Here's What The Characters Of "Pistol" Looked Like In Real Life

Alexa, play "God Save the Queen" — the one by the Sex Pistols.

There's no denying that the Sex Pistols were one of the most iconically disruptive acts of the 20th century.

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Formed in 1975, the band released a single studio album before splitting up less than three years later, but in that short time, they were responsible for kicking off the punk movement in the UK.

Pistol — a miniseries that delves into the early years of the band — landed on Disney+ today.

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The six episodes, written by Craig Pearce and directed by Danny Boyle, follow the band's rise to prominence and explore the first few years, which led to a lasting influence on the landscape of music, fashion, and culture.

So here's what all the key figures looked like in real life:

Content note: The following includes mentions of drug use.

Toby Wallace — Steve Jones

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We can thank Steve Jones’ book, Lonely Boy, for Pistol. The series is based on the acclaimed memoir, which delves into his rough childhood and the band’s formation.

In the early ‘70s, he cofounded the band the Strand with Paul Cook and Wally Nightingale. The Strand evolved into the Swankers; then, after a lineup shuffle in 1975 — when Steve was 20 — they became the Sex Pistols, and the rest is history.

As seen in Pistol, self-taught Steve had only been playing the guitar for three months before the first Sex Pistols gig!

Since the band’s split in 1978, Steve has had loads of different musical projects and has played alongside some huge icons, including Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and Bob Dylan.

Anson Boon — Johnny Rotten

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John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, seems to have joined the Sex Pistols through some fortunate happenstance. As a teen, he spent a lot of time hanging around the Sex boutique, and it was his unique style and IDGAF attitude that caught the eye of Malcolm McLaren.

The audition we see in Pistol is pretty much how things went down in real life. It was an unmelodious performance of "I'm Eighteen" from Johnny, which took place in Malcolm and Vivienne’s shop, that resulted in him becoming band lead vocalist.

Although Malcolm was the one who auditioned Johnny, there was some serious tension between them. In January 1978, after a pretty catastrophic tour of the US, John peaced out and formed the post-punk band Public Image Ltd. In 2002, he was named on the BBC’s list of 100 Great British Heroes, and he’s also the face of Country Life butter. 

Louis Partridge — Sid Vicious

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Sid Vicious was arguably the most notorious member of the Sex Pistols, but he didn’t join the band until two years after it was formed. Back in ’75, when he was 18, he went by his real name — John Simon Ritchie — and had met Vivienne Westwood with the hope of joining.

As we see in Pistol, there was a mix-up between him and his friend John Lydon, who ended up getting the spot. Before he stepped in as bassist, Sid was one of the band’s biggest fans and claimed to have invented the "pogo," which is basically a forerunner of moshing. 

Sid, whose mum was addicted to heroin and opiates, had a long history of drug use and was using heroin by the time he joined the band. After the band split in 1978, Sid moved to New York with his girlfriend Nancy, where they spent most of their time taking drugs. Nancy was killed later that year, and in ’79, after he was charged with second-degree murder, Sid died of a heroin overdose at just 21.

Jacob Slater — Paul Cook

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Paul “Cookie” Cook was Steve Jones’ school friend, and from what we see in Pistol, it seems he had a less turbulent home life than some of his other band members.  

Like Steve, he was a founding member, and when the Sex Pistols split, the two of them started a new band, the Professionals, and discovered the iconic trio Bananarama.

Emma Appleton — Nancy Spungen

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Nancy met the Sex Pistols after she’d flown over to the UK from New York City with another band in 1977. She was well known (but not well liked) in the scene, and Nancy and Sid’s relationship was dysfunctional and chaotic from the start. In October 1978, Nancy was found dead in a hotel room that she and Sid were staying in under the names Mr. and Mrs. John Simon Ritchie (Sid’s real name). 

Sid died before the case against him went to trial, and no one was convicted for Nancy's murder. There are lots of theories surrounding her death, particularly speculation about Sid's involvement, but many questions surrounding those tragic events remain unanswered. 

Talulah Riley — Vivienne Westwood

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The landscape of punk wouldn’t be what it is without Vivienne, and Pistol explores the years that led to her ultimately becoming a household name. 

Vivienne was working as a primary school teacher and creating clothes and jewellery on the side when she met Malcolm McLaren in the late ‘60s. 

Their boutique stocked her original designs, and lots of young musicians were regular customers, putting her creations right in the spotlight when they rose to fame.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster — Malcolm McLaren

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As we see in Pistol, Malcolm turned his attention to the Sex Pistols after things went downhill with the New York Dolls, and he was a huge figure in the punk movement. While running the Sex boutique, Malcolm had been advising Paul and Steve since the days of the Swankers, and in 1975 he amped things up, replacing the not-so-punk Wally Nightingale with Johnny Rotten. 

Malcolm starred in a mockumentary — The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle — alongside the Sex Pistols, but his relationship with the band members wasn’t particularly harmonious.

In 1986, the three surviving members of the band (and the estate of Sid Vicious) successfully sued Malcolm for £1 million in royalties.

Christian Lees — Glen Matlock

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Before there was Sid, there was Glen, who was introduced to Steve and Paul while working in the Sex boutique. Glen left the original lineup in early '77, and he's credited as a songwriter on almost all of the songs on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, but he'd already left by the time the recording process got into full swing. 

There were some odd rumours about Glen's exit, including the claim that he was kicked out because he "was a fan of the Beatles," but in his autobiography, he confirmed that he jumped ship because he wasn't happy with the tension and unequal treatment.

After leaving, Glen formed a band called Rich Kids; he's played bass in some huge bands over the years, including Blondie and Primal Scream; and he also returned to the Sex Pistols for the reunion tours in the '90s and '00s.

Sydney Chandler — Chrissie Hynde

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You most likely know Chrissie as the lead singer of the Pretenders, but before that, she was working at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s boutique and was right at the centre of the early punk movement. Chrissie was such good friends with the Sex Pistols that she nearly convinced both Johnny and Sid to marry her for a work permit!

Maisie Williams — Pamela Rooke, AKA Jordan

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Born Pamela Rooke, Jordan worked in Malcolm and Vivienne’s boutique, where she served some serious looks. She had a two-hour commute to get to work, and as we see in Pistol, Jordan’s looks had other train passengers clutching their pearls.

She went to many of the Sex Pistols' early gigs and even had a little cameo in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. Jordan died in April of this year, and the first episode of Pistol is dedicated to her.

Have you watched Pistol yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

All episodes of Pistol are available to stream on Disney+ in the UK and FX on Hulu in the US.