HE'S a celebrity - and he's out of there. Ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon yesterday showed his rebellious side by carrying out his threat to walk out on the hit ITV show I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here.

But has the man who outraged Britain in the 1970s sold out by agreeing to appear on the show on the first place? And what happens when punks grow up?

Dean Beddis, 39, used to be the lead singer in Newport punk band the Cowboy Killers.

He said: "I was 14 when I got into punk and I got a Sid Vicious tattoo in the playground - it's covered up by one of my other ones now.

"It was exciting at our age to buy a single and we used to take our own clothes and stick zips on, paint on slogans and band names, and sniff glue.

"We'd walk around the town in Ebbw Vale being obnoxious but not really doing anything violent - that was left to the skinheads.

"But there really was no future for us. I was in school and all we knew was that we'd go on the dole or on a government scheme because there were no jobs.

"John Lydon's been very honest and I don't think he needs the money. He doesn't really care about public opinion. He's himself and that's it."

Richard Frame, director of Newport Action for Single Homeless, attended the city's art college with Clash frontman Joe Strummer in the 1970s. He said: "I've never been pro-establishment, even though I'm part of it now. We were just a bunch of art students fed up with the slick music that was around then.

"I joined a band called The Gay Dogs, mocking David Bowie. We plucked our eyebrows and wore daft clothes that we'd made ourselves, but we couldn't play properly - we just strummed the guitars a bit.

"I met Johnny Rotten on two occasions, though both times he was too drunk to make any sense.

"I think he added a bit of colour to the jungle and it's fantastic. He wasn't being manipulated.

"He's still an individual and he's stuck by what he believes in. Three cheers for Johnny Rotten."