Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols are one of the most famous English punk bands of the second half of the 1970s. The members of the band are John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, whom Sid Vicious replaced in 1977 and 1978. Other important people around the Sex Pistols were their manager Malcolm McLaren, who claimed to have created the band and made them famous, designer Vivienne Westwood, director Julien Temple, who made three films about them, and graphic designer Jamie Reid.
History
Prehistory (1973-1975)
The band's origins date back to 1973, when college friends Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Warwick Nightingale decided to form a band with stolen equipment. Glen Matlock joined as a permanent bassist in June 1974, and the as-yet-unnamed group made its first appearance with this line-up at a party in early 1975.
In June 1975, guitarist Nightingale, who had written the band's first original song Did You No Wrong, was kicked out of the band, Steve Jones switched from vocals to guitar, and a new singer was found in John Lydon in late August 1975.
Sex Pistols (1975-1977)
The band spent the autumn rehearsing intensively and performed for the first time under the new name Sex Pistols on November 5, 1975. Most of the songwriting was done by Glen Matlock, while Steve Jones' job was to compress Matlock's ideas into the most concise and aggressive arrangements possible. John Lydon took over writing lyrics (except for the song Pretty Vacant, which came entirely from Glen Matlock).
After their performance at the "100 Club Punk Festival" (September 1976) they got a contract with the record company EMI. Their first single, Anarchy in the U.K., was released in November 1976. After a provocative television appearance on ITV, EMI withdrew the single and terminated the band's contract on 6 January 1977. Due to constant squabbles with John Lydon, Glen Matlock left the group in February 1977 and was replaced by Sid Vicious, who had the right image but only rudimentary skills as a bass player. Consequently, the bass parts were played in the studio by guitarist Steve Jones.
The second single, God Save the Queen, was first supposed to be released on A&M, where the band had been signed since March 10. The single was scrapped before it was released, and the label terminated that contract as well. Rich in severance pay but with no record releases available, the band eventually signed with what should have been the hated hippie label Virgin, where God Save the Queen was released on May 27, 1977, in time for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. The single reportedly hit number 1 in the UK charts, but was only listed at number 2 on official lists, allegedly due to royalist loyalties of those responsible. The single also gained a lot of attention when, for the Queen's birthday in 1977, the band hired a boat (which was named "Queen Elizabeth", of all things) on which they gave a concert at full volume in the middle of the Thames in front of journalists and invited guests. The boat was broken up by the water police and most of the passengers arrested, but the band itself managed to escape. The publicity took its revenge in the following weeks, however, when members of the band were attacked by Royalists.
To escape the heated atmosphere in England, the Sex Pistols went on a short Scandinavian tour. An England tour followed, but under the pseudonym SPOTS (Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly) to avoid performance bans. In November 1977 the only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was released. A lawsuit alleging obscenity of the title was dismissed.
In the British society of the 1970s, the memory of the Second World War was still very present. For this reason, the Sex Pistols - like other punk bands - also resorted to Nazi symbolism in their attempt to provoke, for example by wearing swastikas. Although it is clear today that the band did not adhere to Nazi ideology at any time, these irritations continue to have an effect today; for example, in 2007 the Bell Canada company withdrew an advertising campaign that featured a pin with the title of the Sex Pistols' song Belsen Was a Gas.
After a few concerts in the Netherlands - the start of a planned multinational tour - the band set off on a Never Mind the Bans tour of the UK 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 the regular evening concert, the band staged a benefit matinee for the children of "local firefighters, redundant workers and single parent families". They played 6 songs and left out the naughty words because of the children. These were the band's last UK performances for over 18 years.
Dissolution (1978)
In early 1978, the Sex Pistols went on tour in the USA, at the end of which Johnny Rotten left the band after a falling out with manager Malcolm McLaren. Subsequently, the rest of the band held together for a short time before finally breaking up.
After the Sex Pistols
Rotten, who went back to calling himself Lydon, formed Public Image Ltd. (1978-1992), Jones and Cook formed the band The Professionals (1979-1982). Before that they had tried to play together with Jimmy Pursey, the singer of Sham 69, in a band called Sham Pistols, which failed very soon.
Malcolm McLaren adapted the band's story into the partly fictional, partly autobiographical mockumentary film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. He was successfully sued by the surviving band members in the 1980s. He later used the beginnings of rap and hip-hop to launch a solo career.
Glen Matlock formed the Rich Kids (1977-1979), and Sid Vicious aimed for a solo career and became part of the New York heroin scene. He even achieved chart success with his version of the Frank Sinatra song My Way. However, in late 1978 he was charged in New York with murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, but died of a heroin overdose before the hearings on February 2, 1979.
On 25 December 1979, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, along with Billy Idol (vocals) and Martin Glover (bass), played four songs live (Slippin And Slidin/Roadrunner/No Fun/Bodies) as
part of a Christmas party at London's Studio 21, with promoter Jock McDonald announcing them as Sex Pistols. In 1986 McDonald released a Bollock Brothers studio album 77-78-79, which he falsely claimed was a recording of this final "Sex Pistols" performance.
Reunion (since 1996)
On 16 March 1996, the four original members of the Sex Pistols held a press conference in London and announced their intention to perform together again. A world tour followed (72 concerts between July and December 1996), after which the band split up again.
On 27 July 2002, the Sex Pistols gave a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Queen's throne, followed by a festival appearance in California on 14 September 2002.
In August and September 2003 they gave eleven concerts in the USA and Canada.
On March 13, 2006, they were officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame against their will. The band strictly refused to participate in the ceremony.
In June 2007, John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook went into The Boat Recording Studio in Los Angeles with producer Chris Thomas and recorded new studio versions of the songs "Anarchy in the U.K." and Pretty Vacant for the video game Guitar Hero III.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album Never Mind The Bollocks, the Sex Pistols performed eight shows in Los Angeles and the UK in October and November 2007. One of the concerts was filmed by director Julien Temple and released as a DVD under the title Sex Pistols - There'll Always Be An England.
In an interview with journalist Clive Prior (MOJO magazine, January 2008), John Lydon and Steve Jones no longer ruled out the possibility of a new studio album. Steve Jones: "I personally would like to record some new songs. I've been pushing for it for years. I think it could be soon." John Lydon: "I used to say that I would never record any more material with this band. But if things keep going this well and we keep getting along, I wouldn't say no again, because it's really exciting." Paul Cook expressed to WENN.com on January 16, 2008, "We might not get a whole album together yet, but hopefully there'll be some new stuff in time for the summer." John Lydon reaffirmed the possibility of a new studio album to the press on June 16, 2008.
In the summer of 2008, the Sex Pistols completed a world tour of 31 concerts.
Cast
Sex Pistols live 2007
Appreciation
The Sex Pistols are considered one of the essential bands of English punk. However, the band itself rejected the label "punk" for itself. Simple chords, straight bass lines, fast, hard drumming, as still found as a musical form in today's punk bands, were rather developed by other bands like the Ramones or the Buzzcocks from Manchester. In addition to the music, the provocative lyrics and shocking appearance of the Sex Pistols in particular contributed to punk becoming the defining music and cultural movement of the late 1970s, and they themselves became its icon.
Rolling Stone listed the Pistols as number 60 on the list of the 100 greatest musicians of all time.
