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origin/band history |
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on june 7th, 1977, queen elizabeth II (as well as most of the british population), celebrated her silver jubile--25 years on the throne. as her royal boat went down the thames river, the sex pistols followed on the queen elizabeth, about a mile behind, singing their own, newly released version of "god save the queen". it ended in most of them being arrested, but still stands as one of the greatest musical stunts in history. the sex pistols were blacklisted, and their own fans started to betray them by showing up wearing almost identical outfits. the mass industry had caught on, and punk began to be absorbed back into the system. punks more or less adopted a uniform look and image (spiky hair and safety pins, etc.). the originality had gone out of it, and the pistols were pissed off. they could hardly get gigs anywhere, so where else was left?
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in january of 1978, the sex pistols toured the south: georgia, tennessee, texas, louisiana, oklahoma and california. americans were well-prepared for their arrival, as their tv sets had been bombarded by these spotty british teens. the pistols were all over the news, and police usually turned up at their shows. sid was already a heroin addict, having been introduced to the drug by his american girlfriend, nancy spungen. he was coming down cold turkey throughout the tour, until the last show, winterland ballroom in san francisco, when malcolm turned up and sid went off with him and came back smacked up. the group was fed up with malcolm, sid and each other. at the end of the stooges' "no fun" at san francisco, rotten remarked to the screaming crowd, "ah ha ha. ever get the feeling you've been cheated? good night."
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on february 2nd, 1979, sid vicious died of a heroin overdose, about three months after he allegedly stabbed and killed his girlfriend.
johnny rotten returned to his birth name, john lydon, and formed public image limited (PiL). he later went to court to fight malcolm for the rights to the name rotten, as well as the rights to sex pistols' songs and tapes, plus hours of footage. steve and paul eventually joined his side, and they won. they put together a documentary that was released in 2000, called "the filth and the fury". glen matlock wrote a book called i was a teenage sex pistol around 1990, and rotten wrote his own autobiography in 1994, rotten: no irish, no black, no dogs. the original group (cook, jones, matlock and rotten) reteamed in 1996 to do the longest tour in the history of the band, their famous reunion tour (aka 'fat, forty, and back'). paul cook recently wrote his own autobiography, and i have no idea what it's called. i know a lot of people are against the idea of the pistols touring again, 'cause now they're all old and stuff, but i'm all for it. i never got to see them (obviously), so i'll take anything i can get. but even i admit that it wouldn't be *quite* the same. |
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