Sex Pistols legend’s concert cancelled hours before start
AGLASGOW concert by Sex Pistols legend Johnny Rotten was cancelled just hours before he was due to go on stage over claims his manager was being aggressive towards venue staff.
Pavilion Theatre bosses confirmed his hotly-anticipated city centre show would no longer go ahead last night amid allegations the rocker’s boss has been abusing employees for “the past two weeks”.
Iain Gordon, the Renfield Street venue’s chief, told Mr Rotten’s team shortly before 3pm the I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right event was off. Mr Gordon said the theatre had a “zero tolerance” approach to abuse towards staff.
Neither Mr Rotten – who was going by his real name John Lydon for the concert– nor his team had responded to the allegations at the time of writing.
In a post on social media, Mr Gordon wrote: “Unfortunately, due to the aggression and intimidation made to various members of my staff by John Lydon’s tour manager, tonight’s show will not go ahead.
“The days of this kind of behaviour is long gone. We have a zero tolerance policy of abuse, both
physical and verbal, and this behaviour has been ongoing for the past two weeks.
“We are sorry if this affects you but as a company we will not accept this kind of attitude to our staff from anyone, including members of the public and touring staff.
“Our box office will be in contact with you directly to organise refund of your tickets.”
Mr Rotten – who had originally rescheduled the event from 2020 due to the pandemic – did not respond to the claims but wrote online yesterday: “Glasgow Pavilion has unexpectedly cancelled tonight’s show. We were informed of the cancellation at 2.48pm.”
The Glasgow Times contacted Mr Lydon’s management over the claims.