Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Encyclopedia
Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols (or simply Never Mind The Bollocks) is the only studio album by the highly influential and controversial English punk rock
band The Sex Pistols
. 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. In 2003, Rolling Stone
rated it #41 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album was released on 27 October 1977 through Virgin Records
amid controversy arising from the use of the coarse slang word (in English
) "bollocks
" in its title.
Older versions of most of the album's songs also appeared on a bootleg album called Spunk
, which consists of demo recordings the band had made during 1976 and January 1977, and which was released shortly before Never Mind The Bollocks.
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. Many of the songs were featured in different versions in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
, a "mockumentary
" loosely based on the Sex Pistols, but more about their manager (and the film's "mastermind"), Malcolm McLaren
.
Never Mind The Bollocks 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:
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 other members of the royal house and the British government in general. In either case, the notoriety did little to harm the record's sales in the UK.
Rotten's bitten, over-articulated, angry vocals and his intentional avoidance of "good" singing were startlingly original in style at that time, and his use of profanity and deliberately inflammatory language seemed downright shocking. He alternately screams and whines about corporate control, intellectual vacuity
, and political hypocrisy, while guitarist Jones' multi-layered guitar tracks create a "wall of noise" to counter him.
Producer Chris Thomas
took a different approach to recording Never Mind the Bollocks than was to become the norm on most later punk rock albums. Instead of capturing a "raw" or "live" sound, Thomas achieved a very clear, broad, and layered sonic palette via multiple guitar overdubs, and extremely tight musicianship. He said, "Anarchy has something like a dozen guitars on it; I sort of orchestrated it, double-tracking some bits and separating the parts and adding them, et cetera ... It was quite laboured. The vocals were laboured, as well." The album's anger and energy are considered to have been trailblazing precedents for the then-nascent punk rock
movement.
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 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 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In an interview during 2002, Rolling Stone journalist Charles M. Young stated:
In his 1995 book, The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross
placed the album in the #6 spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'. In 1997, Never Mind The Bollocks 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 1998, Q
magazine readers voted Never Mind The Bollocks the 30th greatest album of all time, and in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 10 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
In 2001 the VH1
network named Never Mind The Bollocks as the seventeenth greatest album of all time. The album also placed number one in a "Fifty Greatest Punk Albums Ever" readers' poll in Kerrang!
magazine.
In 2006, it was chosen by Time
magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time http://www.time.com/time/2006/100albums/index.html, and in the same year NME voted the album the fourth greatest British album of all time.
However, Virgin had already pre-emptively produced stampers for the eleven-track version, and by early October 1977 had already pressed 1,000 copies. Rather than scrap these, Virgin released them anyway, initially as promos, then commercially, as an attempt to counteract a sudden flood of imports from France, where a twelve-track version of the album (including "Submission") had been released in mid-October by Barclay Records
.
In response to this, Virgin also brought forward the album's intended UK release date by a week, and instead of waiting for the twelve-track album to be mastered, issued further copies of the eleven-track album (reportedly 50,000 copies, although some collectors now dispute these official figures as on the high side). Most of these copies included a poster and "Submission" as a freebie single.
Some of the initial 11-track copies were privately imported to Sweden and sold for a few weeks at a record shop in Stockholm. The poster and "Submission" were not included at this stage. An article in a local paper warned people not to buy this "faulty" issue and advised them to wait for the 12 track issue that was about to be pressed. The article also had a quote from Virgin in London, which said that all production and sale had been stopped, but some copies had unfortunately leaked out through their export company. This issue had a blank back cover and matrix numbers
A-1 and B-1.
The twelve-track UK version began appearing in early November 1977.
As a result of the track listing confusion, several variants of the UK back sleeve exist: completely blank, omitting "Submission", including "Submission", and a misprint including "Belsen Was a Gas
" and omitting several other tracks, based on artwork for an earlier rejected track listing.
All songs written by Steve Jones
/Glen Matlock
/Paul Cook
/Johnny Rotten
, except * by Jones/Cook/Rotten/Sid Vicious
. All lyrics by Rotten (original "Seventeen" lyrics by Jones, original "Pretty Vacant" lyrics by Matlock).
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.
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
. Fans and critics alike generally regard it as an extremely important album in the history of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country 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. In 2003, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
rated it #41 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The album was released on 27 October 1977 through Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
amid controversy arising from the use of the coarse slang word (in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
) "bollocks
Bollocks
"Bollocks" is a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English, as a noun to mean "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to mean "poor quality" or "useless"...
" in its title.
Older versions of most of the album's songs also appeared on a bootleg album called Spunk
Spunk (Sex Pistols album)
Spunk is a bootleg demo album by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was originally released in the United Kingdom during September or October of 1977....
, which consists of demo recordings the band had made during 1976 and January 1977, and which was released shortly before Never Mind The Bollocks.
Overview
Never Mind The Bollocks is the only official album released by the Sex Pistols while vocalist Johnny RottenJohn Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
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
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, minus their B-sides
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, were included on the album. Many of the songs were featured in different versions in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is a mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols....
, a "mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
" loosely based on the Sex Pistols, but more about their manager (and the film's "mastermind"), Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
.
Never Mind The Bollocks 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
Town Police Clauses Act 1847
The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The statute remains in force and is frequently used by local councils to close roads to allow public events such as processions or street parties to take place.The Act is also used to regulates the local taxi and...
, since replaced by the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981
Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981
The Indecent Displays Act is an Act of Parliament covering Scotland, England and Wales but not Northern Ireland. It is concerned with preventing the display of “indecent” material to the unsuspecting public. As with the Protection of Children Act, the Act does not define indecency, although it...
) of the manager of the Nottingham Virgin record shop (and label owner Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
) for having displayed it in a window. However, at Nottingham Magistrates' Court
Nottingham Magistrates' Court
Nottingham Magistrates' Court is a Magistrates' Court in Nottingham, England.-History:Until 1996, Nottingham Magistrates were housed in two separate buildings, the Guildhall and the Shire Hall....
on 24 November 1977, defending Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
produced expert witnesses who were able to successfully demonstrate that the word "bollocks
Bollocks
"Bollocks" is a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English, as a noun to mean "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to mean "poor quality" or "useless"...
" 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
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)
"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
" and "Anarchy in the UK", as well as Jamie Reid
Jamie Reid
Jamie Reid is a British artist and anarchist with connections to the Situationists. His work, featuring letters cut from newspaper headlines in the style of a ransom note, came close to defining the image of punk rock, particularly in the UK...
's cover art for the single of "God Save The Queen". Both were perceived as outrageous and depraved musical assaults on the monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
, British civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
, its institutions, the social order
Social order
Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
, general morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
and common decency
Decency
Decency is the quality or state of conforming to social or moral standards of taste and propriety.-See also:*Taste *Communications Decency Act*Public indecency*Indecent exposure*Sodomy law*Norm *Grotesque body...
. In particular, "God Save The Queen" was viewed as a direct personal attack on Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
. Guitarist Steve Jones
Steve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
, and singer Johnny Rotten
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
, have both insisted that it was not the Queen that the band directed their animus towards, but other members of the royal house and the British government in general. In either case, the notoriety did little to harm the record's sales in the UK.
Rotten's bitten, over-articulated, angry vocals and his intentional avoidance of "good" singing were startlingly original in style at that time, and his use of profanity and deliberately inflammatory language seemed downright shocking. He alternately screams and whines about corporate control, intellectual vacuity
Vacuity
Vacuity can refer to:*Emptiness*Śūnyatā, the Buddhist term about the impermanent nature of form*Vacuity , an alternative rock band from Kitchener, Ontario...
, and political hypocrisy, while guitarist Jones' multi-layered guitar tracks create a "wall of noise" to counter him.
Producer Chris Thomas
Chris Thomas (record producer)
Chris Thomas is an English record producer who has worked extensively with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pulp and The Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for The Sex Pistols and INXS.Thomas is quoted as saying -Early life:Thomas was...
took a different approach to recording Never Mind the Bollocks than was to become the norm on most later punk rock albums. Instead of capturing a "raw" or "live" sound, Thomas achieved a very clear, broad, and layered sonic palette via multiple guitar overdubs, and extremely tight musicianship. He said, "Anarchy has something like a dozen guitars on it; I sort of orchestrated it, double-tracking some bits and separating the parts and adding them, et cetera ... It was quite laboured. The vocals were laboured, as well." The album's anger and energy are considered to have been trailblazing precedents for the then-nascent punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
movement.
Charting and influence
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols reached #1 on the Official UK Albums Chart, but in the US peaked at #106 upon initial release on the BillboardBillboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
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
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
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
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
writers voted Never Mind The Bollocks the thirteenth greatest album of all time. In 1993, NME writers voted the album the third greatest of all time.
In 1987, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine named it the second-best album of the previous 20 years, behind only The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
. The same magazine named it forty-first on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 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 NirvanaNirvana (band)Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, a band very heavily influenced by the Sex Pistols.
In his 1995 book, The Alternative Music Almanac, Alan Cross
Alan Cross
' is a Canadian radio broadcaster and a writer on music. Alan’s obsession with music began at age six when his grandmother gave him a transistor radio—an old Lloyds—which spawned an all-consuming fascination with things that came over airwaves...
placed the album in the #6 spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'. In 1997, Never Mind The Bollocks was named the 24th greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll
Opinion poll
An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...
conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group
HMV Group
HMV is a British global entertainment retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company also operates in Hong Kong and Singapore. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index...
, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and Classic FM
Classic FM (UK)
Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...
. In 1998, Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
magazine readers voted Never Mind The Bollocks the 30th greatest album of all time, and in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 10 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
In 2001 the VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
network named Never Mind The Bollocks as the seventeenth greatest album of all time. The album also placed number one in a "Fifty Greatest Punk Albums Ever" readers' poll in Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
magazine.
In 2006, it was chosen by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time http://www.time.com/time/2006/100albums/index.html, and in the same year NME voted the album the fourth greatest British album of all time.
Track listing
The original UK album (Virgin V2086) contained only eleven tracks, before the group changed their mind and decided to include "Submission".However, Virgin had already pre-emptively produced stampers for the eleven-track version, and by early October 1977 had already pressed 1,000 copies. Rather than scrap these, Virgin released them anyway, initially as promos, then commercially, as an attempt to counteract a sudden flood of imports from France, where a twelve-track version of the album (including "Submission") had been released in mid-October by Barclay Records
Barclay Records
Barclay Records is a French record label founded in the mid-1950s by Eddie Barclay under the alias, Edouard Ruault. Eddie Barclay also founded the Riviera label in the early-1950s....
.
In response to this, Virgin also brought forward the album's intended UK release date by a week, and instead of waiting for the twelve-track album to be mastered, issued further copies of the eleven-track album (reportedly 50,000 copies, although some collectors now dispute these official figures as on the high side). Most of these copies included a poster and "Submission" as a freebie single.
Some of the initial 11-track copies were privately imported to Sweden and sold for a few weeks at a record shop in Stockholm. The poster and "Submission" were not included at this stage. An article in a local paper warned people not to buy this "faulty" issue and advised them to wait for the 12 track issue that was about to be pressed. The article also had a quote from Virgin in London, which said that all production and sale had been stopped, but some copies had unfortunately leaked out through their export company. This issue had a blank back cover and matrix numbers
Matrix numbers
Matrix numbers are alphanumeric codes stamped or hand written into the run-out groove area of a gramophone record...
A-1 and B-1.
The twelve-track UK version began appearing in early November 1977.
As a result of the track listing confusion, several variants of the UK back sleeve exist: completely blank, omitting "Submission", including "Submission", and a misprint including "Belsen Was a Gas
Belsen Was a Gas
"Belsen Was a Gas" is one of the most controversial songs by the British punk rock band Sex Pistols. The song is about one of the concentration camps in Germany during World War II, i.e...
" and omitting several other tracks, based on artwork for an earlier rejected track listing.
All songs written by Steve Jones
Steve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
/Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock is an English bass guitarist most famous for being in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Drummer Paul Cook has said that Matlock came up with much of the music for the band's songs and most of the lyrics, while lead singer Johnny Rotten made some adjustments...
/Paul Cook
Paul Cook
Paul Thomas Cook is an English drummer and member of the punk rock band Sex Pistols.-Early life and career:...
/Johnny Rotten
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
, except * by Jones/Cook/Rotten/Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
. All lyrics by Rotten (original "Seventeen" lyrics by Jones, original "Pretty Vacant" lyrics by Matlock).
Side one
- "Holidays in the SunHolidays in the Sun"Holidays in the Sun" is a song by the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It was released on 14 October 1977 as the fourth and final single from their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. A number eight chart hit in the UK, the single proved to be the last with singer...
" – 3:22 - "Liar" – 2:41
- "No Feelings" – 2:56
- "God Save the QueenGod Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
" – 3:20 - "Problems" – 4:11
Side two
- "Seventeen" – 2:02
- "Anarchy in the U.K.Anarchy in the U.K."Anarchy in the U.K." was covered by American thrash metal band Megadeth for their third album So Far, So Good... So What!, released in 1988.Notoriously, the song has incorrect lyrics...
" – 3:32 - "BodiesBodies (Sex Pistols song)"Bodies" is a Sex Pistols song about abortion from the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The lyrics contain very graphic imagery about a terminated fetus and feature a great deal of profanity for the time: the third and final verse begins with a couplet in which the word...
" – 3:03 * - "Pretty VacantPretty Vacant"Pretty Vacant" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released on 1 July 1977 as the third single from their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song marked the band's only appearance on the British music show Top of the Pops...
" – 3:18 - "New York" – 3:07
- "EMI" – 3:10
- "Submission" was included with most copies as a one-sided seven-inch single (VDJ 24).
Side one
- "Holidays in the SunHolidays in the Sun"Holidays in the Sun" is a song by the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It was released on 14 October 1977 as the fourth and final single from their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. A number eight chart hit in the UK, the single proved to be the last with singer...
" – 3:22 * - "BodiesBodies (Sex Pistols song)"Bodies" is a Sex Pistols song about abortion from the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The lyrics contain very graphic imagery about a terminated fetus and feature a great deal of profanity for the time: the third and final verse begins with a couplet in which the word...
" – 3:03 * - "No Feelings" – 2:51
- "Liar" – 2:41
- "God Save the QueenGod Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
" – 3:19 - "Problems" – 4:11
Side two
- "Seventeen" – 2:02
- "Anarchy in the UK" – 3:31
- "Submission" – 4:12
- "Pretty VacantPretty Vacant"Pretty Vacant" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released on 1 July 1977 as the third single from their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song marked the band's only appearance on the British music show Top of the Pops...
" – 3:18 - "New York" – 3:05
- "EMI" – 3:10
- USA (Warner Bros. BSK3147) and Canada (Warner Bros. KBS3147) artwork is green on pink, track listing reverses "God Save the Queen" (as #6) and "Problems" (as #5).
- Original French track listing (Barclay Records 941 001) as UK eleven-track version with "Submission" at the end of side one.
Personnel
- Paul CookPaul CookPaul Thomas Cook is an English drummer and member of the punk rock band Sex Pistols.-Early life and career:...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Steve JonesSteve Jones (musician)Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, bass, backingBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Glen MatlockGlen MatlockGlen Matlock is an English bass guitarist most famous for being in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Drummer Paul Cook has said that Matlock came up with much of the music for the band's songs and most of the lyrics, while lead singer Johnny Rotten made some adjustments...
– bass on "Anarchy in the UK" - Johnny RottenJohn LydonJohn Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
– lead vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the... - Sid ViciousSid ViciousSid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
– bass on "Bodies"
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
| 1978 | Billboard 200 Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... |
106 |
Certifications
| Organization | Level | Date |
|---|---|---|
| BPI – UK | Gold | 17 November 1977 |
| BPI – UK | Platinum | 15 January 1988 |
| RIAA – USA | Gold | 2 December 1987 |
| RIAA – USA | Platinum | 26 March 1992 |
| NVPI – Netherlands | Gold | 1990 |
Reissues
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
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)
"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
", "Pretty Vacant
Pretty Vacant
"Pretty Vacant" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released on 1 July 1977 as the third single from their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song marked the band's only appearance on the British music show Top of the Pops...
" and "Holidays in the Sun
Holidays in the Sun
"Holidays in the Sun" is a song by the English punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It was released on 14 October 1977 as the fourth and final single from their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. A number eight chart hit in the UK, the single proved to be the last with singer...
", 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.