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not including indivisual gigs... January - Having a band with as much negative energy wasn't good for the publicity of a label the stature of EMI, which was also home to bands like the Beatles. On Jan. 4 the Pistols leave Hearthrow Airport for a 5 day Holland tour where they reportedly "spat, vomited, and swore", but On Jan. 6, (?) 77 EMI dropped them. Well, the band was releasing the single Anarchy in the UK, and in promotion of it they played 3 consecutive dates. Jan. 7 would be Glen Matlocks last preformance with the band at a show at El Paridiso. On January 27th there is a meeting with Warner and Malcolm makes up his mind - They dumped Glenn and were already considering Sid, and he went on to do craptactular bands like the Rich Kids, Mike Thorne began producing. On Jan. 9 Malcolm meets with Derek Green at A&M over the demo tapes of Submission, No Feelings, Pretty Vacant, No Future (God Save the Queen), and 3 different versions of Anarchy to try and push him to sign them. A week after Glen was dumped, John was arrested for amphetamine possession, which would almost keep him from coming to America in Dec. 77. Vicious joined the band in Jan. 77 I believe. Febuary - McLaren got the idea for the future film "the Great Rock N' Roll Swindle" as early as Feb. 77. By Febuary 2, things had escelated by far since the Grundy interview, and now everyone knew who the Pistols were. They went to the NME with Mick Jagger for an interview, who admitted kindof even liking them. And now the record industry anarchy begins again! March - After EMI dropped the Pistols, they had another shot at a major. Malcolm had offers from Polydor (home of Eric Clapton) Warner (who had bought Sire and was now home to many CBGB bands), and A&M (who I can't think of any good late 70s artists that were on at the time!) After Glen's was paid to come back just for recording on March 3 for more demos, They were signed to A&M on March 9, 77 (date is disputable) but fucked that whole process up as well. They were dumped from A&M in about 7 days time. Something bad happened though (although great for rare vinyl collectors). A&M had started pressings on "God Save the Queen" single but only made a limited number of copies before they were pulled from the label. March 20th, the Pistols got a VW bus to tour in, which rumored wouldn't work at an incline, they play in Berlin at Hotel Kapinsky, which would be the influence for "Holiday in the Sun". April - April 3, the Pistols play the Screen on the Green, the Pistols 25 minute show "Number 1" (which is shown at Winterland) is played. On April 5th, Sid comes down with hepetitis from sharing needles (this is why you don't do heroine or shoot coke). May - Time was becoming a bad thing - the Pistols needed to release another single but weren't on a label. On APril 5th, CBS had called to announce they were no longer interesting in a contract after the A&M fiasco. Still with the option of Polydor, (Warner had dropped out of the running), Maloclm settled with Virgin, which was still a small label at the time. It worked on both sides because Virgin would get a major major band, and the band would get to release their single (Virgin was distributed through Warner I might add). They got signed to virigin on May. 12, and signed a contract for other European releases (I think) on June 8. (you need seperate signings to release music in different countries). On May 27, 77' - The Sex Pistols released God Save the Queen before the Queen's Jubilie in a horribly blunt insult of the English government. This got Johnny and the others attacked on many occasions, leaving John unable to play the guitar which he had wanted to learn at the time. GSTQ sold 150,000 units in 5 days (200,000 by the Jublie). The single rose to number 2 on the charts (and possibly number 1 although it is disputed) but was not shown - the slot for the first time was just blank. June - On June 6 the Pistols played on a concert on the River Thames because now finding places to play was close to impossible. The show was raided and people were arrested, with more press coverage the next morning. Oh, also in early June Malcolm officially made "Matrixbest" which would be used for releasing videos. June 7th was the infamous venue on the river thames that got raided by british police (whatever police are called in England). On June 18th, an article surfaced about the boat show. read it here. In June all hell would break loose as "Pretty Vacant" was to show on the BBC's Top of the Pops! The single was released, and was not very controversial at all. Headlines broke saying "Pistols keeping it Clean." July - On July 13, Russ Meyer (who had directed porn) signed with Matrixbest to direct the Great Rock n' ROll swindle (which was under one of its many other early names at the time) for 30,000 pounds (don't have that pound sign on my computer). On July 29, McLaren was coming back from LA, while he had been gone, life had been hell for John, Paul, Steve, and Sid. On July 16, Capitol Radio would host an interview with John Lydon (which I believe is on my Some Product LP). In June through July the Pistols would embark on a Scandinavian tour which would be 2 weeks, 13 dates, and 3 countries. On July 30, they returned to England and a rumored Sex Pistols book was to be released. In early August meetings were held about it. The band was going bad. Sid was getting worse with heroine and John was becoming more withdrawn, and an album had to be released soon. Steve and Paul started working to record alone with Chris Thomas, and then another tour was to be held. August - With an album to be coming out, is was a necessity for the Pistols to tour in support of it, but gigs were impossible to find. They went on the SPOTS (Sex Pistols on Tour Secretly) tour, under names like "band of international intrigue". The first date would be Aug. 19 and Wolverhampton's Club Lafeyette. There would only be 6 dates for the tour.
September - On the 1st, the Pistols played Penzance in Winter Gardens Also In Sept. the song Bodies was finished. October - SOme important buisness transactions occured in Oct., including Warner signing with Matrixbest for the film for 200,000 pounds, and 50,000 dollars for US release rights for the upcoming album. On Oct. 14, Arist music signed for the North American publishing rights. On Oct. 7, there was a budget meeting for the film, which was becoming a financial problem because it was rising so much. I don't want to talk about the film though, because I own it and it is horrible ha! The album was now to be released. However, before it could, bootleggers beat them to it. "No Future UK" was released compiled from the Goodman demos of July 76 and January 77. The bootleg was a mystery, because Goodman was the only one who supposedly had the master tapes, and had been in a piss with Malcolm over the demos, but no one would ever know for sure who released it. It made competition harsh because the demos were more raw and inexpensive to buy than NMTB would be, and with the controversy over the album, it made it hard to find at times. This pissed everyone in the band off, including Sid who had said they had put "a lot of hard work into it". Sid had only recorded on 2 tracks though. November - Nov. 10 marked the worldwide release of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols - but before that controvery would of course insue. The word "Bollocks" and "Sex" were not good to have in public (censorship!) and many Virgin and Warner distributers had to take down advertisement for it. On Nov. 9 Chris Searle was arrested for replacing the display that the cops had taken down under "Indecent Advertisement Act of 1899". The Pistols were back in court. Nov. 24th to be exact, which conflicted with a tour of Northern England the band was to be on. The Pistols had good attorneys and won the case with simple logic. Bollocks could be shown. There were plans being made for a tour of America because it was almost impossible to find English dates. December - Dec. 5 marked the first date in a tour of Holland, set up by Cowbell. Glitterbest and Cowbell were making plans for the American tour - and although the band would break up, the original plans were for the American south, then Finland, Sweeden, Germany, France, Yugoslavia, Spain, and back to England by March. In a last attempt for England dates, the band embarked on the "Never Mind the Bans tour" which consisted of 8 dates (half canceled), which was a tour of any English venue that would takethem. Dec. 16th, the Pistols played another University. Brunnel University in Uxbridge. Dec. 24 would be the Links Pavillion at Cromer, and Dec. 25 would be the bands last European gig ever (Excluding the reunion), at a venue called Ivanhoes, for 600 pounds, in support of children whose families were struggling because of unemployment and firefighters children who were on a strike at the time. The band was to leave for America, but on Dec. 29, the US Embassy refused the visas because each member had a criminal record - what was worse was John's amphetamine possession charge. Warner paid 1,000,000 (yes, 1 million bucks) for visas to be granted by the State Department. It was a must that the Pistols were to be on their best behavior for the tour, and on the 30th, they left for the American South. |
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