The Sex Pistols have announced plans for their first tour of North America since 2003, albeit without singer John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten. Since 2024, the band’s three other founding members—guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and bassist Glen Matlock—have been playing shows and touring with U.K. punk vocalist Frank Carter.
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The North American trek with Carter currently features 13 concerts, although more shows are expected to be added. The band’s current outing kicks off September 16 in Dallas at the Longhorn Ballroom. The Sex Pistols performed at the same venue during their infamous and ill-fated 1978 U.S. tour.
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The 2025 trek is mapped out through an October 16 concert in Los Angeles. The shows will feature the Sex Pistols and Carter performing the band’s sole studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, in its entirety, along with select other songs. The tour also will commemorate the group’s 50th anniversary.
Tickets for the concerts go on sale to the general public on Friday, April 4, at 10 a.m. local time. Multiple pre-sale opportunities will be available starting Tuesday, April 1.
Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter’s Other 2025 Tour Plans
Prior to visiting the U.S. and Canada, the Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter will be touring all over the world throughout 2025. The band’s upcoming tour plans begin in Japan with performances on March 29 in Osaka and March 30 in Tokyo. The group also has concerts lined up in New Zealand and Australia in April, before heading to mainland Europe and then the U.K. for a lengthy summer outing.
At two shows, on July 24 in Vienna, Austria, and July 28 in Luxembourg, the Sex Pistols and Carter will be opening for Guns N’ Roses.
Carter also sings with the band Gallows and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes.
Archival Sex Pistols Live Albums Being Released
As previously reported, recordings of three Sex Pistols concerts from the band’s 1978 U.S. tour, including the group’s infamous tour finale at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, are being released this year as individual vinyl LPs and together as a three-CD set.
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 1978 concerts that are be released are the group’s January 5 tour kickoff at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta and a January 10 gig at the aforementioned Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas.
The three concerts each will be released as limited-edition colored-vinyl LPs on separate dates.
The Atlanta show was released on red vinyl on February 28. The Dallas concert was issued on white vinyl on March 28, coinciding with the announcement of the Sex Pistols and Carter’s 2025 North American tour. The San Francisco gig will be released on blue vinyl 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.
On John Lydon’s Rift with His Sex Pistols Bandmates
As previously reported, Lydon has been estranged from his Sex Pistols bandmates since the all last toured together in 2008. Lydon also launched an unsuccessful lawsuit trying to block Sex Pistols music from being used in the 2022 Hulu biographical series Pistol, which was based on Jones’ 2016 memoir, Lonely Boy.
In an article posted on U.K. newspaper The i Paper’s website in February, Lydon shared his feelings about his former bandmates continuing to play Sex Pistols concerts without him.
“When I first heard that the Sex Pistols were touring this year without me, it p—ed me off. It annoyed me,” the 69-year-old singer wrote. “I just thought, ‘they’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all.’”
Lydon, who was the band’s main lyricist, continued, “I didn’t write those words lightly. They’re trying to trivialize the whole show to get away with karaoke but in the long term I think you’ll see who has the value and who doesn’t. I’ve never sold my soul to make a dollar.”
Lydon will be touring extensively in Europe from May through August with his band Public Image Ltd. He also will be taking part in more than 50 Q&A events in the U.K. in September, October, and November.
Sex Pistols Featuring Frank Carter 2025 North American Tour Dates (more will be added):
September 16 – Dallas, TX @ Longhorn Ballroom
September 23 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
September 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Fillmore
September 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ TBD
September 30 – Montreal, QC, Canada @ Mtelus
October 1 – Toronto, ON, Canada @ History
October 3 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
October 4 – Detroit, MI @ Fillmore
October 7 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fillmore
October 10 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
October 13 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
October 15 – San Francisco, CA @ Warfield
October 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
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