Johnny Rotten loses court battle over Sex Pistol songs in TV series

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Sex Pistols lead singer Jonny Ormer lost a Supreme Court battle routine with his bandmates over the use of their songs in a TV series.

Former drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Steve Jones sued after Rotten, real name John Lydon, objected to the inclusion of their songs in the TV drama Pistol, directed by Danny Boyle.

The six-part series, which is being made by Disney and due out next year, is based on Jones’ 2016 memoir called Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol.

Paul Cook arrives at Rolls’s High Court building in London with his wife Jenny (Yui Mok/PA) / PA Wire

During a week-long hearing at the High Court in London, Mr Jones and Mr Cook said that under the terms of a band member agreement (BMA) issued in 1998, decisions on licensing applications could be decided “on the basis of majority rules”.

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But Mr Lydon, who previously told the Sunday Times he thought the series was “the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever had to put up with”, argued that licenses could not be granted without his consent.

His lawyers told the court that the agreement was never used and that he considered it a “nuclear button” for the plaintiffs and their manager, Anita Camerata, to “impose their wishes” on him.

They said he had a “deep and emotional aversion to becoming a ‘prisoner’ of a hostile majority” and in his testimony in court, Mr Lydon said the agreement “seems kind of forced”.

John Lydon, center, poses for a photo outside the Rolls Building in the Supreme Court (Dominic Lipinski/PA)/PA Wire

In a judgment handed down on Monday morning, the judge, Sir Anthony Mann, came down beside Mr Cook and Mr Jones.

“My finding… is that the claimants are entitled to invoke majority vote rules against Mr. Lydon in relation to the use of sex pistol materials in the new Pistol TV series,” he said.

Lawyers for Mr. Cook and Mr. Jones have argued that there should be no dispute as to whether the agreement allows for licensing decisions to be made “by a majority” and argued that Mr. Lydon was in violation of the Bahrain Monetary Act by refusing to provide his consent.

They also said that the court could not accept his testimony as true because it was an “outright lie” and he could not “really believe that the agreement was not valid at all”.

They told the court that Mr Cook and Mr Jones’ claim against Mr. Lydon alone, that original band member Glenn Matlock, who had been replaced by Mr. Vicious, and representatives of the Vicious estate, who died in February 1979, supported their position.

Group Sex Pistols have signed a new recording contract with A&M Records outside Buckingham Palace in London, (l/r) Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, bassist Sid Vicious and group manager Malcolm McClaren (Archive/PA)/PA Archive

The Sex Pistols were formed in 1975 and disbanded in 1978, but they’ve performed live together several times since then, most recently in 2008.

Sir Anthony urged the warring bandmates to draw a line in their legal battle, adding: “I wonder if the plaintiffs need to press their claim for damages.”

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