Dave Goodman was a record producer, sound engineer, musician, and songwriter. He’s best known for his work with the Sex Pistols. Goodman first caught the band on April 3, 1976. That night, the Pistols opened for the 101ers, Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash group, at the Nashville, a pub in London. After the show, Goodman went backstage and offered to rent the band his PA. From that point on, Goodman mixed their live sound, right up until the Pistols left for their American tour in January 1978.
He also produced demo sessions for the group in July and October 1976, as well as January 1977. A couple of tracks Goodman was behind the board for ended up as B-sides, including “I Wanna Be Me,” which was the flip of “Anarchy in the U.K.” When it came time to choose who’d produce the Sex Pistols’ debut album, Goodman was passed over for Chris Thomas.
The 1977 Sex Pistols bootleg Spunk, consisting of Goodman’s studio recordings, surfaced just prior to the October 1977 release of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Many preferred Goodman’s raw production over the glossy Bollocks. It’s still a mystery as to who provided the tapes for Spunk, though Goodman has always been a suspect.
In July 1978, the Dave Goodman and Friends 7-inch came out on Goodman’s own label (christened “The Label”). Both Paul Cook and Steve Jones—drummer and guitarist for the Sex Pistols—play on the A-Side, “Justifiable Homicide,” though they couldn’t be listed in the credits due to contractual reasons.
Cook and Jones also had a hand in writing the tune, which is sung by Goodman. Unsurprisingly, parts of the song sound very much like the Sex Pistols.
Goodman contributed to The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle project, providing many of the Pistols recordings used for its soundtrack. In 1981, inspired by the success of the “Stars on 45” medley, Goodman put together a collection of punk soundalikes. Credited to the Friendly Hopefuls, the medley includes a cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Liar.”
Goodman has claimed he formed the Ex Pistols, “the original Sex Pistols tribute band,” in 1979. He first used the name on a record in 1984 for the single, “The Land of Hype and Glory”, a punk remake of the patriotic British song.
The release is obviously meant to evoke the Sex Pistols, from the snotty, Johnny Rotten-esque vocal (and orchestration that recalls some of the Swindle material), down to the cover art, which uses an image of Margaret Thatcher and nicks the lettering of the band’s logo—it’s all very “God Save the Queen.”There’s even the claim that the record was originally recorded in 1976. The average fan couldn’t be faulted for thinking this was a new Sex Pistols 45.
Over a five-year period beginning in 1985, a flood of archival Sex Pistols product hit the market. Amongst these releases were Dave Goodman-sanctioned LPs that included his ‘70s recordings alongside soundalikes, with the suggestion that the fakes were actually previously unreleased Pistols songs. For example, the second half of The Swindle Continues is credited to the Ex Pistols, but there was no clarification as to what that exactly meant.
I picked up this compilation when it was released, and will admit to being fooled by the song “Revolution in the Classroom” (labeled as “ultrarare mystery track!”). As shady as this soundalikes business was, I have to give Goodman some credit—a track like “Revolution in the Classroom” does actually sound pretty close to the real thing.
In 1992, the first Ex Pistols full-length, Deny, appeared. It’s rumored that original Sex Pistols bassist, Glen Matlock, plays on two tracks and co-wrote the song “Happy Families.”
There have also been rumors that Cook and Jones perform on some of the Ex Pistols recordings. The remake of the late period Sex Pistols B-side “Here We Go Again” (released in 1980 when Cook and Jones were the only remaining members), does sound remarkably similar to the original version.
In his later years, Goodman made available yet another Ex Pistols disc, Denial of a Good Man – the Album the Sex Pistols Never Released, which was available through his website.
Dave Goodman died in 2005.
We’ll leave you with the opening minutes of the documentary, Chaos! Ex Pistols Secret History: The Dave Goodman Story. In lieu of licensing Sex Pistols recordings, Goodman-produced soundalikes were used.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Los Punkers: Hilariously bad Spanish Sex Pistols cover versions, 1978