Anger is an Energy by John Lydon

I loved punk and I loved the Sex Pistols, I always wanted to dress in the punky styles but my mum wouldn’t let me…  Even now I love the ethos of punk; anti establishment, anti fashion, anyone can have a go – make noise and have fun!

So Johnny Rotten was/is a hero and I really enjoyed reading his autobiography, getting his take on life and all things musical.  ‘Never mind the bollocks’ stands the test of time and PiL are one of the most underrated bands of all time.  Rotten/Lydon is the kind of antihero that I’m hotwired to like.

So to the book, it is a damn good read but…  Any autobiography has to be taken with a pinch of salt because we are obviously getting one person’s take on things which can’t be anything other than biased.  I can’t help but think that this book is very much skewed to Lydon’s point of view and the truth is somewhat different.  This is not to say that I believe JL to be dishonest, I just recognise there are two sides to every story.

At times the book gets bogged down in the details of recording and touring which gets a bit boring, even for a fan and Lydon goes to great lengths to justify his behaviours and opinions.  It’s as if he’s trying to convince himself and this extends to contradictory opinions and attitudes.  One of many examples can be found towards the end of the book when Johnny accurately describes Britain; a country deeply corrupt from the top down, where the curse of class structure still exists and the law does not apply to the wealthy.  His answer is to become an American citizen…  Johnny you can’t see the wood through the trees mate!

But I did enjoy hearing Lydon’s voice come out of the page and I loved his rants whether I agree with him or not and I have to say I do agree with a hell of a lot and next time PiL tour the UK I’ll definitely be there, again.  But to be honest, if anything I actually like Johnny a little less after reading this book and don’t tell anyone but I actually preferred the Clash to the Pistols. 

England vs West Indies. The red ball re set goes tits up.

The three test series vs West indies was quite predictable in many ways and this includes the result, a home win.  Firstly the pitches for the first two matches were shocking.  I suppose it was inevitable that economies which rely on the tourist dollar and have been starved by covid are going to produce pitches that hold up for full five days.  England’s management probably guessed this so leaving our greatest partnership at home might prove to have been a master stroke.  But could we have forced a win in these matches with Anderson and/or Broad in the team? Probably.

England certainly had the best of the first two tests without really ever seeming close to a win.  The batsmen performed well as a unit on the benign pitches and there were big individual innings from Root, Crawley, Bairstow and Stokes. 

The bowlers always looked a little light, especially when arguably the best two on tour (Wood and Robinson) were injured.  Debutant Mahmood done quite well and Leach deserved better returns.  In hindsight we definitely should have picked two spinners on these pitches.

The third Test was an embarrassment, suddenly confronted with a tricky pitch the batsmen reverted to type with a performance which resembled the shite they produced in Australia.  By this stage we were basically playing a third choice seam attack who were found wanting.  In these circumstances we learnt nothing we didn’t already know; Woakes is ineffective away from home and Overton just isn’t test class.  West Indies won by 10 wickets with five sessions to spare.

What can we take away from the tour and the big ‘re-set’?  Not much.  We are still miles away from having a decent batting line up but although there wasn’t a big score from Alex Lees he didn’t disgrace himself at the top of the order.  Root played two more great knocks and Stokes looked like he was getting back to his best.  Crawley, Bairstow and Lawrence did enough to hang onto their places but little more, as usual.  Ben Foakes had a poor third test and will probably end up a scapegoat, I predict the gloves will be passed back to Bairstow in the near future so Pope can be squeezed back in.  Of the bowlers Stokes and Leach performed as we’d expect and Mahmood had a decent start to his test career.  Things may well have been different if Robinson and Wood had stayed fit but leaving Anderson and Broad at home was an arrogant (non) selection which was punished.  It will be no surprise if Joe Root bears the brunt of any recrimination and I think change is well overdue.  In sixty odd tests he’s been an adequate captain but nothing more.

Finally the Talksport commentary…  God it was barely tolerable.  Former cricketers that I liked as players came across as opinionated pricks; Gough and Harmison in particular but Butcher and Prior were little better. Nicholas was okay but he loves the sound of his own voice and why was Manthorpe even on the air? And as for fucking Jarrod Kimber, Aussie stat man formally of Cricinfo,  Just piss off you irritating twat.

Spring is here and summer approaching, the ordeal of supporting England will continue but at least we’ll have TMS on the airwaves to entertain and ease the pain.