Documentary filmmaker Lech
Kowalski’s 1980 (1981 for the domestic market) look at The Sex Pistols and
their ill-fated 1978 concert tour, D.O.A.: A Right of Passage, will be
the kickoff selection in MVD Entertainment Group’s new “MVD Rewind Collection”
line of Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack special editions. It will be available on Friday, Dec. 8.
Talk about being in the
right place at the right time. Somehow
Kowalski got hooked up with The Sex Pistols — Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and
the gang — and traveled with them on their short-lived U.S. tour that began on
Jan. 5 in Atlanta and ended ten days later (Jan. 14) at the Winterland in San
Francisco (stops along the way included Memphis, San Antonio, Baton Rouge,
Dallas and Tulsa … Tulsa?!?). What were
they thinking? No matter.
Kowalski, took the
footage (hand-held and very visceral), which includes the famous (infamous) Sid
and Nancy in bed session, and used it as the backbone for his documentary on
the Punk Rock movement — it’s fiery rise and fall — which is now a time capsule
of interviews and concert footage featuring not only the Sex Pistols, but The
Dead Boys, Sham 69 and The Rich Kids (featuring former “Pistol,” Glen Matlock,
who was replaced by Sid Vicious).
Footage captured by
Kowalski also shows the sad state of Sid Vicious at the time, who, along with
Nancy Spungen, would both be dead within a year.
Interviews include Terry
Chimes, Mick Jones and Topper Headon of The Clash, Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols
… and of course, Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen.
Bonus nuggets include
former MTV senior producer Richard Schenkman’s production of Dead
On Arrival: The Punk Documentary That Almost Never Was (a
feature-length documentary), which includes newly prepared interview sessions
with the likes of “PUNK” magazine founder, John Holmstrom, journalist Chris
Salewicz (former feature writer at “New Musical Express” magazine and author of
such books as “Redemption Song: the Definitive Biography of Joe Strummer,” “Bob
Marley: The Untold Story” and “Rude Boy: Once Upon a Time in Jamaica”) and The
Sex Pistols’ historian, Mick O’Shea (author of “The Early Days of The Sex
Pistols: Only Anarchists are Pretty”).
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