Glen decided against surgery, but after 30 years of pain a friend persuaded him to visit cranial osteopath Gerald Lamb at his London clinic.
Surgery is not usually needed, but there is some evidence manual therapies like osteopathy, can help.
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. 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.” I think driving and bad posture are part of the problem too, as well as stress. “I used to play bass guitar and they’re quite big. “You’re always humping guitars and equipment around,” he explains. 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. Three years ago an MRI scan revealed the cause of Glen’s pain was a bulging disc in his spine.Ī 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.Ĭlassic British punk group The Sex Pistols at the height of their fame (Image: Getty Images) “Everyone I saw helped a little bit, but they didn’t totally get rid of the pain and resigned myself to living with it.” “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. When they didn’t work he visited several osteopaths, a back pain clinic and top Harley Street specialists. He initially tried gentle stretching exercises and muscle-relaxing tablets prescribed by his doctor.
“Back then when the pain came on it was normally an excuse to have another port and brandy – medicinal of course,” he smiles.īut as the pain worsened over the years, Glen sought professional help. With a busy recording and touring schedule, rather than seek medical advice, he shrugged it off. Glen, 63, who began his music career as a teenager, first experienced back pain when he was in his mid-twenties. And I wear a surgical support belt underneath my shirt.” Before I go on stage I take ibuprofen and rub Voltarol on to my lower back to help ease the pain and inflammation. But if I’m performing I just battle through. It’s not just the back pain, all the opposing muscles go into spasm to compensate. “I’ve had times where I’ve had to walk with a stick.
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 went to bed and when I woke up I couldn’t move even though I needed the loo. “I remember once I’d been decorating my ensuite bathroom. Former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock has suffered a back injury (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)