Sex Pistols

On 28th October 1977 the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was released. This was the Sex Pistols debut (and only) album and people agree that it defined 1977 as the year of punk rock. The term "punk rock" had first been used by an American music critic in 1970, and by 1977 it had become one of the most popular forms of music.

Johnny Rotten said around this time, "All we are trying to do is to destroy everything."

The Sex Pistols were a typical punk band a singer, a guitarist, a bass player and a drummer. They had little of the musical ability of their predecessors Led Zeppelin or The Who. Their songs often had just three different chords, and the bass player Sid Vicious could hardly play his instrument at all. But their music conformed to the most important principles of punk rock: it was loud and it was energetic.

The Sex Pistols were not just famous for their music. They were well known all over the country for their rock and roll lifestyle of alcohol and drugs. Just before Christmas in 1976, they appeared on a live national television programme in England drunk and using profane language. Their concerts also became infamous as the singer Johnny Rotten often abused the crowd, and they were often asked to leave the stage after the crowd became violent. Johnny Rotten said around this time, "All we are trying to do is to destroy everything."

The British establishment hated the Sex Pistols. Parents, schoolmasters, members of the church and MPs were all shocked by this new form of music that was the most visible part of the punk subculture. One of the most popular English newspapers, The Mirror, called the band "filthy", and one conservative Member of Parliament said that they showed "how society is declining".

Since 1975, the Sex Pistols had been managed by Malcolm McLaren. He was a well-known publicist who had previously managed the band the New York Dolls. Many people think he was responsible for the success of the Sex Pistols. 1977 was a key year. It was Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. As celebrations took place around Britain, the Sex Pistols released their most famous single, God Save the Queen. The title was ironic and it included the lyrics, "God Save the Queen, and her fascist regime". Most of Britain in the 1970s was still very proud of the royal family, and the song was seen by the establishment as an attack on British nationalism and in particular the British monarchy.

The cover for the single God Save the Queen had a large picture of Queen Elizabeth's face with the words the Sex Pistols. The song was immediately banned by the BBC, who at the time dominated radio broadcasting. However, because of this, the song sold very well in shops across the country. And the same week that Elizabeth celebrated her Silver Jubilee in London, God Save the Queen reached number one in many unofficial charts. However, when the national charts were released by the BBC, it showed that the song had only reached number two and they refused to play it. Many people think that the BBC rigged the charts to save the Queen some embarrassment.

The summer of 1977 in England was dominated by punk. All the newspapers were talking about this new cultural phenomenon. More and more people were getting interested in this new subculture. Punks had extreme political views, and they were anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist and anti-nationalist. Some were also environmentalist, vegetarian, and anarchist. Punks often had a distinctive style of dress. Their hair was dyed bright colours, they wore ripped jeans and T-shirts, and they used everyday things such as bin liners, safety pins and razor blades for jewellery and clothing. Violent attacks started in the summer of 1977 against anyone connected with the punk movement. The Sex Pistols' singer Johnny Rotten was attacked in June with a knife.

By this time, Sid Vicious had joined the Sex Pistols as the bass player. He is considered by many to be the king of the punk movement and is remembered for his tragic relationship with Nancy Spungen. Despite the fact that Vicious didn't know how to play his instrument, he became part of the band's most famous line up, with Steve Jones playing the guitar and Paul Cook the drums.

It was this formation of the Sex Pistols that recorded the band’s only studio album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The album release created excitement all over England and in the United States too. The use of the swear word in the title of the song was typical of the Sex Pistol’s ability to shock the public and annoy the establishment. Almost immediately the album was banned by many shops but that didn’t stop its success. The album reached number one in the British album charts but had no success outside of the UK.

However thirty years after its release, the reputation of the Sex Pistol's only studio album is very high. Magazine said that it is the"30th Greatest Album of All Time", and in 1987 Rolling Stone magazine said that culturally the only album that was more important was The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After the death of Sid Vicious (of a heroin overdose) in 1978 The Sex Pistols started to gain more popularity in the United States, and they became an inspiration to a new age of bands such as Nirvana and Green Day. In general, most critics and musicians consider Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols to have been, perhaps, the central formative influence on Punk Rock music.