Steve Jones is never short of anecdotes – especially when it comes to the Sex Pistols' heyday. Now the guitarist is setting the record straight on what can only be described as a quintessentially rock 'n' roll rumor that's the stuff of music biopics: one that sees him nicking David Bowie's equipment in his pre-fame days.
The fateful date was 3 July 1973 – the same day David Bowie was about to announce the retirement of Ziggy Stardust – and the Spiders from Mars – at London's Hammersmith Odeon [now called the Eventim Apollo], in front of thousands of fans, famously declaring, “This is not only the last show of the tour, but it is the last show we will ever do”. As legend has it, Jones used the historic moment as an opportunity for a lucrative side hustle.
“They played two nights, and after the first night [2 July] they left all the gear up, because they were playing there the next night,” Jones tells The Guardian.
“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!”
While Bowie later had a hunch that Jones was the one behind the robbery, the guitarist did eventually ’fess up... during a phone call.
“He knew I’d done it; he thought it was funny. Actually, I don’t think I nicked anything off him – 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.”
Jones even went one step further – confessing and apologizing to Woody on air – albeit a few decades too late.
“I actually did make amends with Woody. 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.”
Speaking of Steve Jones' side hustle, Thin Lizzy guitarist and Live Aid mastermind Midge Ure recently shed more light on Jones' [ahem] habit – recalling how, on the very day he was approached to join the Pistols, he bought a stolen amp from Jones' car boot.
