Here’s The Sex Pistols. They’re back in the news today. Having been inducted into the Rock and Roll “Hall of Fame” they sent a ‘thanks but no thanks‘ letter which is a mixture of self-promotion and biting sarcasm. Here is an extract:

We’re not your monkeys, we’re not coming. You’re not paying attention.

The BBC goes on to examine the Pistols’ reaction to the $2,500 a seat induction dinner:

The note further criticised the Hall of Fame for offering “fame at $25,000 if we paid for a table or $15,000 to squeak up in the gallery”.

It further claimed that the money “goes to a non-profit organisation, selling us a load of old famous”.

I liked the way that the BBC reported all this with a straight face. Their online news article ended with this no-frills kicker:

A shortlist of nominees is sent to an international body of about 700 voting “rock experts”.

It is this kind of blandness that the Sex Pistols so brilliantly exploit. It’s Bill Grundy all over again. If you’re going to do PR stunts, do them in style. Or in torn jeans and spiky hair. Either way, blandness is pretty vacant.