1.Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (1977); 2.Spunk (1977); 3.The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle (1979); 4.Some Product: Carri On Sex Pistols; 5.Flogging a Dead Horse (1980); 6.Anarchy in the UK Live at the 76 Club (1985); 7.Kiss This (1992); 8.Filthy Lucre Live (1996); 9.Jubilee (2002); 10.Sex Pistols (2002); 11.Raw and Live (2005); 12. Agents of Anarchy (2007); 13. Live & Filthy
Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Released October 27, 1977, Length 38:45, Label Virgin/Warner Bros.
Side one
1.Holidays in the Sun 3:22
2.Bodies 3:03
3.No Feelings 2:51
4.Liar 2:41
5.God Save the Queen 3:19
6.Problems 4:11
Side two
7.Seventeen 2:02
8.Anarchy in the UK 3:31
9.Submission 4:12
10.Pretty Vacant 3:18
11.New York 3:05
12.EMI 3:10
Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols (or simply Never Mind The Bollocks) is the only studio album by the highly influential and controversial British punk rock band The Sex Pistols. Fans and critics alike generally regard it as an extremely important album in the history of rock music, citing the lasting influence it has had on subsequent punk rock musicians, as well as other musical genres that were influenced by such punk rock artists. In 2003, Rolling Stone rated it #41 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album was released on 27 October 1977 through Virgin Records amid controversy arising from the use of the coarse slang word (in British English) "bollocks" in its title.
Older versions of most of the album's songs also appeared on a bootleg album called Spunk, which consists of demo recordings the band had made during 1976 and January 1977, and which was released shortly before Never Mind The Bollocks.
Overview
Never Mind The Bollocks is the only official album released by the Sex Pistols while vocalist Johnny Rotten was a member of the group, although the same songs have subsequently appeared on many compilation albums (the group had effectively disbanded less than three months after the album's release). All four of the band's previously issued singles, minus their B-sides, were included on the album. Many of the songs were featured in different versions in the film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, a "mockumentary" loosely based on the Sex Pistols, but more about their manager (and the film's "mastermind"), Malcolm McLaren.Never Mind The Bollocks was met by a hail of controversy in the UK upon its release. The first documented legal problems involved the allegedly 'obscene' name of the album, and the prosecution (under Section 28 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, since replaced by the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981) of the manager of the Nottingham Virgin record shop (and label owner Richard Branson) for having displayed it in a window. However, at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 24 November 1977, defending Queen's Counsel John Mortimer produced expert witnesses who were able to successfully demonstrate that the word "bollocks" was not obscene, and was actually a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and which, in the context of the title, meant "nonsense". The chairman of the hearing was forced to conclude:
"Much as my colleagues and I wholeheartedly deplore the vulgar exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature for the purchases of commercial profits by both you and your company, we must reluctantly find you not guilty of each of the four charges".
Far more intense outrage was sparked by the lyrics of the songs "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the UK", as well as Jamie Reid's cover art for the single of "God Save The Queen". Both were perceived as outrageous and depraved musical assaults on the monarchy, British civil society, its institutions, the social order, general morality and common decency. In particular, "God Save The Queen" was viewed as a direct personal attack on Queen Elizabeth II. Guitarist Steve Jones, and singer Johnny Rotten, have both insisted that it was not the Queen that the band directed their animus towards, but other members of the royal house and the British government in general. In either case, the notoriety did little to harm the record's sales in the UK.
Rotten's bitten, over-articulated, angry vocals and his intentional avoidance of "good" singing were startlingly original in style at that time, and his use of profanity and deliberately inflammatory language seemed downright shocking. He alternately screams and whines about corporate control, intellectual vacuity, and political hypocrisy, while guitarist Jones' multi-layered guitar tracks create a "wall of noise" to counter him.
Producer Chris Thomas took a different approach to recording Never Mind the Bollocks than was to become the norm on most later punk rock albums. Instead of capturing a "raw" or "live" sound, Thomas achieved a very clear, broad, and layered sonic palette via multiple guitar overdubs, and extremely tight musicianship.He said, "Anarchy has something like a dozen guitars on it; I sort of orchestrated it, double-tracking some bits and separating the parts and adding them, et cetera ... It was quite laboured. The vocals were laboured, as well." The album's anger and energy are considered to have been trailblazing precedents for the then-nascent punk rock movement.
Charting and influenceNever Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols reached #1 on the Official UK Albums Chart, but in the US peaked at #106 upon initial release on the Billboard albums chart. Although the album's sales were initially slim outside Europe, it would ultimately gain a substantial reputation worldwide, achieving Gold status with the RIAA in 1987 (denoting 500,000 sales) and Platinum status (1,000,000 sales) just four years later.
Likewise, influential critics consider Never Mind the Bollocks to have been a central formative influence on punk rock and subsequent forms of popular music.
In 1985, NME writers voted Never Mind The Bollocks the thirteenth greatest album of all time. In 1993, NME writers voted the album the third greatest of all time.
In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine named it the second-best album of the previous 20 years, behind only The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The same magazine named it forty-first on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In an interview during 2002, Rolling Stone journalist Charles M. Young stated:
"Never Mind The Bollocks changed everything. There had never been anything like it before and really there's never been anything quite like it since. The closest was probably Nirvana, a band very heavily influenced by the Sex Pistols".
In his 1995 book, The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross placed the album in the #6 spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'. In 1997, Never Mind The Bollocks was named the 24th greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Never Mind The Bollocks the 30th greatest album of all time, and in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 10 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
In 2001 the VH1 network named Never Mind The Bollocks as the seventeenth greatest album of all time. The album also placed number one in a "Fifty Greatest Punk Albums Ever" readers' poll in Kerrang! magazine.
In 2006, it was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time, and in the same year NME voted the album the fourth greatest British album of all time.
Track listing
The original UK album (Virgin V2086) contained only eleven tracks, before the group changed their mind and decided to include "Submission".
However, Virgin had already pre-emptively produced stampers for the eleven-track version, and by early October 1977 had already pressed 1,000 copies. Rather than scrap these, Virgin released them anyway, initially as promos, then commercially, as an attempt to counteract a sudden flood of imports from France, where a twelve-track version of the album (including "Submission") had been released in mid-October by Barclay Records.
In response to this, Virgin also brought forward the album's intended UK release date by a week, and instead of waiting for the twelve-track album to be mastered, issued further copies of the eleven-track album (reportedly 50,000 copies, although some collectors now dispute these official figures as on the high side). Most of these copies included a poster and "Submission" as a freebie single.
Some of the initial 11-track copies were privately imported to Sweden and sold for a few weeks at a record shop in Stockholm. The poster and "Submission" were not included at this stage. An article in a local paper warned people not to buy this "faulty" issue and advised them to wait for the 12 track issue that was about to be pressed. The article also had a quote from Virgin in London, which said that all production and sale had been stopped, but some copies had unfortunately leaked out through their export company. This issue had a blank back cover and matrix numbers A-1 and B-1.
The twelve-track UK version began appearing in early November 1977.
As a result of the track listing confusion, several variants of the UK back sleeve exist: completely blank, omitting "Submission", including "Submission", and a misprint including "Belsen Was a Gas" and omitting several other tracks, based on artwork for an earlier rejected track listing.
All songs written by Steve Jones/Glen Matlock/Paul Cook/Johnny Rotten, except * by Jones/Cook/Rotten/Sid Vicious. All lyrics by Rotten (original "Seventeen" lyrics by Jones, original "Pretty Vacant" lyrics by Matlock).
Spunk
Released September-October 1977, Length 40:56, Label Blank
Side one
1.Lazy Sod (Seventeen) 2:08
The album comprises studio demos and talking recorded with Dave Goodman during 1976 and early 1977, while original bass player Glen Matlock was still a member of the band. Most of the songs would later be re-recorded and officially released on the group's album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.
The alternative debut album
Several parties, including some journalists in the British music press, immediately suspected that the band's manager, Malcolm McLaren, was responsible for the original Spunk bootleg. This would have been in breach of the band's record contract with Virgin, which was readying the release of Never Mind the Bollocks when Spunk appeared. An October 1977 Sounds article by Chas de Whalley discussed Spunk and made reference to this conveniently coincidental timing.In the Sounds article, Chas de Whalley makes reference to buying a copy in a record store on the Portobello Road. It was in fact a tiny little record store (ACME Records) in the back of the now famous ACME Attractions. The shop assistant who dealt with Whalley, identified in his article simply as "The Punk," was Doug McArthur, bassist for Killerhertz and Kid Rogers and the Henchmen. McArthur maintained the bootleg was a better quality record and claims to have sold many copies through that little record store.The evidence for McLaren's involvement is speculative, although it can be noted that his company, Glitterbest, retained the rights to the demo recordings as well as the master tapes — and the demos appearing on Spunk were presented in excellent quality. Also, as evidenced by the original album's "LYN-" matrix number prefix, the record had clearly been pressed in the UK by Lyntone, a legitimate independent pressing plant that would presumably not handle anything that appeared to be a bootleg, and would certainly allow the bootlegger in question to be traced if enquiries had ever been made by the genuine copyright owner. McLaren always publicly denied responsibility for Spunk, but said that he preferred it to Never Mind the Bollocks.
Some Sex Pistols fans concur with McLaren – and producer Goodman – that the raw versions of the songs on Spunk are superior to the officially released ones, particularly since Spunk approximates a faithful reproduction of the original Sex Pistols line-up's live sound. The album also features the bass-lines of Glen Matlock, which were not reproduced when guitarist Steve Jones took over bass duties for the recording of Never Mind the Bollocks.
Spunk is therefore often cited as the Sex Pistols' de facto alternative debut album. Certainly a tape of part or all of Spunk had been played to Tony Parsons as early as March 1977, and became the subject of his NME article, "Blank Nuggets in the UK", which described the recordings as if they represented an imminent debut album release.
Reissues
The original Spunk was itself copied and bootlegged immediately upon release. The tracks have since been re-bootlegged countless times in many different formats, including a widespread variant called No Future UK?, which added three extra tracks, and many releases by Dave Goodman, which often feature evidence of remixing or other post-production tampering.
Spunk has also been the subject of several official releases.
Virgin Records released the whole of Spunk along with several other early Sex Pistols demos as part of a limited edition double-CD reissue of Never Mind the Bollocks in 1996.
Spunk was released on 17 July 2006 by Sanctuary Records in its original vinyl format (CMQLP1395, limited to 1,000 copies). The CD version (CMRCD1376) included the three bonus tracks from the original No Future UK? bootleg.
B-sides information
- "I Wanna Be Me" (titled "Just Me" on Spunk) had been the B-side of the band's debut single, "Anarchy in the U.K.".
- The Spunk version of "No Feelings" (titled "Feelings") was also the B-side track (titled "No Feeling") to the band's withdrawn A&M single, "God Save the Queen".
- "No Fun", as included on No Future UK?, is the full-length version of the track edited for the B-side of the "Pretty Vacant" single.
All songs written by the Sex Pistols, all songs on the original bootleg album were simply credited to "Spunk". Several songs were presented with incorrect titles (actual titles noted in parentheses below).
The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle
Released February 26, 1979, Length 78:39, Label Virgin Records
2.The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle 4:21
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is the soundtrack album of the film of the same name. Although released under Sex Pistols' name, it includes performances by other artists.
Flogging a Dead Horse
Released February 8, 1980, Length 48:02, Label Virgin Records
Flogging a Dead Horse is a compilation album of singles by the Sex Pistols, released after their break-up, and includes the four songs that were issued as singles A-sides from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols with three of their B-sides, as well as the six A-sides that were issued off The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and one B-side, "My Way".
Anarchy in the U.K.: Live at the 76 Club
Released 1985, Label Brilliant
Anarchy in the UK: Live at the 76 Club is a live album by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was recorded live at the 76 Club in Burton upon Trent. Prior to its formal release, the album had made its way around Sex Pistols fans as a bootleg. In 2001 the album was remastered and re-released on Yeaah Records as "The 76 Club".
Raw and Live is a 2 CD live album by the Sex Pistols that was released in 2004.
Disc one
Agents Of Anarchy is a compilation album from the Sex Pistols. it was released in November 2007.
Live & Filthy is a live album by The Sex Pistols that was released in 2008.
3.You Need Hands 2:54
4.Silly Thing 2:51.
5.Lonely Boy 3:07
6.Something Else 2:14
7.Rock Around the Clock 2:04
8.C'mon Everybody 1:56.
9.Who Killed Bambi? 3:07
10.No One Is Innocent 3:04
11.L'Anarchie Pour Le UK 3:28
12.My Way 4:06Production
The band was defunct by the time the soundtrack was being prepared, and Johnny Rotten refused to participate in the project, so the "proper" Sex Pistols tracks were done by taking Lydon's vocals from the October 1976 demo session recordings and rerecording their instrumental tracks (done by Paul Cook and Steve Jones).
The double album features a significant number of tracks that omit Lydon entirely; most of them written and recorded after the band broke up. These include Sid Vicious singing cover songs, two new original songs ("Silly Thing", sung by Cook and "Lonely Boy", sung by Jones), tracks Cook and Jones recorded with Ronnie Biggs, the title track and "Who Killed Bambi?" sung by Edward Tudor-Pole, and numerous novelty tracks including French street musicians playing "Anarchy in the UK" and a medley of several Sex Pistols songs covered by a disco band.
Two further tracks were recorded along "Lonely Boy" and "Silly Thing" between May and July 1978; "Black Leather" and "Here We Go Again". While the two songs did not end up on either the film nor the soundtrack, both were later released as Sex Pistols singles.
Some Product: Carri On Sex Pistols
Released August 3, 1979, Length 41:32, Label Virgin/ Warner Bros.
1.The Very Name 'Sex Pistols'" (various artists) 5:27
2.From Beyond the Grave (Sid Vicious) 8:27
2.From Beyond the Grave (Sid Vicious) 8:27
3.Big Tits Across America (Paul Cook and Steve Jones from US radio broadcast) – 11:19
4.The Complex World of John Rotten (Johnny Rotten, features interview snippets with John Lydon's Mother) – 8:18
5.Sex Pistols Will Play (Paul Cook and Steve Jones) – 3:21
6.Is the Queen a Moron? (Sex Pistols interview regarding 'God Save the Queen' lyrics) – 3:557.The Fucking Rotter (This is an edited version of the infamous Bill Grundy interview.)(Sex Pistols) – 0:41Some Product: Carri on Sex Pistols is an interview album featuring members of the Sex Pistols' The interviews are mostly presented in a collage style.
The artwork was done by artist Jamie Reid and peaked at #6 in the UK album charts.
The title melds the British comedy series of Carry On films with a pun on the word carrion.
Track listingAll tracks are spoken word collages put together by John Varnom from various interviews and radio ads. Additional material includes a snippet from Tubular Bells.
Flogging a Dead Horse
Released February 8, 1980, Length 48:02, Label Virgin Records
1.Anarchy in the U.K. 3:33
2.I Wanna Be Me 3:06
3.God Save the Queen 3:21
4.Did You No Wrong 3:14
5.Pretty Vacant 3:18
6.No Fun 6:26
7.Holidays in the Sun 3:21
8.No One Is Innocent 3:03
9.My Way 4:05
10.Something Else 2:12
11.Silly Thing 2:53
12.C'mon Everybody 1:57
13.(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone 3:09
14.Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle 4:24
By the time the record was released, the group was finished as a musical unit; The Sex Pistols consisted only of manager Malcolm McLaren and designer Jamie Reid. Their relationship with Virgin records was difficult, and Reid's tacky sleeve design was intended to warn people against another cash-in; it was largely interpreted as a hip joke, and seems to have hurt sales very little.
Reid's first sleeve design consisted of the title hastily scrawled across his designs for the Never Mind the Bollocks (front cover) and The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle albums (back cover). It was printed, and copies exist, but was rejected by Virgin and never made it to record stores. For its replacement, Reid used a photo of a model from the cheapest agency he could find, along with dull letraset lettering, making the record look like a cheap easy listening album. The back cover featured a fake plastic dog turd on top of a gold disc of the 'Never Mind The Bollocks-Here's the Sex Pistols' LP, a reference to a scene in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle in which Steve Jones defecates on the gold disc awarded to Johnny Rotten for Never Mind The Bollocks. The album was released without the band's involvement or permission.
The title has several ironic meanings: the idiomatic one of the saying "Flogging a Dead Horse" reflecting the fact that the Pistols' endeavours were now finished, futile and pointless; and the British slang use of 'flogging' to mean 'selling' - i.e. the Pistols' management, in true punk style, were overtly referencing that they were trying to get as much money for as little effort as possible from the album's sales.
Released 1985, Label Brilliant
1.Anarchy in the U.K.
2.I Wanna Be Me
3.Seventeen
4New York
4New York
5.No Lip
6.(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
7.Satellite
8.Submission
9.Liar
10.Substitute
11.No Feelings
12.No Fun
13.Pretty Vacant
14.PA Trouble
15.Problems
Kiss This
Released October 5, 1992, Label Virgin Records
1.Anarchy in the UK
2.God Save the Queen
3.Pretty Vacant
4.Holidays in the Sun
5.I Wanna Be Me
6.Did You No Wrong
7.No Fun
8.Satellite
9.Don't Give Me No Lip, Child
10.(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone
11.Bodies
12.No Feelings
13.Liar
14.Problems
15.Seventeen
16.Submission
17.New York
18.EMI (Unlimited Edition)
19.My Way
20.Silly Thing
Kiss This is a "best of" compilation by Sex Pistols released in 1992, which features all of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols' album tracks, interspersed with singles and B-sides.
Tracks are split into three phases: "Early Songs and Other People's Material", "Let Rip, Volatile, Full Fledged Songwriting on our Own" and "Final Group of Songs Written Close Together. More Musical. No Longer Confused About Where We Stood."
Originally it was issued with bonus CD featuring July 21, 1977 show at Trondheim and foldout colour poster.
Filthy Lucre Live
Released July 29, 1996, Length 53:00, Label Virgin/ Toshiba EMI
1.Bodies
2.Seventeen
3.New York
4.No Feelings
5.Did You No Wrong
6.God Save the Queen
7.Liar
8.Satellite
9.(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
10.Holidays in the Sun
11.Submission
12.Pretty Vacant
13.EMI
14.Anarchy in the U.K"
15.Problems
Filthy Lucre Live is a 1996 live album by the then recently-reformed Sex Pistols.
The album was recorded live at London's Finsbury Park on 23 June 1996 during the band's Filthy Lucre Tour. The album reached #26 in the UK charts, and the track Pretty Vacant was previously released as a single, charting at #18.No Fun, the second of the band's encores, did not make it onto the live album, although it was included on the japanese version.
Jubilee
Released June 3, 2002, Label Virgin Records
1.God Save the Queen
2.Anarchy in the UK
3.Pretty Vacant
4.Holidays in the Sun
5.No One Is Innocent
6.My Way
7.Something Else
8.Friggin' in the Riggin'
9.Silly Thing
10.C'mon Everybody
11.The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle
12.(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
13.Pretty Vacant (Live)
14.EMI (Unlimited Edition)
Raw and Live
Released 2004
Disc 1
1.Pretty Vacant
2.No Feelings
3.I Wanna Be Me
4.I'm a Lazy Sod
5.Submission
6.C'mon Everybody
7.Search and Destroy
8.Anarchy in the U.K.
9.Satellite
10.No Lip
11.Bill Grundy Interview (Dialogue)
Disk 2
1.Somethin' Else (live at the Electric Ballroom, London, 1978; Sid Vicious)
2.C'mon Everybody (Sid Vicious)
3.Stepping Stone (Sid Vicious)
4.No Lip (Sid Vicious)
5.I Wanna Be Your Dog (Sid Vicious)
6.Belsen Was a Gas (Sid Vicious)
7.Chatterbox (Sid Vicious)
8.Tight Pants (Sid Vicious)
9.My Way (Sid Vicious)
10.Search and Destroy" (Sid Vicious)
11.My Way (alternate version; Sid Vicious)
Raw and Live is a 2 CD live album by the Sex Pistols that was released in 2004.
Agents of Anarchy
Released 2008, Label Landmark Records
Disc one
1.Submission 4:31
2.Did You No Wrong 3:24
3.Whatcha Gonna Do About It 4:25
4.Feedback 1:35
5.New York 3:56
6.Substitute 3:22
7.Liar 3:27
8.No Lip 3:23
9.Anarchy in the U.K. (Dave Goodman's Disco Mix) 3:51
10.The Last Interview 23:39
Disc two
1.Pretty Vacant 3:00
2.No Feelings 2:53
3.I Wanna Be Me 3:12
4.I'm a Lazy Sod 2:09
5.Submission 4:16
6.C'mon Everybody 1:56
7.Search & Destroy 3:05
8.Anarchy in the U.K. 4:09
9.Satellite 4:07
10.No Lip 3:18
11.God Save the Queen 3:42
12.My Way 2:56
13.Bill Grundy Interview 1:35
Live and Filthy
Released August 26, 2008, Label Delta
1.Anarchy in the U.K. (live)
2.No Feelings (live)
3.Liar (live)
4.I Wanna Be Your Dog (live)
5.No Fun (live)
6.New York (live)
7.Seventeen (live)
8.Don't Gimme No Lip, Child (live)
9.Pretty Vacant (live)
10.I Wanna Be Me (live)
11.Search and Destroy (live)
12.Substitute (live)
13.I'm a Lazy Sod (live)
14.Submission (live)
15.C'mon Everybody (live)
16.Satellite Kid (live)
17.Chatterbox (live)
18.Somethin' Else (live)
19.Tight Pants (live)
20.No Lip (live)
21.Belsen Was a Gas (live)
22.(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone
23.My Way (alternate version) (live)
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