Sex Pistols

The Sex Pistols evolved from several bands that played in and around London in the early 1970s that hung out at several avant garde clothing stores, one of which was run my Malcolm McLaren who eventually became the group's manager. Glen Matlock, who worked occasionally at McLaren's store was brought in as the band's bass player. They had Steve Jones doing the vocals and Paul Cook on drums.

A friend saw a young John Lydon with a Pink Floyd t-shirt with the words "I Hate" scrawled across the top and the eyes torn out and he was asked to audition. He showed up with green hair and that same Floyd t-shirt.

Drummer Steve Jones re-named Lydon "Johnny Rotten" due to his bad dental hygiene.

After some practice, the group took to the stage for the first time in November 1975 on borrowed equipment that they smashed leading to a fight with the owners, another band playing at the same show. More gigs followed with increasing noteriety. By July of 1976, bands were opening up for the Sex Pistols at shows - The Clash formed around Joe Strummer.

Then they cut a demo. With all the classic Sex Pistols songs in place, they performed on TV, reaching a wider audience and played outside of England in September in Paris. They signed with EMI in October 1976 and Anarchy In The U.K. was released. A journalist at the time describing it said: "From Steve Jones' opening salvo of descending chords, to Johnny Rotten's fantastic sneering vocals, this song is the perfect statement...a stunningly powerful piece of punk politics...a lifestyle choice, a manifesto that heralds a new era".

Matlock Leaves, In Comes Sid Vicious

When the song "God Save The Queen" was released, bass player Glen Matlock felt the song was in very poor taste and he and the group parted ways. At that time, probably the biggest fan of the group was Simon John Ritchie, quickly renamed "Sid Vicious" by Lydon, who had been the drummer for some punk bands and a friend of John Lydon joined the Sex Pistols as their new bassist although he had little experience with the instument, he did have the look.

Shortly afterwards, Vicious met Nancy Spungen and the downward spiral began.