Anarchy and acoustics: Sex Pistols and Pistols in St. Paul's

For a band that weren't around very long and only really put out one studio album, the cultural and musical impact of the Sex Pistols is staggering. Guitarist Steve Jones opens up to Andrew Ford about starting the group when he was just a kid, how it feels to be considered a guitar hero now, and why he thinks we're still talking about the band fifty years on. Sex Pistols tour Australia next month (with singer Frank Carter replacing Johnny Rotten).

When a gunshot rang out in St Paul’s Cathedral back in 1951, it wasn’t the start of a classic British criminal mystery, but rather a scientific experiment. The understanding of acoustics -- from a scientific, architectural, and musicological perspective -- accelerated throughout the 1900s, as Dr Fiona Smyth describes in her book Pistols in St. Paul’s: Science, music, and architecture in the 20th Century. She joins Andy to tell tales of the science’s development and the ‘consulting detectives’ of acoustics who drove it.

And we remember the Soviet-born composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who has died at the age of 93.  

Sex Pistols (with Frank Carter) are touring Australia in April playing Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle.

Dr. Fiona Smyth’s Pistols in St Paul’s: Science, music and architecture in the twentieth century is published by Manchester University Press.