Recordings of three Sex Pistols concerts from the band’s ill-fated 1978 U.S. trek, including the group’s infamous tour finale at Winterland Ballroom in San Francsico, will be released as individual vinyl LPs and together as a three-CD set in the coming months.
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The Winterland concert, which took place on January 14, 1978, was the last of seven shows the Sex Pistols played on the tour, after which the band broke up. The other concerts from the 1978 trek that will be released are the group’s January 5 tour kickoff at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta and a January 10 gig at Longhorns Ballroom in Dallas.
[Buy Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter Concert Tickets]
The three concerts each will be released as limited-edition colored-vinyl LPs on separate dates.
The Atlanta show will be released on red vinyl on February 28. The Dallas concert will be issued on white vinyl on March 28. The San Francisco gig will be released on blue vinyl and will arrive on April 25.
Also on April 25, a three-CD set titled Live in the U.S.A. 1978 and featuring all three concerts will be released. The collection also will be made available via digital formats on the same day. The various Live in the U.S.A. 1978 releases can be pre-ordered now.
The Live in the U.S.A. albums will mark the first time the complete shows with correctly sequenced set lists will be released.
More About the Sex Pistols’ 1978 U.S. Tour
The Sex Pistols’ U.S. shows mainly featured songs from the band’s sole studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols (1977). At some gigs, including the Dallas and San Francisco concerts, the Sex Pistols included a cover of The Stooges’ “No Fun” in their set.
The Winterland concert infamously ended with a chaotic version of “No Fun,” at the end of which, a disillusioned John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) knelt on the stage and said to the audience, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Good night.” He then threw down his microphone and walked off the stage.
The tour originally had been scheduled to feature nine shows, but was cut short after the seventh. The trek’s itinerary apparently had been poorly planned, there was in-fighting between the band members, and bassist Sid Vicious was in the throes of h#r&@n addiction.
On January 18, Lydon announced the band’s breakup. The Winterland concert was last gig the Sex Pistols ever played with Vicious, who died of a drug overdose in February 1979 at age 21. The Sex Pistols later reunited with original bassist Glen Matlock for tours in 1996, 2002, 2003, 2007-2008.
Sex Pistols’ New Tour Plans Without Rotten
In August and September of 2024, founding Sex Pistols members Matlock, guitarist Steve Jones, and drummer Paul Cook reunited to play a series of U.K. shows with a new singer, Frank Carter, as Lydon had expressed no interest in performing with his ex-bandmates again. Carter and the Sex Pistols members
Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter have now lined up some new concerts in Europe this summer. Among them are two shows opening for Guns N’ Roses, on July 24 in Vienna, Austria, and July 28 in Luxembourg.
Live in the U.S.A. 1978 – Atlanta (Great Southeast Music Hall, Atlanta, GA, 1/5/1978)
Side One:
- “God Save the Queen”
- “I Wanna Be Me”
- “Seventeen”
- “New York”
- “Bodies”
- “Submission”
Side Two:
- “Holidays in the Sun”
- “EMI”
- “No Feelings”
- “Problems”
- “Pretty Vacant”
- “Anarchy in the UK”
Live in the U.S.A. 1978 – Dallas (Longhorns Ballroom, Dallas, TX, 1/10/1978)
Side One:
- Intro/Radio Advert
- “God Save the Queen”
- “I Wanna Be Me”
- “Seventeen”
- “New York”
- “EMI”
- “Bodies”
Side Two:
- “Belsen Was a Gas”
- “Holidays in the Sun”
- “No Feelings”
- “Problems”
- “Pretty Vacant”
- “Anarchy in the UK”
- “No Fun”
Live in the U.S.A. 1978 – San Francisco (Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, 1/14/1978)
Side One:
- “God Save the Queen”
- “I Wanna Be Me”
- “Seventeen”
- “New York”
- “EMI”
- “Belsen Was a Gas”
- “Bodies”
- “Holidays in the Sun”
Side Two:
- “Liar”
- “No Feelings”
- “Problems”
- “Pretty Vacant”
- “Anarchy in the UK”
- “No Fun”
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