Glen Matlock at 70: The Songwriter Who Missed the Record

Happy 70th birthday to Glen Matlock, the original Sex Pistols bassist and credited co-writer of 10 of the 12 songs on Never Mind the Bollocks, even though he’d already left the band before most of it was recorded.

Matlock officially left by “mutual consent” in February 1977. Malcolm McLaren subsequently claimed he had been sacked, although Matlock himself has always maintained that he left. He was replaced by Sid Vicious, who struggled with the bass and spent much of the album’s recording period ill. Steve Jones ended up playing bass on virtually the entire record, while Matlock’s bass survives on 'Anarchy in the U.K.'

By the Happy House show in Stockholm on 28 July 1977, heard on the record to the right, Vicious was on bass, struggling through parts Matlock had helped shape.

In the decades after leaving the Pistols, Matlock built a remarkably varied career of his own. He formed the Rich Kids with Midge Ure, Steve New and Rusty Egan, toured and recorded with Iggy Pop, and later worked with artists including Ian Hunter and Frank Black. He fronted the Philistines, played with Dead Men Walking and the International Swingers, and even joined a reunited Faces on bass. Along the way he maintained a solo career and returned to the Sex Pistols for their 1996 reunion and subsequent shows.

Now, nearly fifty years after first leaving the band, Matlock is once again on bass with Steve Jones and Paul Cook, with Frank Carter on vocals, as the Sex Pistols continue touring in 2026.