© Rex Features
The singer-songwriter featured on a panel headed by Pat Gilbert at London's 100 Club last night (September 18) to launch the 35th anniversary box-set edition of the Pistols' debut Never Mind The Bollocks.
She was joined by poet John Cooper Clarke, writers Zoe Howe and Fred Vermorel, ex-manager of The Clash Bernard Rhodes and filmmaker Julien Temple. Here's what she had to say.
"I was working at River Island and I was a very frustrated teenager searching for a sense of identity, just like most teenagers are. And I came across the first two punk records I ever bought, which was Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady and Never Mind The Bollocks by the Sex Pistols.
"I was really attracted to the anarchy, and the sense of chaos got me in the right mood to serve the British public in a chain store. I think every young person is attracted to what punk was. Punk to me means not giving a f**k what anyone thinks of you - that's never going to die out. I think the the Sex Pistols will mean something from generation to generation.
"I think one of the main problems with today's society is that everyone celebrates a celebrity culture and yet is completely bullied by the medium that they're buying into.
© PA Images / John Stillwell/PA Archive
© THAMES TV/SYCO
"If you watch The X Factor, that is basically the biggest sausage factory and dominates the music industry and dominates the charts and dominates what kids are listening to and buying into. They can create a phony sense of rebellion style depending on how they decide to market an artist.
"People are kind of scared. People within the industry are scared to talk about why that's wrong and stand up against it. They're going to be completely slashed by the press and the media, and a lot of the general public are going to buy into what the press and media are attacking because they're lazily accepting this kind of crappy celebrity culture.
"People are shocked when you have an opinion. But there definitely seems to be some kind of slump and we need a sense of rebellion. It's not going to be punk because that's already happened, but it has to be something with that attitude.
"Unfortunately I would say that mainstream culture is still shocked and offended by a woman expressing anger and frustration. They'd still rather that you cried out of frustration. I don't know why that is. I think you have to fight against it.
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"People read s**tty gossip magazines and s**tty newspapers that whenever they show women in a real way, in a natural way - sweating, not skinny, white and perfect - they're completely ripped apart by anybody still today. Everybody's guilty of buying into that and it's time that people take responsibility for the fact.
"I've just done a year's worth of work in schools with 14-year-old girls and every single girl that I interview - and I have documentary footage of this - has self-esteem issues. They can't do music because they're 'ugly and too fat' and scared about what the media will say about them.
"That's disgusting. After punk happening and all these feminist revolutions in the '90s, it hasn't actually made a difference to 14-year-old girls today."
The Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols super deluxe box set is released on September 24.
