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“Ah-ha-ha. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Good night.”
Sex Pistols fans will finally be able to judge for themselves with the release for the first time of three full live albums from the band’s legendary 1978 US tour.
Sex Pistols singer and lyricist Johnny Rotten signed off with the immortal words on stage at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on 14th January 1978 - the band’s final show until they reformed in 1996.
This year will see the San Francisco show and performances in Atlanta (South East Music, 5th January 1978) and Dallas (Longhorns Ballroom, 10th January 1978) given special edition coloured vinyl releases before all three are made available in a three-CD set and for digital download.
Even had the band not imploded soon afterwards, the tour would still have had a place in rock and roll history, the band’s reputation preceding it across America’s conservative heartlands.
John Rotten (aka Lydon), Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Sid Vicious were sent into venues primed for confrontation, police ready to clamp down on any signs of anarchy and religious protesters rallying to see off the unholy Brits.
Audiences were provoked, objects flew, tensions brewed, cracks widened among the Pistols themselves - but amidst it all was delivered some of the rawest and most honest music that the country that birthed rock and roll had ever seen. ‘God Save the Queen’, ‘Bodies’, and the re-targeted ‘Anarchy in the USA’ - all launched at the crowds and the onlooking authorities.
“Now, we came to dance - what did you come for?” says Rotten before the band rip into ‘God Save The Queen’ in Atlanta, and then: “That was the new British National Anthem.”
The newly mastered recordings put the listener right amongst the sweating, bellowing crowd. “Aren’t we the worst thing you’ve ever seen?” asks Rotten - but in truth the roar of Jones’s guitar and the raw snarl of his vocal are exactly what they want.
A radio advert for the Dallas show proclaims: “They said no one could be more bizarre than Alice Cooper or more destructive than Kiss. They have not seen the Sex Pistols…Banned in their own home country, England’s Sex Pistols denied admittance to the United States - the Sex Pistols bring the new wave to the Metroplex this Tuesday night in the Longhorn Ballroom.”
After the band crashed through The Stooges’ ‘No Fun’ in San Francisco, Rotten challenged the crowd directly: “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Within days, he announced his departure and the Sex Pistols explosion, detonated in the turmoil of the late 1970s, was over. These primal recordings document the final shockwaves of a band that changed pop culture forever.
Sex Pistols: Live In The USA 1978 - release dates
Friday 28th February
1LP (Red Vinyl)
Sex Pistols – Live In The USA 1978
Great South East Music Hall, Atlanta, 5th January 1978
Friday 28th March
1LP (White Vinyl)
Sex Pistols – Live In The USA 1978
Longhorns Ballroom, Dallas, 10th January 1978
Friday 25th April
1LP (Blue Vinyl)
Sex Pistols – Live In The USA 1978
Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, 14th January 1978
3CD – all 3 shows
Digital – all 3 shows
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