Classic Album : The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
By Johnny Harris
February 05, 2013
In my opinion Sex Pistols’ fearsome debut Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols is the epitome of the ‘classic’ album. It comes with a clear raised-middle-finger mission statement to all and sundry, not since Elvis shook his provocative hips at screaming teenagers had a generation of
adults been so genuinely petrified of the ‘kids of today’. Although they may not have been purveyors of the genre-hopping musical mastery that qualifies most albums for the ‘classic’ rating, what they could do they perfected. Never before or since has a band exploded so brilliantly and self-destructed so quickly, leaving only this album as a record of their achievements.
Opening track ‘Holidays in the Sun’ kick-starts the album at an unrelenting pace – the sound of marching troops being cut through by buzz-saw guitars before it all tumbles into the organised chaos that defines their sound before Jonny Rotten’s famous snarl spits out the opening line “Cheap holiday in other people’s misery”. From then on there isn’t a backwards step as they systematically target royalty, record companies, liars, narcissists, fascists, communists, people working 9-5 in fact seemingly anyone they can. What set the Pistols apart from the punk bands that followed was not only their ability to disturb, but to pinpoint issues that were embedded in social taboos of the
time. The album is full of highlights, each bringing bucket-loads of vitriolic bile. As much as the social impact of ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ will always steal the limelight, the sarcastic petulance of ‘No Feelings’ and studied apathy of ‘Seventeen’ show a band who had much more to say than the tired ‘smash the system’ manifesto.
To really understand the importance of this seminal work, it has to be seen in the context of its time. Ageing rockstars ruled the charts, their songs full of self-indulgent solos and their lives full of boringly stereotypical excess, when the Pistols changed everything by screaming “We don’t care about long hair, oh do we boys?” with a ferocity that reached out of the stereo and punches you in the throat just for existing. And their influence on the bands around them can’t be underestimated – testament to that is the oft cited anecdote that if everyone who claims to have been at their famous gig in the 100 Club is to be believed, half of London would have been inside the tiny venue. Joe Strummer famously claimed to leave The 101ers in favour of The Clash after hearing The Sex Pistols just once.
Their legacy has informed everyone from Oasis to The Libertines, and will continue to stretch far into the future. Though their sound has often been imitated there hasn’t been a match to Never Mind the Bollocks …’ angst and anger. Today, as we are again surrounded by mass unemployment, economic instability and an indifferent Conservative government, this album is as resonant and relevant as ever.
Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols is readily available on both amazon
