The Gentlemen star Ray Winstone has spoken to NME about his experience as a member of a punk band in the cult 1982 movie Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. Check out the full interview above.

Co-starring Diane Lane and Laura Dern, the music drama focused on a band of teenage girls trying to make it in the male-dominated punk scene. Winstone, in his first role in an American movie, played the lead singer of the fictional band The Looters, alongside Paul Simonon of The Clash, as well as Steve Jones and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols.

Now better known for tough guy roles, such as Bobby Glass in The Gentlemen, Winstone was reminded of the film by NME’s Alex Flood, and recalled his trepidation taking on the role. When asked if it was a cool experience, he replied: “It was, and it was really funny because I was only kid. I’d only just got married. And I’ve been married 47 years, so that’s how long ago it was.”

“I was rehearsing this in Vancouver, on a mic, they gave me the songs and all that kind of stuff. And I went to my wife – you know, just married. I said, ‘I’m not a rock star. I can’t do it’. And she went, ‘No, you’re not. You’re an actor.’ I went, ‘oh yeah, right.’ And that’s the penny drop. Took my wife to tell me, not a director or anyone!”

 

Revealing that he and his on-screen band mates are still friends, he recalled living the life of a frontman while filming the movie. “This big punk kind of scene was going on, and it was quite slow in Vancouver. They were just finding punk, you know, in a way,” he explained. “So we had this following and all that, we’d done gigs and that kind of stuff. So it was a big moment. I remember coming back looking like a punk rocker, and one day went, ‘Are you sure?’ Anyway, I lasted about two weeks, and I went back to the normal civvies.” Winstone’s singing in the film would later be released as part of a compilation album for Cook and Jones’ band The Professionals.

Created by Guy Ritchie as a spin-off to his 2019 film of the same name, The Gentlemen follows Eddie Horniman (Theo James) as he unexpectedly inherits a weed empire and partners with a criminal dynasty, who have their own motives. The second season premiered on Netflix on September 3 and ahead of that release, a third season was greenlit by Netflix.

 

The post Ray Winstone talks fronting a fictional punk band with members of Sex Pistols and The Clash in cult 1982 film appeared first on NME.