When punk Glen Matlock pogoed across the stage with The Sex Pistols, he never for one second thought his high-energy antics would come back to haunt him.
The notorious Seventies band symbolised youthful rebellion and passion and threw everything into their live shows.
Now, 40 years on, bass guitarist Glen has revealed the punishing rock and roll lifestyle came at a heavy price, leaving him with back pain so severe that at times he has been forced to walk with a stick and even left him bedridden for weeks on end.
Glen, who wrote some of the band’s greatest hits including Anarchy in the UK and God Save The Queen, says: “The pain is totally debilitating and when it strikes I can’t move. It’s like sciatica – the pain travels right down my legs – and I can’t do anything. I just lie there. At one stage I was getting quite considerable attacks all the time and it could go on for six weeks or more.
“I remember once I’d been decorating my ensuite bathroom. I went to bed and when I woke up I couldn’t move even though I needed the loo. I lay there for a couple of hours, but eventually I couldn’t wait any longer and I was on my hands and knees walking like a dog – the pain was so bad.
“I’ve had times where I’ve had to walk with a stick. It’s not just the back pain, all the opposing muscles go into spasm to compensate. But if I’m performing I just battle through. Before I go on stage I take ibuprofen and rub Voltarol on to my lower back to help ease the pain and inflammation. And I wear a surgical support belt underneath my shirt.”
Glen, 63, who began his music career as a teenager, first experienced back pain when he was in his mid-twenties.
With a busy recording and touring schedule, rather than seek medical advice, he shrugged it off.
“Back then when the pain came on it was normally an excuse to have another port and brandy – medicinal of course,” he smiles.
“I enjoyed the rock and roll lifestyle.”
But as the pain worsened over the years, Glen sought professional help. He initially tried gentle stretching exercises and muscle-relaxing tablets prescribed by his doctor. When they didn’t work he visited several osteopaths, a back pain clinic and top Harley Street specialists. “Once while on tour with the Sex Pistols in Finland I had to break off and go and see an osteopath as I was really struggling,” he recalls. “Everyone I saw helped a little bit, but they didn’t totally get rid of the pain and resigned myself to living with it.”
Three years ago an MRI scan revealed the cause of Glen’s pain was a bulging disc in his spine.
A common spinal injury, a slipped or herniated disc can cause a number of problems – severe lower back pain, numbness in the shoulders, back, arms, hands, legs or feet, neck pain, muscle weakness, and pain in the buttocks, hips or legs – if the disc is pressing on the sciatic nerve.
Glen, who has spent 40 years in the music business, including five reunion tours with The Sex Pistols and a successful solo career, believes several factors contributed in his case. “You’re always humping guitars and equipment around,” he explains. “I used to play bass guitar and they’re quite big. I think driving and bad posture are part of the problem too, as well as stress.
“It’s a strange thing. I could do a weekend of gigs and nothing would happen, then on Monday morning I’d bend over to pick up a letter and that would trigger the pain.”
Slipped discs are usually initially treated with painkillers and gentle exercise, but if that doesn’t work doctors might prescribe muscle relaxants or steroid injections. Surgery is not usually needed, but there is some evidence manual therapies like osteopathy, can help.
Glen decided against surgery, but after 30 years of pain a friend persuaded him to visit cranial osteopath Gerald Lamb at his London clinic.
Osteopathy is a way of detecting, treating and preventing health problems by moving, stretching and massaging the muscles and joints.
It’s based on the principle that wellbeing depends on bones, muscles and ligaments functioning smoothly together. Cranial osteopathy involves the head and uses gentle pressure to encourage the release of stresses in the body.
It isn’t widely available on the NHS and Glen admits he was initially sceptical. “The first time I went I thought, ‘this is a load of old rubbish, he hasn’t done anything,’” he recalls. “I was only there 30 minutes, but it straightened me right up and now when I go, I come out feeling an inch taller. It totally takes away the pain. I’m a different man.”
Glen, who lives in West London, is working on a new album for release in late summer. In autumn he is back on the road touring with the Glen Matlock Band, playing songs from his solo career, along with classics from his chart heyday.
Even though he is now virtually pain free, Glen still has cranial osteopathy sessions every six weeks.
“If it sorts me out, its money well spent,” he says. “It’s important to find what works for you. You need to try to keep as fit as you can and when you’re feeling well don’t assume you’re better, be preventative.”