Sex Pistols

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols during the shoot for the "God Save the Queen" promotional video, early 1977. Left to right: Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, Paul Cook and Steve Jones.
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Punk rock
Years active	1975–1978 1996 2002–2003 2007–present
Label(s)	EMI, A&M, Virgin, Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Public Image Ltd. The Professionals Malcolm McLaren The Rich Kids Neurotic Outsiders Vicious White Kids Sham Pistols The Ex Pistols Siouxsie and the Banshees The Flowers of Romance
Website	http://www.sexpistolsofficial.com
Members
John Lydon Steve Jones Paul Cook Glen Matlock
Former members
Sid Vicious

The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. The Sex Pistols are responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians. Although their initial career lasted just two-and-a-half years and produced only four singles and one studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, they are regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.^[1]

The Sex Pistols originally comprised vocalist Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock. Matlock was replaced by Sid Vicious in early 1977. Under the management of impresario Malcolm McLaren, the band created controversies which captivated Britain. Their concerts repeatedly faced difficulties with organisers and authorities and public appearances often ended in mayhem. Their 1977 single "God Save the Queen", attacking Britons' social conformity and deference to the crown, precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium".^[2]

In January 1978, at the end of a turbulent US tour, Rotten left the band and announced its breakup. Over the next several months, the three other band members recorded songs for McLaren's film version of the Sex Pistols' story, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. Vicious died of a heroin overdose in February 1979. In 1996, Rotten, Jones, Cook and Matlock reunited for the Filthy Lucre Tour; since 2002, they have staged further reunion shows and tours. On 24 February 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they refused to attend the ceremony, calling the museum "a piss stain".^[3]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Origins and early days 1.2 Johnny Rotten joins the band 1.3 Building a following 1.4 EMI and the Grundy incident 1.5 Sid Vicious joins the band 1.6 “God Save the Queen” 1.7 Never Mind the Bollocks 1.8 US tour and the end of the band 1.9 Post-breakup 1.10 Reunions 2 Legacy 2.1 Cultural influence 2.2 Conceptual basis and the question of credit 3 Band members 3.1 Current members 3.2 Former members 3.3 Post-Rotten "Sex Pistols" singers 4 Discography 4.1 Studio album 4.2 Compilations, live albums and other official releases 4.3 Singles 5 Films 6 Sources 7 Notes 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Origins and early days

The Sex Pistols evolved from The Strand, a London band formed in 1973 with working-class teenagers Steve Jones on vocals, Paul Cook on drums, and Wally Nightingale on guitar. According to a later account by Jones, both he and Cook played on instruments they had stolen.^[4] Early line-ups of The Strand—sometimes known as The Swankers—also included Jim Mackin on organ and Stephen Hayes (and later, briefly, Del Noones) on bass.^[5] The band members hung out regularly at two clothing shops on Kings Road, in London's Chelsea neighbourhood: Don Letts's Acme Attractions and Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. The McLaren-Westwood store 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 rocker look associated with Marlon Brando.^[6] As John Lydon later observed, "Malcolm and Vivienne were really a pair of shysters: they would sell anything to any trend that they could grab onto."^[7] The shop was to become a focal point of the punk rock scene, bringing together participants such as the future Sid Vicious, Marco Pirroni, Gene October, and Mark Stewart, among many others.^[8] Jordan, the wildly styled shop assistant, is credited with "pretty well single-handedly paving the punk look".^[9]

In early 1974, Jones convinced McLaren to help out The Strand. Effectively becoming the group's manager, McLaren paid for their first formal rehearsal space. Glen Matlock, an art student who occasionally worked at Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die, was recruited as the band's regular bassist.^[10] In November, McLaren temporarily relocated to New York City. Before his departure, McLaren and Westwood had conceived of a new identity for their store: renamed Sex, it changed its focus from retro couture to S&M-inspired "anti-fashion", with a billing as "Specialists in rubberwear, glamourwear & stagewear".^[11] After briefly managing and promoting the New York Dolls, McLaren returned to London in May 1975. Inspired by the punk scene that was beginning to emerge in Lower Manhattan—in particular by the radical visual style and attitude of Richard Hell, then with Television—McLaren began taking greater interest in The Strand.^[12] The group had been rehearsing regularly, overseen by McLaren's friend Bernard Rhodes, and had performed publicly for the first time. Soon after McLaren's return, Nightingale was kicked out of the band and Jones took over as guitarist. McLaren, Rhodes and the group began looking for a new member to assume the lead vocal duties.^[13] Among those they approached was Midge Ure, who was involved with his own band, Slik. As described by Matlock, "[E]veryone had long hair 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."^[14]

[edit] Johnny Rotten joins the band

In August 1975, Rhodes spotted nineteen-year-old Kings Road habitué John Lydon wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt with the words I Hate handwritten above the band's name and holes scratched through the eyes.^[15][16][17] Reports vary slightly at this point: the same day, or soon after, either Rhodes or McLaren at Rhodes's instigation asked Lydon to come to a nearby pub in the evening to meet Jones and Cook.^[15][18] According to Jones, "He came in with green hair. I thought he had a really interesting face. I liked his look. He had his 'I Hate Pink Floyd' T-shirt on, and it was held together with safety pins. John had something special, but when he started talking he was a real asshole—but smart."^[15] When the pub closed, the group moved over to Sex, where Lydon, who had given little thought to singing, was convinced to improvise along to Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" on the shop jukebox. Though the performance drove the band members to laughter, McLaren convinced them to start rehearsing with Lydon.^[15][19]

Lydon later described the social context in which the band came together:

Early Seventies Britain was a very depressing place. It was completely run-down, there was trash on the streets, total unemployment—just about everybody was on strike. Everybody was brought up with an education system that told you point blank that if you came from the wrong side of the tracks...then you had no hope in hell and no career prospects at all. Out of that came pretentious moi and the Sex Pistols and then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us.^[20]

Nick Kent—a writer for the New Musical Express (NME)—used to jam occasionally with the band, but left upon Lydon's recruitment. "When I came along, I took one look at him and said, 'No. That has to go,'" Lydon later explained. "He's never written a good word about me ever since."^[21] Following Kent's departure, Cook began to feel that Jones might not be capable enough alone on guitar, and the band placed an advertisement in Melody Maker: "Wanted—Whizz kid guitarist, Not older than 20, Not worse looking than Johnny Thunders" (referring to a leading member of the New York punk scene).^[22] Steve New answered the advert, and played with the band for a few weeks, before he too departed.^[22]

In September, McLaren again helped hire private rehearsal space for the group, which had been practicing in pubs.^[23] Lydon was rechristened "Johnny Rotten" by Jones, apparently because of his bad dental hygiene.^[17][24] The band also acquired a new name—after considering options such as Le Bomb, Subterraneans, the Damned, Beyond, Teenage Novel, and QT Jones and His Sex Pistols, they settled on simply Sex Pistols.^[25] McLaren later explained that 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."^[26] The group began writing original material: Rotten was the lyricist and Matlock the primary melody writer, though official credit was shared equally among the four.^[27]

The new quartet's first gig was arranged by Matlock, who was studying at Saint Martins College. The band played at the school on 6 November 1975,^[28] in support of a pub rock group called Bazooka Joe, arranging to use their amps and drums. The Sex Pistols performed several cover songs, including The Who's "Substitute", the Small Faces' "Whatcha Gonna Do About It", and "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", made famous by The Monkees; according to observers, they were unexceptional musically aside from being extremely loud. Before the Pistols could play the few original songs they had written to date, Bazooka Joe pulled the plugs as they saw their gear being trashed. A brief fistfight between members of the two bands took place on stage.^[29]

[edit] Building a following

The Saint Martins gig was followed by other performances at colleges and art schools around London. The Sex Pistols' core group of followers—including Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and Billy Idol, who would go on to form bands of their own—came to be known as the Bromley Contingent, after the neighbourhood several were from.^[30] Their cutting-edge fashion, much of it supplied by Sex, ignited a trend that was adopted by the new fans the band attracted.^[31] McLaren and Westwood saw the incipient London punk movement as a vehicle for more than just couture. They were both captivated by the May 1968 radical uprising in Paris, particularly by the ideology and agitations of the Situationists, as well as the anarchist thought of Buenaventura Durruti and others.^[32] These interests were shared with Jamie Reid, an old friend of McLaren's who began producing publicity material for the Sex Pistols in spring 1976.^[33] (The cut-up lettering employed to create the classic Sex Pistols logo and many subsequent designs for the band was actually introduced by McLaren's friend Helen Wellington-Lloyd.)^[34] "We used to talk to John [Lydon] a lot about the Situationists," Reid later said. "The Sex Pistols seemed the perfect vehicle to communicate ideas directly to people who weren't getting the message from left-wing politics."^[35] McLaren was also arranging for the band's first photo sessions.^[36] As described by music historian Jon Savage, "With his green hair, hunched stance and ragged look, [Lydon] looked like a cross between Uriah Heep and Richard Hell."^[37]

The first Sex Pistols gig to attract broader attention was as a supporting act for Eddie and the Hot Rods, a leading pub rock group, at the Marquee on 12 February 1976. Rotten "was now really pushing the barriers of performance, walking off stage, sitting with the audience, throwing Jordan across the dancefloor and chucking chairs around, before smashing some of Eddie and the Hot Rods' gear."^[38] The band's first review appeared in the NME, accompanied by a brief interview in which Steve Jones declared, "Actually we're not into music. We're into chaos."^[39] 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 ultimately caught the band at a couple of late February gigs.^[40] The two friends immediately began organizing their own Pistols-style group, the Buzzcocks. As Devoto later put it, "My life changed the moment that I saw the Sex Pistols."^[41]

The Pistols were soon playing other important venues, debuting at Oxford Street's 100 Club on 30 March.^[42] 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 recognized punk rock as the future.^[43] A return gig at the Nashville, 23 April, demonstrated the band's growing musical competence, but by all accounts lacked a spark. Westwood provided that by instigating a fight with another audience member; McLaren and Rotten were soon involved in the melee.^[44] Cook later said, "That 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."^[45] The Pistols were soon banned from both the Nashville and the Marquee.^[46]

On 23 April, as well, the debut album by the leading punk rock band in the New York scene, the Ramones, was released. Though it is regarded as seminal to the growth of punk rock in England and elsewhere, Lydon has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that it influenced the Sex Pistols: "[The Ramones] were all long-haired and of no interest to me. I didn't like their image, what they stood for, or anything about them";^[47] "They were hilarious but you can only go so far with 'duh-dur-dur-duh'. I've heard it. Next. Move on."^[48] On 11 May, the Pistols began a four-week-long Tuesday night residency at the 100 Club. Bromley Contingent member Sid Vicious is credited with introducing the pogo dance to the scene at the first of these concerts.^[49][50] The rest of the month was mostly devoted to touring small cities and towns in the north of England and recording demos in London with producer and recording artist Chris Spedding.^[49][51] 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.^[52]

On 4 July 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 in between, the Pistols (despite Lydon's later professed disdain) showed up for a Ramones gig at Dingwalls like virtually everyone else at the heart of the London punk scene.^[53] During a return Manchester engagement, 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 Jon Savage, "there seems little doubt that Lydon was fed material by Vivienne Westwood and Jamie Reid, which he then converted into his own lyric."^[54] "Anarchy in the U.K." was among the seven originals recorded in another demo session that month, this one overseen by the band's sound engineer, Dave Goodman.^[55]

The Sex Pistols played their first concert outside Britain on 3 September, at the opening of the Chalet du Lac disco in Paris. The Bromley Contingent accompanied them, with Siouxsie Sioux's swastika armband causing a stir.^[56] The following day, the Pistols appeared for the first time on television: Tony Wilson's So It Goes screened a film of the band performing "Anarchy in the U.K.", introduced with a shout of "Get off your arse!"^[56][57] On 13 September, the Pistols began a tour of Britain.^[58] A week later, back in London, they headlined the opening night of the 100 Club Punk Festival. Organized by McLaren, the event was "considered the moment that was the catalyst for the years to come."^[59] 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.^[60] As Rotten tested out wild vocalization styles, the instrumentalists experimented "with overload, feedback and distortion...pushing their equipment to the limit".^[61]

[edit] EMI and the Grundy incident

	"Anarchy in the U.K." "Anarchy in the U.K." reached number 38 on the UK singles chart
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

On 8 October 1976, the major record label EMI signed the Sex Pistols to a two-year contract.^[62] In short order, the band was in the studio recording a full-dress session with Dave Goodman. As later described by Matlock, "The idea was to get the spirit of the live performance. We were pressurized to make it faster and faster."^[63] The riotous results were rejected. Chris Thomas, who had produced Roxy Music and, ironically, mixed Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, was brought in to produce. The band's first single, "Anarchy in the U.K.", was released on 26 November 1976.^[63] John Robb—soon to be a cofounder of The Membranes and later a music journalist—described the record's impact: "From Steve Jones' opening salvo of descending chords, to Johnny Rotten's fantastic sneering vocals, this song is the perfect statement...a stunningly powerful piece of punk politics...a lifestyle choice, a manifesto that heralds a new era".^[64] Colin Newman, who had just cofounded the band Wire, heard it as "the clarion call of a generation."^[65]

"Anarchy in the U.K." was not, in fact, the first British punk single, pipped by The Damned's "New Rose". "We Vibrate" had also appeared from The Vibrators, a pub rock band formed early in 1976 that had become associated with punk—though "with their long hair and mildly risqué name, the Vibrators were passers-by as far as punk taste-makers were concerned."^[66] Unlike those songs, whose lyrical content was comfortably within rock 'n' roll traditions, "Anarchy in the U.K." linked punk to a newly politicized attitude—the Pistols' stance was aggrieved, euphoric and nihilistic, all at the same time. Rotten's howls of "I am an anti-christ" and "Destroy!" repurposed rock as an ideological weapon.^[67] The single's packaging and visual promotion also broke new ground. Reid and McLaren came up with the notion of selling the record in a completely wordless, featureless black sleeve.^[68] The primary image associated with the single was Reid's "anarchy flag" poster: a Union Flag ripped up and partly safety-pinned back together, with the song and band names clipped along the edges of a gaping hole in the middle. This and other images created by Reid for the Sex Pistols quickly became punk icons.^[69]

	The Fucking Rotter Audio from the 1976 interview conducted by Bill Grundy
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The Sex Pistols' behaviour, as much as their music, brought them national attention. On 1 December 1976, the band and members of the Bromley Contingent created a storm of publicity by swearing during an early evening live broadcast of Thames Television's Today programme. Appearing as last-minute replacements for fellow EMI artists Queen, band and entourage were offered drinks as they waited to go on air. During the interview, Jones said the band had "fucking spent" its label advance, Rotten used the word "shit", and host Bill Grundy, admittedly drunk, flirted openly with Siouxsie Sioux: "We'll meet afterwards, shall we?" This prompted the following exchange between Jones and the host:

Jones: You dirty sod. You dirty old man.

Grundy: Well keep going chief, keep going. Go on. You've got another five seconds. Say something outrageous.

Jones: You dirty bastard.

Grundy: Go on, again.

Jones: You dirty fucker.

Grundy: What a clever boy.

Jones: What a fucking rotter.^[70]

Although the programme was broadcast only in the London region, the ensuing furore occupied the tabloid newspapers for days. The Daily Mirror famously ran the headline "The Filth and the Fury!";^[71] other papers such as the Daily Express ("Fury at Filthy TV Chat") and the Daily Telegraph ("4-Letter Words Rock TV") followed suit.^[72] Thames Television suspended Grundy, and though he was later reinstated, the interview effectively ended his career.^[73]

The episode made the band household names throughout the country and brought punk into mainstream awareness. The Pistols set out on the Anarchy Tour of the UK, though many of the concerts were either crowded by hostile press or cancelled by organisers or local authorities.^[74] London councillor Bernard Brook Partridge declared, "Some of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups currently are the Sex Pistols. They're unbelievably nauseating, they are the antithesis of humankind. I would like to see someone dig a huge hole and bury the lot of them in it."^[75]

Following the end of the tour in December 1976, three concerts were arranged in Holland 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.^[76] Despite categorical denials by the EMI representative who accompanied the group, the label, which was under political pressure, released the band from their contract.^[77]

[edit] Sid Vicious joins the band

The Dutch gigs would be the Sex Pistols' last with Matlock, who parted company with the band in February 1977. In an interview a few months afterward, Steve Jones claimed that Matlock had been sacked because he "liked The Beatles".^[4] Years later, Jones expanded on the matter of the band's issues with Matlock: "He was a good writer but he didn't look like a Sex Pistol and he was always washing his feet. His mum didn't like the songs."^[78] Matlock later said he quit voluntarily, mainly because of an increasingly acrimonious relationship with Rotten,^[79] which, according to Matlock, was orchestrated by McLaren.^[22] Lydon would later claim that "God Save the Queen", the belligerently sardonic song planned as the band's second single, had been the final straw: "[Matlock] couldn't handle those kinds of lyrics. He said it declared us fascists." Though the singer could hardly see how antiroyalism equated with fascism, he claimed, "Just to get rid of him, I didn't deny it."^[80] Jon Savage suggests that Rotten pushed Matlock out in an effort to demonstrate his power and autonomy from McLaren.^[81] Matlock immediately formed his own band, Rich Kids, with Midge Ure, Rusty Egan and Steve New.

Matlock was replaced by Rotten's friend and self-appointed "ultimate Sex Pistols fan" Sid Vicious, previously drummer of Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Flowers of Romance. McLaren approved Vicious—born Simon John Ritchie, later known as John Beverley—on account of his look and "punk attitude", despite his limited musical abilities.^[22] McLaren later stated that, much earlier in the band's career, Vivienne Westwood had told him he should "get the guy called John who came to the store a couple of times" to be the singer. When Johnny Rotten was recruited for the band, Westwood said McLaren had got it wrong: "he had got the wrong John." It was John Beverley, the future Vicious, she had been recommending.^[82]

Vicious had been involved in a notorious incident the previous September, during the second night of the 100 Club Punk Festival. Arrested for hurling a glass at The Damned that shattered and blinded a girl in one eye, he had served time in a remand centre.^[83] At a previous 100 Club gig, he had assaulted Nick Kent with a bicycle chain.^[84] According to McLaren, "When Sid joined he couldn't play guitar but his craziness fit into the structure of the band. He was the knight in shining armour with a giant fist."^[85] "Everyone agreed he had the look," Lydon later recalled, but musical skill was another matter. "The first rehearsals...in March of 1977 with Sid were hellish.... Sid really tried hard and rehearsed a lot".^[86] Marco Pirroni, who had performed with Vicious in Siouxsie & 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".^[85]

Membership in the Sex Pistols had a progressively destructive effect on Vicious. As Lydon later 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. That's what it all meant to Sid."^[85] Westwood had already been feeding him material, like a tome on Charles Manson, likely to encourage his worst instincts.^[87] Early in 1977, he met Nancy Spungen, an emotionally disturbed drug addict and sometime prostitute from New York.^[85][88] Spungen is commonly thought to be responsible for introducing Vicious to heroin, and the emotional codependency between the couple alienated Vicious from the other members of the band. 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.... Only she didn't want to go alone. She wanted to take Sid with her.... She was so utterly fucked up and evil."^[89]

[edit] “God Save the Queen”

On 10 March 1977, at a press ceremony held outside Buckingham Palace, the Sex Pistols publicly signed to A&M Records (the real signing had taken place the day before). They returned to the A&M offices for what would become an unruly party. Sid Vicious trashed the managing director's office and vomited on his desk. Under pressure from its own employees, artists and distributors, A&M broke contract with the Pistols six days later. Twenty-five thousand copies of the planned "God Save the Queen" single, recorded in February with Chris Thomas, had already been pressed; virtually all were destroyed.^[90]

Vicious debuted with the band at the Screen on the Green in London on 3 April. The following month the band signed with Virgin Records, their third new label in little more than half a year. Virgin was more than ready to release "God Save the Queen", but new obstacles arose. Workers at the pressing plant laid down their tools in protest at the song's content. Jamie Reid's now famous cover, showing Queen Elizabeth II with her features obscured by the song and band names in cutout letters, offended the sleeve's platemakers.^[92] After much talk, production resumed and the record was finally released on 27 May.^[93]

The scabrous lyrics—"God save the queen/She ain't no human being/And there's no future/In England's dreaming"—prompted widespread outcry.^[94] Several major chains refused to stock the single.^[93] It was banned not only by the BBC but also by every independent radio station, making it the "most heavily censored record in British history".^[95] Rotten boasted, "We're the only honest band that's hit this planet in about two thousand million years."^[96] Jones shrugged off everything the song stated and implied—or took nihilism to a logical endpoint: "I don't see how anyone could describe us as a political band. I don't even know the name of the Prime Minister."^[96] The song, and its public impact, are now recognized as "punk's crowning glory".^[2]

The Virgin release had been 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—a massive success. On 7 June, McLaren and the record label arranged to charter a private boat and have the Sex Pistols perform while sailing down the River Thames, passing Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. The event, a mockery of the Queen's river procession planned for two days later, 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.^[97]

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

With the official UK record chart for Jubilee week about to be released, the Daily Mirror predicted that "God Save the Queen" would be number one. As it turned out, the record placed second, behind a Rod Stewart single in its fourth week at the top. Many believed that the record had actually qualified for the top spot, but that the chart had been rigged to prevent a spectacle. McLaren later claimed that CBS Records, which was distributing both singles, told him that the Sex Pistols were actually outselling Stewart two to one. There is evidence that an exceptional directive was issued by the British Phonographic Institute, which oversaw the chart-compiling bureau, to exclude sales from record-company operated shops such as Virgin's for that week only.^[98]

Violent attacks on punk fans were on the rise. In mid-June Rotten himself was assaulted by a knife-wielding gang outside Islington's Pegasus pub, causing tendon damage to his left arm. Jamie Reid and Paul Cook were beaten up in other incidents; three days after the Pegasus assault, Rotten was attacked again.^[99] A tour of Scandinavia, planned to start at the end of the month, was consequently delayed until mid-July. During the tour, a Swedish interviewer observed to Jones that "a lot of people" regarded the band as McLaren's "creation". Jones replied, "He's our manager, that's all. He's got nothing to do with the music or the image...he's just a good manager."^[4] In another interview, Rotten professed bafflement at the furore surrounding the group: "I don't understand it. All we're trying to do is destroy everything."^[100] At the end of August came SPOTS—Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly, a surreptitious UK tour with the band playing under pseudonyms to avoid cancellation.^[101] McLaren had wanted for some time to make a film featuring the Sex Pistols. He arranged for Russ Meyer to direct Who Killed Bambi? from a script by Roger Ebert. After a single day of shooting, 11 September, production ceased when it became clear that McLaren had failed to arrange financing.^[102]

[edit] Never Mind the Bollocks

	"Holidays in the Sun" "Holidays in the Sun", the Sex Pistols' fourth single, is the lead track on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Since the spring of 1977, the three senior Sex Pistols had been returning to the studio periodically with Chris Thomas to lay down the tracks for the band's debut album. Initially to be called God Save Sex Pistols, it became known during the summer as Never Mind the Bollocks.^[103] Jones played virtually all of what bass parts were recorded during these sessions; Cook later described how many of the instrumental tracks were built from just drum and guitar parts.^[104] According to Jones, "Sid wanted to come down and play on the album, and we tried as hard as possible not to let him anywhere near the studio. Luckily he had hepatitis at the time."^[105] Although Vicious did record for one track that appeared on the original album release—"Bodies"—his contribution was later over-dubbed. Jones recalls, "He played his farty old bass part and we just let him do it. When he left I dubbed another part on, leaving Sid's down low. I think it might be barely audible on the track."^[106] Two singles were released from these sessions, "Pretty Vacant" (largely written by Matlock) on 1 July^[107] and "Holidays in the Sun" on 14 October.^[108] Each was a Top Ten hit.^[109]

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (which includes "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and another earlier recording, "No Feelings") was released on 28 October 1977.^[110] Rolling Stone praised the album as "just about the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies", applauding the band for playing "with an energy and conviction that is positively transcendent in its madness and fever".^[111] Some critics, disappointed that the album contained all four previously released singles, dismissed it as little more than a "greatest hits" record.^[112] Containing both "Bodies"—in which Rotten utters "fuck" five times—and the previously censored "God Save the Queen" and featuring the word bollocks (popular slang for testicles) in its title, the album was banned by Boots, W.H. Smith and Woolworth's.^[113] A Conservative MP condemned it as "a symptom of the way society is declining" and the Independent Television Companies Association refused to carry its TV advertising campaign.^[114] Nonetheless, advance sales were sufficient to make it an undeniable number one on the album chart.^[113]

The album title led to a legal case that attracted considerable attention: a Virgin Records store in Nottingham that put the album in its window 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 it appeared in place names without causing local communities erotic disturbance, and that in the nineteenth century it 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."^[115] In the context of the Pistols' 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."^[116]

After playing a few dates in Holland—the beginning of a planned multinational tour—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 Sex Pistols played two shows at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield. Before a regular evening concert, the band performed a benefit matinee for the children of "striking firemen, laid-off workers and one-parent families."^[117] These would turn out to be the band's final UK performances.^[118]

[edit] US tour and the end of the band

In January 1978 the Sex Pistols embarked on a US tour, consisting mainly of dates in America's Deep South. Originally scheduled to begin a few days before New Year's, it was delayed due to American authorities' reluctance to issue visas to band members with criminal records. Several dates in the North had to be canceled as a result.^[110][119] Though highly anticipated by fans and media, the tour was plagued by in-fighting, poor planning and physically belligerent audiences. McLaren later admitted that he purposely booked redneck bars to provoke hostile situations.^[82] Over the course of the two weeks, Vicious, by now heavily addicted to heroin,^[120] began to live up to his stage name. "He finally had an audience of people who would behave with shock and horror", Lydon later wrote. "Sid was easily led by the nose."^[121]

Early in the tour, Vicious wandered off from his Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee, looking for drugs. He was found in a hospital, having carved the words "Gimme a fix" in his chest with a razor. During a concert in San Antonio, Texas, Vicious called the crowd "a bunch of faggots", before striking an audience member across the head with his bass guitar.^[120] In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he received simulated oral sex on stage, later declaring "that’s the kind of girl I like".^[122] Suffering from heroin withdrawal during a show in Dallas, Texas, he spat blood at a woman who had climbed onstage and punched him in the face.^[121] He was admitted to hospital later that night to treat various injuries. Offstage he is said to have kicked a female photographer, attacked a security guard, and eventually challenged one of his own bodyguards to a fight—beaten up, he is reported to have exclaimed, "I like you. Now we can be friends."^[85]

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

Rotten, meanwhile, suffering from flu^[123] and coughing up blood, felt increasingly isolated from Cook and Jones, and disgusted by Vicious.^[124] 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". In the closing lines, sneering at the audience, Rotten declared, "This is no fun, at all." After the performance Rotten addressed the audience directly—"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night"—before throwing down his microphone and walking offstage.^[125] 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."^[126]

On 17 January 1978, the band split, making their ways separately to Los Angeles. McLaren, Cook and Jones prepared to fly to Rio de Janeiro for a working vacation. Vicious, in increasingly bad shape, was taken to Los Angeles by a friend, who then brought him to New York, where he was immediately hospitalized.^[127] Rotten later described his own situation: "The Sex Pistols left me, stranded in Los Angeles with no ticket, no hotel room, and a message to Warner Bros saying that if anyone phones up claiming to be Johnny Rotten, then they were lying. That's how I finished with Malcolm—but not with the rest of the band; I'll always like them."^[128] Rotten flew to New York, where he announced the band's breakup in a newspaper interview on 18 January.^[129] Virtually broke, he telephoned the head of Virgin Records, Richard Branson, who agreed to pay for his flight back to London, via Jamaica. In Jamaica, Branson met with members of the band Devo, and tried to install Rotten as their lead singer. Devo declined the offer.^[130]

Cook, Jones and Vicious never performed together again live in the post-Rotten period. Over the next several months, McLaren supervised recordings in London and Brazil with each of the three taking lead vocal turns, along with other vocalists whose work was nominally credited to the Sex Pistols. These recordings made up most of the musical soundtrack for McLaren's new Pistols film project, primarily shot in late August. McLaren was seeking to reconstitute the band with a new frontman, but Vicious had sickened of him. The bassist's return to New York in September put paid to McLaren's dreaming.^[131]

[edit] Post-breakup

After leaving the Pistols, Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name of Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd (PIL) with former Clash member Keith Levene and school friend Jah Wobble.^[132] The band went on to score a UK Top Ten hit with their debut single, 1978's "Public Image". Lydon initiated legal proceedings against McLaren and the Sex 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,^[133] and damages for "all the criminal activities that took place".^[134] In 1979, PIL recorded the post-punk classic Metal Box. Lydon performed with the band through 1992, as well as engaging in other projects such as Time Zone with Afrika Bambaataa and Bill Laswell.

McLaren finally succeeded in completing a Sex Pistols film. A pseudo-documentary starring McLaren, Jones, Cook and Vicious, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle was produced in mid-1978 and released in 1980. Although director Julien Temple also received credit for the script, the film is McLaren's fictionalised account of the Pistols' history: he claims not only to have controlled and manipulated the band from its inception as a virtual Svengali, but takes credit for the invention of punk rock itself.^[27][135] The soundtrack album, released in March 1979, is partly composed of tracks featuring Rotten's vocals from early, unissued sessions, with rerecorded backing by Jones and Cook. Much of the rest of the album consists of new recordings credited to the Sex Pistols, with lead vocals by Jones, occasionally Cook or Vicious, and sometimes Edward Tudor-Pole, who was considered as a permanent replacement for Rotten. There are also McLaren-concocted novelties, such as two songs in which notorious criminal Ronnie Biggs sings, backed by Jones and Cook.^[136] McLaren himself takes the mic for a couple of numbers. Four Top Ten singles were culled from the Swindle recordings, one more than had appeared on Never Mind the Bollocks. McLaren went on to manage Adam & the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, and in the mid-1980s released a number of hit records as a solo artist.^[137]

Vicious, relocated in New York, began performing as a solo artist, with Nancy Spungen acting as his manager. He recorded a live album, backed by "The Idols" featuring Arthur Kane and Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls—Sid Sings was released in 1979. On 12 October 1978 Spungen was found dead in the Chelsea Hotel room she was sharing with Vicious, with stab wounds to her stomach and dressed only in her underwear.^[138] Police recovered drug paraphernalia from the scene and Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. In an interview at the time, McLaren said, "I can't believe he was involved in such a thing. Sid was set to marry Nancy in New York. He was very close to her and had quite a passionate affair with her."^[138] While free on bail, Vicious smashed a beer mug in the face of Todd Smith, Patti Smith's brother, and was arrested again on an assault charge. On 9 December 1978 he was sent to Rikers Island jail, where he spent 55 days and underwent enforced cold-turkey detox. He was released on 1 February 1979; sometime after midnight, following a small party to celebrate his release, Vicious died of a heroin overdose.^[139] He was only twenty-one. Reflecting on the event, Lydon said, "Poor Sid. The only way he could live up to what he wanted everyone to believe about him was to die. That was tragic, but more for Sid than anyone else. He really bought his public image."^[140] A fictionalised account of Vicious's relationship with Spungen is the focus of the 1986 film Sid and Nancy, directed by Alex Cox. In his autobiography, Lydon lambastes 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.^[141]

Cook and Jones continued to work through guest appearances and as session musicians. 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. Now a resident of Los Angeles, he hosts a daily radio program called Jonesy's Jukebox. Having played with the band Chiefs of Relief in the late 1980s and with Edwyn Collins in the 1990s,^[142] Cook is now a member of Man Raze. Following The Rich Kids' breakup in 1979, Matlock played with various bands, toured with Iggy Pop, and recorded several solo albums. He is currently a member of Slinky Vagabond.

After a bitter, drawn-out legal case, 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.^[136][143] This resource facilitated the production of the 2000 Julien Temple documentary The Filth and the Fury, formulated as an attempt to tell the story from the band's point of view, in contrast to its McLaren-aggrandizing predecessor.^[144] On 9 March 2006 the band sold the rights to their back catalogue to Universal Music Group. The sale was criticized by some commentators as a "sell out".^[145]

[edit] Reunions

The original four Sex Pistols reunited in 1996 for the six-month Filthy Lucre Tour, which included dates in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Japan.^[146] In 2002—the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee—they played the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London. In 2003 their Piss Off Tour took them around North America for three weeks.

In November 2006, the Sex Pistols were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honour that the band members turned down in coarse language on their website. In a television interview, Lydon accompanied a suggestion that the Hall of Fame "Kiss this!" with an obscene gesture.^[147] 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, or others; people who are already in it."^[148]

They reunited again for five gigs at the Brixton Academy and one each in Manchester and Glasgow in November 2007.^[149][150] In 2008, they undertook a series of European festival appearances, titled the Combine Harvester Tour. In August, they performed at Budapest's Sziget Festival and at the Dutch festival Lowlands. Lowlands director Eric van Eerdenburg declared the Pistols' performance "saddening": "They left their swimming pools at home only to scoop up some money here. Really, they're nothing more than that."^[151] They later played at the Hammersmith Apollo. That same year, they released the DVD There'll Always Be An England, combining footage from two of the 2007 Brixton Academy appearances.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] Cultural influence

The Trouser Press Record Guide entry on the Sex Pistols declares that "their importance—both to the direction of contemporary music and more generally to pop culture—can hardly be overstated".^[152] Rolling Stone has argued that the band, "in direct opposition to the star trappings and complacency" of mid-1970s rock, "came to spark and personify one of the few truly critical moments in pop culture—the rise of punk."^[146] In 2004, the magazine ranked the Sex Pistols #58 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".^[153] Leading music critic Dave Marsh called them "unquestionably the most radical new rock band of the Seventies."^[154]

Although the Sex Pistols were not the first punk band, the few recordings that were released during the band's brief initial existence were singularly catalytic expressions of the punk movement. The releases of "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and Never Mind the Bollocks are counted among the most important events in the history of popular music. Never Mind the Bollocks is regularly cited in accountings of all-time great albums: In 2006 it was voted #28 in Q magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever",^[155] while Rolling Stone listed it at #2 in its 1987 "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years".^[156] It has come to be recognized as among the most influential records in rock history.^[149][157] A 2005 Allmusic critique describes it as "one of the greatest, most inspiring rock records of all time".^[158]

The Sex Pistols directly inspired the style, and often the formation itself, of many punk and post-punk bands during their first two-and-a-half-year run. The Clash,^[159] Siouxsie & The Banshees,^[160] The Adverts,^[161] Vic Godard of Subway Sect,^[162] and Ari Up of The Slits^[163] are among those in London's "inner circle" of early punk bands that credit the Pistols. Pauline Murray of Durham punk band Penetration saw the Pistols perform for the first time in Northallerton in May 1976. She later explained their importance,

Nothing would have happened without the Pistols. It was like, "Wow, I believe in this." What they were saying was: "It's a load of shite. I'm going to do what I do and I don't care what people think." That was the key to it. People forget that, but it was the main ideology for me: we don't care what you think—you're shit anyway. It was the attitude that got people moving, as well as the music.^[164]

The Sex Pistols' 4 June 1976 concert at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall was to become one of the most important and mythologized events in rock history. Among the audience of merely forty people or so were many who became leading figures in the punk and post-punk movements: Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto, who organised the gig and were in the process of auditioning new members for the Buzzcocks; Bernard Sumner, Ian Curtis and Peter Hook, later of Joy Division; Mark E. Smith, later of The Fall; Morrissey, later of The Smiths; and Anthony H. Wilson, founder of Factory Records.^[52] Among the many musicians of a later time who have acknowledged their debt to the Pistols are members of NOFX,^[165] The Stone Roses,^[166] Guns N' Roses,^[167] Nirvana,^[168] Green Day,^[153] and Oasis.^[169] As described by the Trouser Press Record Guide, "the Pistols and manager/provocateur Malcolm McLaren challenged every aspect and precept of modern music-making, thereby inspiring countless groups to follow their cue onto stages around the world. A confrontational, nihilistic public image and rabidly nihilistic socio-political lyrics set the tone that continues to guide punk bands."^[152]

Along with their abundant musical influence, the Sex Pistols' cultural reverberations are evident elsewhere. Jamie Reid's work for the band is regarded as among the most important graphic design of the 1970s and still impacts the field in the 21st century.^[170] By the age of twenty-one, Sid Vicious was already a "t-shirt-selling icon".^[171] 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.^[172] 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 colored 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)."^[173] Christopher Nolan, director of the Batman movie The Dark Knight, has said that Rotten inspired the characterization of The Joker, played by Heath Ledger. According to Nolan, "We very much took the view in looking at the character of the Joker that what's strong about him is this idea of anarchy. This commitment to anarchy, this commitment to chaos."^[174] Ledger's costar Christian Bale has claimed that Ledger drew inspiration from watching tapes of Vicious.^[175]

[edit] Conceptual basis and the question of credit

The Sex Pistols were defined by ambitions that went well 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.^[27] The degree to which the Pistols' anti-establishment stance resulted from the members' spontaneous attitudes as opposed to being cultivated by McLaren and his associates is a matter of debate—as is the very nature of that stance itself. Deprecating the music, McLaren elevated the concept, for which he later took full credit. He would claim that the Sex Pistols were his personal, Situationist-style art project: "I decided to use people, just the way a sculptor uses clay."^[27] But what had he supposedly made? The Sex Pistols were as substantial as pop culture could get: "Punk became the most important cultural phenomenon of the late 20th century", McLaren would later assert. "Its authenticity stands out against the karaoke ersatz culture of today, where everything and everyone is for sale.... [P]unk is not, and never was, for sale."^[176] Or they were a cynical con: advertising for McLaren's clothing store, a "carefully planned exercise to embezzle as much money as possible out of the music industry",^[177] "cash from chaos" as The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle puts it.^[178]

Lydon, in turn, would dismiss 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!"^[179] Cook concurs: "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."^[180] 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."^[134]

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."^[181] While the Conservative triumph in 1979 may be taken as evidence for that position, within a year of "Anarchy in the U.K." 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.^[182]

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.^[183]

A couple of years before, Marcus had identified different roots underlying the band's merger of music and politics, arguing that they "have absorbed from reggae and the Rastas the idea of a culture that will make demands on those in power which no government could ever satisfy; a culture that will be exclusive, almost separatist, yet also messianic, apocalyptic and stoic, and that will ignore or smash any contradiction inherent in such a complexity of stances."^[111] Critic Sean Campbell has discussed how Lydon's Irish Catholic heritage both facilitated his entrée into London's reggae scene and complicated his position vis-à-vis the ethnically English working class—the background his bandmates had in common.^[184]

Critic Bill Wyman acknowledges 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.^[144] While many 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",^[176] the clash on the Bill Grundy Today show. It is also hard to ascribe the effect of the Sex Pistols' early Manchester shows on that city's nascent punk scene to anyone other than the musicians themselves. Music historian Simon Reynolds argues that McLaren came into his own as an auteur only after the group's breakup, with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and the outrageous recruitment of Ronnie Biggs as a vocalist.^[27]

According to Pistols tour manager Noel Monk and journalist Jimmy Guterman, Lydon was much more than "the band's mouthpiece. He's its raging brain. McLaren or his friend Jamie Reid might drop a word like 'anarchy' or 'vacant' that Rotten seizes upon and turns into a manifesto, but McLaren is not the Svengali to Rotten he'd like to be perceived as. McLaren thought he was working with a tabula rasa, but he soon found out that Rotten has ideas of his own".^[186] On the other hand, there is little disagreement about McLaren's marketing talent and his crucial role in making the band a subcultural phenomenon soon after its debut.^[144][187] Though, as Jon Savage emphasizes, "In fact, it was Steve Jones who first had the idea of putting the group, or any group, together with McLaren. He chose McLaren, not vice versa."^[188]

[edit] Band members

[edit] Current members

• Johnny Rotten – lead vocals (1975–1978, 1996–present)
• Steve Jones – guitar, bass (studio), backing vocals (1975–1978, 1996–present)
• Paul Cook – drums (1975–1978, 1996–present)
• Glen Matlock – bass, backing vocals (1975–1977, 1996–present)

[edit] Former members

• Sid Vicious – bass, backing vocals (1977–1978)

[edit] Post-Rotten "Sex Pistols" singers

People who sing lead vocals on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle other than Johnny Rotten include:

• Ronnie Biggs – lead vocals on "No One Is Innocent", "Belsen Was a Gas"
• Paul Cook – lead vocals on "Silly Thing"
• Steve Jones – lead vocals on "EMI (Orchestral)", "Lonely Boy", "Friggin' In The Riggin'" (and the single release of "Silly Thing")
• Malcolm McLaren – lead vocals on "God Save The Queen (Symphony)", "You Need Hands"
• Edward Tudor-Pole – lead vocals on "Rock Around the Clock" , "Who Killed Bambi?", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle"
• Sid Vicious – lead vocals on "My Way", "C'mon Everybody", "Something Else"

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio album

• Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (28 October 1977) # 1 UK, # 106 US

[edit] Compilations, live albums and other official releases

• Spunk (early recordings) (bootleg release—1977, official release—2006)
• The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (various artists album) (2 March 1979) # 7 UK
• Some Product: Carri on Sex Pistols (interviews and radio spots) (3 August 1979) # 6 UK
• Flogging a Dead Horse (compilation) (8 February 1980) # 23 UK
• Anarchy in the UK: Live at the 76 Club (live) (1985)
• Kiss This (compilation) (5 October 1992) # 10 UK
• Filthy Lucre Live (live) (29 July 1996) # 26 UK
• Jubilee (compilation) (3 June 2002) # 29 UK
• Sex Pistols Box Set (compilation) (3 June 2002) # 160 UK
• Raw and Live (live) (2004)
• Agents of Anarchy (compilation) (2008)

[edit] Singles

• from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
  • 26 November 1976 - "Anarchy in the U.K." # 38 UK
  • 27 May 1977 - "God Save the Queen" # 2 UK
  • 1 July 1977 - "Pretty Vacant" # 6 UK, # 93 US
  • 14 October 1977 - "Holidays in the Sun" # 8 UK
• from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
  • 30 June 1978 - "No One Is Innocent" # 6 UK
  • 23 February 1979 - "Something Else" # 3 UK
  • 30 March 1979 - "Silly Thing" # 6 UK
  • 22 June 1979 - "C'mon Everybody" # 3 UK
  • 5 October 1979 - "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" # 21 UK
  • 6 June 1980 - "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" # 21 UK
• from Kiss This
  • September 1992 - "Anarchy in the U.K." (reissue) # 33 UK
  • December 1992 - "Pretty Vacant" (reissue) # 56 UK
• from Filthy Lucre Live
  • June 1996 - "Pretty Vacant" (live) # 18 UK
• from Jubilee
  • 27 May 2002 - "God Save the Queen" (reissue) # 15 UK
• from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols—30th Anniversary Edition
  • 1 October 2007 - "Anarchy in the U.K." (2nd reissue) # 70 UK
  • 8 October 2007 - "God Save the Queen" (2nd reissue) # 42 UK
  • 15 October 2007 - "Pretty Vacant" (2nd reissue) # 65 UK
  • 22 October 2007 - "Holidays in the Sun" (reissue) # 74 UK

[edit] Films

• Sex Pistols Number One (Julien Temple, 1976) (short composed of footage shot at early gigs)
• The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (Julien Temple, 1979) (McLaren's version of the Pistols' story)
• The Punk Rock Movie (Don Letts, 1979) (contemporary independent documentary footage)
• D.O.A. (Lech Kowalski, 1980) (punk rock documentary with footage of the Pistols' 1978 US tour, including their final concert)
• Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986) (fictionalized account of Vicious and Spungen's relationship)
• The Filth and the Fury (Julien Temple, 2000) (the surviving Pistols' version of events)
• Blood on the Turntable: The Sex Pistols (Steve Crabtree, 2004) (BBC documentary)
• There'll Always Be An England (Julien Temple, 2008) (concert film)

[edit] Sources

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Burchill, Julie, and Tony Parsons, The Boy Looked at Johnny: The Obituary of Rock and Roll, Pluto Press, 1978. ISBN 0571129927
• Colegrave, Stephen , and Chris Sullivan, Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005. ISBN 1560257695
• Dalton, David, El Sid Saint Vicious, St. Martin's Press, 1997. ISBN 0312155204
• Marcus, Greil, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, 1989. ISBN 0571232280
• Morris, Dennis, Destroy: Sex Pistols 1977, Creation Books, 2002. ISBN 184068058X
• Nolan, David, I Swear I Was There: The Gig That Changed the World, IMP Books, 2006 [2001]. ISBN 0954970497
• Parker, Alan, Vicious: Too Fast to Live, Creation Books, 2003. ISBN 1840681101
• Walsh, Gavin, God Save the Sex Pistols: A Collector's Guide to the Priests Of Punk, Plexus, 2003. ISBN 0859653161

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sex Pistols

• The Sex Pistols Official Site
• God Save The Sex Pistols
• SEX and Seditionaries clothing designed by Vivienne Westwood & Malcolm McLaren as worn by the Sex Pistols
• John Lydon Official Site
• The Filth And The Fury
• Photographs by Bob Gruen
• Sex Pistols at Allmusic
• Sex Pistols discography at MusicBrainz
• Official Sex Pistols on PunkRockers.com
• Photographs of final British gig, Hudderfield, Christmas Day, 1977
• Sex Pistols on stage in 2008

v • d • e Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten • Steve Jones • Glen Matlock • Paul Cook Wally Nightingale • Sid Vicious Studio album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols Compilations and soundtracks Official: Spunk • The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle • Some Product: Carri on Sex Pistols • The Very Best of the Sex Pistols, and We Don't Care • Flogging a Dead Horse • Kiss This • Spunk/This Is Crap • The Filth and the Fury • Jubilee • Sex Pistols Box Set Unofficial: We Have Cum for Your Children • Greatest • Never Trust a Hippy • Pirates of Destiny • Back & There Again • Anarchy in the USA • Anarchy in the UK • Mini Album • There Is No Future • Pretty Vacant: The Best of '76 • Agents of Anarchy • Indecent Exposure • Aural Sex • No Future UK? • Silver Jubilee • The Legends Collection: The Sex Pistols Collection • Archive • Early Daze Live albums Filthy Lucre Live • Raw • Anarchy in the UK: Live at the 76 Club • Live at Winterland 1978 • Live at Chelmsford Top Security Prison • Submission • Extended Versions • Alive • The Original Pistols Live • Better Live Than Dead • Pistol Whipped Live • Singles "Anarchy in the U.K." • "God Save the Queen" • "Pretty Vacant" • "Holidays in the Sun" • "No One Is Innocent" • "Something Else" • "Silly Thing" • "C'mon Everybody" • "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" • "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" • "Who Killed Bambi" • "Revolution in the Classroom" • "Pretty Vacant (live)" • "God Save the Queen (2002 remix)" Film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle • The Filth and the Fury • Who Killed Bambi? Related articles Public Image Ltd.  • The Professionals • Vicious White Kids • Malcolm McLaren • The Rich Kids • Ex Pistols • "Filthy Lucre Tour" • D.O.A. • Ronnie Biggs • Edward Tudor-Pole