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Sex Pistols

January 19, 2024

For other uses, see Sex Pistols (disambiguation).

The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became one of the most culturally influential acts in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspired many later punk, post-punk and alternative rock musicians, while their clothing and hairstyles were a significant influence on the early punk image.

Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols performing in Paradiso, 1977. From left: Paul Cook, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones.
Background information
OriginLondon, England
GenresPunk rock
DiscographySex Pistols discography
Years active
  • 1975–1978
  • 1996
  • 2002–2003
  • 2007–2008
Labels
Spinoffs
Past members
Websitesexpistolsofficial.com

The Sex Pistols' first line-up consisted of vocalist Johnny Rotten (born John Lydon), guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and bassist Glen Matlock, with Matlock replaced by Sid Vicious (born John Richie) in early 1977. Under the management of Malcolm McLaren, the band gained widespread attention from British press after swearing live on-air during a December 1976 television interview. Their May 1977 single "God Save the Queen", which described the monarchy as a "fascist regime", was released to coincide with national celebrations for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. The song was rapidly banned from being played by the BBC and by nearly every independent radio station in Britain, making it the most censored record in British history.

Their debut, and sole, album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977) was a UK number one and is regarded as seminal in the development of punk rock. In January 1978, at the final gig of a difficult and media-hyped tour of the US, Rotten announced the band's break-up live on stage. Over the next few months, the three remaining members recorded songs for McLaren's film of the Sex Pistols' story, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. Vicious died of a heroin overdose in February 1979 following his arrest for the alleged murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Rotten, Jones, Cook and Matlock later reunited for a successful tour in 1996.[1] Further one-off performances and short tours followed over the next decade.

The Sex Pistols have been recognised as a highly influential band.[2] In 2006, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame although, true to their image, they refused to attend the ceremony, with Rotten referring to the museum as "a piss stain".[3]

History edit

Formation edit

The Sex Pistols evolved from The Strand (sometimes known as the Swankers), formed in London in 1972 by teenagers Steve Jones on vocals, Paul Cook on drums and Wally Nightingale on guitar. According to Jones, both he and Cook played on instruments he had stolen.[4][5] The band regularly hung out at two clothing shops on the King's Road in Chelsea, London: John Krivine and Steph Raynor's Acme Attractions[6][7] and Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. McLaren's and Westwood's shop had opened in 1971 as Let It Rock, with a 1950s revival Teddy Boy theme. It had been renamed in 1972 to focus on another revival trend, the '50s rocker look.[8] The shop then became a focal point of the early London punk rock scene, bringing together participants such as the future Sid Vicious, Marco Pirroni, Gene October, and Mark Stewart.[9] Jordan, the wildly styled shop assistant, is credited with "pretty well single-handedly paving the punk look".[10]

In late 1974, Jones asked McLaren to take over the band's management. Glen Matlock, an art student who occasionally worked at McLaren's and Westwood's shop, joined as bassist.[11] McLaren and Westwood conceived a new identity for their shop: renamed Sex, it changed its focus away from retro 1950s couture to S&M-inspired "anti-fashion".[12][13] After managing and promoting the New York Dolls, McLaren returned to London in May 1975 and began to take more of an interest in The Strand.[14]

The group had been rehearsing regularly, overseen by Bernard Rhodes (who would later go on to manage The Clash) and performing live. Soon after McLaren's return, Nightingale was dismissed and Jones, uncomfortable as frontman, took over guitar.[15] McLaren had been talking with the New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain about coming over to England to front the group. When those plans fell through, McLaren, Rhodes and the band began looking locally for a new member to assume the lead vocal duties.[16][17] As described by Matlock, "Everyone had long hair back then, even the milkman, so what we used to do was if someone had short hair we would stop them in the street and ask them if they fancied themselves as a singer".[18] For instance, Midge Ure, the later front man of Rich Kids (with Matlock) and Ultravox, claims to have been approached, but refused the offer.[19] With the search for a lead singer proving fruitless, McLaren made several calls to Richard Hell, who also turned down the invitation.[20][21]

Lydon joins edit

 
The Sex Pistols, early 1976; from left: Rotten, Jones, Matlock and Cook

Describing the social context in which the band formed, John Lydon said that mid-seventies Britain was "a very depressing place ... completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment, just about everybody was on strike ... if you came from the wrong side of the tracks ... then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all."[22]

In August 1975, Rhodes spotted Lydon, then nineteen-year-old, wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words I Hate handwritten above the band's name and holes scratched through the Floyd members' eyes.[23][24][25] Soon after, either Rhodes or McLaren asked Lydon to audition.[23][26][27][28] During the session, Lydon improvised to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" on the Sex's jukebox. According to Jones, "he came in with green hair. I thought he had a really interesting face. I liked his look. He had the 'I Hate Pink Floyd' T-shirt on...held together with safety pins... he was a real arsehole—but smart."[23][29][30] Jones renamed Lydon as "Johnny Rotten" as a joke, apparently because of his particularly bad teeth.[25][31][32]

Cook had a full-time job and was threatening to quit the band. New Musical Express journalist Nick Kent occasionally played second guitar with the band but left acrimoniously when Lydon joined.[33] An advertisement was placed in Melody Maker looking for a "whizz kid guitarist ... not older than 20 ... not worse looking than Johnny Thunders."[34] As Steve New was the most talented guitarist to audition, he was asked to join. However, Jones' playing had greatly improved, and New left a month after joining the band.[35]

 
The August 1975 line-up ; from left: Rotten, Matlock, Jones, and Cook

After considering band name options such as Le Bomb, Subterraneans, the Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel, Kid Gladlove, and Crème de la Crème, they decided on Sex Pistols.[36][37] Matlock said the band decided on the name while McLaren was in the United States before Rotten joined. Jon Savage says the name was not firmly settled on until just before their first show in November 1975. McLaren later said the name derived "from the idea of a pistol, a pin-up, a young thing, a better-looking assassin". Not given to modesty, false or otherwise, he added: "[I] launched the idea in the form of a band of kids who could be perceived as being bad."[38] The group began writing original material: Rotten was the lyricist and Matlock the primary melody writer (though their first collaboration, "Pretty Vacant", had all lyrics by Matlock, which Rotten tweaked a bit); official credit was shared equally among the four.[39][40]

Their first gig was arranged by Matlock, then studying at Saint Martin's School of Art. The band played at the school in November 1975,[41][42][43] supporting the pub rock group Bazooka Joe. They performed several covers including the Who's "Substitute", the Small Faces' "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", and the Monkees' "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone".[44]

Early following edit

The Saint Martins gig was followed by performances at colleges around London. The band's core early followers—including Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin and Billy Idol, who were inspired to form bands of their own, as well as Jordan and Soo Catwoman—came to be known as the Bromley Contingent, after the suburban south-east London borough that several of them were from.[45][46] Their cutting-edge fashion, much of it supplied by Sex, ignited a trend that was adopted by the new fans the band attracted.[47] McLaren and Westwood saw the incipient London punk movement as a vehicle for more than just couture. They were influenced by the May 1968 radical uprising in Paris, particularly by the ideology and agitations of the Situationists.[48][49][50] These interests were shared with Jamie Reid, a friend of McLaren who took over the design of the band's visual imagery in the spring of 1976.[51] His cut-up lettering—based on notes left by kidnappers or terrorists—were used to create the classic Sex Pistols logo and many subsequent designs for the band, although they were actually introduced by McLaren's friend Helen Wellington-Lloyd.[52][53][54] Reid has said that he used "to talk to John [Lydon] a lot about the Situationists ... the Sex Pistols seemed the perfect vehicle to communicate ideas directly to people who weren't getting the message from left-wing politics".[55] McLaren was also arranging for the band's first photo sessions.[56] According to the writer Jon Savage, Lydon "with his green hair, hunched stance and ragged looked ... looked like a cross between Uriah Heep and Richard Hell".[24][note 1]

Their first gig to attract attention was as a supporting act for Eddie and the Hot Rods, a leading pub rock group, at the Marquee in February 1976.[58] The band's first review appeared in the NME, accompanied by a brief interview in which Jones declared, "Actually we're not into music. We're into chaos."[59] Among those who read the article were two students at the Bolton Institute of Technology, Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley, who headed down to London in search of the Sex Pistols. After chatting with McLaren at Sex, they saw the band at a couple of late February gigs.[60] The two friends immediately began organising their own Pistols-style group, Buzzcocks. As Devoto later put it, "My life changed the moment that I saw the Sex Pistols."[61]

The Pistols soon played other important venues, notably playing at Oxford Street's 100 Club for the first time on 30 March.[62] On 3 April, they played for the first time at the Nashville, supporting the 101ers. The pub rock group's lead singer, Joe Strummer, saw the Pistols for the first time that night—and recognised punk rock as the future.[63] A return gig at the Nashville on 23 April highlighted the band's growing musical competence. However Westwood started a fight with another audience member which also dragged in McLaren and Rotten.[64][65] Cook later said, the "fight at the Nashville: that's when all the publicity got hold of it and the violence started creeping in ... I think everybody was ready to go and we were the catalyst."[66]

The leading New York punk band, the Ramones, released their debut album on 23 April 1976. Although regarded as seminal to the growth of English punk rock, Lydon has repeatedly rejected that it influenced the Sex Pistols, claiming that they "were all long-haired and of no interest to me. I didn't like their image, what they stood for, or anything about them".[67][68] On 11 May, the Pistols began a four-week Tuesday night residency at the 100 Club.[69] They devoted the rest of the month to touring small cities and towns in the north of England and recording demos in London with producer and recording artist Chris Spedding.[69][70][71] The following month they played their first gig in Manchester, arranged by Devoto and Shelley. The Sex Pistols' 4 June performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall set off a punk rock boom in the city.[72][73]

On 4 and 6 July, respectively, two newly formed London punk rock acts—The Clash, with Strummer as lead vocalist, and the Damned—made their live debuts opening for the Sex Pistols. On their off-night on the 5th, the Pistols attended a Ramones gig at Dingwalls, like virtually everyone else at the center of the early London punk scene.[74] During a return Manchester gig on 20 July, the Pistols premiered a new song, "Anarchy in the U.K.", reflecting elements of the radical ideologies to which Rotten was being exposed. According to Savage, "there seems little doubt that Lydon was fed material by Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid, which he then converted into his own lyric".[75]

"Anarchy in the U.K." was among the seven original songs recorded in a demo session overseen by the band's sound engineer, Dave Goodman.[76][77] McLaren organised a major event for 29 August at The Screen on the Green in London's Islington district, with the Buzzcocks and the Clash opening for the Pistols.[78][79][note 2] Three days later, the band were in Manchester to tape their first television appearance, for Tony Wilson's So It Goes.[81]

The Pistols played their first gig outside Britain on 3 September, at the opening of the Chalet du Lac disco in Paris. The Bromley Contingent were in attendance and Siouxsie was harassed by locals due to her outfit with bare breasts.[82] The following day, the So It Goes performance aired.[83][84] On 13 September, the Pistols began a tour of Britain.[85] A week later, back in London, they headlined the opening night of the 100 Club Punk Special. Organised by McLaren (for whom the word "festival" had too much of a hippie connotation), the event was "considered the moment that was the catalyst for the years to come".[86][87][88] Belying the common perception that punk bands couldn't play their instruments, contemporary music press reviews, later critical assessments of concert recordings, and testimonials by fellow musicians indicate that the Pistols had developed into a tight, ferocious live band.[89][90][91][92] As Rotten tested out wild vocalisation styles, the instrumentalists experimented "with overload, feedback and distortion ... pushing their equipment to the limit".[93]

Mainstream fame edit

See also: Bill Grundy § The Today incident
 
"Anarchy in the U.K."
Excerpt from "Anarchy in the UK"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The record label EMI signed the band on a two-year contract on 8 October 1976.[94] The Pistols were soon in a studio recording a full-dress session with Dave Goodman. According to Matlock, "The idea was to get the spirit of the live performance. We were pressurized to make it faster and faster."[95] The results were rejected by the band. Chris Thomas, who had produced Roxy Music and mixed Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, was brought in to produce.[96] The band's first single, "Anarchy in the U.K.", was released on 26 November 1976.[95] The musician and journalist John Robb later described the record's impact: "From Steve Jones' opening ... descending chords, to Johnny Rotten's ... sneering vocals, this song is the perfect statement ... a stunningly powerful piece of punk politics."[97] Colin Newman of the early post-punk band Wire, described it as "the clarion call of a generation".[98]

The lyrics of "Anarchy in the U.K." linked punk to a newly politicised and nihilistic attitude, typified by phrases such as "I am an anti-Christ" and "Destroy!".[99] The single's packaging and visual promotion also broke new ground. Reid and McLaren came up with the idea of selling the record in a completely wordless, featureless black sleeve.[100] The primary image associated with the single was Reid's "anarchy flag" poster: a ripped up and partly safety-pinned back together Union Flag, with the song and band names clipped across the middle. These and other of Reid's images for the band quickly became punk iconography.[101]

Clip from the 1976 interview with by Bill Grundy

The Pistol's behaviour as much as their music attracted national media attention. On 1 December 1976, the band and members of the Bromley Contingent repeatedly swore during an early evening live broadcast of Thames Television's Today programme, hosted by Bill Grundy. Appearing as last-minute replacements for Queen, the band and their entourage were offered drinks as they waited to go on air. During the interview, encouraged by Grundy, Jones said the band had "fucking spent" its label advance, and Rotten used the word "shit". Grundy—who had later claimed to have been drunk—then attempted to flirt with Siouxsie Sioux, who replied that she had "always wanted to meet" him. Grundy responded, "Did you really? We'll meet afterwards, shall we?", prompting Jones to repeatedly swear.[102]

 
Daily Mirror front page, 2 December 1976

Although the programme was only broadcast in the London region, the ensuing media coverage occupied the tabloid newspapers for days. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline "The Filth and the Fury!", and asked "Who are these punks?";[103] other papers such as the Daily Express ("Fury at Filthy TV Chat") and the Daily Telegraph ("4-Letter Words Rock TV") followed suit.[104][105] Thames Television suspended Grundy and the interview effectively ended his career.[106][107] Steve Jones reflected; Grundy was the big dividing line in the Sex Pistols' story. Before it, we were all about the music, but from then on it was all about the media. In some ways it was our finest moment, but in others it was the beginning of the end ... In terms of the Sex Pistols having any kind of long-term future, this sudden acceleration was the worst thing that could possibly have happened.[108]

The interview made the band a household name in Britain and brought punk into the mainstream. They launched the UK Anarchy Tour, supported by the Clash and Johnny Thunders' band the Heartbreakers, over from New York. The Damned were briefly part of the tour, before McLaren kicked them off. Media coverage was intense, and many of the concerts were cancelled by organisers or local authorities; of approximately twenty scheduled gigs, only about seven actually took place.[109][110] Following a campaign in the south Wales press, a crowd including carol singers and a Pentecostal preacher, protested against the group outside a show in Caerphilly.[111] Packers at the EMI plant refused to handle the band's single.[112] London Conservative councillor Bernard Brook Partridge said, "Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups I suppose currently are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating ... the antithesis of humankind. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it."[113][note 3]

Three concerts were arranged in the Netherlands for January 1977. The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on 4 January; a few hours later, the Evening News was reporting that the band had "vomited and spat their way" to the flight.[114] Despite categorical denials by the EMI representative who accompanied the group, the label, which was under political pressure, released the band from their contract.[115] In one journalist's later description, the Pistols had "stoked a moral panic ... precipitating the cancellation of gigs, the band's expulsion from their EMI record deal and lurid tabloid tales of punk's 'shock cult'".[116] As McLaren fielded offers from other labels, the band went into the studio for a round of recordings with Goodman, their last with either him or Matlock.[117]

Sid Vicious replaces Matlock edit

 
The Sex Pistols (Sid Vicious left, Steve Jones centre, and Johnny Rotten right) performing in Trondheim, Norway, July 1977

On 28 February 1977 McLaren announced Matlock was leaving the band because Matlock "went on too long about Paul McCartney."[118] Although Matlock says he left voluntarily, Jones claimed in a contemporary interview that he was sacked because he "liked the Beatles",[119][118][120] In 2005, Jones admitted that although Matlock was a good song writer, he "didn't look like a Sex Pistols."[121][note 4] In 1990, Matlock described the reason as his bitter relationship with Rotten, exacerbated—in Matlock's account—by Rotten's attitude "once he'd had his name in the papers".[122] Jon Savage suggests that Rotten pushed Matlock out to demonstrate his power and autonomy from McLaren.[123]

Matlock was replaced by Rotten's friend Sid Vicious, previously the drummer of two inner circle punk bands, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Flowers of Romance. According to Matlock, Rotten wanted Vicious in the band because "[i]nstead of him against Steve and Paul, it would become him and Sid against Steve and Paul. He always thought of it in terms of opposing camps."[124] According to Jones, "to Cookie [Paul Cook] and me, it just didn't make any sense to have someone who couldn't play a note trying to fill Glen's shoes, but it was never about the music for McLaren ... from the minute Sid joined the band, nothing was ever normal again."[125]

Julien Temple, then a film student McLaren had employed to create a comprehensive audiovisual record of the band, agrees: "Sid was John's protégé in the group, really. The other two just thought he was crazy."[123] McLaren later stated that, much earlier in the band's career, Westwood had told him he should "get the guy called John [Sid Vicious] who came to the store a couple of times" to be the singer. When Lydon was recruited, Westwood said McLaren had recruited "the wrong John".[126]

 
The Sex Pistols on stage at the Student Society in Trondheim, 1977

Vicious was arrested after hurtling a glass that shattered and blinded a girl in one eye at a Damned gig at the 100 Club Punk Special. He served time in a remand centre and the incident contributed to the 100 Club banning punk bands.[127][128] He assaulted Nick Kent with a bicycle chain during a gig at the 100 Club.[129][130] According to McLaren, "when Sid joined he couldn't play guitar but his craziness fitted into the structure of the band."[131] "Everyone agreed he had the look," Lydon later recalled, but musical skill was another matter. "The first rehearsals ... with Sid were hellish".[132] Marco Pirroni, who had performed with Vicious in Siouxsie and the Banshees, has said, "After that, it was nothing to do with music anymore. It would just be for the sensationalism and scandal of it all. Then it became the Malcolm McLaren story".[131]

Being in the Pistols had a progressively destructive effect on Vicious. As Lydon observed, "Up to that time, Sid was absolutely childlike. Everything was fun and giggly. Suddenly he was a big pop star. Pop star status meant press, a good chance to be spotted in all the right places, adoration."[131] Early in 1977, he met Nancy Spungen, an emotionally disturbed drug addict and sometime prostitute from New York.[131][133][134] Spungen introduced Vicious to heroin, and their emotional codependency alienated him from the other band members. Lydon later wrote, "we did everything to get rid of Nancy ... She was killing him. I was absolutely convinced this girl was on a slow suicide mission ... She wanted to take Sid with her."[135]

A&M, Virgin, and Jubilee week edit

The Pistols signed to A&M Records at a March 1977 press ceremony held outside Buckingham Palace. Afterwards, intoxicated, they went to the A&M offices where Vicious reportedly broke a toilet bowl and Rotten verbally abused members of the label's staff.[136][137] A couple of days later, the Pistols got into a fight with another band at a club; one of Rotten's friends threatened a friend of A&M's English director; A&M broke their contract with the Pistols on 16 March. Although 25,000 copies of the "God Save the Queen" single had already been pressed, nearly all were destroyed.[138]

 
Jamie Reid's "God Save the Queen" sleeve; in 2001, it was named the greatest record cover of all time by Q magazine.[139]

Vicious first performed with the Pistols at London's Notre Dame Hall on 28 March.[140] That May, the Pistols signed with Virgin Records, their third label in little more than half a year. During Virgin's release campaign for "God Save the Queen", workers at the pressing plant laid down tools in protest at the song's lyrics and Reid's cover art of Queen Elizabeth II with her face obscured by cutout letters forming the song title and the band name.[141][142] The single was eventually released on 27 May.[143][144] Its lyrics–"God save the queen / the fascist regime..She ain't no human being / and there's no future / in England's dreaming"–lead to widespread outcry from the British tabloids,[145][146] leading to several major chains withdrawing it from sale.[143][144] It was banned by BBC radio and television and every independent radio station, making it, according to the music critic Alexis Petridis, the "most heavily censored record in British history".[147] The song's social impact has been described by the musician and journalist Sean O'Hagan as "punk's crowning glory".[148]

The single was timed to coincide with the height of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee celebrations. By Jubilee weekend, a week and a half after the record's release, it had sold more than 150,000 copies. On 7 June, McLaren chartered a boat to have the Sex Pistols perform while sailing the River Thames, passing Westminster Pier and the Houses of Parliament. The event was conceived as a mockery of the Queen's river procession planned for two days later, but ended in chaos. Police launches forced the boat to dock, and constabulary surrounded the gangplanks at the pier. While the band members and their equipment were hustled down a side stairwell, McLaren, Westwood, and many of the band's entourage were arrested.[149][150]

 
"God Save the Queen"
"God Save the Queen" was originally titled "No Future", but was changed to coincide with the 1977 Jubilee
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"God Save the Queen" opened at number 2 on the official UK record chart for Jubilee week, behind the Rod Stewart's "I Don't Want to Talk About It". McLaren claimed that CBS Records, who distributed both singles, told him that the Pistols were outselling Stewart two to one. There is evidence that exceptional measures were taken by the British Phonographic Institute, which oversaw the compilation of the UK chart, to exclude sales from Virgin' shops.[151][152]

Attacks on punk fans rose and in mid-June, and Rotten was assaulted by a knife-wielding gang outside Islingtons Pegasus pub, causing tendon damage to his left arm. Reid and Cook were beaten up in other incidents; three days after the Pegasus assault, Rotten was attacked again.[153] According to Cook, after the "God Save The Queen" single and the Grundy incident, the Pistols were public enemy number one, and there was a rivalry between gangs of rockabillies, Teddy Boys and punks, which often lead to violence. By that August the band were unable to publicise UK dates, forcing them to tour pseudonymously as the SPOTS (Sex Pistols on Tour Secretly) to avoid cancellation.[154]

McLaren had long wanted to make a movie featuring the Sex Pistols. Temple's first task was to assemble Sex Pistols Number 1, a 25-minute mosaic of footage from various sources, much of it refilmed from television screens.[155] Number 1 was often screened at concert venues before the band took stage. Using media footage from the Thames incident, Temple created another short, Jubilee Riverboat (aka Sex Pistols Number 2).[156][157]

God Save the Queen edit
Main article: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
 
Jamie Reid's logo for Never Mind the Bollocks

Beginning in early 1977, Lydon, Jones and Cook began to record tracks for their debut album with producer Chris Thomas. Initially titled God Save Sex Pistols, it became known during the summer as Never Mind the Bollocks.[158] Vicious's lack of musical ability became apparent soon after he joined the sessions; according to Jones they "tried as hard as possible not to let [Vicious] anywhere near the studio".[159] Although Matlock was asked to return as a session musician, Jones ultimately played most of the bass parts.[160] Vicious's bass is reportedly present on "Bodies": According to Jones, "we just let him do it. When he left I dubbed another part on, leaving Sid's down low."[159] Jones says that Vicious showed up for the "God Save the Queen" session, while Lydon remembers him being there during the recording an unused version of "Submission".[161] Two further singles were released from the Thomas sessions; "Pretty Vacant" on 1 July[162][163][164] and "Holidays in the Sun" on 14 October.[165] Each was a Top Ten hit.[166]

The album was released on 28 October 1977.[167] Rolling Stone described it as "the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies".[168] Some critics were disappointed that the album contained all four previously released singles, and dismissed it as little more than a "greatest hits" compilation.[169][170]

Containing the track "Bodies"—in which Rotten says "fuck" six times—and "God Save the Queen", and featuring the word bollocks in its title, the album was banned by Boots, W. H. Smith and Woolworth's.[171] The Conservative shadow minister for education condemned it as "a symptom of the way society is declining" and both the Independent Television Companies Association and Association of Independent Radio Contractors banned its advertisements.[172][173] Nonetheless, advance sales were sufficient to make it number one on the album chart.[171]

The album title led to a high profile legal case after a Nottingham Virgin Records store was threatened with prosecution for displaying "indecent printed matter". The case was thrown out when defending QC John Mortimer produced an expert witness who established that bollocks was an Old English term for a small ball, that the word appeared in place names without causing local communities erotic disturbance, and that in the nineteenth century bollocks had been used as a nickname for clergymen: "Clergymen are known to talk a good deal of rubbish and so the word later developed the meaning of nonsense."[174] In the context of the album title, the term does in fact primarily signify "nonsense". Steve Jones off-handedly came up with the title as the band debated what to call the album. An exasperated Jones said, "Oh, fuck it, never mind the bollocks of it all."[175]

After dates in the Netherlands, the band set out on a Never Mind the Bans tour of Britain in December 1977. Of eight scheduled dates, four were cancelled due to illness or political pressure. On Christmas Day, the Pistols played two shows at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield, the first show being for the children of striking firemen.[176] These were the band's final UK performances for more than eighteen years.[177]

Break-up edit

The pistols January 1978 US tour was initially scheduled for nine dates, but due to Vicious' drug use and the breakdown in relationship between Lydon and McLaren was cut short after five shows played over twelve days.[178] It was delayed due to American authorities' reluctance to issue a visa to Jones, given his criminal record, leading to the cancellation of several dates in the Northeast.[167][179] Although the tour had been highly anticipated in the US, it was plagued by in-fighting and poor planning, leading to frustrated and belligerent audiences.[126][180]

Early in the tour, Vicious was arrested while trying to buy heroin in Memphis, and beaten by the security team hired by Warner Bros., the band's American label.[181] He subsequently appeared with the words "Gimme a fix" scarred on his chest.[182][183] During a concert in San Antonio, Vicious called the crowd "a bunch of faggots" before hitting an audience member on the head with his bass guitar.[180] Suffering from heroin withdrawal during a show in Dallas, he spat blood at a woman who climbed onstage and punched him in the face.[184] He was admitted to hospital later that night to treat various injuries. Offstage he is said to have kicked a photographer, attacked a security guard, and challenged one of his own bodyguards to a fight.[131]

 
"No Fun"
Sample of "No Fun", a cover version of the Stooges song—studio recording from 1976 or 1977
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Rotten was suffering flu[185] and coughing up blood, and felt increasingly isolated from Cook and Jones, and disgusted by Vicious.[186] Jones later said that he and Cook "couldn't stand being around Johnny and Sid anymore. You couldn't turn round for a minute without Sid starting a fight ... Then on top of that you had Rotten, who was on his own trip and basically thought he was God by that stage."[187]

On 14 January 1978, during the tour's final date at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, a disillusioned Rotten introduced the band's encore saying, "You'll get one number and one number only 'cause I'm a lazy bastard." That one number was a Stooges cover, "No Fun". At the end of the song, Rotten, kneeling on the stage, chanted an unambiguous declaration, "This is no fun. No fun. This is no fun—at all. No fun." As the final cymbal crash died away, Rotten addressed the audience directly—"Ah-ha-ha. Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night"—before throwing down his microphone and walking offstage.[188][note 5] He later observed, "I felt cheated, and I wasn't going on with it any longer; it was a ridiculous farce. Sid was completely out of his brains—just a waste of space. The whole thing was a joke at that point ... [Malcolm] wouldn't speak to me ... He would not discuss anything with me. But then he would turn around and tell Paul and Steve that the tension was all my fault because I wouldn't agree to anything."[189]

On 17 January the band traveled separately to Los Angeles. Vicious, in increasingly bad shape, was brought by a friend, who then took him to New York, where after taking a mixture of valium and methadone (later excused as "nervous exhaustion") was hospitalised on arrival.[190][191] Rotten flew to New York to visit Vicious, and announced the band's break-up on 18 January.[192] Virtually broke, he telephoned the head of Virgin Records, Richard Branson, who agreed to pay for his flight back to London.[193][194]

Cook, Jones and Vicious did not play live together again after Rotten's departure. Over the next several months, McLaren arranged for recordings in Brazil (with Jones and Cook), Paris (with Vicious) and London; they and others stepped in as lead vocalists on later tracks. These recordings were to make up the musical soundtrack for the reconceived Pistols feature film project, directed by Temple, to which McLaren was now devoting himself. On 30 June, a single credited to the Sex Pistols was released: on one side, notorious criminal Ronnie Biggs sang "No One Is Innocent" accompanied by Jones and Cook; on the other, Vicious sang the classic "My Way", over both a Jones–Cook backing track and a string orchestra.[195][note 6] The single charted as number seven.[197]

Aftermath edit

After leaving the Pistols, Rotten reverted to his birth name of Lydon and formed the influential post-punk band Public Image Ltd with former Clash member Keith Levene and school friend Jah Wobble.[198] The band scored a UK top-ten hit with their debut single, 1978's "Public Image". The following year Lydon initiated legal proceedings against McLaren and the Pistols' management company, Glitterbest, which McLaren controlled. Among the claims were non-payment of royalties, improper usage of the title "Johnny Rotten", unfair contractual obligations,[199] and damages for "all the criminal activities that took place".[200]

Vicious moved to New York where he attempted to launch a career as a solo artist with Spungen as his manager. In September 1978, backed by members of the New York Dolls, Vicious recorded songs eventually released on his posthumous 1979 live album Sid Sings. On 12 October 1978, Spungen was found dead aged 20 in the Hotel Chelsea room she was sharing with Vicious, from a stab wound to her stomach.[201][202] Police recovered drug paraphernalia from the scene and Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder.[202] While on bail, Vicious was arrested for smashing a beer mug in the face of Patti Smith's brother Todd Smith. Vicious was taken into custody on 9 December 1978 and spent the next 54 days in Rikers Island jail, where he underwent enforced cold turkey detox. He was released on bail on 1 February 1979. Later that night, following a small party to celebrate his release, he died of a heroin overdose, aged 21.[203][204]

Hearings for Lydon's lawsuit began on 7 February 1979, five days after Vicious's death. Cook and Jones allied with McLaren, but as evidence mounted that their manager had spent virtually all of the band's revenue on his film project, they switched sides. On 14 February, the court put the film and its soundtrack into receivership—no longer under McLaren's control, they were now to be administered as exploitable assets for addressing the band members' financial claims. McLaren was left with substantial personal debts and legal fees.[205][206] McLaren went on to carry out a one-month consultancy for Adam and the Ants and manage their offshoot Bow Wow Wow. In the mid-1980s he released a series of successful and influential records as a solo artist.[207]

Post-Lydon edit

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, a soundtrack album for the still-uncompleted film, was released by Virgin Records in February 1979. It consists mostly of cover songs and new tracks sung by Jones, Vicious, Cook, Biggs, McLaren and Edward Tudor-Pole. Several tracks feature Rotten's vocals from early unissued sessions, in some cases with re-recorded music by Jones and Cook. There is one live cut, from the band's final concert in San Francisco. The album also contains tracks in which other artists cover Sex Pistols songs.[208][209][note 7] Four songs from Swindle became Top Ten singles, one more than from Never Mind the Bollocks. The 1978 "No One Is Innocent"/"My Way" was followed in 1979 by Vicious's cover of "Something Else" (number three, and the biggest-selling single under the Sex Pistols name); Jones singing an original, "Silly Thing" (number six); and Vicious's second Cochran cover, "C'mon Everybody" (number three). Two more singles from the soundtrack were put out under the Pistols brand—Tudor-Pole, among others, singing "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" and a Rotten vocal from 1976, "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"; both fell just shy of the Top Twenty.[210][211]

The film was completed by Temple, who received sole credit for the script after McLaren took his name taken off the production. Released in 1980, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle heavily reflects McLaren's vision. It is a fictionalised and partially animated retelling of the band's history and aftermath with McLaren in the lead role, Jones as second lead, and contributions from Vicious (including his memorable performance of "My Way") and Cook. It incorporates promotional videos shot for "God Save the Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" and extensive documentary footage as well, much of it focusing on Rotten. In Temple's description, he and McLaren conceived it as a "very stylized ... polemic". They were reacting to the fact that the Pistols had become the "poster on the bedroom wall of the day where you kneel down last thing at night and pray to your rock god. And that was never the point ... The myth had to be dynamited in some way. We had to make this film in a way to enrage the fans."[212] In the film, McLaren claims to have created the band from scratch and engineered its notorious reputation; much of what structure the loose narrative has is based on McLaren's teaching a series of "lessons" to be learned from "an invention of mine they called the punk rock".[213][214]

Cook and Jones continued to work through guest appearances and as session musicians. Two tracks they'd recorded together, "Black Leather" and "Here We Go Again", were released on the Japanese compilation The Very Best Of Sex Pistols And We Don't Care in December 1979.[215] In 1980 they formed the Professionals, which lasted for two years. Jones went on to play with the bands Chequered Past and Neurotic Outsiders. He also recorded two solo albums, Mercy and Fire and Gasoline.[216] As of 2017 Jones lives in Los Angeles, where he has hosted a daily radio program, Jonesy's Jukebox, since 2015.[107][217] Since the Rich Kids' break-up in 1979, Matlock has played with various bands, including recording and touring with Iggy Pop in 1980.[218]

The 1979 court ruling left many issues between Lydon and McLaren unresolved. Five years later, Lydon filed another action. Finally, on 16 January 1986, Lydon, Jones, Cook and the estate of Sid Vicious were awarded control of the band's heritage, including the rights to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and all the footage shot for it—more than 250 hours.[219][220] That same year, the fictionalised film of Vicious's relationship with Spungen was released: Sid and Nancy, directed by Alex Cox. In his autobiography, Lydon attacked the film, saying that it "celebrates heroin addiction", goes out of its way to "humiliate [Vicious's] life", and completely misrepresents the Sex Pistols' part in the London punk scene.[221]

In May 2022 FX released the miniseries Pistol about the band.[222]

Reunions edit

 
Lydon at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, September 2008

The original band members reunited in 1996 for the six-month Filthy Lucre Tour, which included dates in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Japan.[223] Their access to the archives associated with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle facilitated the production of the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury. The film was also directed by Temple and formulated as an attempt to tell the story from the band's point of view, in contrast to Swindle's focus on McLaren and the media.[224] In 2002—the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee—the band reunited to play the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London. They undertook a short tour of North America in 2003.[225]

In March 2006, the band sold the rights to their back catalogue to Universal Music Group. In November 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,[226] but band rejected the honour.[227] According to Jones, "once you want to be put into a museum, Rock & Roll's over; it's not voted by fans, it's voted by people who induct you...people who are already in it."[228]

The Pistols reunited for five performances in the UK in November 2007.[229] In 2008, they undertook a series of European festival appearances, titled the Combine Harvester Tour. That same year, they released the DVD There'll Always Be An England, recorded at their Brixton Academy appearance on 10 November 2007.[230] The band signed with Universal in 2012 to re-release Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.[231]

Legacy edit

Influence edit

 
Graffiti art of Rotten, Los Angeles, 2008

The Pistols are widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in popular music history.[232][233] Their Trouser Press Record Guide entry claims that "their importance—both to the direction of contemporary music and more generally to pop culture—can hardly be overstated".[234] The music critic Dave Marsh called them "unquestionably the most radical new rock band of the Seventies."[235] Although not the first punk band Never Mind the Bollocks is regularly cited as one of the all-time great albums: in 2006, it was voted No. 28 in Q magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever",[236] while Rolling Stone listed it at No. 2 in its 1987 "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years".[237] It has come to be recognised as among the most influential records in rock history.[229][238][239][240] According to AllMusic the album is "one of the greatest, most inspiring rock records of all time".[241]

They directly inspired the style of many punk and post-punk bands, including the Clash,[242] Siouxsie and the Banshees,[243][244] The Adverts,[245] Subway Sect,[246] and the Slits.[247] Their June 1976 concert at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall became one of the most mythologised events in rock history. Many among the audience of about forty became leading figures in the punk and post-punk movements, including Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto, who organised the gig, Bernard Sumner, Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Mark E. Smith, John Cooper Clarke, Morrissey and Anthony H. Wilson.[72] Among the many later musicians who have acknowledged their debt to the Pistols are members of The Jesus and Mary Chain,[248] The Stone Roses,[249] Guns N' Roses,[250] Nirvana,[251] Green Day,[252] and Oasis.[253] Calling the band "immensely influential", a London College of Music study notes that "many styles of popular music, such as grunge, indie, thrash metal and even rap owe their foundations to the legacy of ground breaking punk bands—of which the Sex Pistols was the most prominent."[232]

 
Graffiti of Vicious, Madrid

According to the music journalist Ira Robbin, "the Pistols and...McLaren challenged every aspect and precept of modern music-making, thereby inspiring countless groups to follow their cue onto stages around the world."[254] Critic Toby Creswell locates the primary source of inspiration somewhat differently. Noting that "[i]mage to the contrary, the Pistols were very serious about music and that "essentially, the Sex Pistols reinforced what the garage bands of the '60s had demonstrated—you don't need technique to make rock & roll. In a time when music had been increasingly complicated and defanged, the Sex Pistols' generational shift caused a real revolution."[255]

Their cultural influence is evident in other media. Reid's work for the band is regarded as among the most important graphic design of the 1970s and still influences the field in the 21st century.[256][257] Aged twenty-one, Vicious was already a "t-shirt-selling icon".[258] While the manner of his death signified for many the inevitable failure of punk's social ambitions, it cemented his image as an archetype of doomed youth.[259] British punk fashion, still widely influential, is now customarily credited to Westwood and McLaren; as Johnny Rotten, Lydon had a lasting effect as well, especially through his bricolage approach to personal style: he "would wear a velvet collared drape jacket (ted) festooned with safety pins (Jackie Curtis through the New York punk scene), massive pin-stripe pegs (modernist), a pin-collar Wemblex (mod) customised into an Anarchy shirt (punk) and brothel creepers (ted)."[260][261] Christopher Nolan, director of the Batman movie The Dark Knight, has said that Rotten inspired his characterisation of The Joker, played by Heath Ledger.[262]

Conceptual basis edit

The Sex Pistols were defined by ambitions that went beyond the musical—indeed, McLaren was at times openly contemptuous of the band's music and punk rock generally. "Christ, if people bought the records for the music, this thing would have died a death long ago," he said in 1977.[40] He claimed that the Sex Pistols were his personal, Situationist-style art project: "I decided to use people, just the way a sculptor uses clay."[40] According to McLaren, they were something with which "to sell trousers",[263] and a "carefully planned exercise to embezzle as much money as possible out of the music industry". Jon Savage characterises McLaren's core theme in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle[264] as an attempt to extract "cash from chaos".[note 8]

Lydon dismissed McLaren's influence: "We made our own scandal just by being ourselves. Maybe it was that he knew he was redundant, so he overcompensated. All the talk about the French Situationists being associated with punk is bollocks. It's nonsense!"[266] Cook agreed and said that "Situationism had nothing to do with us. The Jamie Reids and Malcolms were excited because we were the real thing. I suppose we were what they were dreaming of."[267] According to Lydon, "If we had an aim, it was to force our own, working-class opinions into the mainstream, which was unheard of in pop music at the time."[200]

Toby Creswell argues that the Pistols message was "inchoate, to say the least. It was a general call to rebellion that falls apart at the slightest scrutiny."[255] Critic Ian Birch, writing in 1981, called "stupid" the claim that the Sex Pistols "had any political significance ... If they did anything, they made a lot of people content with being nothing. They certainly didn't inspire the working classes."[268] While the Conservative triumph in 1979 may be taken as evidence for that position, Julien Temple has noted that the scene inspired by the Sex Pistols "wasn't your kind of two-up, two-down working class normal families, most of it. It was over the edge of the precipice in social terms. They were actually giving a voice to an area of the working class that was almost beyond the pale."[269] Within a year of "Anarchy in the U.K." that voice was being echoed widely: scores if not hundreds of punk bands had formed across the country—groups composed largely of working-class members or middle-class members who rejected their own class values and pursued solidarity with the working class.[270][271]

In 1980, critic Greil Marcus reflected on McLaren's contradictory posture: It may be that in the mind of their self-celebrated Svengali ... the Sex Pistols were never meant to be more than a nine-month wonder, a cheap vehicle for some fast money, a few laughs, a touch of the old épater la bourgeoisie. It may also be that in the mind of their chief terrorist and propagandist, anarchist veteran ... and Situational artist McLaren, the Sex Pistols were meant to be a force that would set the world on its ear ... and finally unite music and politics. The Sex Pistols were all of these things.[272]

 
Johnny Rotten on stage in Paradiso, Amsterdam, January 1977

Critic Bill Wyman writes that Lydon's "fierce intelligence and astonishing onstage charisma" were important catalysts, but ultimately finds the band's real meaning lies in McLaren's provocative media manipulations.[224] While some of the Sex Pistols' public affronts were plotted by McLaren, Westwood, and company, others were evidently not—including what McLaren himself cites as the "pivotal moment that changed everything",[273] the clash on the Bill Grundy Today show.[note 9] According to Cook, McLaren "didn't instigate [situations]; that was always our own doing."[274] Matlock said that at the point when he left the band, it was clear to him that McLaren "was in fact quite deliberately perpetrating that idea of us as his puppets ... However, I've since found out that even Malcolm wasn't as aware of what he was up to as he has since made out."[275] By his absence, Matlock demonstrated how crucial he was to the band's creativity: the band only wrote two songs in the eleven months between his departure and their break-up.[276]

Band members edit

Official members
Early members
Guest musicians

On The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle:

Discography edit

Main article: Sex Pistols discography

Studio albums edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ For more on Lydon's apparently coincidental resemblance to Hell, see also Matlock.[30] Also Matlock and Pirroni quotes in Robb, John, Punk Rock.[57]
  2. ^ Quote: Savage, Jon, England's Dreaming[80]
  3. ^ The transcription of the television interview has been corrected per the documentary footage used in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (28:36–28:55)
  4. ^ See also later Lydon quote: Savage, Jon, England's Dreaming, pp. 307–308.
  5. ^ The transcription has been slightly expanded per the documentary footage used in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1:09:55–1:10:31). The sound cuts out immediately after the word "cheated".
  6. ^ Gimarc refers to sources claiming that the "My Way" recording involved no contact between Vicious and the Jones-Cook duo; Temple, however, says that Jones was flown over to Paris to join Vicious in the studio,[196] and seems to indicate that he recorded his guitar part there (1:33:09–1:33:16).
  7. ^ Savage says there are six Rotten vocals (p. 558); in fact, the various releases of the album all include seven or eight.
  8. ^ The line, which became known as a catchphrase of McLaren's, appears in the lyric of the title track (credited to Jones, Cook and Temple) (6:59–7:02); as a motto on a conveniently placed coat of arms (21:30–21:36); and in large letters on a T-shirt won by McLaren in several scenes (first fully visible: 26:26–26:51; partly visible in three subsequent scenes). See also Temple's script for the film's promotional video.[265]
  9. ^ See, for instance, Temple's commentary: "[It] was not planned at all. It was totally spontaneous. And as the band will tell you, Malcolm said, 'You've blown it. You've ruined everything I've worked for'" (Temple, Julien, "Commentary", 27:26–27:33); and Matlock's confirmation (Matlock, Glen, I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol, pp. 145, 147)

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External links edit

 
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January 19, 2024
pistols, other, uses, disambiguation, were, english, punk, rock, band, formed, london, 1975, although, their, initial, career, lasted, just, half, years, they, became, most, culturally, influential, acts, popular, music, band, initiated, punk, movement, united. For other uses see Sex Pistols disambiguation The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975 Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years they became one of the most culturally influential acts in popular music The band initiated the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspired many later punk post punk and alternative rock musicians while their clothing and hairstyles were a significant influence on the early punk image Sex PistolsThe Sex Pistols performing in Paradiso 1977 From left Paul Cook Glen Matlock Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones Background informationOriginLondon EnglandGenresPunk rockDiscographySex Pistols discographyYears active1975 1978 1996 2002 2003 2007 2008LabelsEMI A amp M Virgin Universal Warner Bros SpinoffsRich Kids Public Image Ltd Vicious White Kids Sham Pistols The ProfessionalsPast membersJohnny Rotten Steve Jones Paul Cook Glen Matlock Sid ViciousWebsitesexpistolsofficial wbr comThe Sex Pistols first line up consisted of vocalist Johnny Rotten born John Lydon guitarist Steve Jones drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock with Matlock replaced by Sid Vicious born John Richie in early 1977 Under the management of Malcolm McLaren the band gained widespread attention from British press after swearing live on air during a December 1976 television interview Their May 1977 single God Save the Queen which described the monarchy as a fascist regime was released to coincide with national celebrations for the Queen s Silver Jubilee The song was rapidly banned from being played by the BBC and by nearly every independent radio station in Britain making it the most censored record in British history Their debut and sole album Never Mind the Bollocks Here s the Sex Pistols 1977 was a UK number one and is regarded as seminal in the development of punk rock In January 1978 at the final gig of a difficult and media hyped tour of the US Rotten announced the band s break up live on stage Over the next few months the three remaining members recorded songs for McLaren s film of the Sex Pistols story The Great Rock n Roll Swindle Vicious died of a heroin overdose in February 1979 following his arrest for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen Rotten Jones Cook and Matlock later reunited for a successful tour in 1996 1 Further one off performances and short tours followed over the next decade The Sex Pistols have been recognised as a highly influential band 2 In 2006 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame although true to their image they refused to attend the ceremony with Rotten referring to the museum as a piss stain 3 Contents 1 History 1 1 Formation 1 2 Lydon joins 1 3 Early following 1 4 Mainstream fame 1 4 1 Sid Vicious replaces Matlock 1 4 2 A amp M Virgin and Jubilee week 1 4 2 1 God Save the Queen 1 5 Break up 1 5 1 Aftermath 1 5 2 Post Lydon 1 5 3 Reunions 2 Legacy 2 1 Influence 2 2 Conceptual basis 3 Band members 4 Discography 4 1 Studio albums 5 Notes 6 References 6 1 Book sources 6 2 Other sources 7 External linksHistory editFormation edit The Sex Pistols evolved from The Strand sometimes known as the Swankers formed in London in 1972 by teenagers Steve Jones on vocals Paul Cook on drums and Wally Nightingale on guitar According to Jones both he and Cook played on instruments he had stolen 4 5 The band regularly hung out at two clothing shops on the King s Road in Chelsea London John Krivine and Steph Raynor s Acme Attractions 6 7 and Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood s Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die McLaren s and Westwood s shop had opened in 1971 as Let It Rock with a 1950s revival Teddy Boy theme It had been renamed in 1972 to focus on another revival trend the 50s rocker look 8 The shop then became a focal point of the early London punk rock scene bringing together participants such as the future Sid Vicious Marco Pirroni Gene October and Mark Stewart 9 Jordan the wildly styled shop assistant is credited with pretty well single handedly paving the punk look 10 In late 1974 Jones asked McLaren to take over the band s management Glen Matlock an art student who occasionally worked at McLaren s and Westwood s shop joined as bassist 11 McLaren and Westwood conceived a new identity for their shop renamed Sex it changed its focus away from retro 1950s couture to S amp M inspired anti fashion 12 13 After managing and promoting the New York Dolls McLaren returned to London in May 1975 and began to take more of an interest in The Strand 14 The group had been rehearsing regularly overseen by Bernard Rhodes who would later go on to manage The Clash and performing live Soon after McLaren s return Nightingale was dismissed and Jones uncomfortable as frontman took over guitar 15 McLaren had been talking with the New York Dolls Sylvain Sylvain about coming over to England to front the group When those plans fell through McLaren Rhodes and the band began looking locally for a new member to assume the lead vocal duties 16 17 As described by Matlock Everyone had long hair back then even the milkman so what we used to do was if someone had short hair we would stop them in the street and ask them if they fancied themselves as a singer 18 For instance Midge Ure the later front man of Rich Kids with Matlock and Ultravox claims to have been approached but refused the offer 19 With the search for a lead singer proving fruitless McLaren made several calls to Richard Hell who also turned down the invitation 20 21 Lydon joins edit nbsp The Sex Pistols early 1976 from left Rotten Jones Matlock and CookDescribing the social context in which the band formed John Lydon said that mid seventies Britain was a very depressing place completely run down there was trash on the streets total unemployment just about everybody was on strike if you came from the wrong side of the tracks then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all 22 In August 1975 Rhodes spotted Lydon then nineteen year old wearing a Pink Floyd T shirt with the words I Hate handwritten above the band s name and holes scratched through the Floyd members eyes 23 24 25 Soon after either Rhodes or McLaren asked Lydon to audition 23 26 27 28 During the session Lydon improvised to Alice Cooper s I m Eighteen on the Sex s jukebox According to Jones he came in with green hair I thought he had a really interesting face I liked his look He had the I Hate Pink Floyd T shirt on held together with safety pins he was a real arsehole but smart 23 29 30 Jones renamed Lydon as Johnny Rotten as a joke apparently because of his particularly bad teeth 25 31 32 Cook had a full time job and was threatening to quit the band New Musical Express journalist Nick Kent occasionally played second guitar with the band but left acrimoniously when Lydon joined 33 An advertisement was placed in Melody Maker looking for a whizz kid guitarist not older than 20 not worse looking than Johnny Thunders 34 As Steve New was the most talented guitarist to audition he was asked to join However Jones playing had greatly improved and New left a month after joining the band 35 nbsp The August 1975 line up from left Rotten Matlock Jones and CookAfter considering band name options such as Le Bomb Subterraneans the Damned Beyond Teenage Novel Kid Gladlove and Creme de la Creme they decided on Sex Pistols 36 37 Matlock said the band decided on the name while McLaren was in the United States before Rotten joined Jon Savage says the name was not firmly settled on until just before their first show in November 1975 McLaren later said the name derived from the idea of a pistol a pin up a young thing a better looking assassin Not given to modesty false or otherwise he added I launched the idea in the form of a band of kids who could be perceived as being bad 38 The group began writing original material Rotten was the lyricist and Matlock the primary melody writer though their first collaboration Pretty Vacant had all lyrics by Matlock which Rotten tweaked a bit official credit was shared equally among the four 39 40 Their first gig was arranged by Matlock then studying at Saint Martin s School of Art The band played at the school in November 1975 41 42 43 supporting the pub rock group Bazooka Joe They performed several covers including the Who s Substitute the Small Faces Whatcha Gonna Do About It and the Monkees I m Not Your Steppin Stone 44 Early following edit The Saint Martins gig was followed by performances at colleges around London The band s core early followers including Siouxsie Sioux Steven Severin and Billy Idol who were inspired to form bands of their own as well as Jordan and Soo Catwoman came to be known as the Bromley Contingent after the suburban south east London borough that several of them were from 45 46 Their cutting edge fashion much of it supplied by Sex ignited a trend that was adopted by the new fans the band attracted 47 McLaren and Westwood saw the incipient London punk movement as a vehicle for more than just couture They were influenced by the May 1968 radical uprising in Paris particularly by the ideology and agitations of the Situationists 48 49 50 These interests were shared with Jamie Reid a friend of McLaren who took over the design of the band s visual imagery in the spring of 1976 51 His cut up lettering based on notes left by kidnappers or terrorists were used to create the classic Sex Pistols logo and many subsequent designs for the band although they were actually introduced by McLaren s friend Helen Wellington Lloyd 52 53 54 Reid has said that he used to talk to John Lydon a lot about the Situationists the Sex Pistols seemed the perfect vehicle to communicate ideas directly to people who weren t getting the message from left wing politics 55 McLaren was also arranging for the band s first photo sessions 56 According to the writer Jon Savage Lydon with his green hair hunched stance and ragged looked looked like a cross between Uriah Heep and Richard Hell 24 note 1 Their first gig to attract attention was as a supporting act for Eddie and the Hot Rods a leading pub rock group at the Marquee in February 1976 58 The band s first review appeared in the NME accompanied by a brief interview in which Jones declared Actually we re not into music We re into chaos 59 Among those who read the article were two students at the Bolton Institute of Technology Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley who headed down to London in search of the Sex Pistols After chatting with McLaren at Sex they saw the band at a couple of late February gigs 60 The two friends immediately began organising their own Pistols style group Buzzcocks As Devoto later put it My life changed the moment that I saw the Sex Pistols 61 The Pistols soon played other important venues notably playing at Oxford Street s 100 Club for the first time on 30 March 62 On 3 April they played for the first time at the Nashville supporting the 101ers The pub rock group s lead singer Joe Strummer saw the Pistols for the first time that night and recognised punk rock as the future 63 A return gig at the Nashville on 23 April highlighted the band s growing musical competence However Westwood started a fight with another audience member which also dragged in McLaren and Rotten 64 65 Cook later said the fight at the Nashville that s when all the publicity got hold of it and the violence started creeping in I think everybody was ready to go and we were the catalyst 66 The leading New York punk band the Ramones released their debut album on 23 April 1976 Although regarded as seminal to the growth of English punk rock Lydon has repeatedly rejected that it influenced the Sex Pistols claiming that they were all long haired and of no interest to me I didn t like their image what they stood for or anything about them 67 68 On 11 May the Pistols began a four week Tuesday night residency at the 100 Club 69 They devoted the rest of the month to touring small cities and towns in the north of England and recording demos in London with producer and recording artist Chris Spedding 69 70 71 The following month they played their first gig in Manchester arranged by Devoto and Shelley The Sex Pistols 4 June performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall set off a punk rock boom in the city 72 73 On 4 and 6 July respectively two newly formed London punk rock acts The Clash with Strummer as lead vocalist and the Damned made their live debuts opening for the Sex Pistols On their off night on the 5th the Pistols attended a Ramones gig at Dingwalls like virtually everyone else at the center of the early London punk scene 74 During a return Manchester gig on 20 July the Pistols premiered a new song Anarchy in the U K reflecting elements of the radical ideologies to which Rotten was being exposed According to Savage there seems little doubt that Lydon was fed material by Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid which he then converted into his own lyric 75 Anarchy in the U K was among the seven original songs recorded in a demo session overseen by the band s sound engineer Dave Goodman 76 77 McLaren organised a major event for 29 August at The Screen on the Green in London s Islington district with the Buzzcocks and the Clash opening for the Pistols 78 79 note 2 Three days later the band were in Manchester to tape their first television appearance for Tony Wilson s So It Goes 81 The Pistols played their first gig outside Britain on 3 September at the opening of the Chalet du Lac disco in Paris The Bromley Contingent were in attendance and Siouxsie was harassed by locals due to her outfit with bare breasts 82 The following day the So It Goes performance aired 83 84 On 13 September the Pistols began a tour of Britain 85 A week later back in London they headlined the opening night of the 100 Club Punk Special Organised by McLaren for whom the word festival had too much of a hippie connotation the event was considered the moment that was the catalyst for the years to come 86 87 88 Belying the common perception that punk bands couldn t play their instruments contemporary music press reviews later critical assessments of concert recordings and testimonials by fellow musicians indicate that the Pistols had developed into a tight ferocious live band 89 90 91 92 As Rotten tested out wild vocalisation styles the instrumentalists experimented with overload feedback and distortion pushing their equipment to the limit 93 Mainstream fame edit See also Bill Grundy The Today incident nbsp Anarchy in the U K source source Excerpt from Anarchy in the UK Problems playing this file See media help The record label EMI signed the band on a two year contract on 8 October 1976 94 The Pistols were soon in a studio recording a full dress session with Dave Goodman According to Matlock The idea was to get the spirit of the live performance We were pressurized to make it faster and faster 95 The results were rejected by the band Chris Thomas who had produced Roxy Music and mixed Pink Floyd s The Dark Side of the Moon was brought in to produce 96 The band s first single Anarchy in the U K was released on 26 November 1976 95 The musician and journalist John Robb later described the record s impact From Steve Jones opening descending chords to Johnny Rotten s sneering vocals this song is the perfect statement a stunningly powerful piece of punk politics 97 Colin Newman of the early post punk band Wire described it as the clarion call of a generation 98 The lyrics of Anarchy in the U K linked punk to a newly politicised and nihilistic attitude typified by phrases such as I am an anti Christ and Destroy 99 The single s packaging and visual promotion also broke new ground Reid and McLaren came up with the idea of selling the record in a completely wordless featureless black sleeve 100 The primary image associated with the single was Reid s anarchy flag poster a ripped up and partly safety pinned back together Union Flag with the song and band names clipped across the middle These and other of Reid s images for the band quickly became punk iconography 101 source source Clip from the 1976 interview with by Bill GrundyThe Pistol s behaviour as much as their music attracted national media attention On 1 December 1976 the band and members of the Bromley Contingent repeatedly swore during an early evening live broadcast of Thames Television s Today programme hosted by Bill Grundy Appearing as last minute replacements for Queen the band and their entourage were offered drinks as they waited to go on air During the interview encouraged by Grundy Jones said the band had fucking spent its label advance and Rotten used the word shit Grundy who had later claimed to have been drunk then attempted to flirt with Siouxsie Sioux who replied that she had always wanted to meet him Grundy responded Did you really We ll meet afterwards shall we prompting Jones to repeatedly swear 102 nbsp Daily Mirror front page 2 December 1976Although the programme was only broadcast in the London region the ensuing media coverage occupied the tabloid newspapers for days The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline The Filth and the Fury and asked Who are these punks 103 other papers such as the Daily Express Fury at Filthy TV Chat and the Daily Telegraph 4 Letter Words Rock TV followed suit 104 105 Thames Television suspended Grundy and the interview effectively ended his career 106 107 Steve Jones reflected Grundy was the big dividing line in the Sex Pistols story Before it we were all about the music but from then on it was all about the media In some ways it was our finest moment but in others it was the beginning of the end In terms of the Sex Pistols having any kind of long term future this sudden acceleration was the worst thing that could possibly have happened 108 The interview made the band a household name in Britain and brought punk into the mainstream They launched the UK Anarchy Tour supported by the Clash and Johnny Thunders band the Heartbreakers over from New York The Damned were briefly part of the tour before McLaren kicked them off Media coverage was intense and many of the concerts were cancelled by organisers or local authorities of approximately twenty scheduled gigs only about seven actually took place 109 110 Following a campaign in the south Wales press a crowd including carol singers and a Pentecostal preacher protested against the group outside a show in Caerphilly 111 Packers at the EMI plant refused to handle the band s single 112 London Conservative councillor Bernard Brook Partridge said Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death The worst of the punk rock groups I suppose currently are the Sex Pistols They are unbelievably nauseating the antithesis of humankind I would like to see somebody dig a very very large exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it 113 note 3 Three concerts were arranged in the Netherlands for January 1977 The band hungover boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on 4 January a few hours later the Evening News was reporting that the band had vomited and spat their way to the flight 114 Despite categorical denials by the EMI representative who accompanied the group the label which was under political pressure released the band from their contract 115 In one journalist s later description the Pistols had stoked a moral panic precipitating the cancellation of gigs the band s expulsion from their EMI record deal and lurid tabloid tales of punk s shock cult 116 As McLaren fielded offers from other labels the band went into the studio for a round of recordings with Goodman their last with either him or Matlock 117 Sid Vicious replaces Matlock edit nbsp The Sex Pistols Sid Vicious left Steve Jones centre and Johnny Rotten right performing in Trondheim Norway July 1977On 28 February 1977 McLaren announced Matlock was leaving the band because Matlock went on too long about Paul McCartney 118 Although Matlock says he left voluntarily Jones claimed in a contemporary interview that he was sacked because he liked the Beatles 119 118 120 In 2005 Jones admitted that although Matlock was a good song writer he didn t look like a Sex Pistols 121 note 4 In 1990 Matlock described the reason as his bitter relationship with Rotten exacerbated in Matlock s account by Rotten s attitude once he d had his name in the papers 122 Jon Savage suggests that Rotten pushed Matlock out to demonstrate his power and autonomy from McLaren 123 Matlock was replaced by Rotten s friend Sid Vicious previously the drummer of two inner circle punk bands Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Flowers of Romance According to Matlock Rotten wanted Vicious in the band because i nstead of him against Steve and Paul it would become him and Sid against Steve and Paul He always thought of it in terms of opposing camps 124 According to Jones to Cookie Paul Cook and me it just didn t make any sense to have someone who couldn t play a note trying to fill Glen s shoes but it was never about the music for McLaren from the minute Sid joined the band nothing was ever normal again 125 Julien Temple then a film student McLaren had employed to create a comprehensive audiovisual record of the band agrees Sid was John s protege in the group really The other two just thought he was crazy 123 McLaren later stated that much earlier in the band s career Westwood had told him he should get the guy called John Sid Vicious who came to the store a couple of times to be the singer When Lydon was recruited Westwood said McLaren had recruited the wrong John 126 nbsp The Sex Pistols on stage at the Student Society in Trondheim 1977Vicious was arrested after hurtling a glass that shattered and blinded a girl in one eye at a Damned gig at the 100 Club Punk Special He served time in a remand centre and the incident contributed to the 100 Club banning punk bands 127 128 He assaulted Nick Kent with a bicycle chain during a gig at the 100 Club 129 130 According to McLaren when Sid joined he couldn t play guitar but his craziness fitted into the structure of the band 131 Everyone agreed he had the look Lydon later recalled but musical skill was another matter The first rehearsals with Sid were hellish 132 Marco Pirroni who had performed with Vicious in Siouxsie and the Banshees has said After that it was nothing to do with music anymore It would just be for the sensationalism and scandal of it all Then it became the Malcolm McLaren story 131 Being in the Pistols had a progressively destructive effect on Vicious As Lydon observed Up to that time Sid was absolutely childlike Everything was fun and giggly Suddenly he was a big pop star Pop star status meant press a good chance to be spotted in all the right places adoration 131 Early in 1977 he met Nancy Spungen an emotionally disturbed drug addict and sometime prostitute from New York 131 133 134 Spungen introduced Vicious to heroin and their emotional codependency alienated him from the other band members Lydon later wrote we did everything to get rid of Nancy She was killing him I was absolutely convinced this girl was on a slow suicide mission She wanted to take Sid with her 135 A amp M Virgin and Jubilee week editThe Pistols signed to A amp M Records at a March 1977 press ceremony held outside Buckingham Palace Afterwards intoxicated they went to the A amp M offices where Vicious reportedly broke a toilet bowl and Rotten verbally abused members of the label s staff 136 137 A couple of days later the Pistols got into a fight with another band at a club one of Rotten s friends threatened a friend of A amp M s English director A amp M broke their contract with the Pistols on 16 March Although 25 000 copies of the God Save the Queen single had already been pressed nearly all were destroyed 138 nbsp Jamie Reid s God Save the Queen sleeve in 2001 it was named the greatest record cover of all time by Q magazine 139 Vicious first performed with the Pistols at London s Notre Dame Hall on 28 March 140 That May the Pistols signed with Virgin Records their third label in little more than half a year During Virgin s release campaign for God Save the Queen workers at the pressing plant laid down tools in protest at the song s lyrics and Reid s cover art of Queen Elizabeth II with her face obscured by cutout letters forming the song title and the band name 141 142 The single was eventually released on 27 May 143 144 Its lyrics God save the queen the fascist regime She ain t no human being and there s no future in England s dreaming lead to widespread outcry from the British tabloids 145 146 leading to several major chains withdrawing it from sale 143 144 It was banned by BBC radio and television and every independent radio station making it according to the music critic Alexis Petridis the most heavily censored record in British history 147 The song s social impact has been described by the musician and journalist Sean O Hagan as punk s crowning glory 148 The single was timed to coincide with the height of Queen Elizabeth s Silver Jubilee celebrations By Jubilee weekend a week and a half after the record s release it had sold more than 150 000 copies On 7 June McLaren chartered a boat to have the Sex Pistols perform while sailing the River Thames passing Westminster Pier and the Houses of Parliament The event was conceived as a mockery of the Queen s river procession planned for two days later but ended in chaos Police launches forced the boat to dock and constabulary surrounded the gangplanks at the pier While the band members and their equipment were hustled down a side stairwell McLaren Westwood and many of the band s entourage were arrested 149 150 nbsp God Save the Queen source source God Save the Queen was originally titled No Future but was changed to coincide with the 1977 Jubilee Problems playing this file See media help God Save the Queen opened at number 2 on the official UK record chart for Jubilee week behind the Rod Stewart s I Don t Want to Talk About It McLaren claimed that CBS Records who distributed both singles told him that the Pistols were outselling Stewart two to one There is evidence that exceptional measures were taken by the British Phonographic Institute which oversaw the compilation of the UK chart to exclude sales from Virgin shops 151 152 Attacks on punk fans rose and in mid June and Rotten was assaulted by a knife wielding gang outside Islingtons Pegasus pub causing tendon damage to his left arm Reid and Cook were beaten up in other incidents three days after the Pegasus assault Rotten was attacked again 153 According to Cook after the God Save The Queen single and the Grundy incident the Pistols were public enemy number one and there was a rivalry between gangs of rockabillies Teddy Boys and punks which often lead to violence By that August the band were unable to publicise UK dates forcing them to tour pseudonymously as the SPOTS Sex Pistols on Tour Secretly to avoid cancellation 154 McLaren had long wanted to make a movie featuring the Sex Pistols Temple s first task was to assemble Sex Pistols Number 1 a 25 minute mosaic of footage from various sources much of it refilmed from television screens 155 Number 1 was often screened at concert venues before the band took stage Using media footage from the Thames incident Temple created another short Jubilee Riverboat aka Sex Pistols Number 2 156 157 God Save the Queen edit Main article Never Mind the Bollocks Here s the Sex Pistols nbsp Jamie Reid s logo for Never Mind the BollocksBeginning in early 1977 Lydon Jones and Cook began to record tracks for their debut album with producer Chris Thomas Initially titled God Save Sex Pistols it became known during the summer as Never Mind the Bollocks 158 Vicious s lack of musical ability became apparent soon after he joined the sessions according to Jones they tried as hard as possible not to let Vicious anywhere near the studio 159 Although Matlock was asked to return as a session musician Jones ultimately played most of the bass parts 160 Vicious s bass is reportedly present on Bodies According to Jones we just let him do it When he left I dubbed another part on leaving Sid s down low 159 Jones says that Vicious showed up for the God Save the Queen session while Lydon remembers him being there during the recording an unused version of Submission 161 Two further singles were released from the Thomas sessions Pretty Vacant on 1 July 162 163 164 and Holidays in the Sun on 14 October 165 Each was a Top Ten hit 166 The album was released on 28 October 1977 167 Rolling Stone described it as the most exciting rock amp roll record of the Seventies 168 Some critics were disappointed that the album contained all four previously released singles and dismissed it as little more than a greatest hits compilation 169 170 Containing the track Bodies in which Rotten says fuck six times and God Save the Queen and featuring the word bollocks in its title the album was banned by Boots W H Smith and Woolworth s 171 The Conservative shadow minister for education condemned it as a symptom of the way society is declining and both the Independent Television Companies Association and Association of Independent Radio Contractors banned its advertisements 172 173 Nonetheless advance sales were sufficient to make it number one on the album chart 171 The album title led to a high profile legal case after a Nottingham Virgin Records store was threatened with prosecution for displaying indecent printed matter The case was thrown out when defending QC John Mortimer produced an expert witness who established that bollocks was an Old English term for a small ball that the word appeared in place names without causing local communities erotic disturbance and that in the nineteenth century bollocks had been used as a nickname for clergymen Clergymen are known to talk a good deal of rubbish and so the word later developed the meaning of nonsense 174 In the context of the album title the term does in fact primarily signify nonsense Steve Jones off handedly came up with the title as the band debated what to call the album An exasperated Jones said Oh fuck it never mind the bollocks of it all 175 After dates in the Netherlands the band set out on a Never Mind the Bans tour of Britain in December 1977 Of eight scheduled dates four were cancelled due to illness or political pressure On Christmas Day the Pistols played two shows at Ivanhoe s in Huddersfield the first show being for the children of striking firemen 176 These were the band s final UK performances for more than eighteen years 177 Break up edit The pistols January 1978 US tour was initially scheduled for nine dates but due to Vicious drug use and the breakdown in relationship between Lydon and McLaren was cut short after five shows played over twelve days 178 It was delayed due to American authorities reluctance to issue a visa to Jones given his criminal record leading to the cancellation of several dates in the Northeast 167 179 Although the tour had been highly anticipated in the US it was plagued by in fighting and poor planning leading to frustrated and belligerent audiences 126 180 Early in the tour Vicious was arrested while trying to buy heroin in Memphis and beaten by the security team hired by Warner Bros the band s American label 181 He subsequently appeared with the words Gimme a fix scarred on his chest 182 183 During a concert in San Antonio Vicious called the crowd a bunch of faggots before hitting an audience member on the head with his bass guitar 180 Suffering from heroin withdrawal during a show in Dallas he spat blood at a woman who climbed onstage and punched him in the face 184 He was admitted to hospital later that night to treat various injuries Offstage he is said to have kicked a photographer attacked a security guard and challenged one of his own bodyguards to a fight 131 nbsp No Fun source source Sample of No Fun a cover version of the Stooges song studio recording from 1976 or 1977 Problems playing this file See media help Rotten was suffering flu 185 and coughing up blood and felt increasingly isolated from Cook and Jones and disgusted by Vicious 186 Jones later said that he and Cook couldn t stand being around Johnny and Sid anymore You couldn t turn round for a minute without Sid starting a fight Then on top of that you had Rotten who was on his own trip and basically thought he was God by that stage 187 On 14 January 1978 during the tour s final date at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco a disillusioned Rotten introduced the band s encore saying You ll get one number and one number only cause I m a lazy bastard That one number was a Stooges cover No Fun At the end of the song Rotten kneeling on the stage chanted an unambiguous declaration This is no fun No fun This is no fun at all No fun As the final cymbal crash died away Rotten addressed the audience directly Ah ha ha Ever get the feeling you ve been cheated Good night before throwing down his microphone and walking offstage 188 note 5 He later observed I felt cheated and I wasn t going on with it any longer it was a ridiculous farce Sid was completely out of his brains just a waste of space The whole thing was a joke at that point Malcolm wouldn t speak to me He would not discuss anything with me But then he would turn around and tell Paul and Steve that the tension was all my fault because I wouldn t agree to anything 189 On 17 January the band traveled separately to Los Angeles Vicious in increasingly bad shape was brought by a friend who then took him to New York where after taking a mixture of valium and methadone later excused as nervous exhaustion was hospitalised on arrival 190 191 Rotten flew to New York to visit Vicious and announced the band s break up on 18 January 192 Virtually broke he telephoned the head of Virgin Records Richard Branson who agreed to pay for his flight back to London 193 194 Cook Jones and Vicious did not play live together again after Rotten s departure Over the next several months McLaren arranged for recordings in Brazil with Jones and Cook Paris with Vicious and London they and others stepped in as lead vocalists on later tracks These recordings were to make up the musical soundtrack for the reconceived Pistols feature film project directed by Temple to which McLaren was now devoting himself On 30 June a single credited to the Sex Pistols was released on one side notorious criminal Ronnie Biggs sang No One Is Innocent accompanied by Jones and Cook on the other Vicious sang the classic My Way over both a Jones Cook backing track and a string orchestra 195 note 6 The single charted as number seven 197 Aftermath edit After leaving the Pistols Rotten reverted to his birth name of Lydon and formed the influential post punk band Public Image Ltd with former Clash member Keith Levene and school friend Jah Wobble 198 The band scored a UK top ten hit with their debut single 1978 s Public Image The following year Lydon initiated legal proceedings against McLaren and the Pistols management company Glitterbest which McLaren controlled Among the claims were non payment of royalties improper usage of the title Johnny Rotten unfair contractual obligations 199 and damages for all the criminal activities that took place 200 Vicious moved to New York where he attempted to launch a career as a solo artist with Spungen as his manager In September 1978 backed by members of the New York Dolls Vicious recorded songs eventually released on his posthumous 1979 live album Sid Sings On 12 October 1978 Spungen was found dead aged 20 in the Hotel Chelsea room she was sharing with Vicious from a stab wound to her stomach 201 202 Police recovered drug paraphernalia from the scene and Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder 202 While on bail Vicious was arrested for smashing a beer mug in the face of Patti Smith s brother Todd Smith Vicious was taken into custody on 9 December 1978 and spent the next 54 days in Rikers Island jail where he underwent enforced cold turkey detox He was released on bail on 1 February 1979 Later that night following a small party to celebrate his release he died of a heroin overdose aged 21 203 204 Hearings for Lydon s lawsuit began on 7 February 1979 five days after Vicious s death Cook and Jones allied with McLaren but as evidence mounted that their manager had spent virtually all of the band s revenue on his film project they switched sides On 14 February the court put the film and its soundtrack into receivership no longer under McLaren s control they were now to be administered as exploitable assets for addressing the band members financial claims McLaren was left with substantial personal debts and legal fees 205 206 McLaren went on to carry out a one month consultancy for Adam and the Ants and manage their offshoot Bow Wow Wow In the mid 1980s he released a series of successful and influential records as a solo artist 207 Post Lydon edit The Great Rock n Roll Swindle a soundtrack album for the still uncompleted film was released by Virgin Records in February 1979 It consists mostly of cover songs and new tracks sung by Jones Vicious Cook Biggs McLaren and Edward Tudor Pole Several tracks feature Rotten s vocals from early unissued sessions in some cases with re recorded music by Jones and Cook There is one live cut from the band s final concert in San Francisco The album also contains tracks in which other artists cover Sex Pistols songs 208 209 note 7 Four songs from Swindle became Top Ten singles one more than from Never Mind the Bollocks The 1978 No One Is Innocent My Way was followed in 1979 by Vicious s cover of Something Else number three and the biggest selling single under the Sex Pistols name Jones singing an original Silly Thing number six and Vicious s second Cochran cover C mon Everybody number three Two more singles from the soundtrack were put out under the Pistols brand Tudor Pole among others singing The Great Rock n Roll Swindle and a Rotten vocal from 1976 I m Not Your Steppin Stone both fell just shy of the Top Twenty 210 211 The film was completed by Temple who received sole credit for the script after McLaren took his name taken off the production Released in 1980 The Great Rock n Roll Swindle heavily reflects McLaren s vision It is a fictionalised and partially animated retelling of the band s history and aftermath with McLaren in the lead role Jones as second lead and contributions from Vicious including his memorable performance of My Way and Cook It incorporates promotional videos shot for God Save the Queen and Pretty Vacant and extensive documentary footage as well much of it focusing on Rotten In Temple s description he and McLaren conceived it as a very stylized polemic They were reacting to the fact that the Pistols had become the poster on the bedroom wall of the day where you kneel down last thing at night and pray to your rock god And that was never the point The myth had to be dynamited in some way We had to make this film in a way to enrage the fans 212 In the film McLaren claims to have created the band from scratch and engineered its notorious reputation much of what structure the loose narrative has is based on McLaren s teaching a series of lessons to be learned from an invention of mine they called the punk rock 213 214 Cook and Jones continued to work through guest appearances and as session musicians Two tracks they d recorded together Black Leather and Here We Go Again were released on the Japanese compilation The Very Best Of Sex Pistols And We Don t Care in December 1979 215 In 1980 they formed the Professionals which lasted for two years Jones went on to play with the bands Chequered Past and Neurotic Outsiders He also recorded two solo albums Mercy and Fire and Gasoline 216 As of 2017 Jones lives in Los Angeles where he has hosted a daily radio program Jonesy s Jukebox since 2015 107 217 Since the Rich Kids break up in 1979 Matlock has played with various bands including recording and touring with Iggy Pop in 1980 218 The 1979 court ruling left many issues between Lydon and McLaren unresolved Five years later Lydon filed another action Finally on 16 January 1986 Lydon Jones Cook and the estate of Sid Vicious were awarded control of the band s heritage including the rights to The Great Rock n Roll Swindle and all the footage shot for it more than 250 hours 219 220 That same year the fictionalised film of Vicious s relationship with Spungen was released Sid and Nancy directed by Alex Cox In his autobiography Lydon attacked the film saying that it celebrates heroin addiction goes out of its way to humiliate Vicious s life and completely misrepresents the Sex Pistols part in the London punk scene 221 In May 2022 FX released the miniseries Pistol about the band 222 Reunions edit nbsp Lydon at the Hammersmith Odeon London September 2008The original band members reunited in 1996 for the six month Filthy Lucre Tour which included dates in Europe North and South America Australia and Japan 223 Their access to the archives associated with The Great Rock n Roll Swindle facilitated the production of the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury The film was also directed by Temple and formulated as an attempt to tell the story from the band s point of view in contrast to Swindle s focus on McLaren and the media 224 In 2002 the year of the Queen s Golden Jubilee the band reunited to play the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London They undertook a short tour of North America in 2003 225 In March 2006 the band sold the rights to their back catalogue to Universal Music Group In November 2006 the Sex Pistols were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 226 but band rejected the honour 227 According to Jones once you want to be put into a museum Rock amp Roll s over it s not voted by fans it s voted by people who induct you people who are already in it 228 The Pistols reunited for five performances in the UK in November 2007 229 In 2008 they undertook a series of European festival appearances titled the Combine Harvester Tour That same year they released the DVD There ll Always Be An England recorded at their Brixton Academy appearance on 10 November 2007 230 The band signed with Universal in 2012 to re release Never Mind the Bollocks Here s the Sex Pistols 231 Legacy editInfluence edit nbsp Graffiti art of Rotten Los Angeles 2008The Pistols are widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in popular music history 232 233 Their Trouser Press Record Guide entry claims that their importance both to the direction of contemporary music and more generally to pop culture can hardly be overstated 234 The music critic Dave Marsh called them unquestionably the most radical new rock band of the Seventies 235 Although not the first punk band Never Mind the Bollocks is regularly cited as one of the all time great albums in 2006 it was voted No 28 in Q magazine s 100 Greatest Albums Ever 236 while Rolling Stone listed it at No 2 in its 1987 Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years 237 It has come to be recognised as among the most influential records in rock history 229 238 239 240 According to AllMusic the album is one of the greatest most inspiring rock records of all time 241 They directly inspired the style of many punk and post punk bands including the Clash 242 Siouxsie and the Banshees 243 244 The Adverts 245 Subway Sect 246 and the Slits 247 Their June 1976 concert at Manchester s Lesser Free Trade Hall became one of the most mythologised events in rock history Many among the audience of about forty became leading figures in the punk and post punk movements including Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto who organised the gig Bernard Sumner Ian Curtis Peter Hook Mark E Smith John Cooper Clarke Morrissey and Anthony H Wilson 72 Among the many later musicians who have acknowledged their debt to the Pistols are members of The Jesus and Mary Chain 248 The Stone Roses 249 Guns N Roses 250 Nirvana 251 Green Day 252 and Oasis 253 Calling the band immensely influential a London College of Music study notes that many styles of popular music such as grunge indie thrash metal and even rap owe their foundations to the legacy of ground breaking punk bands of which the Sex Pistols was the most prominent 232 nbsp Graffiti of Vicious MadridAccording to the music journalist Ira Robbin the Pistols and McLaren challenged every aspect and precept of modern music making thereby inspiring countless groups to follow their cue onto stages around the world 254 Critic Toby Creswell locates the primary source of inspiration somewhat differently Noting that i mage to the contrary the Pistols were very serious about music and that essentially the Sex Pistols reinforced what the garage bands of the 60s had demonstrated you don t need technique to make rock amp roll In a time when music had been increasingly complicated and defanged the Sex Pistols generational shift caused a real revolution 255 Their cultural influence is evident in other media Reid s work for the band is regarded as among the most important graphic design of the 1970s and still influences the field in the 21st century 256 257 Aged twenty one Vicious was already a t shirt selling icon 258 While the manner of his death signified for many the inevitable failure of punk s social ambitions it cemented his image as an archetype of doomed youth 259 British punk fashion still widely influential is now customarily credited to Westwood and McLaren as Johnny Rotten Lydon had a lasting effect as well especially through his bricolage approach to personal style he would wear a velvet collared drape jacket ted festooned with safety pins Jackie Curtis through the New York punk scene massive pin stripe pegs modernist a pin collar Wemblex mod customised into an Anarchy shirt punk and brothel creepers ted 260 261 Christopher Nolan director of the Batman movie The Dark Knight has said that Rotten inspired his characterisation of The Joker played by Heath Ledger 262 Conceptual basis edit The Sex Pistols were defined by ambitions that went beyond the musical indeed McLaren was at times openly contemptuous of the band s music and punk rock generally Christ if people bought the records for the music this thing would have died a death long ago he said in 1977 40 He claimed that the Sex Pistols were his personal Situationist style art project I decided to use people just the way a sculptor uses clay 40 According to McLaren they were something with which to sell trousers 263 and a carefully planned exercise to embezzle as much money as possible out of the music industry Jon Savage characterises McLaren s core theme in The Great Rock n Roll Swindle 264 as an attempt to extract cash from chaos note 8 Lydon dismissed McLaren s influence We made our own scandal just by being ourselves Maybe it was that he knew he was redundant so he overcompensated All the talk about the French Situationists being associated with punk is bollocks It s nonsense 266 Cook agreed and said that Situationism had nothing to do with us The Jamie Reids and Malcolms were excited because we were the real thing I suppose we were what they were dreaming of 267 According to Lydon If we had an aim it was to force our own working class opinions into the mainstream which was unheard of in pop music at the time 200 Toby Creswell argues that the Pistols message was inchoate to say the least It was a general call to rebellion that falls apart at the slightest scrutiny 255 Critic Ian Birch writing in 1981 called stupid the claim that the Sex Pistols had any political significance If they did anything they made a lot of people content with being nothing They certainly didn t inspire the working classes 268 While the Conservative triumph in 1979 may be taken as evidence for that position Julien Temple has noted that the scene inspired by the Sex Pistols wasn t your kind of two up two down working class normal families most of it It was over the edge of the precipice in social terms They were actually giving a voice to an area of the working class that was almost beyond the pale 269 Within a year of Anarchy in the U K that voice was being echoed widely scores if not hundreds of punk bands had formed across the country groups composed largely of working class members or middle class members who rejected their own class values and pursued solidarity with the working class 270 271 In 1980 critic Greil Marcus reflected on McLaren s contradictory posture It may be that in the mind of their self celebrated Svengali the Sex Pistols were never meant to be more than a nine month wonder a cheap vehicle for some fast money a few laughs a touch of the old epater la bourgeoisie It may also be that in the mind of their chief terrorist and propagandist anarchist veteran and Situational artist McLaren the Sex Pistols were meant to be a force that would set the world on its ear and finally unite music and politics The Sex Pistols were all of these things 272 nbsp Johnny Rotten on stage in Paradiso Amsterdam January 1977Critic Bill Wyman writes that Lydon s fierce intelligence and astonishing onstage charisma were important catalysts but ultimately finds the band s real meaning lies in McLaren s provocative media manipulations 224 While some of the Sex Pistols public affronts were plotted by McLaren Westwood and company others were evidently not including what McLaren himself cites as the pivotal moment that changed everything 273 the clash on the Bill Grundy Today show note 9 According to Cook McLaren didn t instigate situations that was always our own doing 274 Matlock said that at the point when he left the band it was clear to him that McLaren was in fact quite deliberately perpetrating that idea of us as his puppets However I ve since found out that even Malcolm wasn t as aware of what he was up to as he has since made out 275 By his absence Matlock demonstrated how crucial he was to the band s creativity the band only wrote two songs in the eleven months between his departure and their break up 276 Band members editOfficial membersJohnny Rotten lead vocals Steve Jones guitar backing vocals bass 1977 sessions 160 Paul Cook drums Glen Matlock bass backing vocals 1975 1977 appeared in all reunions Sid Vicious bass backing vocals 1977 1978 died 1979 Early membersWally Nightingale guitar 1975 died 1996 Nick Kent lead guitar 1975 Steve New lead guitar 1975 died 2010 Guest musiciansOn The Great Rock n Roll Swindle Ronnie Biggs lead vocals on No One Is Innocent Belsen Was a Gas Edward Tudor Pole lead vocals on The Great Rock n Roll Swindle Who Killed Bambi Rock Around the Clock Malcolm McLaren lead vocals on God Save The Queen Symphony You Need Hands Dave Goodman bass on The Great Rock n Roll Swindle Discography editMain article Sex Pistols discography Studio albums edit Never Mind the Bollocks Here s the Sex Pistols 1977 Notes edit For more on Lydon s apparently coincidental resemblance to Hell see also Matlock 30 Also Matlock and Pirroni quotes in Robb John Punk Rock 57 Quote Savage Jon England s Dreaming 80 The transcription of the television interview has been corrected per the documentary footage used in The Great Rock n Roll Swindle 28 36 28 55 See also later Lydon quote Savage Jon England s Dreaming pp 307 308 The transcription has been slightly expanded per the documentary footage used in The Great Rock n Roll Swindle 1 09 55 1 10 31 The sound cuts out immediately after the word cheated Gimarc refers to sources claiming that the My Way recording involved no contact between Vicious and the Jones Cook duo Temple however says that Jones was flown over to Paris to join Vicious in the studio 196 and seems to indicate that he recorded his guitar part there 1 33 09 1 33 16 Savage says there are six Rotten vocals p 558 in fact the various releases of the album all include seven or eight The line which became known as a catchphrase of McLaren s appears in the lyric of the title track credited to Jones Cook and Temple 6 59 7 02 as a motto on a conveniently placed coat of arms 21 30 21 36 and in large letters on a T shirt won by McLaren in several scenes first fully visible 26 26 26 51 partly visible in three subsequent scenes See also Temple s script for the film s promotional video 265 See for instance Temple s commentary It was not planned at all It was totally spontaneous And as the band will tell you Malcolm said You ve blown it You ve ruined everything I ve worked for Temple Julien Commentary 27 26 27 33 and Matlock s confirmation Matlock Glen I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol pp 145 147 References edit Pingitore 2023 Sheldon amp Skinner 2006 pp 29 33 Sprague 2006 Savage 1992 pp 77 79 Strongman 2008 p 84 Strongman 2008 p 87 Savage 1992 p 96 Bell Price 2006 Robb 2006 pp 83 84 86 87 89 102 105 Robb 2006 p 84 Savage 1992 pp 70 80 Savage 1992 pp 83 92 Robb 2006 pp 83 89 102 105 Gaston 2010 Strongman 2008 pp 84 85 Strongman 2008 p 93 Savage 1992 pp 98 99 Robb 2006 p 110 Midge Ure interview 2009 Strongman 2008 pp 93 94 Savage 1992 p 99 Robb 2006 p 97 a b c Lydon 2008 p 74 a b Savage 1992 p 114 a b Young 1977 Robb 2006 pp 110 111 Savage 1992 p 120 Strongman 2008 p 98 Savage 1992 pp 120 121 a b Matlock 1990 p 71 Robb 2006 p 112 Strongman 2008 p 105 O Hagan Sean Nick Kent I was in the right place at the right time on the wrong drugs The Guardian 9 January 2021 Retrieved 8 November 2023 Matlock 1990 p 86 Matlock 1990 p 87 Evans 2006 p 190 Matlock 1990 pp 64 65 Molon 2007 p 76 Strongman 2008 pp 99 100 a b c Reynolds 2007 p 89 Gimarc 2005 p 22 Robb 2006 p 114 Savage 1992 p 129 Strongman 2008 p 106 Lydon 2008 pp 172 189 Severin 1977 Savage 1992 pp 181 185 Robb 2005 Savage 1992 pp 27 42 204 Strongman 2008 pp 67 75 Savage 1992 pp 201 202 Robb 2006 p 86 Savage 1992 p 201 Strongman 2008 p 111 Savage 1992 pp 204 205 Savage 1992 p 151 Robb 2006 pp 111 112 183 Robb 2006 pp 147 148 Robb 2006 p 148 Robb 2006 pp 163 166 Savage 1992 p 174 Robb 2006 p 153 Robb 2006 p 155 Savage 1992 pp 166 167 Matlock 1990 p 107 Savage 1992 p 168 Lydon 2008 p 118 Robb 2006 p 182 a b Gimarc 2005 p 30 Robb 2006 pp 160 162 Savage 1992 pp 173 174 a b Sex Pistols Gig 2006 Morley 2006 Robb 2006 pp 199 201 Savage 1992 p 204 Strongman 2008 pp 118 119 Savage 1992 p 205 Savage 1992 pp 207 209 Robb 2006 pp 212 215 Savage 1992 p 207 Nolan 2009 pp 38 45 Savage 1992 p 37 Gimarc 2005 p 37 Sex Pistols Appear 1977 Gimarc 2005 p 38 Strongman 2008 p 135 Savage 1992 p 317 Gimarc 2005 p 39 Coon 1976 p unknown Ingham 1976 Savage 1992 pp 176 177 206 208 Robb 2006 pp 119 156 162 Savage 1992 p 177 Robb 2006 p 241 a b Savage 1992 p 245 Strongman 2008 pp 144 148 Robb 2006 pp 257 258 Robb 2006 p 258 Hatch amp Millward 1989 pp 168 170 Savage 1992 p 253 Pardo 2004 p 245 Savage 1992 pp 257 259 Robb 2006 p 260 Savage 1992 p 264 Strongman 2008 p 157 Grundy banned The Guardian December 1976 Retrieved 16 October 2023 a b Gensler 2016 Jones 2016 pp 178 180 Robb 2006 pp 263 273 Savage 1992 pp 267 275 Wales Music 2010 Gimarc 2005 p 45 Gimarc 2005 p 49 Savage 1992 p 286 Savage 1992 pp 286 288 Worley 2017 Strongman 2008 p 172 a b Gimarc 2005 p 56 Kelly 2021 Edinburgh Festival 2014 McKenna 2005 Matlock 1990 pp 113 119 162 167 171 a b Savage 1992 p 308 Matlock 1990 p 176 Jones 2016 pp 184 185 a b Blood on the Turntable The Sex Pistols dir Steve Crabtree BBC documentary 2004 Robb 2006 pp 217 224 225 Strongman 2008 pp 137 138 Strongman 2008 pp 116 117 Savage 1992 pp 177 178 a b c d e Robinson 2006 Lydon 2008 p 143 McNeil 1996 p 262 Monk amp Guterman 1992 p 124 Lydon 2008 p 147 Strongman 2008 p 174 Savage 1992 pp 315 318 Savage 1992 pp 318 320 Sex Pistols Cover Tops Chart 2001 Gimarc 2005 pp 59 60 Savage 1992 pp 347 349 Robb 2006 p 348 a b Gimarc 2005 p 70 a b Savage 1992 p 349 Savage 1992 pp 347 367 Beaumont Thomas 2022 Petridis 2002 O Hagan 2004 Savage 1992 pp 358 364 Strongman 2008 pp 181 182 Savage 1992 pp 364 365 Leigh 1998 Savage 1992 pp 365 366 Savage 1992 pp 390 392 Savage 1992 pp 339 340 Thompson 2004 Jubilee Riverboat 1977 Savage 1992 p 409 a b Lydon 2008 p 200 a b Hartmann 2017 Lydon 2008 pp 142 143 Savage 1992 pp 126 127 Robb 2006 p 359 Gimarc 2005 p 74 Gimarc 2005 p 95 Savage 1992 p 556 a b Taylor 2004 p 69 Nelson 1978 Savage 1992 p 414 Ott 2004 a b Savage 1992 p 415 Thompson 2000 p 609 de Jongh 1977 Vermorel amp Vermorel 1987 p 113 Lydon 2008 p 202 Savage 1992 pp 428 429 Robb 2006 p 403 Knopper 2022 Savage 1992 p 430 a b Huey 2005 Savage 1992 p 446 Savage 1996 p 36 Spong 2014 Lydon 2008 p 244 Vermorel amp Vermorel 1987 p 120 Lydon 2008 pp 5 247 248 Jones 2016 p 200 Cooper 1978 Lydon 2008 p 5 Savage 1992 pp 463 464 Savage 2009 Savage 1992 p 464 Reynolds 2006 pp 80 81 Sullivan 2015 Gimarc 2005 p 145 Temple 2001 1 29 18 1 29 20 Savage 1992 pp 497 498 Ruhlmann 2005 Roekens 2000 2006 a b Verrico 1999 Parker 2007 p 180 a b Sex Pistol Vicious on Murder Charge 1978 Savage 1992 pp 527 529 Strongman 2008 pp 241 242 Savage 1992 pp 533 534 537 Strongman 2008 pp 242 243 Malcolm McLaren 2005 Savage 1992 pp 531 536 558 Gimarc 2005 p 188 Savage 1992 pp 558 559 Gimarc 2005 pp 145 188 196 217 Salewicz 2001 pp 11 49 11 55 13 19 13 36 Salewicz 2001 pp 1 23 1 25 Sex Pistols Swindle 2005 Robertson Sandy God Save the Sex Pistols Sounds January 1980 Singleton 2023 Dushane 2017 Deming 2019 Savage 1992 pp 542 545 554 555 Lydon 2008 pp 286 306 Lydon 2008 pp 148 149 Woodcock Zara 30 May 2022 Sex Pistols John Lydon slams upcoming Pistols series as pile of nonsense The Mirror Retrieved 15 December 2023 The Sex Pistols 2001 a b Wyman 2000 The Sex Pistols Return To The Road billboard 18 July 2003 Retrieved 19 July 2023 2006 Inductees 2006 Sex Pistol to Rock Hall 2006 Brand 2006 a b Sex Pistols Reunion Is Expanded 2007 Sex Pistols Official 2023 The Sex Pistols Sign New Record Deal 2012 a b Sheldon amp Skinner 2006 pp 29 3 Sex Pistols Biography 2023 Sex Pistols 2023 Marsh 1983 p 456 100 Greatest Albums Ever 2006 Rolling Stone 1987 Edwards 2008 Sex Pistols Reform 2007 Sex Pistols Reunion To Make Live Comeback 2007 Huey 2023 Robb 2006 pp 151 155 162 Robb 2006 p 122 Paytress 2003 p 48 Robb 2006 pp 179 181 Robb 2006 p 149 Robb 2006 p 208 Sladeckova 2002 Green 2006 p 98 Wall 2008 pp 11 38 113 118 136 Kurt Cobain Biography Armstrong 2004 Harris 2004 p 144 Robbins 1991 p 585 a b Creswell 2006 p 735 Raimes Bhaskaran amp Renow Clarke 2007 p 164 Reid 2004 pp 46 48 Strongman 2008 p 235 Savage 1992 p 530 Douglas 1999 pp 188 189 Savage 1992 p 72 Bentley 2008 Hibbert 1989 Savage 1992 p 499 Gimarc 2005 pp 328 329 Lydon 2008 p 3 Lydon2008 p 186 Mulholland 2003 p 68 Salewicz 2001 pp 1 13 1 28 Albiez 2006 p 100 Henry 1989 p xi Hatch amp Millward 1989 p 170 McLaren 2007 Savage 1992 p 338 Matlock 1990 p 170 Strongman 2008 p 198 Book sources edit Albiez Sean 2006 Print the Truth Not the Legend The Sex Pistols Lesser Free Trade Hall Manchester 4 June 1976 In Inglis Ian ed Performance and Popular Music History Place and 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8357 1980 4 Jones Steve 2016 Lonely Boy Tales from a Sex Pistol Windmill Books ISBN 978 0 306 90317 5 Lydon John 2008 1994 Rotten No Irish No Blacks No Dogs with Keith and Kent Zimmerman Farrar Straus and Giroux ISBN 978 0 312 42813 6 Marsh Dave 1983 The Sex Pistols In Marsh D Swenson J eds The New Rolling Stone Record Guide Random House ISBN 0 394 72107 1 Matlock Glen 1990 I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol with Pete Silverton Omnibus Press ISBN 0 7119 1817 1 McNeil Legs 1996 McCain G ed Please Kill Me The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Grove Press ISBN 0 349 10880 3 Molon Dominic 2007 Made with the Highest British Attention to the Wrong Detail The UK In Molon Dominic ed Sympathy for the Devil Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 13426 1 Monk Noel Guterman Jimmy 1992 12 Days on the Road The Sex Pistols and America Harper Paperbacks ISBN 0 688 11274 9 Mulholland Neil 2003 The Cultural Devolution Art in Britain in the Late Twentieth Century Ashgate ISBN 0 7546 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The Inside Story Omnibus Press ISBN 0 7119 1090 1 Wall Mick 2008 W A R The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose Macmillan ISBN 978 0 312 37767 0 Other sources edit 100 Greatest Albums Ever Q Magazine Vol 235 February 2006 2006 Inductees Sex Pistols Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2006 Archived from the original on 17 October 2006 Retrieved 11 October 2006 Armstrong Billie Joe 15 April 2004 The Sex Pistols Rolling Stone Archived from the original on 19 June 2008 Retrieved 17 March 2009 Beaumont Thomas Ben 3 May 2022 Still a fascist regime Sex Pistols God Save the Queen reissued to mark platinum jubileel Guardian London Retrieved 16 November 2009 Bell Price Shannon 2006 Vivienne Westwood and the Postmodern Legacy of Punk Style New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Retrieved 7 October 2006 Bentley D 17 June 2008 Punk Rock Pioneer an Inspiration for Heath Ledger s Joker Coventry Telegraph Retrieved 18 July 2008 dead link Brand Madeleine 2006 Sex Pistols Steve Jones Just Saying No NPR 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original on 21 September 2017 Retrieved 20 September 2017 Thompson Stacy 2004 Punk Cinema Cinema Journal 43 2 47 66 doi 10 1353 cj 2004 0013 S2CID 258100578 Verrico Lisa 13 March 1999 The Big Interview Limited Edition The Times JohnLydon com Retrieved 4 October 2006 Young Charles M 20 October 1977 Rock Is Sick and Living in London Rolling Stone Archived from the original on 5 September 2017 Retrieved 10 October 2006 Wales Music 22 July 2010 The Sex Pistols in Caerphilly BBC Retrieved 22 July 2010 Worley Matthew 25 October 2017 No Future 40 Years Since Sex Pistols Stuck Two Fingers Up at the British Establishment Independent Retrieved 13 January 2018 Wyman Bill April 2000 The Revenge of the Sex Pistols Salon com Archived from the original on 15 October 2009 Retrieved 17 March 2009 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sex Pistols Official website Sex Pistols at AllMusic nbsp Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sex Pistols amp oldid 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