Pistol director Danny Boyle on how punk was 'an extraordinary force in all our lives'

Virgin Radio

31 May 2022, 10:06

Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about Pistol, his new punk biopic series about the Sex Pistols.

Pistol, which premieres today, is based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol. Danny told Chris: “I’m exactly the same age as Steve Jones, so when I read his book… there’s a very harrowing part of the book, but apart from that - I came from a very loving family -  but everything else… I recognised everything. I don’t think I’ve read a book like it. I just thought, ‘Oh my god.’" 

The director continued: “All the details… all the reference points, the interest in music, everything. Then I went to college and punk happened. I went to college in Bangor, in North Wales, and you’d read about it in the NME, every Thursday. That was the only thing you trusted, the NME. You didn’t trust any of the newspapers, or radio, or anything like that, unless you could get John Peel.”

Speaking about the influence of punk, Danny said: “It was an extraordinary force in all our lives at the time, I think whether you became a punk or not. And it just liberated you from what you were destined to be, I think. It gave you a kind of freedom. They just broke something. They didn’t have anything positive to suggest to put in its place, apart from just do it yourself, or just waste your life if you want. That option was open to you as well. They broke that pattern that you were meant to follow, and since then, I don’t think we have stepped back into what the 70s were like, which were grim.” 

Disney+ series Pistol stars Toby Wallace as Steve Jones, Anson Boon as vocalist John Lydon, Louis Partridge as bassist Sid Vicious, and Jacob Slater as drummer Paul Cook. Danny said: “One of the problems was explaining to the young actors what the 70s was like. There was no stimulation of any kind. It was awful… Looking at the old archive of the 70s, it was frightening, and you thought, ‘Oh my god I was 20 then.’ It looks like an alien world, or from the Victorian era or something. 

“There was a bridge between young and being old, and it was very short. You became old very quickly. You mates started looking like your dad, dead quick, and started wearing clothes like him, and girls started looking like their mums, and they broke that bridge. They just detonated it. And since then I think that gap has expanded, and we live longer and longer in that gap.” 

The series also features Love Actually’s Thomas Brodie Sangster as Malcolm McLaren, and Talulah Riley as Vivienne Westwood. Danny said: “They were the twin architects of punk really…. He stole a lot of it from her, apparently. She’s a proper genius.” 

The director continued: “They were the architects of the philosophy and the dress code, and that’s what’s unusual about it, is that it wasn’t just a music movement, it actually had a whole philosophy behind it, about creation and how it comes out the chaos, and a dress code to go with it really, which she obviously created in her living room.

“What a unique artist, that has remained true to her values right through her career as well.”

Pistol also stars Game Of Thrones’ Maisie Williams as Jordan, Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde, and Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen. Danny said: “That’s one of the interesting things - the number of women in it. Now when you look at it through a different lens, you realise how significant they were, and how they had to battle to get any kind of position.”

Danny had one condition for the production; that all the actors had to play the songs for real, with no lip synching or miming. “We insisted that they learnt the songs so that they could play live, and we didn’t let cameras dominate. So we said to them, ‘Every time you play a song, you’re going to play the whole song. Not just one song, a number of songs.' And you could see them connect with the visceral appeal of playing live to people.”

When talking about the Sex Pistols, the Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire director said: “They were unqualified, and they said, ‘You don’t have to be qualified. Don’t let them exclude you from life, because you lack qualifications.’ Because none of them were qualified. Steve was illiterate. He literally couldn’t read or write.

“They said, ‘That doesn’t exclude you from having something to say.’ And then they channelled this anger, and this fury, at the establishment, and at the way the 70s society was stultifying through the music.” 

Danny continued: “New stuff must always emerge, and you must trust the young. Doing this with these kids who were acting in it, some of them were 17 when we were doing it, they were amazing. You think, you’ve got to believe in young people. You’ve got to make sure they’ve got a voice, which I think it’s what happened in the 70s, they were denied that voice, and you’ve got to trust the young to come forward… and inherit the mess we’ve left them and make something better of it.”

Danny told Chris that getting the definitive true stories about the Sex Pistols wasn’t easy. “One of the extraordinary things about doing this show is that everybody disagrees about everything,” he laughed. “You cannot get one straight story. Discord is built in!”

He continued: “Everytime you are looking for harmony with them, you don’t get it. You get the opposite. They come in with different stories. So, Glen’s [Matlock - original Sex Pistols guitarist] story is that he walked away from the band, but Steve’s story is that he sacked him. You’ve got to choose one of them, and it’s Steve’s book so we chose that. Apologies Glen. He’s been brilliant!” 

When Chris asked how the director keeps his mojo going, he responded: “Somebody said, ‘Without music, life is a mistake.’ I think that’s probably true. I’m sure that’s not true for people who aren’t that keen on music, but for me, it’s music. 

“Music, really, is the driving force for me, so to be able to do a project like this, you don’t need your mojo, it’s leading you there.” 

On working on Pistol, Danny told Chris: “It feels very personal, like I was saying about the Jonesy book. I recognise so much of it. But it’s also the trigger for your own memories. We played that album to death.”

Pistol premieres on Disney+ via Sky Q today (31st May).

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.