Glen Matlock: Sex Pistols original bassist comes to Hull Social and Grimsby's Docks Academy with support from The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine

It’s not the sort of query you expect from an original member of punk icons the Sex Pistols, but at 68-years-old, Matlock admits that he ought to be putting his feet up.

Little chance of that. Hot on the heels of filling in on bass for Blondie and looking ahead to more Pistols reunion dates in 2025 with former Gallows frontman Frank Carter on vocals, Matlock is currently out on his own tour, which comes to Social in Hull tomorrow night and Docks Academy in Grimsby on Wednesday.

He has plenty of his own material to draw on – his latest solo album, Consequences Coming, came out last year – but knows that audiences will expect him to play Sex Pistols material.

"If I went to see David Bowie and he hadn't played Heroes, I would have gone home disappointed. I know there are certain songs people want me to do and I know people want me to do some new songs as well, because they bought the album and they like that.

"But I try and do a bit of a potted history of Glen Matlock. A couple of Pistols things, a couple Rich Kids songs, maybe something I did with Iggy. Some newer stuff, older stuff, a few choice covers we throw in there. It all hangs together quite well because they're mainly songs that I have had a big hand in writing.”

Matlock was born on August 27, 1956, growing up near Wormwood Scrubs prison in central London. He was introduced to guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook while working in Let It Rock, the precursor to SEX, Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s clothes shop, and they later enlisted vocalist John Lydon – or Johnny Rotten – to join the Sex Pistols.

Matlock, the bass player, is also credited as a songwriter on most of the songs on their only studio album, 1977’s Never Mind The B*******.

The Sex Pistols had already changed British society by the time of Matlock’s departure in February 1977, when he was replaced by Sid Vicious. Ever since, Matlock has worked with some of the greats of rock ‘n’ roll. Soon after the Pistols he founded the Rich Kids, featuring Midge Ure, and later played bass for Iggy Pop, co-writing material for his 1980 album Soldier.

He has also stepped in on bass for Primal Scream, reunion shows of The Faces and, more recently, Blondie.

"About two years ago, I got a call out of the blue from Clem Burke, who’s a big old mate of mine. For whatever reason, they were short of a bass player.” Soon enough, he was on a flight to New York.

"I knew them all a little bit to say hi to back since 1978, when they all came as a band on their night off to come and see me do a one-off gig with Sid Vicious, with Vicious White Kids, and that's where I met Clem.

"So we kind of go back a long way, so it wasn't too hard to be involved. They’re affable and pleasant and on the ball. They’ve got a great body of work, so it's good. It's good just turning up playing bass, sometimes.”

Nostalgia might be a necessary part of his career, but Matlock prefers to focus on what’s in front of him.

“I doff my cap to the past and live in the present and look to the future,” he says. “Whether it comes across like that is enough matter, but people seem to think so.”

He adds: “The buzz for me is when you connect with somebody and they pick up on a song that you wrote 40 years ago or 40 minutes ago.” That is addictive, he says, but as he gets older the travelling part of touring does get harder.

The Grimsby show will be just a few miles away from where, in December 1976, the Pistols played the Cleethorpes Winter Gardens (which was closed and demolished in 2007).

Matlock says: “I do remember that we were happy to be playing because that was one of the few places that let us actually play.”

Having organised a tour at the end of that year to support the single Anarchy in the UK single, a number of venues cancelled amid the fallout from the famous Bill Grundy interview earlier that month, when choice language by Matlock’s bandmates on live television caused national controversy.

Some locations such as Leeds Polytechnic and Cleethorpes hosted the band despite the furore.

Matlock also remembers that seaside gig for more pedestrian reasons.

“I had a pair of boots from Malcolm McLaren’s shop. When we were about to do the sound check, the heel fell off. Not just the rubbery bit on the bottom, but the whole heel fell off. I remember I had two-inch high heels because they were almost like biker boots.

"I was going to beg Malcolm to give me a pound to go and get them fixed somewhere before the gig and he was quite happy for me to walk around with one leg higher than the other. It’s funny, gigs, you remember the most daft things about it but that was in Cleethorpes.”

On this week’s trip to the east coast, Matlock will be supported by Kathy Valentine, formerly of 1980s group The Go-Go’s.

In his own band. Matlock sings and plays six strings alongside Neal X, former guitarist with Sigue Sigue Sputnik, drummer Chris Musto and, on bass, Jim Lowe – who in 2010 received a Grammy for engineering on Herbie Hancock’s album The Imagine Project. Matlock says: "We're not the Sex Pistols, but most people don't get a chance to see one of the Pistols singing one of their own songs, so there you go.”

Glen Matlock is at Social, Hull, on November 26, and Docks Academy, Grimsby, on November 27. glenmatlock.co.uk