Sex Pistols/Vicious White Kids, Live 78

October 9, 2016 6:16 PM

Vicious White Kids - Electric Ballroom, London - August 22, 1978. Sex Pistols, Longhorn Ballroom, Dallas, Texas - January 10, 1978. (This is the concert where Sid's bass comes unplugged and Steve Jones stops playing, walks over and plugs it in again - it is at about 6:30.) Bonus - Sex Pistols, Winterland, January 1978 - their final concert. (This has been an FPP previously but the link no longer works.) All links are Youtube.

Vicious White Kids set:

C'Mon Everybody
(Not Your) Stepping Stone
(Don't You Gimme) No Lip Child
I Wanna Be Your Dog
Belsen Was A Gas
Chatterbox
Shake Appeal
Something Else
My Way

Sex Pistols - Longhorn set:

Emi
Bodies
Belsen was a gas
Holidays in the sun
No Feelings
Problems
Pretty Vacant
Anarchy In The UK
No Fun

Sex Pistols - Winterland set:

God Save The Queen
I Wanna Be Me
I'm A Lazy Sod
New York
EMI
Belsen Was A Gas
Bodies
Holidays In The Sun
Liar
No Feelings
Problems
Pretty Vacant
Anarchy In The UK
No Fun

To be fair, they are pretty tight at the Longhorn gig, and not too messy at the Winterland gig.

Texas Monthly - On Tour With The Sex Pistols. (The pic at the top is priceless.)

Wikipedia:

Vicious White Kids: "Nancy Spungen sang backing vocals but after hearing her at rehearsals, Matlock made sure her microphone was not plugged in on the night of the gig."

Sid Vicious, musicianship: "According to Paul Cook, in the few months between joining the band and meeting Spungen, Vicious was a dedicated worker and tried his hardest to learn to play; indeed, this period was Cook's favourite in the band. Viv Albertine went further in defence of his ability, saying that one night she "went to bed, and Sid stayed up with a Ramones album and a bass guitar, and when I got up in the morning, he could play. He'd taken a load of speed and taught himself. He was so quick"

(In the previous Winterland thread, Devils Rancher commented: [his friend] "claimed to have tossed a roach clip (the only thing he had handy to toss) into Johnny Rotten's forehead, eliciting an on-mic response." You can't see anything hit him, but Rotten's response is at 29:50 in the video.) And just after he says, "here comes another song, another tuneless racket." Perfect.

posted by marienbad (10 comments total)

Sometimes it really does seem like the Sex Pistols were created to embolden the conservative class against labor. But then again, the songs were quite catchy.
posted by destro at 6:47 PM on October 9, 2016

I took a screenshot at the end of "No Fun," and cropped it so it just has Johnny Rotten in it, and posted it to imgur.

If only Sid's mum hadn't given him heroin...
posted by marienbad at 6:59 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

More Bonuses:

Sex Pistols, Baton Rouge, 09 January, 78 (audio only)

Winterland Sound Check (in case anyone wants to hear Sid play...)
posted by marienbad at 7:21 PM on October 9, 2016

I liked the Sex Pistols as a teen in the late 70s. I think I liked them more for who they were, the message they were sending (fuck the establishment) than for the music itself. Sure, late night on a Saturday night with a half of fifth of Jim Beam in me, I could bounce to their music, but to me, most of the time, their music was a simple assault on my senses.

Sort of like the debate tonight.

.
posted by AugustWest at 9:30 PM on October 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Sex Pistols? Malcolm McLarren's puppets of provocation.
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:47 AM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Do you know if a legitimate tape of the January 6, 1978 show at the Taliesyn Ballroom in Memphis exists?
posted by grimjeer at 4:54 AM on October 10, 2016

Tallasyn Ballroom - audio only though.
posted by marienbad at 5:25 AM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Seems like I'm the only kid here (um...40+) who loved the pistols with all my heart. As an elementary school kid I saw racy to-my-child-eyes graffiti saying sex pistols and when I became a teen, 5 years after it was all over they spoke to me with a rage and lack of subtlety that was just perfect.
Mowing the lawn for "the man" with pistols and dks on my tape Walkman I remember thinking no music will ever so completely examine my experience, although I said "be as good".
And despite growing my musical taste as I grew, it's probably still true, no music has ever captured me so completely.
posted by bystander at 7:15 AM on October 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

Great links, thanks.

If you haven't seen The Filth And The Fury, I cannot recommend it enough. It's one of my top five rock and roll movies.
posted by lumpenprole at 8:45 AM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

I loved the Pistols so SO VERY much. Their negation of popular cultural norms, and send up of musical hooks (monkey noises in place of lalala's) that presaged Lydon's work with PIL spoke to my anger and feelings of separation from the culture that I was supposedly a part of. I still love this band though I don't listen much any more. Thanks for the post.
posted by evilDoug at 6:53 AM on October 11, 2016