A bit late with this post, but better late than never,
the Sex Pistol's incendiary debut album and one and only LP
Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistol's was released on October 28, 1977 and captured a raw, rebellious energy, aggression and attitude that helped make it one of the most influential punk records of all time.
Formed in 1975 in soon-to-be manager Malcolm McClaren’s London clothing
store SEX, frequent customers Paul Cook (drums) and Steve Jones (guitar)
were introduced by McClaren to his shop assistant Glen Matlock (bass)
and later, another patron wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt with “I hate”
scribbled above was spotted by McClaren’s friend Bernard Rhodes. John
Lydon would change his name to Johnny Rotten and join the band on
snarling vocals and The Sex Pistols would begin its reign as England’s
most reviled and inspiring band of all time, perfectly encapsulating the
disdain of the working class for the establishment that was failing
them so miserably by the mid-70s.
Britain at this time was an economic wasteland with a decade of social unrest, of high unemployment, and
with the optimism of the Sixties long since receded, a generational
attitude shift was long overdue. Rock was crassly
reaching peak commercialism. Soaring inflation in a stagnant economy
created a disgruntled generation of working poor while simultaneously,
rock concerts had become big business, and rock stars were increasingly
seen as jet-setting, champagne-sipping aristocratic social climbers. The
music itself had taken on the superficial gloss that comes with a
refined technological mastery and a dearth of ideas. It’s easy to see
now that rock, at least in England, was on a collision course with the
youth culture that spawned it. Punk arrived as a great cleansing — the
raw vitriol spoke to the moment and the pure energy was cathartic, but
what the Sex Pistols provided was something more, a giant piss-take on
the lurching beheamoth construct of rock itself, reducing the whole
endeavor to a cynical laugh at commerce, and a de-pantsing of posturing,
preening rock stars and the moneyed powers that financed them.
Never Mind The Bollocks was born amid the bloated pomp of
progressive rock, a movement whose musicians could not have been further
removed from the original Pistols line-up Indeed the
band’s ideology hinged on being everything that supergroups like Emerson
Lake And Palmer were not.Furthermore, under the aegis of the Pistols’ infamous and influential
manager Malcolm McLaren, who had seen
the Ramones, the New York Dolls and other punk bands in New York and wanted to bring their style, attitude and music to the United Kingdom. McLaren , who was himself influenced by Situationst thinking and reasoning,
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jan-d-matthews-an-introduction-to-the-situationists at the that time, was also a Machiavellian arch-provocateur who delighted
in subversion and who wasn’t one to waste a good headline, all this
outrage was made to work to their advantage as they doubled down in
their campaign to rile up the authorities
Where the mission of bands like The Clash was to inspire revolution through
protest, it seemed that the mission of the Sex Pistols was to offend as
many of their countrymen as possible. Revolution vs. revulsion and,
while The Clash created a more lasting musical legacy and a string of
brilliant and near-brilliant but always adventurous albums, The Sex
Pistols broke through in the moment in the public imagination, in the
U.K. music press and soon after, across the pond in America where they
landed on the cover of Rolling Stone.
The Sex Pistols were a back room fabrication, even less authentic than
The Monkees. Their nihilism was contrived. The punk attitude was staged,
planned, and brilliantly marketed, hypocrisy on a grand scale, and the
hypocrisy is the point. Where The Clash earned the heartfelt loyalty of
their fanbase through the pursuit of substance and meaning, The Sex
Pistols rejected and deconstructed everything, even nihilism — which was
the true punk expression. It’s what makes the Sex Pistols the most
important punk band in history, the great catalyst that connected with
their generation and inspired a movement.
Early rehearsals in rented buildings were suitably chaotic, with the
band fumbling through old Who numbers. The group eventually found
themselves a permanent HQ in London’s Denmark Street and tightened up
their sound by recording a series of demos in ‘76, produced by Chris
Spedding.
Most of 1976 consisted of the band playing gigs throughout England and eventually getting signed by EMI later in the year. The EMI deal did not last long, however. Their first single with the label, “Anarchy in the U.K.,” caused quite a stir in England. The good citizens of the British Isles were feeling patriotic; we were about to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, marking the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne. But these little buggers came along to ruin the whole thing! Workers at the EMI plant refused to pack the band’s single. Although the Damned's `New Rose'
is hailed as the first punk single to be
released, it could be argued that the Pistols song was the one that
best epitomised this emerging subculture.The lyrics portray a
particularly sensational, violent concept of anarchy that
reflected the pervasive sense of embittered anger, confusion,
restlessness, economic frustration and social alienation which was being
felt by a generation of disenfranchised youth amidst the declining
economic situation and bland music scene of the mid-1970s.
Anarchy the UK
was a cataclysmic wall of noise
that provided the perfect foil for Rotten’s snarling vocal. It was
nailed in three takes. and articulated more in under four minutes than
most bands do over decades-long careers.
From the sneering `I am an antichrist, I am an anarchist', to the final lingering
`destroy', the track was, as Jon Savage noted, `a call to arms, delivered in language
that was as explosive as the implications of the group's name'. " The track is
immediately confrontational, and begins with a contemptuous, laughing John
Lydon -
lead vocalist - delivering a drawn-out declamation of the words `right,
now'. The tone is almost one of mocking the audience, celebrating the
emergence of punk against the stale musical environment of the time, as well as
the increasing economic and social breakdown that was gripping Britain.
As
the track continues, themes such as the Antichrist, the destroying of
passersby, the IRA and Council Estates are juxtaposed, almost laboured
so as to produce clashing half rhymes. Whilst UK, UDA and IRA are fused
together, the line `I
use the NME, I use anarchy' highlights the ambiguity of syllabic pronunciation:
the question as to Lydon actually meaning `enemy' - rather than a reference to
the established popular music press and the New Music Express - could be
asked. Moreover, the track pulls upon a notion that will become more evident in
the latter single `God Save the Queen': the idea that those listening lack a sense
of future. It could be argued that the Pistols do indeed sum up the unemployment
figures of July 1975, of the seemingly apocalyptic atmosphere of the time. `Anarchy in the UK' seems to sum up this
sense of helplessness, this supposed lack of future in 1970s Britain.
Yet this track also moves towards establishing the idea of a punk rock aesthetic.
Anarchy in the UK -Sex Pistols
Three more singles followed before
Never Mind The Bollocks eventually appeared. The cancellation of two record deals, with A&M
and then EMI, had thrown obvious delays into the works as other labels
were reluctant to pick up the most controversial band around. Flush with
cash from the massive success of
Tubular Bells,
Richard Branson’s Virgin swooped in to rescue the album project, so a
quick album that was begun in March eventually ended in August 1977. By the time
Never Mind the Bollocks… finally hit the
shelves, punk was as much a part of the mainstream as disco and AOR
rock, and the much ballyhooed desire to shake up the system was somewhat
undermined by the fact that they were now as much a part of the system
as anyone else. Of course, it was going to be a hit due to name
recognition and a marketing campaign based purely on the cheap shock
value of having a profanity in the window of your local record shop.. ‘
In early November 1977, the London Evening Standard reported how a
Virgin Records shop manager in Nottingham was arrested for displaying
the record after police warned him to cover up the word “bollocks”.
Chris Seale, the shop’s manager, may or may not have colluded with
McLaren and Branson at their behest, as, following Seale’s arrest,
Branson announced that he would cover his legal costs and hired Queen’s
Counsel John Mortimer as defence barrister.
In typically McLaren-esque fashion, the resulting media furore was a
publicity masterstroke, keeping the album in the public consciousness
for months as Mortimer produced expert witnesses who were able to
successfully demonstrate that the word “bollocks” was not obscene, and
was actually a legitimate archaic English term referring to a priest,
and which only meant “nonsense” in the context of the album’s title.
By the time of its release, a full 11 months after the release of their
debut single the Sex Pistols were already
extremely controversial. They had caused outrage in suburban Middle
England after appearing as late replacements for EMI labelmates
Queen on Today, a live London regional TV show. When presenter Bill Grundy, contemptuously encouraged them to swear, they duly obliged, damaging his career while catapulting themselves to notoriety, and sparking a moral panic.causing the Daily Mirror the next day to run with the headline ‘
The Filth and the fury’ A&M would then sign the band, only to drop them after only six days. Turning up drunk , then trashing A&M' offices probably helped to further fuel their anti-establishment image although such notoriety did little to harm the record's sales in the UK...
The subsequent national newspaper headlines and ensuing moral panic led venues, under pressure from councils, to cancel gigs by the Sex Pistols, fearing violence, vandalism and who knows what else, It would see a rise in extreme hairdos, an increased rejection of social and consensus acceptability, that was condemned by the press at the times. But to be vilified for your stance at the time was a badge of honour, not a condemnation.
Oddly, for a band so frequently credited with lighting the fuse for
punk, the Sex Pistols were one of the very last of the first-wave punk
acts to release a debut album.While no one would ever dare question Sex Pistols’ cultural impact, such
was Malcolm Mclaren’s obsession with publicity stunts, that by the time
Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols was finally released in
late October ’77, they had very nearly missed the bus. Both The Damned
and The Clash had beaten them to the punch when it came to album
releases, and even Buzzcocks – a band only formed after they had seen
the Sex Pistols perform – had managed to release their iconic Spiral
Scratch EP.
Graphic designer Jamie Reid was responsible for iconic cut-and-paste,
collage style that was used on every Sex Pistols release, not just Never Mind The Bollocks
Reid’s contribution to punk visual aesthetics is every bit as important
as the likes of Vivienne Westwood. He tapped into the sense of
underground danger that the band threatened, producing a garish yellow
sleeve with red that captured that sense of samizdat self-production,
that the listener was holding something that wasn’t officially
sanctioned.
Literally, Britain’s establishment and self-appointed moral guardians
considered the Sex Pistols to be too dangerous for consumption, poised
to undermine the nation’s youth with their debauchery and a threat to
public decency and order – or, they were the saviours of music,
depending on who you asked.
Like Elvis before them and the explosion of acid house and rave a
decade later, all the efforts of formal censorship only drove punk
underground and made it more appealing to the nation’s bored, alienated
youth.
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is now
considered a highly influential
'rock classic'; lyrically and musically
it was a violent assault on contemporary British foibles and frailties.
Lead singer
Johnny Rotten's slurred, angry vocals scream about corporate control, intellectual vacuity and political hypocrisy, whilst
Steve Jones's '
multi-layered guitar tracks created a much emulated
'wall of noise'
foil to this sneering contempt (Producer Chris Thomas who had worked with the likes of Pink Floyd, took a different
approach from earlier punk records, achieving a very clear sound layered
with multiple guitar overdubs).
Some have however argued that the album is over-produced, and that the
Pistols had lost their initial spark of energy and exuberance by the
time it was recorded. The band's previous singles, such as "
Anarchy the UK.", were re-recorded for the album, and many fans believe they lack the energy of the originals, but articulated more in under four minutes than most bands do over decades-long careers. .
Yet opening with the sound of jackboots marching, like a tuning fork chiming the notes of dystopia for Never Mind The Bollocks… perfectly,"Holidays; in the Sun"
is completely iconic but only the fourth most famous moment on an
extraordinary record. Inspired by a trip to Berlin, Johnny Rotten said
of the inspiration: “Being in London at the time made us feel like we
were trapped in a prison camp environment. There was hatred and constant
threat of violence. The best thing we could do was to go set up in a
prison camp somewhere else. Berlin and its decadence was a good idea…
The communists looked in on the circus atmosphere of West Berlin, which
never went to sleep, and that would be their impression of the West.”
At the same time that David Bowie was using the Berlin Wall as the basis for a sprawling, epic of hope for humanity with "
Heroes"
the Pistols were using it as a metaphor for how fucked the world was.
Rotten’s opening lyric is a reference to a piece of graffiti that
appeared during the famous Situationist riots in Paris in 1968 –
“a cheap holiday in other people’s misery” – set to a powerful riff cheekily nicked from The Jam’s own 1977 debut single
‘In The City’.
Holiday in the Sun - Sex Pistols
After the controversy of two blistering and scabrous punk singles, it was appropriate that Pretty
Vacant’ , probably the most musically adept moment on Never Mind The Bollocks… was
the track that finally put the Sex Pistols on ‘Top of the Pops’ and
into the nation’s living rooms as a musical unit, rather than pantomime
hate figures. To many, it’s an ironic middle finger at their parents’
generation for dismissing their kids as lacking moral fibre – as every
generation seems to do to the next.
Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols
Of course,
Never Mind The Bollocks is home to by far the most well-known punk song in history.
God Save The Queen’
was the first Pistols track to be recorded with bassist Sid Vicious,
and the track seems to benefit from his untutored, attack-minded
approach as opposed to the more subtle dynamics from the ousted Glen
Matlock, fired in February 1977 because he apparently ‘
liked The
Beatles’. Released in late May to coincide with the '
mad parade' of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, the Sex Pistols were seen to embody a thriving awakening politically charged youth culture.Queen’s Silver
Jubilee, the Pistols crashed the establishment’s street party with the
perfect pop-culture subversion, playing on a barge sailing up the River
Thames on Coronation Day (June 7
th) in an attempt to escape a local ban through a loophole by performing on water, before they were arrested.
God Save The Queen’ became an alternative national anthem, hitting
the top of the NME’s single chart but only at no.2 in the official
singles chart used by the BBC (behind Rod Stewart’s ‘I Don’t Want To
Talk About It’) in what many decried as an industry conspiracy after
many shops refused to stock the single, and radio airplay all but
banned. In 2021 four decades after Lydon’s bellowing call to apathy “There’s no future / in England’s dreaming”,
the song’s urgency and sentiment now echoes louder than ever for those
of us terrified by the insanity of Brexit, and of neo-liberalism’s
general race to the bottom.
God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols
The unbelievably ferocious "Bodies "
uses a graphic theme of abortion, making it the most straight-up
controversial track in the Sex Pistols’ canon alongside the seriously
fucked-up ‘Belsen Was A Gas’. With its breakneck pace, Paul Cook’s
thudding, brutal drums and Steve Jones’ buzzsawing guitars, it informed a
great deal of hardcore and trash metal in the years afterwards.
Bodies - Sex Pistols
Given the album’s legendary status, a total newcomer to it might be
surprised by how uneven it is in places, but the entire album was a screeching, hissing, spitting absolutely primal
rebuttal to shitty circumstances and served as the raised fist of the
downtrodden and the marginalised. It raised thousands if not millions of
British youths on safety pins and shredded clothes and, despite their
government’s desperate attempts to prevent it from ever happening,
showed that regular people could stand up and challenge authority.
The BBC refused to acknowledge it, let alone even play it. This didn’t
stop it from rocketing up the charts as a disenfranchised generation of
youths latched onto the unquestionable ‘fuck you’ the Sex Pistols had
spat at the feet of the monarchy. When it only reached number two there
were claims of it being rigged to prevent such a shocking song climbing
all the way to number one.
The disintegration of the Sex Pistols came quickly and messily, as now
seems so preordained for such a white-hot and chaotic band. An American
tour of the Deep South in January 1978 was marred by infighting, drug
addictions and hostile band-audience situations, and on the 14
th
of that month they played what would be their final gig at San
Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, with a deeply disillusioned Rotten
uttering the immortal phrase “
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
as the last chords of their encore number, their well-known cover of
The Stooges’ ‘No Fun’, came to a lacklustre end. Within three months of
Never Mind the Bollocks release Lydon would
declare his discontentment with Sex Pistols and the band would split,
only for Mclaren to start his barrel-scraping exercise a few short
months later, as there was more cash to be milked from the now dead cash
cow.
Lydon of course would go on to form the successful Public Image Ltd and enjoy a solo
career, but in recent years has become an ever more erratic character,
with his contradictory statements on where he stands politically and
occasionally popping up in ill-judged adverts. Cook, Jones and Matlock
have each gone on to great things in their career, forming bands,
becoming celebrated sidemen and making guest appearances alongside acts
as diverse as Edwyn Collins, The Faces, Iggy Pop and Siouxsie and The
Banshees. Vicious would of course die young, thus cementing his place as
the most iconic member of Sex Pistols alongside Lydon, and becoming
punk’s ever young martyr.
The Sex Pistols have since reunited for a tour and live album in 1996, making no secret that the effort was a money-grab. They have since performed occassionally together in Europe.The Sex Pistols are no strangers to being headline news
but after a ruling in August they have been brought back into the
limelight, this time not for their outrageous antics, but over licencing
rights to their music.
A new TV drama Pistol is set to hit our screens next year which
will detail the life and music of The Sex Pistols. But this TV
Drama caused the former band members to take their argument to
the High Court. Lydon, had been sued by drummer Paul Cook and guitarist
Steve Jones after Lydon prevented the use of Pistols songs in the
series Pistol. Lydon lost the case, with a judge ruling that Jones and
Cook were allowed to overrule him using a majority rule created in the
terms of a band agreement.
Lydon
had claimed he wasn’t aware of the extent of the agreement, but judge
Sir Anthony Mann said: “I reject the suggestion made by him that he did
not really know or appreciate its effect. That piece of evidence was a
convenient contrivance. It is highly likely that, even if he did not
read it himself, it will have been explained to him and he will have
understood its effects.
Pistol is based on Steve Jones’s memoir Lonely
Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol. Jones
and Cook had said in a joint statement immediately following the ruling
in their favour: “We welcome the courts ruling in this case. It brings
clarity to our decision making and upholds the band members’ agreement
on collective decision making. It has not been a pleasant experience,
but we believe it was necessary to allow us to move forward and
hopefully work together in the future with better relations.”
History can be shortsighted: the Sex Pistols, a band so beloved for
their music, their live show, and their ideology, is eclipsed by their
mythology. and the histrionics notwithstanding, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
wound up being one of the most important records in rock history. If
you remove the chaos, the anarchy and the style over substance, you have
an incredible political statement about England in the late seventies.
It is a giant middle finger to the establishment and a rallying cry to
just go completely ape shit. It’s a shame the message got lost in the
antics of a band who really did not give a fuck. In my eyes, that’s what
being punk is really about.
The music industry was so threatened by these guys that they thought
they had no choice but to deride their messages as mere juvenile ranting, the bark
and howl of an underclass that is not worth a nickel. They didn’t mind
making money off of it but they sure as shit weren’t going to hold it up
and say, “This is a flawless work.” Which many argue it is.
In the years since it was released music has exploded.
Rage has become an economic juggernaut. Volume has increased, censorship
both implied and explicit has ebbed, and no one is shocked when they
encounter uncomfortable topics presented with all the unpleasant details
right out front.
But when The Sex Pistols hit the scene, this was far from the case.
They were unseemly. They were unruly. They had unabashed scorn for
anything that smacked of the establishment. They hated hippies as much
as businessmen. The baby boomers who thought their softly strummed odes
to fucking while stoned were going to change the world were the biggest
resisters to the noise and clamor of these hooligans.
The Sex Pistols defined a generation and captured a feeling within
the nation that simply no one else could of. The band created a truly
distinctive sound and ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’
impact and influence still strongly resonates with musicians, artists
and people to this day. Upon its original release in 1977, it may have been the notoriety
surrounding the Sex Pistols that propelled the album to #1 in the UK.
Over forty years later, however, it’s the attitude and intelligence of
the songwriting that resonates and retain a pertinence and a spite that allow us to remember just why punk resonated so widely and deeply.
The Pistol's were not the first punk band but they were the first punk band to fully capture public interest, their legacy was not musical. It was socio-political,
creating a wave in fashion, in attitude, and in the relationship of the
youth to its leaders. And the mission of punk as a movement in England,
ignited by The Pistols — to cleanse rock and roll of its charlatans and
false idols, and to rewrite its ethos ,was deep and lasting, and
ultimately effective.
Alongside band,like the Clash, the Ramones, the Stranglers, the Buzzcocks, X Ray Spex and the anarcho punk movement that would emerged epitomised by bands like the seminal Crass, who formed in November 1977, the Mob, Zounds and the Subhumans among many others, the Pistols helped create and shape punk rock, an aesthetic and political revolution that has since swept the world with a steady stream of punk inspired acts, some with bold new approaches, have managed to keep the smouldering scene.burning despite the music press and others pronouncing its proverbial fifteen minutes offically over.
Punk in all of its forms has always given voice to the alienated. It is a
wrench tossed into the works of a mechanized consumer society. Punk has
given us music to thrash to and iconoclastic poetry to feed our
rebellious spirit. Whether simmering under the surface of polite society
or exploding in our faces, the punk ethos is eternal, and during that
foul season in the U.K. of economic downturn and social upheaval the
album that broke open the earth was Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. And it's influence didn't end with punk, The album was also embraced by many members of the metal community and had an undeniable impact on the genre.
Punk's far from dead, neither is the true spirit of anarchy, more than a
fashion statement to be commodified and sold, and hijacked by the
mainstream, it's early instigators being accused of selling out, it's
influence on arts and culture is undeniable.
And despite Rotten's recent descent into vacuousness we can at least
still enjoy Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols and can still play our part in acts of cultural
subversion, changing the world through art and ideas, that are no less
needed than in the present times we live.
With a ramshackle corrupt Government, increasing intolerance, and a seeming acceptance of ever more authoritarian inclined politicians who keep lying to us, with the Tories treating benefit cuts like a joke, creating poverty, alienation and division,as we drift towards a draconian police state, with problems like imminent climate disaster escalating on a daily basis, that some people just continue to willfully ignore, it seems we are still sleeping and dreaming, and jeopardising our future. Never mind the Bollocks, remember that anger is an energy, that will never die.
Problems - Sex Pistols
