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Sex Pistols ill-fated 1978 US Tour recordings: Shows, tracks, release date

The band’s mythical final show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom is included in the official remastered recordings.

The band’s mythical final show at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom is included in the official remastered recordings.
Richard E. AaronRedferns

Punk icons the Sex Pistols are set to release three albums of live concert recordings from their ill-fated 1978 tour of the United States. The Pistols, with the classic lineup: John Lydon, Steve Cook, Steve Jones and Sid Vicious, were scheduled to play 11 dates from December 1977 into the New Year but only seven of them went ahead as planned. Shows in Homestead, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio and Alexandria, Virginia were cancelled. Visa delays caused the gig at Leona Theatre in Pittsburgh, where the Pistols were due to kickstart the tour, to be called off.

Historic Sex Pistols live recordings

Once the immigration paperwork was sorted, the band were free to play their first and only shows on US soil. Nearly all of the seven concerts were bootlegged - either recorded professionally through the soundboard, filmed or captured in low-fi audience recordings. Three of those recordings have been remastered and correctly sequenced for the very first time and will be officially released this spring.

As the PR bumf explains, the raw production of these historic recordings “captures the essence of a live experience, giving listeners a powerful snapshot of a significant moment in punk history”.

Sex Pistols US Tour 1978

  • 5.1.78 Great South East Music Hall. Atlanta, Georgia
  • 6.1.78 Taliesyn Ballroom. Memphis, Tennessee
  • 8.1.78 Randy’s Rodeo. San Antonio, Texas
  • 9.1.78 Kingfish Club. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • 10.1.78 Longhorn Ballroom. Dallas, Texas
  • 12.1.78 Cains Ballroom. Tulsa, Oklahoma
  • 14.1.78 Winterland Ballroom. San Francisco, California

South East Music Hall. Atlanta. 5th January 1978 track listing

  • God Save The Queen
  • I Wanna Be Me
  • Seventeen
  • New York
  • Bodies
  • Submission
  • Holidays In The Sun
  • EMI
  • No Feelings
  • Problems
  • Pretty Vacant
  • Anarchy In The UK

The opening date of the tour, at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta, Georgia on 5 January, and the infamous final night, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, are part of the three-album set that will be issued in vinyl and CD formats.

The 10 January 1978 concert recorded at Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas on 10 January 1978, completes the set.

Longhorns Ballroom. Dallas. 10th January 1978 track listing

  • Intro/Radio Ad
  • God Save The Queen
  • I Wanna Be Me
  • Seventeen
  • New York
  • EMI
  • Bodies
  • Belsen Was A Gas
  • Holidays in the Sun
  • No Feelings
  • Problems
  • Pretty Vacant
  • Anarchy In The UK
  • No Fun

Sid punched in Dallas

All three recordings have been available on the black market in various guises and sound quality since the early 80s. There are believed to be at least two different tape sources for the Atlanta show, both audience recordings. As of the moment, it’s not known whether the official releases are a significant upgrade or not.

We do know that the Dallas show was a soundboard recording so the audio quality is excellent. The concert was also filmed and shows Vicious, his face caked in blood after being punched by a female fan and Rotten can be heard taunting revelers: “I see that we have a whole section of the silent majority around there”.

Winterland Ballroom. San Francisco. 14th January 1978 track listing

  • God Save The Queen
  • I Wanna Be Me
  • Seventeen
  • New York
  • EMI
  • Belsen Was A Gas
  • Bodies
  • Holidays In The Sun
  • Liar
  • No Feelings
  • Problems
  • Pretty Vacant
  • Anarchy in the UK
  • No Fun

The Sex Pistols’ last show in San Francisco

The Winterland Ballroom gig is historic in that it was the band’s last live appearance with the Lydon, Cook, Jones, Vicious lineup. It was also professionally filmed and widely bootlegged. At the end of the final song, a cover of The Stooges’ No Fun, Rotten, stooped low at the edge of a stage littered with beer cans and bottles, sneers, “Ah haha. Ever feel like you’ve been cheated? Goodnight”. Four days later, the band broke up which meant a scheduled European tour with dates in Sweden, Findland, Germany Belgium and Holland cancelled. Within a year, Vicious was dead from a heroin overdose, aged 21.

The Live In The USA 1978 recordings will be available separately on Union Jack-themed colored vinyl (Atlanta - red, Dallas - white and San Francisco - blue ) and together on a 3CD set, available for preorder now through the band’s official webpage store ahead of the 25 April release date.

Live In the USA 1978 “takes us back to the moment the creative force that was Sex Pistols imploded”.

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