Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols

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Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is the only studio album by the English punk rock group Sex Pistols. It was released on 27 October 1977, through Virgin Records. Fans and critics alike generally regard it as an extremely important album in the history of rock music, citing the lasting influence it has had on subsequent punk rock musicians, as well as other musical genres that were influenced by such punk rock artists.

Overview

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols is the only official album released by the Sex Pistols while vocalist Johnny Rotten was a member of the group, although the same songs have subsequently appeared on many compilation albums (the group effectively disbanded less than three months after the album's release). All four of the band's previously issued singles, minus their B-sides, were included on the album.

The album was met by a hail of controversy in the UK upon its release. The first documented legal problems involved the allegedly obscene name of the album, and the prosecution (under Section 28 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, since replaced by the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981) of the manager of the Nottingham Virgin record shop (and label owner Richard Branson) for having displayed it in a window. However, at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 24 November 1977, defending Queen's Counsel John Mortimer produced expert witnesses who were able to successfully demonstrate that the word "bollocks" was not obscene, and was actually a legitimate Old English term originally used to refer to a priest, and which, in the context of the title, meant "nonsense". The chairman of the hearing was forced to conclude:

Much as my colleagues and I wholeheartedly deplore the vulgar exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature for the purchases of commercial profits by both you and your company, we must reluctantly find you not guilty of each of the four charges.

Far more intense outrage was sparked by the lyrics of the songs "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the UK", as well as Jamie Reid's cover art for the single of "God Save the Queen". Both were perceived as outrageous and depraved musical assaults on the monarchy, British civil society, its institutions, the social order, general morality and common decency. In particular, "God Save the Queen" was viewed as a direct personal attack on Queen Elizabeth II. Guitarist Steve Jones, and singer Johnny Rotten, have both insisted that it was not the Queen that the band directed their animus towards but the British government in general. In either case, the notoriety did little to harm the record's sales in the UK.

Recording

Close to completing a deal with A&M Records, in March 1977 the Sex Pistols entered Wessex Sound Studios to record with producer Chris Thomas and engineer Bill Price. New bassist Sid Vicious's performing skills were not considered fit enough to record, so the band asked manager Malcolm McLaren to convince previous bassist Glen Matlock to perform the instrument for the sessions. Matlock agreed on the condition that he was paid beforehand. When payment was not received, he declined to show up. As a result, Thomas asked guitarist Steve Jones to play bass so work could begin on the basic tracks. Jones's playing was so satisfactory that Thomas had him play the bass tracks for all the songs recorded during the sessions. Four tracks—-Clinton Heylin suspected they were "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant", "EMI" and possibly "Did You No Wrong"—were recorded during the two days at Wessex, with "God Save the Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" receiving vocal tracking from Johnny Rotten and final mixing during the period. As a result of these sessions, Thomas and Price began work in earnest on what would become the Pistols' full-length album. Four days after recording was completed, the Pistols signed with A&M, yet on 16 March the label terminated the contract, and several thousand pressed copies of the forthcoming "God Save the Queen" single were destroyed.

Despite being dropped by A&M, McLaren instructed the Pistols to continue work on the album. While McLaren pondered whether or not to sign the offer presented by Virgin Records, he signed a French deal for the group with Barclay Records in early May 1977. At the same time, the group resumed work with Thomas and Price. Thomas temporarily departed the session partway through (a timeframe Heylin places as sometime in late April and early May), leaving Price to produce what Thomas estimated as five songs. Heylin narrowed down the potential Bollocks tracks Price may have produced to "Liar", "New York", "No Feelings", "Problems", "Seventeen" and "Submission", in addition to the non-album track "Satellite".

Meanwhile the band had been rejected by several potential labels, including CBS, Decca, Pye and Polydor. Eventually Virgin's offer was the only one that remained. McLaren still hoped to sign with a major label, and posited issuing a one-off single with Virgin in order to increase the band's appeal to the larger record companies. Virgin owner Richard Branson refused, so on 18 May the Pistols finally signed with Virgin. Two weeks later, the label rush-released "God Save the Queen" as a single. During promotion of the single, Rotten stated that work on the albums was ongoing, and, obscuring Jones's assumption of bass duties, insisted that the bass performances on the in-progress album were split between Matlock "on the Chris Thomas tracks" and Vicious.

The band returned to the studio with Thomas and Price on 18 June to record "Holidays in the Sun", the first song they had written without Matlock. That night after visiting a nearby pub, Rotten, Thomas and Price were attacked by a large group of men, and the incident made newspaper headlines the following Tuesday. That month an eleven-track preview of the album began circulating, first reviewed in the fanzine 48 Thrills. At this point, Rotten maintained that the forthcoming album would include no cover songs, and none of the Sex Pistols's previously-released singles bar "Anarchy in the U.K.", which was out of print. With "Pretty Vacant's" release as a single, it was due to be replaced on the tracklist. The Pistols returned to Wessex once more that August to record a brand-new song, "Bodies". It was on this track Vicious recorded his only bass part for the album.

Release

With the completion of "Bodies", the time came to finalise the album's tracklist. Though Jon Savage claimed there were three versions of each track available, Heylin states that alternate versions for only five tracks ("EMI", "No Feelings", "Seventeen" and "Submission", plus an "album" mix of "Satellite") existed. It was not until 20 September that the tracklist was finalised, which Heylin said "suggests just how bogged down by the process they had become". Due to the album's long completion time, the Pistols and McLaren decided to release "Holidays in the Sun" backed with "Satellite" as the band's fourth single. "Holidays in the Sun" was not as successful as past singles—charting at number eight and dropping out of the top 20 after four weeks—which Heylin attributed to the group's announce that their album would be released on 4 November and that the single would be included on the LP, despite previous statements to the contrary. In an attempt to stem criticism over the decision to include all four previously-released Sex Pistols singles on the forthcoming LP, Virgin indicated the possibility of a "alternative album" being issued simultaneously, featuring a new title and two new songs replacing "two of the former hit singles". A label spokesman stated, "We've put the singles on the LP because most people wanted it that way. But the alternative set would enable us to overcome the multiple stores' ban". A ten-song test pressing was made, though no new cuts were included, with "Satellite" and "Submission" instead being added as bonus tracks.

Before Virgin could release Never Mind the Bollocks, Richard Branson discovered that two other Sex Pistols albums were competing with his label's. In October, a bootleg named Spunk featuring high-quality recordings of Sex Pistols demos and recording sessions with Dave Goodman was released on a label called Blank. Among the rumors of who was behind the release of the tapes included Goodman, Glen Matlock and McLaren, who has always considered Goodman's versions to be a more accurate representation of the band. Meanwhile, the French pressing of Never Mind the Bollocks on Barclay had added "Submission" to the slated 11-song tracklist, and was due for release a week before the Virgin's edition. As McLaren's separate deal with Barclay meant that the French release could not be halted and given the Virgin head was aware of how easy it was for import records to arrive in Britain, Branson rushed production of Never Mind the Bollocks to ensure it would come out a week earlier than intended. Nevertheless, the Barclay version was already available in the UK at the time Virgin had its version ready. Ten thousand copies of Virgin's pressing erroneously only listed 11 tracks on the sleeve yet contained 12 on the actual record.

Even with the availability of Spunk, the release of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was eagerly awaited in the United Kingdom. With advance orders of 125,000 copies, Never Mind the Bollocks debuted at number one on the UK Album Charts the week after its release. A ban of the album enacted by major retailers resulted in the record selling well through independent vendors instead.

Charting and influence

Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols peaked at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart, but in the US peaked at number 106 upon initial release on the Billboard albums chart. Although the album's sales were initially slim outside Europe, it would ultimately gain a substantial reputation worldwide, achieving Gold status with the RIAA in 1987 (denoting 500,000 sales) and Platinum status (1,000,000 sales) just four years later.

Likewise, influential critics consider Never Mind the Bollocks to have been a central formative influence on punk rock and subsequent forms of popular music.

In 1985, NME writers voted Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols the thirteenth greatest album of all time. In 1993, NME writers voted the album the third greatest of all time.

In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine named it the second-best album of the previous 20 years, behind only The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The same magazine named it forty-first on their list of the five-hundred greatest albums ever in 2003. In an interview during 2002, Rolling Stone journalist Charles M. Young stated:

Never Mind the Bollocks changed everything. There had never been anything like it before and really there's never been anything quite like it since. The closest was probably Nirvana, a band very heavily influenced by the Sex Pistols.

In his 1995 book, The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross placed the album in the number 6 spot on his 10 Classic Alternative Albums list. In 1997, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols was named the 24th greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.

In 2006, it was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest albums ever, and in the same year NME voted the album the fourth greatest British album.

Track listing

Eleven-track version

Side one

1. "Holidays in the Sun" – 3:22
2. "Liar" – 2:41
3. "No Feelings" – 2:56
4. "God Save the Queen" – 3:20
5. "Problems" – 4:11

Side two

1. "Seventeen" – 2:02
2. "Anarchy in the U.K." – 3:32
3. "Bodies" – 3:03
4. "Pretty Vacant" – 3:18
5. "New York" – 3:07
6. "EMI" – 3:10

Note: "Submission" was included with most copies as a one-sided seven-inch single.

Twelve-track version

Side one

1. "Holidays in the Sun" – 3:22
2. "Bodies" – 3:03
3. "No Feelings" – 2:51
4. "Liar" – 2:41
5. "God Save the Queen" – 3:19
6. "Problems" – 4:11

Side two

1. "Seventeen" – 2:02
2. "Anarchy in the UK" – 3:31
3. "Submission" – 4:12
4. "Pretty Vacant" – 3:18
5. "New York" – 3:05
6. "EMI" – 3:10

Personnel

• Paul Cook – drums
• Steve Jones – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
• Glen Matlock – bass guitar on "Anarchy in the UK"
• Johnny Rotten – lead vocals
• Sid Vicious – bass guitar on "Bodies"

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1977	UK Albums Chart	1
1978	Billboard 200	106

Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
BPI – UK	Gold	17 November 1977
BPI – UK	Platinum	15 January 1988
RIAA – US	Gold	2 December 1987
RIAA – US	Platinum	26 March 1992
NVPI – Netherlands	Gold	1990

Reissues

In 1996, Virgin re-issued Never Mind the Bollocks as a double CD with the original 'Spunk' bootleg album as Spunk/This Is Crap.

On 29 October 2007, Virgin Records released a special 30th anniversary edition of the album in 180 gram vinyl LP format. The set included a 7" insert of "Submission" and poster, as originally released on 28 October 1977. Virgin also reissued the group's four singles, "Anarchy in the UK", "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun", on 7" vinyl, before the album reissue.

In the US, these re-releases were handled by Warner Bros., who continue to own the US rights to this album to this day.

A four-disc boxed set reissue occurred on 24 September 2012. The set included the original album, a disc of B-sides and outtakes, some live recordings and a DVD of live and studio videos. Also included was a poster, some stickers and a replica of the original A&M copy of the "God Save the Queen" single.

Cover versions

In 1983 The Bollock Brothers released a track-by track-cover version of the album, called Never Mind the Bollocks 1983.

The Irish folk punk band Mr. Irish Bastard has worked on a cover version of the entire album, calling it Never Mind the Bastards, Here's Mr. Irish Bollocks. While the full album is not yet released, their version of "God Save the Queen" was been featured on a compilation in February 2012.

The band Artichoke released an acoustic cover version of the entire album. The album was released in 2006.

References

• Classic Albums—Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks [DVD]. Isis Productions, 2002.
• Heylin, Clinton. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Schirmir Books, 1998. ISBN 0-02-864726-2.