Ray Winstone talks fronting a fictional punk band with members of Sex Pistols and The Clash in cult 1982 film

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 .