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american tour: the south, 1978 |
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in january of 1978, the sex pistols set out on a tour of america's south. they played six different states (georgia, tennessee, texas, louisiana, oklahoma, california) and seven different cities. they started off the tour in a bus, but steve and paul ended up flying around america with malcolm, leaving johnny to deal with sid, who was coming off heroin cold turkey. americans were prepared for mohawked, grubby teens. after all, the news coming in from england was that this group was leading in the downfall of western civilization. then they saw the spotty, snotty kids, and wondered what it was all about. some of the gigs were quite violent, and sid began cutting himself onstage. the crowd threw things at them: bottles, cans, pigs' noses (who the fuck brought a pig's head to a concert?!), spit, and more. most of the shows weren't particularly violent, but the band had had enough by this point. |
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a lot of the people who came to the shows didn't necessarily come to see the pistols; they came to see the people who came to see the sex pistols. what kind of sick freaks would go to a show like this? they were depending on all the rumors they had heard for their information (like that the group killed hamsters onstage), and all of the bad things coming in from england.
when the sex pistols played at the winterland ballroom in san francisco, california, on january 14th, the pistols did an encore with the stooges' "no fun." rotten opened with, "you'll get one number and one number only, 'cause i'm a lazy bastard!" halfway through the song he said, "oh bollocks, why should i carry on?" and why should he? the band hated each other, rotten hated malcolm, malcolm hated rotten, the group hated sid, and so on. when the song was over, rotten looked out to the crowd and laughed.
"ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
he appeared the next day to a friend wearing a tee shirt that said, 'i survived the sex pistols' tour,' underneath which he had written, 'but the band didn't.' |
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