TNB Music and L.A.’s Echo Team Up for Outrageous St. Patrick’s Day Ticket Giveaway!

When St. Patrick’s Day approaches, do you roll your eyes at the impending onslaught of boozed-up amateurs wearing “Kiss Me, I’m Irish!” buttons, throwing up on street corners and stealing all the cabs? Are you someone who actively avoids establishments that begin with the letters “Mc” and “O’?”

If so, then keep reading because we’ve got one hell of a deal for you.

TNB Music and our friends at The Echo–L.A.’s premiere intimate venue for the most iconic names in music–have partnered up for an outrageous St. Patrick’s Day ticket giveaway. We are giving away one (1) pair of tickets to one of the most exciting and entertaining rock shows to hit Southern California in 2012. Ex-Stranglers Hugh Cornwell and ex-Sex Pistols Glen Matlock will square off in back-to-back sets for a double bill of heavyweight rock and roll that will render even the edgiest of old school punks giddy with anticipation.

Winning the tickets is as easy as falling down. Well, almost. All you need to do is leave us a comment right here with your favorite punk rock album of all time. That’s it. We’ll pick one person at random to win the tickets. The winner will be announced on March 16. Make sure you leave an email address where you can be contacted and of course, please enter the contest only if you live in the Los Angeles area or plan on being there on March 17.

You’re welcome.

Need more info on these two paragons of punk? Read on.

Hugh Cornwell is one of the UK’s finest song-writing talents and accomplished live performers. The original guitarist, singer and main songwriter in The Stranglers enjoyed massive UK and European success with ten hit albums and twenty-one top forty singles, etching himself into the UK’s musical psyche with Peaches, No More Heroes, Golden Brown, Always the Sun, Grip, Nice N Sleazy, Duchess, Walk on By, Strange Little Girl and Skin Deep. Cornwell has released eight solo albums, most recently Hooverdam, produced and mixed in Toerag Studios by Liam Watson, known for the Grammy winning White Stripes’ Elephant.

Glen Matlock is one of the most respected, if underrated British musicians. In a career that has spanned over thirty years, Glen has made indelible contributions to music as the original bass player with The Sex Pistols, formed the underrated Rich Kids, worked with a variety of artists ranging from Iggy Pop, fellow original School of ’76 Brit Punk Rockers The Damned, through to neo-rockabilly singer Robert Gordon, whilst pursuing his own musically distinctive direction where melodic and inventive rock music thrives. To cap it all, 2010 sees Glen release a brand new album – arguably the finest to bear his name – in the shape of Born Running, as well as taking the coveted bass playing role in the reformed Faces.

Glen Matlock was one born on August 27th1956, in Kensal Green, North West London. Growing up in London through the 1960s and early 70s, Matlock fell under the musical influence of the likes of The Kinks, The Who, The Faces and David Bowie. In 1974, whilst employed as an assistant in the King’s Road, Chelsea clothing emporium Let It Rock (owned by Malcolm McLaren and his then-wife Vivienne Westwood) joined up with guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook (alongside guitarist Wally Nightingale) in a combo that would become The Sex Pistols. The band line-up was completed by the recruitment of John Lydon (soon to become Johnny Rotten) as their vocalist. The Sex Pistols line-up eventually settled around Rotten, Jones and Cook, with Matlock playing bass and singing backing vocals. However, Matlock made the most crucial musical contributions to the Pistols, his innate grasp of melody and song structure essential to knocking the band song ideas into a workable shape.

After Matlock’s departure from The Sex Pistols, he hooked up with old pal, guitarist Steve New, alongside drummer Rusty Egan and guitarist / singer-songwriter Midge Ure, formerly of Scottish pop band Slik, to form The Rich Kids, who signed to EMI and were quickly ushered into a studio to cut the album Ghosts of Princes In Towers with one of Matlock’s heroes, Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson. The Rich Kids failed to live up to their promise, however and after they split, Matlock worked with Iggy Pop on his Soldier album and subsequent tour, and then formed The Spectres with former Tom Robinson Band guitarist Danny Kustow.

Matlock’s autobiography, I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol, was published to great critical acclaim in 1990, and updated and reprinted in 1996 with insights and updates following the reformed Sex Pistols ‘Filthy Lucre’ tour, which revealed that Matlock was also a fine raconteur and witty writer.

Despite John Lydon’s talent for quotable sound bites, it is actually Glen Matlock who is the most articulate and thoughtful of the Sex Pistols. When the Pistols former manager Malcolm McLaren died in April 2010, it was Matlock who provided the world’s press and media with their main point of contact to the Sex Pistols, and provided a distinct, considered overview of Malcolm McLaren’s contribution to contemporary culture and his legacy.

In April, 2010, Matlock toured Australia with US rockabilly singer Robert Gordon, along with Slim Jim Phantom of The Stray Cats and guitarist Chris Spedding. Spedding produced some demo recordings for The Sex Pistols in 1976, one of the few old school musicians who acknowledged the worth of the band, and Matlock returned that favour three and a half decades later!

In the spring of 2010, it was announced that three members of The Faces – Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones – were to reform, with Mick Hucknall on vocals, and with Glen taking the coveted role as Ronnie Lane’s replacement on bass, a huge accolade and confirmation of Glen’s high standing amongst his musical peers, and a massive personal achievement for a lifelong fan of the band.

Glen’s latest album, Born Running, recorded with his band The Philistines, offers up twelve more punchy and direct examples of Matlock’s innate ability to craft timeless, melodic rock songs. It has an added poignancy insofar as it features the last recordings of guitarist Steve New, one of Matlock’s oldest friends and fellow founder-member of The Rich Kids, who died in 2010. Also in the band’s line up is drummer Javier Weyler, the current drumming incumbent with The Stereophonics, as well as guitarist James Stevenson, who, like Matlock, is a musical survivor from the original School of ’76 British Punk Rock. The album was produced by Jim Lowe, who has produced numerous hugely successful albums for The Stereophonics. Born Running is the latest salvo from a musician and songwriter who is never satisfied with resting on his considerable musical achievements; there is much more to come from this hugely gifted individual.