------------------------------------------------------- 1977 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Circus Magazine Contributed & Transcribed by Peter Mitchell FRONT PAGES Rick Denies Press Rumours In Sex Pistols Controversy LONDON: The furor over the Sex Pistols' firing by A&M Records still rages in the British Press. Punk rock is more controversial than ever. Circus Magazine's Jim Farber asked a very cooperative Rick Wakeman about allegations in London's music publications which claimed he influenced his label (A&M) to drop the Sex Pistols. "That's an absolute load of rubbish. In fact, I'm suing two English newspapers over that because that's really ludicrous. For starters, I1ve never even heard the Sex Pistols. I've not heard any punk rock either - N.Y. or British. Music is a way of expressing yourself and it doesn't matter what you play. "I'm a born looney, a born idiot sometimes. I was over in Montreux and I read in the papers that MM had signed the Sex Pistols and to me that band hadn't done anything worse than The Who had done. So I sent a telegram to Derek Green which got incredibly distorted in the press - it was really just a joke to joke telegram. Derek is a really good friend of mine, and I spoke to him on the phone afterwards and we really laughed about it. It's strange, he told me he felt very strongly that out of the skin head era, a very good band came out of it - which is Slade. And he felt something good was gonna come out of punk rock. And in England.he felt it would probably be the Pistols. And I agreed with him that something good always comes out of things. So the next thing that's heard is that the Pistols had left A&M and the label had given no comment. So once again the dear old press got a hold of my telegram to Derek and distorted it beyond all reason. "So I went absolutely mad, because it's ridiculous and gullible of anyone to assume that any act has control over what's on the label. I mean, l could name you six acts right now on A&M that I think are dreadful and boring. It doesn't make any difference so long as the record company does their job for you. The irony of the whole thing is, well, I happen to be pretty anti-hard dope - so I wonder if maybe I should have phoned up A&M and said they shouldn't sign Cheech and Chong. "In the English press - a couple of papers phoned me up and asked what it was all about and I said I didn't know anything about it. But a couple of papers went ahead and printed it anyway, because that makes good copy. My lawyers called me up after they did it and said, "Listen, this is entering into the realms of slander." So they took legal action against the two newspapers. I had to do something. The crazy thing is, I think the Sex Pistols are lucky to get money out of A&M like they did. I've been trying for years. I'd really like to know how they did It. Good luck to them." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com