Punk rock nostalgia rules this summer, with the venerable Sex Pistols on tour and a brand new film on punk rocker hang-out Chelsea Hotel hitting cinemas near you soon.The Sex Pistols are headlining 24 open air festivals across Europe between 11 June and 31 August. The last date of their tour is the Electric Picnic at the Stradbally Estate, County Laois, in Ireland. If they still have some breath left, this could deteriorate into a decent end-of-tour party.
Director Abel Ferrara of ‘Bad Lieutenant’ fame showed his new film ‘Chelsea On The Rocks’ at the Cannes Film Festival, which ended this week. Needless to say, the mix of documentary and re-enactment of famous scenes from the New York hotel that played host to many notorious punks in the 1970’s did not collect any prizes in Cannes.
Ferrara got Dennis Hopper and Milos Forman on camera telling their favourite Chelsea stories. Ethan Hawke and Grace Jones also appear. The soundtrack was written by Gavin Friday, formerly singer with Irish New Wave pioneers Virgin Prunes.
Looks likely that the Chelsea flick will hit the IFI in Dublin later this year. Not sure that it will make it to mainstream cinemas. Dodgy re-enactments of the domestic live of former Sex Pistols bassman Sid Vicious and his girlfriend, rock groupie Nancy Spungen are allegedly in the film and might prove titillating enough for mass market exposure.
