Actually, we're not into music, we're into chaos

The Sex Pistols circa 1977

“The popularity of punk rock was, in effect, due to the fact that it made ugliness beautiful”

Malcolm McLaren

London was a very dreary place to be in the early 1970’s. High unemployment coupled with a growing landscape of derelict buildings and factories plus rising social tensions created an atmosphere of fear, anger and hopelessness in the local population.  The British Invasion of the 1960’s was over and the world waited for the next big thing.

In 1972, a trio of London working class teenagers formed a band called “The Strand” with Steve Jones on vocals, Paul Cook on drums and Wally Nightingale on guitar. According to legend, both Jones and Cook played on instruments they had stolen from live performances. Once the show had ended, they simply walked up on stage and carried off as much equipment as they could manage. Somehow, everyone assumed they were part of the crew and never gave a second thought to the brazen robbery of their musical kit.

 When not rehearsing at Wally Nightingale’s parents’ house, the band members hung out in several trendy clothing shops on King’s Road in the Chelsea section of London. One shop in particular, called “Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die” was owned by local entrepreneur Malcom McLaren. In 1974, McLaren renamed his shop “SEX” and focused on selling fetish-wear and hired a young assistant by the name of Glen Matlock. It was around this time that Steve Jones persuaded McLaren to assist The Strand with booking gigs, which effectively made him the manager of the struggling group. McLaren then left for New York for several months where he informally managed and promoted the band, “New York Dolls” and took notice of a rising new music scene, in particular a young musician who called himself Richard Hell who sported never before seen spikey hair and ripped clothing held together with safety pins. McLaren fell in love with this new look and decided to create a line of clothing based on this look that he would feature in his shop.

McLaren returned to London in May of 1975 filled with inspiration and new ideas from his exposure to the proto-punk scene in New York City. He suddenly had a vision for this young band of his.  Always the entrepreneur, McLaren had plans to not only promote this new band, but also the new line of “punk” clothing that he started to sell. One of the first things he did was to insist that Wally Nightingale be replaced by his assistant, Glen Matlock. With this, the name of the band was changed from “The Strand” to “QT Jones and the Sex Pistols”. One thing the band needed at this time was a vocalist. Steve Jones had been doing double duty as guitarist and vocalist, but a lead vocalist was a must.  McLaren tried desperately to convince Richard Hell to take the job, but was turned down every time.

In August 1975 a friend of McLaren’s, Bernard Rhodes, spotted a thin 19 year old kid on Kings Road wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt with the words “I Hate” scribbled right above the band’s name.  Rhodes convinced this young man, named John Lydon, to come to a nearby pub that evening to meet with McLaren, Jones and Cook. Upon seeing Lydon for the first time, Jones was to say “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 arsehole, but smart.”

Later that evening when the pub closed, the group relocated back to “SEX” where Lydon was convinced to sing along to Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen”, which reduced everyone in the room to laughter.  As the new band began to rehearse together, Lydon was renamed “Johnny Rotten” by Jones most likely due to his poor dental hygiene. The name of the band was also changed from “QT Jones and the Sex Pistols” to the shortened “Sex Pistols”.

The newly named group played its first gig on November 6^th, 1975 at Saint Martins College where Matlock was a student. The quartet played in support of a pub rock group called “Bazooka Joe” who allowed the Pistols to use their amps and drum kit. The Sex Pistols played a number of cover songs, The Who’s “Substitute”, The Monkees “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” and others, but before they could perform any original material, Bazooka Joe pulled the plug on the set due to the fact their equipment was getting trashed rather quickly. A fistfight soon erupted on stage between both bands and the night came to a screeching halt. This less-than-stellar beginning was soon to be repeated, minus the fisticuffs, at a number of other colleges and art schools across London for the next year. It was during this time that the Sex Pistols were building a following of dedicated fans. This core group included Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Severin and Billy Idol who would soon form their own bands that would make up the early foundations of the English punk scene.

On February 12, 1976 the Sex Pistols played with Eddie and the Hot Rods, a well-known leading pub band at the Marquee club. During the Pistol’s set, Johnny Rotten did his best to really blur the barriers of performance vs thuggery by throwing chairs, smashing equipment (not their own) and walking off stage at random times. It was during this gig that the band got their first review and a brief interview in which Steve Jones was quoted as saying “Actually, we’re not into music, we’re into chaos!”

Soon after this, the Pistols began to play other clubs in the London area, including one gig at the Nashville in support of a band known as The 101ers. The band’s leading front man, Joe Strummer of later Clash fame, recognized that this new style of music, punk rock, was the future.  One gig at the same club on April 23^rd, 1976 was the scene of a fight between Johnny Rotten and an audience member which resulted in the band being banned from both the Nashville and the Marquee club. Despite this, the Pistols continued to tour small cities and towns in the north of England and record material while in London.  Then on June 4^th, the Pistols played their first gig in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. What made this particular show significant was not the actual performance itself, but who was in the audience. Much has been written on that first historic punk concert at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. Those in attendance were mesmerized by the four spotty youths in torn clothing, playing raw, loud rock with snarling lyrics. This was something completely new and those in Manchester who saw the Pistols that night were forever changed by the experience. Those in the audience that night would go on to form Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Fall, Simply Red and Buzzcocks along with the founder of Factory Records, Mr. Tony Wilson who also owned The Hacienda nightclub that would serve as the birth canal for the rave movement and electronic music. An incredible music lineage began that night all thanks to a quartet of surly young men from London.

In early July, two newly formed London punk bands, The Damned and The Clash made their debut by opening for the Sex Pistols in local clubs.  On July 20^th, the Pistols performed their new song which would soon become a hit. “Anarchy in the U.K.” became a nihilistic anthem that captured the spirit of the quickly growing punk scene in England. The Pistols were soon getting the attention of the British press which served as free publicity for the band. On October 8^th, 1976 the band signed on with record label EMI for a two year contract and set about working on a studio record to include the hit, “Anarchy in the UK”.

On December 1^st, 1976 the band and their followers created a shitstorm of controversy during a live broadcast of Thames Television’s Today program when host Bill Grundy was called “a dirty fucker” and “a dirty bastard” on air by Steve Jones. In addition, Johnny Rotten was heard to use the word “shit”. Although the program was broadcast only in the London area, the resulting firestorm kept the British tabloids busy for almost a week. For is part in the controversy, Bill Grundy was suspended although was later reinstated.

This entire episode skyrocket the Pistols to instant fame throughout the UK and brought punk rock into everyday awareness. However there was also a fair amount of backlash against the Pistols which became apparent during their Anarchy in the UK tour with The Clash and The Heartbreakers (on loan from the New York punk scene). Out of twenty scheduled gigs only seven ever took place. London chairman of the Arts committee and conservative member of the Greater London Council, Bernard Brook-Partridge had this to say about the Sex Pistols and the new punk movement “Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups I suppose are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating. They are 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.”

On January 4^th, 1977 the band, hung over from the night before, boarded a plane at Heathrow Airport for three concerts to be held in Holland. Several hours later, the Evening News was reporting that the group had “vomited and spat their way” on to the plane. Citing this incident and mounting political pressure, EMI released the Pistols from their two year contract.

Later in February 1977, Glen Matlock left the band, allegedly because the other members threw him out over his affections for the Beatles, but Matlock insists it was a “mutual agreement”.  Matlock was replaced by Rotten’s friend John Beverley, also known as “Sid Vicious”, who had played drums with Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Flowers of Romance. Known for his violent outbursts including an ugly incident in which a thrown glass resulted in a girl being blinded in one eye at a Damned gig, Vicious brought a new level of menace and unpredictability to the group. Added to this was his emotionally disturbed drug addicted girlfriend, Nancy Spungen whom he had met in New York.

On March 10^th, 1977, the Sex Pistols signed on with A&M records in a press ceremony outside Buckingham Palace as a way to promote their new single “God Save The Queen”. Exactly six days later they were hastily released from this contract after one of Johnny Rotten’s friends threatened to kill a good friend of A&M’s director. In May that year, the band signed with Virgin Records and the new single “God Save The Queen” was finally released. The inflammatory lyrics coupled with the image of Queen Elizabeth with her features obscured by the song and band name caused the single to be banned by not only the BBC, but also every independent radio station in the UK. In short, according to Rotten, “God Save The Queen” became the most heavily censored album in British history.  Ironically, the single went on to sell more than 150,000 copies, a stunning success and a first for a punk band.

During the summer of 1977, Rotten, Jones and Cook were busy at work in the studio for the band’s debut album. Vicious was intentionally left out of these sessions due to the fact that he simply couldn't play bass guitar very well, if at all. Legend has it that former bass guitar player Glen Matlock was hired on to record with the band, but this has been discounted by recent music historians. This new album, entitled “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols was released on October 28^th, 1977. It became an instant hit and even Rolling Stone praised the album as “just about the most exciting rock & roll record of the Seventies”. In December 1977, the Pistols set out on their UK tour to support the new album. Out of eight scheduled dates, four had to be cancelled due to illness and political pressure. On Christmas day, 1977 the band played a special benefit matinee concert for the children of striking firemen, single-parent families and laid-off workers. These four concerts would be the last time the band played in the UK.  

In January 1978, the Pistols embarked on a US tour, mainly in the Deep South. Right from the beginning there were numerous problems including trouble with entry visas due to the various criminal records of the band members which caused the cancellation of several dates in the North. Vicious was heavily addicted to heroin at this point and his onstage behavior deteriorated rapidly to the point where he would verbally and physically assault audience members. Johnny Rotten, meanwhile, was suffering from the flu and felt increasingly isolated from the rest of the band. McClaren had stopped speaking to him and blamed Rotten directly for the tension in the band. Vicious was virtually uncontrollable and out of his head with heroin much of time, so the end was not far off. The final performance happened at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on January 14^th, 1978. During the band’s single encore, Rotten spoke to the audience directly “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night” with that, he dropped the mic on the stage and walked off. On January 17^th, the band officially split up and made their ways separately to Los Angeles.  Jones, Cook and McClaren took off to Rio for a working vacation, Vicious, who was deteriorating quickly, was brought to New York by a friend and was immediately hospitalized. Rotten was forced to call Richard Branson, head of Virgin Records who agreed to pay for his plane ticket back to London. The Sex Pistols, as they were in 1978, never performed together again. 

Later in 1978, Johnny Rotten changed his name back to Lydon and formed Public Image Limited, which scored a UK Top Ten hit with their single “Public Image”. Lydon still performs with P.I.L. today. Sid Vicious relocated to New York and started performing as a solo artist with Nancy Spungen as his manager. On October 12^th, 1978, Spungen was found stabbed to death in their room at the Hotel Chelsea, where she was staying with Sid. Vicious was arrested and charged with her murder. While free on bail, Vicious attacked Todd Smith, (Patti Smith’s brother) and was sent to Rikers Island for 55 days where he underwent forced detox.  On February 1, 1979 he attended a small party to celebrate his release where overdosed on heroin and died. He was twenty one years old. Steve Jones and Paul Cook continued to have success music careers and would work together on a number of projects.  In 1996, the four original members of the Sex Pistols, Jones, Cook, Lydon and Matlock reunited for a six month world-wide tour. Today, the band still performs together on occasion, but the shows are more in line for a group in their mid-fifties than their former selves. However, the influence the Sex Pistols had on the music world and pop culture in general is still being felt today. Hundreds of bands that have formed since 1977 cite the Pistols as their inspiration.

The Trouser Press Record Guide had this to say about the legacy of the Sex Pistols: "The Pistols and manager/provocateur Malcolm McLaren challenged every aspect and precept of modern music-making, thereby inspiring countless groups to follow in their cue onto stages around the world. A confrontational, nihilistic public image and rabidly nihilistic sociopolitical lyrics set the tone that continues to guide punk bands."

I remember the first time I heard the Sex Pistols; I was 14 and had somehow convinced my mother to buy me their LP, "Never Mind The Bollocks", at our local record store, Dyno Records, in my hometown. I think the vinyl album was something like $6 as this was 1982. Taking it home, I flicked on my cheap stereo turntable, carefully placed the needle on the first track of Side A and waited. Amid the hiss and crackle came the unmistakable sound of marching feet followed by a matching drum beat and then the buzz-saw roar of the guitar intro to "Holidays In The Sun". This was something totally new. It was a far cry from the "safe" Rolling Stones and Beatles albums that I had in my meager collection at that point. This new music was both terrifying and intoxicating and I couldn't get enough of it. The sound sunk it's talons into my youthful chest at that moment and it has never let go. Now, 32 years later, those talons are still there and I still love it.