Putting Together The Dream Team

It often begs to wonder how a bunch of old-time musicians from different bands and walks of life manage to end up on tour together. Glen Matlock, the bassist from the Sex Pistols, is doing just that — touring Australia with Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom and John Lennon/Bowie lead guitarist Earl Slick in tow. 

Matlock says his history with both musicians goes back further than people might know, with Matlock first meeting Slick while performing with Iggy Pop back in the early '80s.

"I was fortunate enough to have met him a few times when I was playing with Iggy and had a couple of nights out with the bloke," said Matlock.

"Although we've got our feet in the past we've been looking into the future as well."

"With Slim Jim, on that tail end of the '70s/early '80s, he came to London with the Stray Cats and we got on then. We weren't big mates then, but we got on every time we ran into each other. I lost contact with him, but when we reformed with the Pistols in '96 I went to Los Angeles and went to a club one night see Pulp and it turned out Slim Jim was running this club. We got reacquainted and got on really good then we threatened to do something together and that was that."

Matlock met Earl Slick after they played together on a project with Keanan Duffty. "It turned out that Earl had played with Slim Jim, and when I submitted some new songs I asked Slim if he would come play on them, and he said he'd love to. I said 'Can you get a good guitarist?' and he said 'Well Slick's around, why don't you get him?'"

Having Slick in the band means Matlock will be playing alongside a musician who worked closely with Bowie, who was initially hired to replace Mick Ronson as lead guitarist for the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974 and stuck around until his final album Blackstar. For Matlock, Bowie's influence was a driving force in his early punk days and remains so for the new band.

"When he came out he was a real game changer. It was quite outrageous how different he was. Bowie was almost the blueprint for the whole punk thing," said Matlock. "Everybody in punk looked up to David, but by then he'd kind of changed — he kept changing all the time. So he also showed you that you don't sort of rest on your laurels too much and that's what we try and do with this line-up — although we've got our feet in the past we've been looking into the future as well."