Next month, the Sex Pistols will release the first of three live albums recorded on their first -and last - US tour. And while guitarist Steve Jones admits, with commendable honesty, that he'll “probably never listen to ‘em”, his own memories of the January '78 tour remain vivid.
The Pistols were originally scheduled to play eight shows in America at the close of 1977/beginning of 1978. But from the off, things went wrong.
Due to members of the group having criminal records, ranging from drug arrests to assaults on a police officer. the band were initially denied visas to enter the United States, and only managed to secure visas at the 11th hour when their label stumped up $1 million as a guarantee of their good behaviour. A Warners lawyer told The New York Times, "This is a group of youngsters who came up from slum areas and it sounds to me like a lot of small things involved with street kids growing up. Now that they're on the threshold of being somebody, we shouldn't deny them the right to really make it."
"Betting on the Sex Pistols to keep the peace at that time was like betting on a three-legged chihuahua to win the Grand National - not the best investment they would ever make," Jones wrote in one of the more amusing lines included in his autobiography Lonely Boy.
