explored London's fashion shops and nightclubs.
One of Lydon’s favorite stops was a shop called Sex, a fetish-themed store owned by fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and her partner, Malcolm McLaren. The burgeoning punk scene fascinated McLaren, who loved pushing cultural buttons and was fresh from an adventurous, somewhat disastrous run as the in-your-face manager of the New York Dolls, a pioneering glam-rock band.
After the Dolls split up in the early 1970s, McLaren returned to London, intent on creating a new band to manage. In Lydon, whom he met for the first time in 1975, he found his front man. After a quick audition, Lydon, renamed "Johnny Rotten" on account of his bad teeth, was tapped as the band's lead singer. The rest of the band featured guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook.
The Sex Pistols
Over the next three years, the Sex Pistols would come to epitomize English punk. Their unique blend of fury and violence incited both hatred and deep reverence.
Beginning in November 1975 the group released a string of punk anthems, starting with “Anarchy in the U.K.” and later “God Save the Queen,” “Pretty Vacant” and “Holidays in the Sun.”
“God Save the Queen,” in particular, proved to be especially offensive to a country that prided itself on its manners. Released in 1977, the same year as Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee, the song rose to number two on the British charts. That same year, in late 1977, the group released its one and only full-length album, Never Mind the Bollocks…Here's the Sex Pistols, which quickly climbed to number one.
But the same energy that drove their music and stage performances soon consumed the group itself. Lydon was especially angered by McLaren, who wasn't afraid to market the band as a group of goons.
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