They’re pioneers of punk, with lyrics as crude and unforgiving as the curl of Sid Vicious’ upper lip.
With a handful of terminated record contracts, legions of devout fans worldwide, and but a single studio album to their name, the Sex Pistols are well and truly one of the most influential bands in the history of popular music.
Often in scuffs with local authorities and lawmakers, Sex Pistols gigs were famed to frequently get out of hand; between obscene lyrics that swung from fascism, to the Holocaust, and back again to anarchy, and the unwavering menace of frontman Johnny Rotten’s glare, it’s not hard to see how. Never mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols is the band’s only album from a short-lived career of two and a half years, but spurned hits Anarchy in the UK and God Save the Queen that still ring out, loud and clear, as anthems of an energised and frustrated youth against a system they feel has failed them.
Hard, fast, sneering, and relentless, The Sex Pistols’ music has a compelling energy that grabs you in the middle and mercilessly shakes you out.
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The Sex Pistols, Georgia, 1978
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron
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Sid Vicious 1978
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron
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Sid Vicious Lawyered Up
Photo by: Michael Brennan
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Sid Vicious, San Antonio, 1978
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron
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The Sex Pistols Rehearsing
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron
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The Sex Pistols in Paris
Photo by: Frederic Reglain © Gamma Rapho
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Sex Pistols Final Tour
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron
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Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, 1978
Photo by: Richard McCaffrey
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The Sex Pistols at Heathrow Airport
Photo by: PA Images
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The Sex Pistols in Holland
Photo by: Mirrorpix
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Vicious, Rotten and Jones
Photo by: Richard McCaffrey
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Sid Vicious and Glen Matlock
Photo by: Mark Jordan
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The Sex Pistols performing on their final tour
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron
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Sid Vicious ’78
Photo by: Mirrorpix
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Sid Vicious, 1977
Photo by: Mirrorpix
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The Last Sex Pistols Show
Photo by: Richard McCaffrey
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