John Lydon slams Olympics

Sex Pistols singer John Lydon has blasted those in charge of the London Olympic Games for trying to involve his band in the festivities "without any respect".
26 April 2012
The Weekender

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John Lydon has slammed the London Olympics organizers for trying to "involve" the Sex Pistols in the Games "without any respect".

The group's frontman is refusing to support the sporting event because he claims organizers asked about the possibility of "reconstituting" the band's "ideas, artwork and lifestyle".

He told NME : "I can't back the Olympics. They tried to involve us [the Sex Pistols] but without any respect - they just wanted to use my ideas, our artwork, our lifestyle, but take it away from us and reconstitute it in this happy-go-lucky world of Olympic nonsense."

The singer also believes the spectacle will leave the country with an "incredible debt" and he doesn't hold out any hope for Team GB's competitors tasting success at the Games.

He added: "You cannot co-opt us into this s**tstem. There's a lot of unemployment, and I'm seeing money wasted on people running and splish-splashing about and throwing things. We cannot afford that. It's going to leave an incredible debt; as soon as it's ended, the prices and the taxes are all going to go up.

"Can you see a British person winning anything at all? Someone called Trish from Basingstoke will come in 12th, and that will be the highlight."

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