There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. Considering all the time I spent obsessing about this concert and building it up in my mind to be a near mythical and incredible gig, I have to say that when I heard and saw it for real not the crappy, edited vinyl boot taken from the FM broadcast it was a monumental disappointment.
Steve even wondered aloud whether to get Glen back again, you can guess what Rotten thought of that idea. Rotten's voice was terrible, the vocals are unlike any other available Sex Pistols gig and that is not a good thing. Paul's drums are recorded well and his playing is solid. Rotten's physical performance was a bit unusual too, lots of jumping and flopping and weird motions; when combined with the awful sore-throat-with-a-side-order-of-congestion vocals it is nearly unwatchable.
You may say that jumping and flopping and weird motions were all typical Rotten stage mannerisms but I've seen all the available footage as we all have and this gig is definitely out of the ordinary and off the charts. Oddly enough, Sid had pretty much kicked the heroin during the course of the tour if you can forgive him the tranquilizers and liquor, he was more or less clean However the damage had been done and his transgressions were unforgivable even if he'd started playing like Geddy Lee at soundcheck.
Sid's bass was reasonably well recorded and his levels were pretty good too. If you've always wanted to hear a good Sid gig, here it is. The encore, No Fun, is where everything falls apart.
Rotten gets tired of screaming his guts out and of the searing pain in his throat and crouches down and says "oh bollocks, why should I carry on? Steve is on another planet, total apathy in his playing and facial expression. Notice the singular 'expression', not 'expressions'. There is only one, and it is set in concrete. Sid is oblivious to all this, just another encore, another gig, another night; completely unaware that the final grains of sand in the Sex Pistols' hourglass have just fallen especially unaware that it is mainly his fault.
Rotten stops being Rotten at this point and instead of singing in his 'normal' fashion, suddenly PiL is born, the higher register, searching back-and-forth elongated syllables and the upturned endings to his phrases all appear out of nowhere. Then the song is over, Rotten chastizes himself and his bandmates with his 'cheated' line and they're done.
A terrible terrible gig, only interesting because of the circumstances and the fact that it is the last. The bonus footage from Dallas is another animal altogether. Fantastic gig, great energy from everyone but Sid, who is completely out of his head drunk and acting like a complete idiot. No bass playing from him that night, if there was any it is inaudible. As a historical document, it's essential for dedicated fans, but it has little to offer musically. AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully. Blues Classical Country. Electronic Folk International. Jazz Latin New Age. Aggressive Bittersweet Druggy. Other than the unexpected encore and a thoroughly horrifying live take of "Belsen Was a Gas" later in the set, the band proceed to play every song on the Never Mind The Bollocks album, continuing with their celebration of laziness on "Seventeen," followed by "New York" and then "E.
Although not nearly as shocking in retrospect, these songs were all breaking new ground at the time and Rotten's vocal delivery was creating the mold for countless punk singers to follow.
The Sex Pistols didn't care what the audience or anyone else for that matter thought and that point clearly comes across.
Amidst the onslaught of debris being hurled at the stage, which included coins intended to inflict pain on Rotten, he is undaunted and provokes even more of this behavior by saying, "Any more presents?
Kill yourself! Here Rotten denounces a society that forces its women to seek illegal and potentially life-threatening abortions. Drummer Paul Cook next leads the way into a chaotic "Holidays In The Sun," which begins with an annoyingly long repetitive thud of his bass drum, but when the Pistols launch into the song proper, it is remarkably well played, with even Vicious managing to contribute to the unstoppable force.
Continuing to provoke the audience, Rotten next inquires "What just hit me in the head? The stage monitors go out completely at this point and while the tech crew scrambles to fix things, Vicious aims a kick at someone pressed against the stage that was annoying him, Steve Jones hurls a gob back at the audience who have been spitting on him throughout the set, and Rotten sneeringly informs the audience that "The next song is about you—its called "Problems.
They wind the audience into a final frenzy with the anthemic "Pretty Vacant," followed by further inquiries from Rotten, who exclaims, "What's it like to have bad taste? One might expect the group to leave the audience totally frustrated, by refusing to do an encore, but amidst roars for more, the Pistols return to the stage and launch into a cover of the Stooges' "No Fun.
The song comes to an abrupt halt and in his most insinuating manner, Rotten poses the question that has by now become infamous, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? December 8, at PM Reply. Subscribe to our RSS Feed. Follow Us on Twitter. Be Our Fan on Facebook. Popular Posts. Two Crookedhook - All We Got Punk's Not Dead
Jan 31, · Watch "God Save The Queen" by The Sex Pistols live at Winterland (San Francisco, CA) on Jan 14,
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