His story

Glen Matlock, 57, musician

After my time with the Sex Pistols ended, I started getting this other band together called the Rich Kids and wanted a singer who could carry a tune. We tried out everybody in London, but I couldn’t find the one I wanted. One day, I walked into a record store and I was flicking through the racks, and I came across this Slik record. I called up EMI immediately and I said: “Can we get hold of this guy?”

My very first impression of Midge was that he knew what he was doing and I didn’t. He was a pro. I thought: “I’m going to have to up my game here.” I couldn’t fault his singing, and he got all the girls, too. Although what I do remember, more than anything else, is that we used to share a room sometimes on tour and one night I met a young lady [and brought her back]. I said to Midge the morning after, “I hope I didn’t wake you up last night,” and Midge said, “Wake me up? She was holding my foot!” We shared a lot. Our paths have gone in totally different ways and I don’t see Midge that often, but I’m hoping that we can reconnect.

In many ways, the Rich Kids were ahead of their time. I always believe if you try to copy what’s going on, by the time you’ve written some songs and put a record out you’re going to be a year too late. The Pistols would never have happened if we’d copied what was going on – we’d have been a soft jazz-rock band like Kokomo.

Even so, I wasn’t Sid Vicious and I didn’t want to be him, but the press didn’t seem to understand that. In the end, the Rich Kids were short-lived. I think we went wrong by being too hasty – or rather, we were pushed into being too hasty, and we should have taken a bit more time out to make our album.

His story

Midge Ure, 60, musician

Glen and I instantly got on. Rusty Egan, the drummer, was very wired, and [original Sex Pistols member] Steve Jones was young and all over the place like a baby gazelle, but Glen was focused. I had a preconceived idea of what guys from a band like the Sex Pistols would be like and Glen didn’t fit that. We were both huge Small Faces fans and we loved a well-constructed, melodic song.

They took me out to introduce me to London properly after the first time we rehearsed, and we ended up playing a load of gigs. We went to see the Police in Islington and the opening band didn’t turn up so we went on instead. Then we went to a warehouse party, where Mick Jones and everyone were hanging out, and someone peed on Sid and Nancy. It was a baptism of fire and very exciting.

In the year or so we had together, expectations were huge. The Rich Kids were on the cover of Sounds before I even joined and hadn’t released a thing. Glen really stuck his neck out having me in the band because I’d come from an established pop background, so people couldn’t always get a handle on what the Rich Kids were.

It’s funny that for a band that only did one album, the ripples went far and wide. Gary Kemp once said to me: “The Rich Kids were the conduit between punk and what was about to happen with electronic music; you introduced the synthesiser to rock instrumentation.” Back then, though, I can see why we didn’t fit in. But you can’t stand still to let everyone else catch up with you. Had we stuck with it and done a second album, who knows what would have happened.

Midge and Glen play the Voewood Festival (voewoodfestival.com). Midge Ure’s new solo album will be released on 18 August