THE SEX IN SEX PISTOLS: A SHORT HISTORY OF PAMELA ROOKE A.K.A. JORDAN
PAMELA ROOKE, also known as JORDAN (not to be confused with page 3 model Katie Price) turned 60 earlier this year. An English model and actress, she was a hero and icon of the British punk movement of the mid seventies.
At age 14, she began to re-inventg herself. Her dress sense and in your face style, bleached platinum blonde hairdo with heavy dark make up around the eyes, made her one of the most eccentric icons of the subculture. She was fearless.
She moved to London in 1974 and quickly became part of VIVIANNE WESTWOOD gang and worked in the SEX BOUTIQUE of Kings Road London, epicentre of London's punk subculture. She did whatever she wanted and wore whatever she wanted. Her empowering image and sexual confidence makes her a FEMINIST icon of the times to many.
Given her instant cult status, she would be a regular fixture at many of the early SEX PISTOLS concerts. She can be seen in JULIEN TEMPLE's landmark mockumentary THE ROCK AND ROLL SWINDLE wearing a shirt that says "only anarchists are pretty", during their first TV gig. JOHNNY ROTTEN pulled her top off once during a live performance. (But it was the punk scene after all...)
Around the same time, she landed a bit role in the 1976 DEREK JARMAN film SEBASTIANE - highly homoerotic portrayal of the events of the life of SAN SEBASTIANE.
She then took on the leading role in his next film JUBILEE, an underrated punk gem from 1978 in which she plays the role of an anti-historian punk named AMIL NITRATE who juxtaposes QUEEN ELIZABETH I on her time travel to late 20th century Britain (the film also features TOYAH WILCOX, "LITTLE" NELL CAMPBELL, RICHARD O'BRIAN and the one and only ADAM ANT).
In the late seventies she was an early manager of ADAM AND THE ANTS, a band that most suited MALCOLM MCLAREN's vision of fetish themed punks. She could occasionally be heard screaming in the background of their records and even took the lead vocalist spot in their amazing song LOU, inspired by LOU REED - which she even performed with the band on BBC RADIO 1 live!
In the early eighties she became involved with the band WIDE BOY AWAKE, primarily due to her then-husband guitarist KEVIN MOONEY being in the band.
With the rise of the NEW ROMANTICS, the PUNK MOVEMENT was quickly burning out, and thus JORDAN's London celebrity went with it. She moved back to her native Sussex in 1984, after spending a decade in London.
Seemingly, she had also grown tired of the punk scene - "it felt a bit unreal", she said in an interview with The Guardian many years later. (Maybe so...it was so unreal, in fact, that we're still wondering whether it happened at all!)
