Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones has spoken about the night he stole musical equipment from David Bowie and his band, and revealed that he later compensated Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey in cash for the theft of his cymbals.
In what must have been a supremely irritating discovery for Bowie and his band, Jones' light-fingered actions took place on the night before the very last Ziggy Stardust gig at London's Hammersmith Odeon, on July 3, 1973.
Sharing his memories of the night in a new interview with The Guardian, Jones recalls, "They played two nights, and after the first night they left all the gear up, because they were playing there the next night. I knew the Hammersmith Odeon like the back of my hand, I used to bunk in there all the time. I was like the Phantom of Hammersmith Odeon.
"It was about two in the morning. I stole a little minivan and I got in. There was no one there, other than a guy sitting on the fourth or fifth row, asleep – he was snoring. It was dead silent. I tiptoed across the stage, and I nicked some cymbals, the bass player’s [amplifier] head – a Sunn amp it was – and some microphones. I got Bowie’s microphone with his lipstick on it!"
Legend has it that some of stolen gear resurfaced at early gigs by the Sex Pistols.
Asked by Guardian journalist Andrew Stafford if he ever confessed his activities to Bowie, Jones replies, "I kind of did, on a phone call. He knew I’d done it; he thought it was funny."
"Actually, I don’t think I nicked anything off him," he adds, "I don’t think the microphones were his. The only ones I felt bad for were Woody [drummer, Mick Woodmansey] and [bass player] Trevor Bolder.
"I actually did make amends with Woody," the guitarist continues. "He came on my radio show a few years back, and I thought I’d tell him live, when we were on the air, what I did. I was like, I’ve got to make amends to you, Woody, I nicked some of your cymbals. What can I do to make it right? He goes, 'I don’t know; give us a couple of hundred bucks.' I think I gave him $300, so he was well happy."
In separate Sex Pistols news, the band, featuring Frank Carter on vocals, have just announced their first North American tour since 2003.
“I think everybody needs this band right now," Frank Carter tells ABC News. "I think the world needs this band right now. And I think definitely America is screaming out for a band like the Sex Pistols.”
“At the end of the day, we’re living in a really, really difficult time. So not only do people want to come and just be entertained, they want to enjoy themselves. Punk is an energetic music. It’s one where you can go and vent and let your hair down, hopefully in a safe manner.”
The tour will kick off at one of the venues the Pistols played on their very first, ill-fated US tour in January 1978, the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas, where Steve Jones recalls the quartet had “pigs' hooves and bottles and what not slung at us by cowboys.”
