Sex Pistols – Live In The USA 1978

48 years ago the Sex Pistols started a revolution with their iconic album ‘Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols’, and hit the reset button on the music industry. It made people reconsider 10-minute guitar solos, extraneous keyboard warbling with prog rock overtones, and not only brushed disco aside, but took it by the scruff of the neck and threw it out the window. Teenagers who felt disconnected from the current music suddenly found that just three chords and truth is all they needed, and the Sex Pistols proved that to the UK and then the rest of the world.

In ‘78 the Sex Pistols hit the U.S. to ride the wave of interest in this alternative genre, and had a few gigs in America which I believe was the beginning of the end for the short-lived punk band – but certainly not punk, or the movement behind it.

This box set covers excerpts of this short tour and perfectly catches the energy in the performances, but also hints at the strains within the band trying to exist in a completely unforgiving environment. More than anything, this serves to be a snapshot of a pivotal period in musical history which sent ripples out that we still see the influences of in much of today’s music.

The first gig in the US they did at the South East Music Hall in Atlanta had quite a lot of energy from both The Pistols and the audience, but you can tell that the Georgia locals weren’t exactly ready for unvarnished British punk as around that time there were still only a handful of American vanguard new wave bands that were still finding their own voices; ready or not Atlanta was the start of this latest British invasion. I can only imagine it was an interesting experience for them, but thanks to this album you get to hear first-hand what this unforgiving and unapologetic band delivered.

There are 40 tracks from three venues in alland they play all the well-known hits. What comes across in abundance is that despite the technical flaws the level of effort put into the performances is impressive – even though that sometimes it’s clearly an uphill struggle to get the same energy mirrored back to them from some of the audience, but clearly that by the end of the shows there are some polar opposite opinions.

For those already familiar with the music, it’s the comments between songs that are the most telling, highlighting the now well documented bewilderment they were feeling at this time.

A performance that really stuck out to me on that album was ‘Bodies’ (the Atlanta performance) as it’s always been a personal favourite of mine and touches on an important pro-choice issue that was perhaps ahead of its time.

A track on this album that many would recognise from Johnny’s remark at the end would be the Stooges cover ‘No Fun’ which they played as an encore at the Winterland Ballroom show; perhaps because of the well-publicised quote “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” which was believed to be referencing their manager Malcom McLaren.

Overall there’s a huge amount to recommend from this time capsule – there’s a lot of energy from the Pistols but I think it was apparent that the majority of the US wasn’t ready for British punk – but perhaps that was the point after all?

9/10

Words: Jack Wilkie

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