Remember When Sex Pistols Kicked off the Weirdest Prison Concert Ever in 1976?

Everyone remembers when Johnny Cash flipped the script on “typical” country music by performing for a group of inmates at Folsom Prison in 1968. It was a legendary performance. Naturally, Cash inspired a few other musicians to do the same, including the punk rock band Sex Pistols.

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Sex Pistols, however, didn’t immediately take advantage of the recording of their prison performance like Cash did with At Folsom Prison. Rather, their set at Chelmsford Top Security Prison was more or less a mysterious distant memory for years after it took place in 1976. It wasn’t released as a live album until 1990. If you’re a punk rock fan, I highly recommend giving Live At Chelmsford Top Security Prison a spin. But outside of the music, the Sex Pistols’ prison concert was incredibly strange.

This 1976 Sex Pistols Concert at Chelmsford Top Security Prison Didn’t See the Light of Day Until 1990

Live At Chelmsford Top Security Prison was recorded on September 17, 1976, at Chelmsford Prison in Essex, England. The album itself features some obvious overdubs not from the band, arranged by Dave Goodman. The overdubs were used to make the concert sound substantially more dangerous and rowdy than it was, complete with the sounds of boos, glass breaking, and riots. Glen Matlock’s bass didn’t get recorded by the equipment whatsoever, so bass tracks were added in post.

It definitely doesn’t sound how it likely did on that very day in Essex. That left many to wonder what the band really sounded like. Fortunately, the original recordings without overdubs were released on Sex Pistols: Alive (the CD version), so audiophiles can finally hear what they really sounded like.

The setlist was 14 songs long, starting with “Satellite” and ending with “Did You No Wrong”. But, again, while the music was cool, the whole spectacle of the concert was incredibly bizarre.

The Sex Pistols’ prison concert took place when the band hadn’t even released their debut album yet. They were far from world-famous. The decision to do something so wild was definitely not expected. Even the inmates at the prison in question didn’t expect it. In fact, they were so flabbergasted that they didn’t make a ton of noise at all. That led to those cheesy “riot” overdubs from Goodman. 

In the liner notes on the 1990 release, it even says, “Their opening number was ‘Anarchy’… at the end of the number there was a barrage of catcalls, boos and screaming.” They really wanted to make it seem like Johnny Rotten was trying to cause an actual prison riot. However, that wasn’t the case at all.

It seems that prison inmates were much quieter than the rowdy punk rockers who would come to their concerts in droves following the release of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols in 1977.

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