Sex Pistols, Live In The U.S.A. 1978, will see special edition coloured vinyl releases, followed by a three-CD set and digital release of the three famous live shows at South East Music in Atlanta on 5 January 1978, the Longhorns Ballroom in Dallas on 10 January 1978 and the band’s final show until they reformed in 1996 at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on 14 January 1978.
Sex Pistols – Live In The U.S.A. 1978
Release Date: Various – See Below
Words: Paul Monkhouse
The world was a tumultuous place in the mid-1970s, constantly seething under the seemingly carefree surface that tried to ride a wave from the free love and peace days of the late ’60s. Whilst televisions were full of dodgy sitcoms, variety shows and Saturday afternoon wrestling to provide comfort to the masses, the streets were full of social unrest, with strikes and blackouts the norm.
Music, too, had moved into some strange hinterland, the charts being full of the most eclectic mix of styles rubbing together as crooners, comedy songs, pure pop, country, and the start of disco saw the slow end of the glam era.
By that time, even most of the hard rock bands were starting to get a little worn down and heading into bombast and riven with egotistical meltdowns with a few bright sparks still flying and the rumble from the other side of the globe of a band called AC/DC not yet fully realised. Something had to change and four young rebels with a cause from London were just about to change the world.
Unless you were there, it is impossible to capture just how seismically the Sex Pistols shook things up when they burst onto the scene. Sure, punk had existed before they arrived, and the debate still rages as to which side of the Atlantic started it all, but nothing since the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950’s had seen such a dramatic shift where music had actually changed the society around it.
Loud, aggressive, untameable and playing music that sounded more feral than anything that had been heard since the MC5 kicked out the jams, the Pistols lit a blowtorch to a powder keg of sound and emotion that struck deeply with a youth disaffected by all they were going through and seeing no future for themselves. This was a band that ‘got’ them and their music and gigs became a primal scream into the ether.
The band themselves had no interest in being seen as saviours of music nor figureheads for the generation. They just wanted to express themselves in an uncompromising manner and speak out their truth. The rest, as they say, is history and the rise, fights, controversies and eventual disintegration of the outfit is well documented, their star burning blindingly bright and brief.
In reflection, what sounded so wild at the time has a lot in common with a lot of the punk bands at the time in that it was all brilliantly written and anthemic, the material full of spiky energy but eminently suited to sing along to. Packed with hooks and choruses that grabbed the listener and would not let them go, one of the most long-lasting legacies is the music itself, and to hear the tracks that came out at the time being played now captures that time perfectly.
Whilst the studio tracks have a certain rough-edged charm that is offset with some polish, it was their visceral live shows that really caught the spit and spirit of the Sex Pistols, and this new collection grabs two shows from their fateful final few days in America. Recorded in Atlanta, San Francisco and Dallas, this forty-track set sees Johnny Rotten, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Sid Vicious at their most fiery, baiting the audiences and absolutely tearing through the numbers with filth and fury.
Sounding like it was all captured by someone in the crowd, both shows are soaked in an atmosphere that’s far away from any studio wizardry or overdubs, the whole boiling over with sheer adrenaline.
While the tour opened in Atlanta, the San Francisco set, which opened with God Save The Queen, shows the Sex Pistols in full flight. This is probably the nearest we will ever get to those volatile days, each track scorching from the speakers as throwaway lines are given at introductions.
Numbers like Seventeen, New York, Submission and No Feelings come in a rush, and the line “cover you in margarine” during I Wanna Be Me brings a smile in light of Lydon’s endorsement of butter in his post I’m A Celebrity… advert.
More barbed, the spitting out of “I’m not an animal” in Bodies stings like a slap to the face and the vengeful EMI and a rambunctious Holidays In The Sun holds nothing back. By the time they hit Pretty Vacant and Anarchy In The UK, there is absolutely no stopping them.
There was a ragged feel to the band by the time they got to Longhorns Ballroom in Dallas, internal fractures and tension with both the venue and local authorities adding to the volatile feel of the night.
Sure enough, tensions spilled over, and the gig was barely controlled chaos. Vicious was often the butt of frustration due to his sloppy playing and attitude. Arguably the rawest set the band ever played, here was Holidays In The Sun, this time falling into chaos and the band with their heads down trying to regain ground until Bodies kicks in, the two numbers markers in both sets represented here.
By the time No Fun drags itself over the finishing line, things break down totally, the band having utterly spent themselves and Jones’s ire, with Vicious doubtless having spilt over offstage once the latter was separated from the security he was fighting with. The band would break up a few days later, and Vicious died a year after that. The end of an era.
With its bootleg feel and unfiltered power and tension, Live In The U.S.A. 1978 may be one of the finest live documents of a musical genre in many, many years, perfectly capturing not just the Sex Pistols but a whole movement in two shows.
A vital purchase not just for punks but also for anyone interested in rock music, this album shows just how powerful talent and attitude can be together.
Fast forward almost fifty years, and after three previous reunions, the band are back, this time shorn of the mercurial Lydon, a number of sell-out shows played last year with Frank Carter fronting the band.
Recently added as headliners for the annual Teenage Cancer Trust shows, the band are playing in the more refined environs of the Royal Albert Hall on Monday, 24 March 2025.
The filth is turned down, but the fury is still very much intact.
Each gig is being released separately on coloured vinyl. The Atlanta show is issued on red vinyl on 28 February, the Dallas show on white vinyl on 28 March and the notorious last show from San Francisco on blue vinyl on 25 April 2025. A 3CD box set featuring all three gigs coincides with the last vinyl release in April.
