Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has lost a court battle with his former bandmates over the use of the punk legends’ music in an upcoming TV drama

What is it all about?

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, he of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire fame, is making a six-part series about the iconic punk band, who blazed brightly but briefly in the mid-1970s and gave us such classics as Pretty Vacant, God Save The Queen and Anarchy In The UK. The drama began filming in March for Disney’s FX channel and is to be called Pistol. Unsurprisingly, Boyle wants to use the band’s songs extensively. Who wouldn't? However Lydon has taken issue with the plan and has been trying to have Boyle’s use of the songs blocked. In retaliation, Lydon’s surviving former bandmates Paul Cook and Steve Jones sued him, respectively the band's drummer and guitarist. They argue that majority rule should adhere in all matters to do with the back catalogue, which would give Boyle the thumbs up and the keys to the Pistols’ musical archive. Lydon counter-argues that in previous years a single veto had been enough to nix a project such as this.

Who’s right?

That’s a big question. But from the point of view of presiding judge Sir Anthony Mann, who yesterday handed down judgement at the High Court in London, the band member agreement (BMA) which allows for a majority decision is valid and therefore Lydon’s veto can be over-ruled. Approval has already been given by Glen Matlock, another former member, and by the estate of Matlock’s replacement, Sid Vicious, who died of a heroin overdose in 1979 while on bail for suspected murder.

A great rock’n’roll swindle?

Lydon thinks so. Ahead of the hearing he referred to the BMA as “a total trap or prison” and likened it to “slave labour”. He has also taken issue with his portrayal in the upcoming drama, which is based on Jones’s memoir. During the trial, meanwhile, he told the court: “I don’t understand how Steve and Paul think they have the right to insist that I do something that I so morally heart-and-soul disagree with.”

And his former bandmates?

In a joint statement issued yesterday, Jones and Cook said: “We welcome the court’s ruling in this case. It brings clarity to our decision-making and upholds the band members’ agreement on collective decision-making … It has not been a pleasant experience, but we believe it was necessary to allow us to move forward and hopefully work together in the future with better relations.”

It doesn’t sound very punk …

It does not, though arguably the band lost their right to cock a snook at the Establishment when they licensed a Sex Pistols scent in 2010. “Resisting tradition, fighting conformity and disregarding aromatic conventions it leaves a fresh, restless bite of lemon, sharpened and intensified by a defiant black pepper,” went the blurb. “The fragrance exudes pure energy, pared down and pumped up by leather, shot through with heliotrope and brought back down to earth by a raunchy patchouli.”